Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
It’s no secret that social media’s influence on us is designed to be invisible. It can tell whatever story it wants, affecting not only what you think but how you think—and ultimately how you behave in the world.
So how do we thwart the algorithmic overlords from abusing the infrastructure that is beginning to rule the world?
Here to help us unpack these important ideas is Max Fisher, a New York Times investigative reporter, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of a brand new, vitally important book entitled, The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World—a referendum on Big Tech and the social media platforms that have come to monopolize our attention, foment division and fracture our world.
I’ve become increasingly convinced that the impact of social media and technology on our lives and the lives of our children is one of the great existential threats to social cohesion, and today Max and I go deep on all ways these platforms are turning society against itself—and what you can do to insulate yourself.
“Social media acts like a drug and people should think of it as one.”
– MAX FISHER
This conversation covers Max’s journey to reporting on social media and politics, the specific ways social media changes its users’ morality, and how algorithms can make users more prone to violence.
We also dive into cutting-edge research on how social media inculcates a super-exaggerated feeling of outrage and intolerance, making users more likely to believe misinformation and the complicated role of free speech in it all.
Finally, we discuss the implications of data harvesting human behavior—and why social media addiction is so terrifying.
The visually inclined can watch it go down on YouTube. As always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
This is an admittedly scary but crucial conversation about how social media’s reach and impact run far deeper than we have previously understood.
I hope you learn as much as I did—and adjust your screen time accordingly.
Peace + Plants,
Listen, Watch, & Subscribe
I'm proud to announce my new book 'Voicing Change II'. To learn more & reserve your copy, click the button below.
Levels: Making continuous glucose monitoring mainstream for the first time ever. Learn more about your metabolic health with personalized insights & biometric data. Whether you’re tuning your diet, optimizing your exercise, or just trying to stay healthy, monitoring your glucose with Levels can help. Learn more at levels.link/RICHROLL
Birch Living: The best, most affordable, organic, and sustainable mattresses on the market with a 100-night risk-free trial. 1% of each purchase is donated to the National Forest Foundation and Birch purchases carbon offsets for each mattress sold. For 400$ off ALL mattresses + 2 Eco Rest Pillows visit birchiving.com/richroll.
Indeed delivers 4x more hires than all other job sites combined, so you can meet and hire great people faster. There are no long-term contracts and you’ll only pay for quality applications matching the sponsored job description. Start hiring NOW at Indeed.com/RICHROLL. Terms and conditions apply. Cost per application pricing not available for everyone.
Athletic Greens: 75 whole food sourced ingredients designed to optimize 5 key areas of health, AG1 is the delicious daily habit that sets you up for a healthy future. I take the packets everywhere I go. Invest in your health without compromise! Go to: athleticgreens.com/richroll to get a FREE year supply of Vitamin D AND 5 free travel packs of AG1 with your first purchase.
Outerknown: Founded by pro-surfer Kelly Slater, Outerknown creates high-quality, sustainably produced, and great-looking men’s and women’s clothes, ethically manufactured in the world’s cleanest solar-powered factory. When you’re ready to amp up your wardrobe with awesome sustainable duds, go to outerknown.com and enter my code ROLL at checkout to get 25% off your full-price order.
- Connect with Max: Twitter
- Book: The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
- New York Times: Max Fisher
- New York Times: The Interpreter
- New York Times: How Social Media Influences Our Behavior, and Vice Versa
- New York Times: Inside Facebook’s Secret Rulebook for Global Political Speech
- Publisher’s Weekly: The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World
- Kirkus: The Chaos Machine
- The Verge: YouTube’s recommendations pushed election denial content to election deniers
- Journal of Online Trust & Safety: Election Fraud, YouTube, and Public Perception of the Legitimacy of President Biden
There are a few simple ways you can support the show and the content we strive to craft and share every single week
Subscribe & Review: Please make sure to review, share comments and subscribe to the show on the various platforms (Apple Podcasts, YouTube & Spotify). This helps tremendously!
Patronize Our Sponsors: Supporting the companies that support the show! For a complete list of all RRP sponsors and their respective vanity URLs and discount codes, click the ‘Sponsors’ tab in the ‘Shop’ menu.
Spread The Word: Help grow our reach by sharing your enthusiasm for the podcast and/or your favorite episodes by posting about it on social media.
Thank The Team: I do not do this alone. Send your love to Jason Camiolo for audio engineering, production, show notes and interstitial music; with additional audio engineering by Cale Curtis and additional music by Moby; Blake Curtis & Dan Drake for video, & editing; graphics by Jessica Miranda & Daniel Solis; portraits by Davy Greenberg, Grayson Wilder & Gizelle Peters; video clips for social media are created by AJ Akpodiete; copywriting by Georgia Whaley; and theme music by Tyler Piatt, Trapper Piatt & Hari Mathis.
Amazon Disclosure: Third-party books and products denoted on this page and website may be hyperlinked to the Amazon affiliate program. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
