The Machine
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The Machine
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This Episode explores how a century of manipulation techniques became smartphone features, through conversations with Jean Cavendish, a clinical psychologist who spent decades helping people escape cult programming.
The episode features testimony from Lori Schott about how Meta targets children's insecurities, and Taj Jensen, a fellow parent who lost his son to fentanyl purchased on Snapchat.
At its core, this is about recognizing the systems designed to keep us scrolling, buying, and reacting—and asking the question that matters: What are you really hungry for?
00:00 — Opening Reflection
03:46 — The Birth of Influence
07:26 — The King of the Engineers
11:18 — The Toolkit of Persuasion
13:03 — Selling Our Own Destruction
14:29 — The Shame Machine ( testimony from Lori Schott)
21:06 — Fear as a Business Model
25:54 — The Science of Addiction
30:55 — The Human Cost
32:32 — The Wisdom of Jean Cavendish
36:12 — The Teenage Brain
38:15 — Hooked Forever
43:08 — Receipts and Responsibility
45:06 — Tanner’s Story (Guest Taj Jenson)
50:19 — Breaking the Cycle
Content warning: teen death, drug sales, and exploitation.
Music by: Kjartan Abel CC BY-SA 4.0 https://kjartan-abel.com