How Schools, Phones & AI Are Changing Childhood... | Marissa Streit | #2075

Summary

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Digital Social Hour – Episode #2075

How Schools, Phones & AI Are Changing Childhood... | Guest: Marissa Streit | July 20, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, host Sean Kelly sits down with Marissa Streit, CEO of PragerU, live at Freedom Fest, for a deep exploration of the challenges facing American youth. The discussion dives into the impact of technology, social media, and artificial intelligence on Gen Z's mental health, cognition, education, and social skills. Marissa critiques both public and private schooling, teacher unions, and rising collective grievance mindsets on both the political left and right. Practical guidance for parents, thoughts on the future of education, and an inside look at PragerU's plans round out this raw and provocative conversation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The State of Gen Z: Technology, Loneliness, and Declining Skills

• Tech’s Double-Edged Sword: Marissa states, "Any technology throughout the centuries, it really depends on how to use it. You can use it for good and you can use it for evil." (00:00, 25:36)
• Mental Health Crisis & Social Disconnection:
  • 30% of Gen Z report having no friends; 39% feel lonely—in both the US and UK, loneliness is widespread among youth (02:08–02:49).
  • “Can you imagine that kind of lonely existence? So they spend all this time on the Internet consuming all fear, conspiracy and despair.” – Marissa (02:26)
• Education & Discerning Ability: Marissa argues Gen Z is "the least discerning generation in America's entire 250 years," attributing this to overreliance on tech and a deficient education system (03:21).

2. Social Media, AI, and the Truth Crisis

• Deepening Confusion: Marissa sees AI and social media as amplifying chaos and making it “harder than ever for young people to know what’s true.” (01:39)
• Time Online & Its Dangers:
  • “17 to 35 year olds spent between seven to nine hours every single day on social media.” – Marissa (15:35)
  • Host: “That’s almost eight hours a day. That’s like 80% of your waking hours.” (16:32)
• The Role of Foreign Bots: Marissa warns, “Your brain is basically in the hands of America's adversaries who are taking advantage of our freedom of speech.” (16:19)
• Parental Guidance: Strong advocacy for putting boundaries around tech; parents shouldn’t just be “friends” to their kids, but provide structure and limits (17:04–17:24).

3. Schooling’s Downward Slide: Public, Private & Teacher Unions

• Indictment of Public Education: “The NEA...are focused not on literacy, not on math...but on impeaching President Trump.” – Marissa (06:03)
• No Easy Solution in Private or Religious Schools: “The teachers are fungible. They are trained by the same people [teacher colleges]...pushing a steady diet of ethnic studies and collective victimhood.” (06:04)
• Parental Responsibility: Even if kids attend school, “You can't forfeit the teaching of your values and your virtues to the government, to the institution.” – Marissa (07:18)

4. Educational Outcomes & the “Dumbing Down” of America

• Dropping Scores: Gen Z is “officially dumber than previous generations” with lower test scores, declining IQ, and shrinking attention spans (08:04–08:31).
• Self-Esteem vs. Gratitude: Marissa laments, “They score very high on self esteem and being ingrates, sadly…Gratitude is the key to happiness. The kids are not hearing that. They're hearing that the key to happiness is to think about yourself.” (08:31)
• Test Standards Lowered: Not only are kids failing, but “the tests themselves are a lot easier than what they were 50 years ago.” (20:56)
• Collapse of Reading Culture: "I think...people would read for leisure. 38% of Americans...now that number has been sliced...down to 16%." (19:19)

5. Rise of Socialist Sentiment & Groupthink on Left and Right

• Youth Leaning Socialist/Communist:
  • 62% of 18–29-year-olds have a favorable view of socialism; 34% for communism (10:45)
  • Marissa likens socialism to “communism with lipstick” (09:27)
• Collective Victimhood on Both Sides: Marissa critiques “disaffected men” rhetoric on the right as similar to grievance politics on the left (10:59).
• Splintering of Conservatism: Current “right wing squad” (e.g., Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens) are leaving traditional conservatism, which Marissa defines as upholding liberty, God, and “e pluribus unum” (11:30–12:17).

6. Community Solutions & Personal Responsibility

• Skepticism of Government Solutions:
  • “Government is always the problem and never the solution. I think ultimately if we want to fix things, we have to fix things in our own communities, in our own homes.” – Marissa (13:13)
  • “It's personal responsibility and individualism that'll be antidote to groupthink and collective grievances.” (00:00, 13:13)
• Voter Engagement: The hosts lament that despite massive online debate, few people actually vote in local elections (14:08–14:38).
• Bot-Driven Extremism: Many viral social media interactions originate from foreign adversaries—real Americans largely desire moderation and unity (14:38).

7. Parenting, Phones & Boundaries

• No Phones Policy: Marissa details her strict approach: no social media for her kids, phone only for safety, and firm boundaries despite peer pressure (18:26–18:43).
• Reading Reinforced: “If you make sure that your kids don't spend time on phones and on screens, they will actually learn how to read.” (19:12)
• Dopamine Addiction: Excess digital consumption erodes ability to focus and read, in both children and adults (19:19–20:19).

8. Rethinking Teaching, Learning & AI

• AI as an Educational Tool: Marissa sees promise in using AI not for regurgitation, but to “actually assess for their own wisdom and discernment.” (23:09)
• Handwriting Still Matters: She advocates old-school note-taking: “When you take notes, you actually ignite a portion of your brain that helps you memorize things.” (24:34)
• Don’t Surrender Mind to AI: “If you're going to forfeit your responsibility and your ability to process things by giving AI all of the power...you're gonna find yourself behind.” (25:12)

9. PragerU’s Next Steps

• Future Projects: Teases a major announcement for 2027, hinting at competition with PBS as the network loses funding (25:53–26:32).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On Personal Responsibility:

  “Government is always the problem and never the solution...it's personal responsibility and individualism that's the antidote to groupthink and collective grievances.”
  — Marissa (00:00, 13:13)

• On Loneliness & Tech:

  “They spend all this time on the Internet consuming all fear, conspiracy and despair.”
  — Marissa (02:26)

• On Teacher Unions & Ideology:

  “This is the National Educators association, the largest teacher union organization in America. And they are focused not on literacy, not on math...but on impeaching President Trump.”
  — Marissa (06:03)

• On Phones & Parenting:

  “My son has a phone, no social media, and he can only use the phone if he's riding on his bike outside.”
  — Marissa (18:26)

• On Social Media Addiction:

  “Your brain is basically in the hands of America's adversaries who are taking advantage of our freedom of speech.”
  — Marissa (16:19)

• On AI and Learning:

  “When you take notes, you actually ignite a portion of your brain that helps you memorize things.”
  — Marissa (24:34)

• On the Future of Education:

  “We're looking into competing against [PBS]. That's all I can say about that.”
  — Marissa (26:32)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – Marissa’s opening plea on personal responsibility.
• 02:08–02:49 – Stats and discussion on Gen Z’s loneliness.
• 06:03 – Marissa’s criticism of the National Educators Association.
• 08:04 – Declining test scores and cultural over-focus on self-esteem.
• 09:27 – Why Gen Z is attracted to socialism/collectivism.
• 13:13 – Local politics and the futility of relying on government.
• 14:38 – Social media bots and foreign meddling in public opinion.
• 16:32 – Time spent online and effects on youth.
• 18:26 – Marissa’s strategy on phone use for her children.
• 19:19 – Decline in reading for leisure among Americans.
• 23:09 – Discussion of AI as both a risk and a potential educational benefit.
• 24:34 – Memory and the value of taking manual notes.
• 25:53–26:32 – Preview of PragerU’s ambitions to challenge PBS.

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Final Takeaways

This episode is a bracing critique of the current direction of both education and youth culture, emphasizing the dangers of unchecked technology, the erosion of critical thinking, and the rise of grievance-driven politics—on both the left and right. Marissa stresses the foundational importance of personal and parental responsibility, wise technology use, and a return to classical virtues. PragerU sees itself as a bulwark against confusion and an agent for cultural realignment.

For listeners: If you care about the future of education, the development and mental health of young people, or the role of technology in shaping society, this conversation is essential food for thought.

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Transcript

[Marissa]

I think government is always the problem and never the solution. I think ultimately, if we want to fix things, we have to fix things in our own communities, in our own homes. Again, it's personal responsibility and individualism that's the antidote to groupthink and collective grievances. Gen Z'ers are officially dumber than previous generations. If you make sure that your kids don't spend time on phones and on screens, they will actually learn how to read. Any technology throughout the centuries, it really depends on how to use it. You can use it for good and you can use it for evil. You can use it to make you stronger and more capable, or you can use it in a way that it's just going to self destruct.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, guys, here at Freedom Fest with one of the speakers, we got Marissa back on the show. How you been?

[Marissa]

Thank God. It's been crazy.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, it's been nuts. Trial is going on right now. Yeah, we're in a crazy world right now. But what you been up to since you left we last saw each other?

[Marissa]

Well, Dennis was injured, Dennis Prager fell down. And so I had to step into much of the public life of Prage U. So that's been busy. No, Prager U is growing like crazy because many of the parents are waking up, realizing that the onslaught are against our kids is real. So we have grown tremendously. The team has grown, our audience has grown. There's just been a lot going on. And I think also what has grown is confusion, chaos and confusion. So Prager U has really become this anchor for many people who don't understand what is going on in our education, in our culture. And, you know, the truth is, I guess we've been made for a time as this.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. The confusion's been nuts because of social media. Right.

[Marissa]

And it's going to get worse with AI. Right. So we see all the deep fakes and we see just people incentivized to make up stuff and say crazy things in order to get views and clicks and shticks. And so there's just so much chaos, especially for young people who don't know how to discern what's true.

[Podcast Host]

You need really good guidance these days because when I was a kid, the technology just started coming. I got a phone in high school, so I kind of still had a childhood.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

But now kids are getting phones in what, elementary school probably, if I had to guess.

[Marissa]

Yeah. You know, you get this steady diet of confusion. It causes a lot of despair too. Right. It just, you know, kids are lonely I actually just read this. I just read that 30% of Gen Zers have reported that they don't have one single friend.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Marissa]

30% of Gen Zers and not one single friend. Can you imagine that kind of lonely existence? So they spend all this time on the Internet consuming all fear, conspiracy and despair.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, it's.

[Marissa]

These are tough times. These are really tough times for young people.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. The AI supporting your claims. Yeah. 60. Wow.

[Marissa]

Are you checking me? You're fact checking me?

[Podcast Host]

Fact checks. Yeah. 39 of Gen Z have reported feeling lonely.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Kids are lonely. 40% in the UK have reported feeling lonely. Geez, that's a lot. Yeah. As a kid too. As a kid, you're supposed to be around other kids.

[Marissa]

Right. I mean, I remember my childhood. It was so focused on friends and socializing and kids are just so alone. They're so lonely. And it is partially why I think they're driven to this, you know, these dark forces of the Internet.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. They're saying Gen Z is officially the loneliest generation.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Loneliness can be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

[Marissa]

Yeah. Well, fact check me on this. Gen Z is also the least discerning generation in America's entire 250 years. And partly because, partly honestly, because of their education system and another partially because they rely so much on technology that they haven't really been pushed to have to discern and make up their own minds. And so they again fall into these bizarre group think categories.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm technically Gen Z. I think I'm 29.

[Marissa]

Am I insulting you?

[Podcast Host]

No, because I'm on that weird year where, like, I could be a millennial or Gen Z, so I don't really take offense. Yeah. But I'd say like the teenagers and younger twenties, for sure. Yeah.

[Marissa]

I mean, there are always anomalies. Right. There are a lot of, you know, kids who break through and go against the herd and do have, you know, the discernment to go and build real relationships and have friends and do have the discernment to not fall into conspiracy and despair. But as a whole, America. America's youth is in a real dangerous place. And I think the youth understands that too. Young people see it. I just don't know if they know how to get out of it because their entire environment is swimming in this.

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[Podcast Host]

Hit the link below. I agree. I. I don't even have kids yet, but I'm looking into schooling options because there's no way I'm sending them to public school. You know what I mean? Yeah, I'm at that point already.

[Marissa]

I completely agree. And it's not just the public schools. The teachers are fungible. So if you actually read the last NEA's agenda, the National Educators association, their agenda came out late June. And if you read through their. They have three, almost 3 million members in this teachers union group. And if you read through it, you will be shocked to see what the teachers are asked to focus on. Right. Abolish ICE. Impeach President. They have raised in their agenda $5.2 million to impeach President Trump. The NEA. This is the National Educators association, the largest teacher union organization in America. And they are focused not on literacy, not on math, not on civics, not in history, not on helping our kids, but on impeaching President Trump.

[Podcast Host]

That's insane.

[Marissa]

Yeah. And the teachers are fungible, by the way. So you're talking about the government schools. You would never send your kids there. But many of the religious schools and the private schools are the same problem because the teachers are trained by the same people. I call it the head of the snake. The teacher colleges, they're trained to push a steady diet of ethnic studies and collective victimhood or collective grievance, which is the opposite of what Americans are about. Right? America is about individualism, where here we are at Freedom Fest. It's about freedom. The power of the individual, the power of personal responsibility. But when you're teaching kids all the time to look at the entire world through an oppressor versus an oppressed is multiculturalism. You are different from me because we don't have the same last name or the same background. This. This whole culture of grievance that is an antidote to the American dream. It. It is a. A disruptor to the American dream. And sadly, I. I don't know that it's just about the government schools. I actually think the private Schools have inherited many of these teachers as well. And you're seeing ethnic studies in many of the private schools as well.

[Podcast Host]

Scary. Yeah, that's very scary. So I guess homeschooling then, right? I think if you can afford it.

[Marissa]

If you. It's not an affordability issue. I think homeschooling. I think some people want to work. I mean, I think there are a lot of moms out there that want to work and they have a job like I do that brings them a lot of meaning. And you know, they. They feel like they need to send their kids to a school because they may not have the ability to do it. Not just the financial ability to do it, but even the bandwidth. But I still think that if you send your kid to a school, you can still school them at home or you can't forfeit the teaching of your values and your virtues to the government, to the institution. Right. So you can send your kids to a school, but you still need to school them at home. So.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Marissa]

So conversations like little. I call it little educational habits that you can build at home with your children so that they're inoculated against this collective grievance mentality.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, this. I might get fact checked on this, but we are officially getting dumber. Gen Z is scoring lower on test scores than previous generations.

[Marissa]

Yeah, this is true. First time Gen Zers are officially dumber than previous genres. Generations.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah, we'll see what it says about that. But that's not good. We're trending in the wrong direction. IQ is going down. Attention span. I mean, mental health is a whole other topic. But yep, Gen Z is scoring lower on test scores.

[Marissa]

They. They score very high on self esteem and being ingrates, sadly. Because for so long they've been told that the whole world revolves around them and that you do. You Right. I'm sure you heard that your entire life. You say this to a human being every. Every single day of their lives. Not only do they become ingrates and they think that the world revolves around them, but they actually become sad. Right. If you spend your entire life in your own head and you don't think about how you can serve others and how you can get along with others and how you can build friendships, you end up being very lonely and very depressed. Right. Gratitude is the key to happiness. The kids are not hearing that. They're hearing that the key to happiness is to think about yourself and to take care of yourself and to follow your passions. All of those things, all of these lessons that are being taught in our Culture and in our education system are actually hurting the kids that we are supposedly trying to help.

[Podcast Host]

Yup. And now a lot of Gen Z and younger people are being attracted towards socialism.

[Marissa]

Yes.

[Podcast Host]

What do you think about that?

[Marissa]

I think that socialism is communism with lipstick. It's basically the same thing. And I think the kid, the reason kids are so attracted to socialism is because they. They have bought into the collective grievance mentality. So how long have you been hearing this idea of multiculturalism? How long have you been hearing this idea that the oppressor has taken everything from the oppressed? And if you have a certain skin color, a certain last name, a certain genitalia, you are in fact oppressed. Right. You've been hearing this through ethnic studies and social emotional learning and all of these school programs. But even in our culture, you know, and, and sadly, this is not something that has only inflicted the left. This mentality of Marxist socialist education has also inflicted the right. When you're hearing people on the right talk about disaffected men. I hate that term, disaffected men. Never tell a man that he's disaffected. Always tell a man that he cannot be a victim, but he should be strong, he should be a victor. Right. He should believe in personal responsibility and resilience. But when you're hearing people on the right selling you a steady diet of, again, collective victimhood, disaffected men, they're essentially doing what the Marxists have done to the leftists, and that is to control you, to send you into the pit of despair so that they can group. They can group you into a political agenda and then ultimately take the power from you.

[Podcast Host]

100%. Yeah. This is saying 62% of Americans age 18 to 29 hold a favorable view of socialism, and 34% of young Americans hold a favorable view of communism. Holy crap. Third of the younger generation.

[Marissa]

Right. And that probably is with people who identify with the left.

[Podcast Host]

Probably, yeah.

[Marissa]

But the collective grievance, sadly, is not just on the left. So there is a new group that is emerging that has this collective grievance mentality, and that is the one that identifies as disaffected. And so you have, you have the communists and the socialists, and now you have the disaffected right wingers who essentially are angry, are playing the blame game, full of fear and conspiracy and despair. And that's not good either.

[Podcast Host]

The far right.

[Marissa]

Yes.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Like the America first crowd. Well, it's branched off.

[Marissa]

I wouldn't call it America first because I'm America First. I'm not America only, but I'm, I, I believe that the leader of every single country needs to put its own country first. So I'm America first and the first to admit that I'm America first because I'm raising my kids here and I'm not planning on going anywhere else. But I, I would call it the group that it no longer identifies as conservative. Maybe they're far right, but they're certainly not conservative because to conserve is to actually conserve liberty in God we trust and eat plurbisunum. Those three main ideas that you see on every quarter, on every American coin, those are these ideas. The far right, as you want to call it, they don't believe in those ideas. And so I don't, I, I don't think they're really conservative. I actually hearing that they've, they're leaving the conservative movement.

[Podcast Host]

So Tucker, right, Tucker just announced Tucker

[Marissa]

and I guess the right wing squad.

[Podcast Host]

I think Candace will probably announce it if she hasn't already. I don't know if she did, but

[Marissa]

yeah, I'd have to say that at least on the right they have been able to identify the right wing squad and basically say, you know, this is not how we think. You don't belong in our tent. We're all about big tent, but this is not how we think. Where on the left they had the squad, whether it's Rashida Tlaib or Ilhan Omar, but the left has not rejected their squad. They actually embrace their squad. And now the squad is, is really the epitome of the Democratic Party. It's what they are. Right. The right has pushed away the right wing squad. So much so that it sounds like the right wing squad wants to go and start its own party. So I'd say that is pretty much kudos to the conservatives who actually know what they're conservative conserving.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. Yeah. We'll see how it all plays out. Midterms are coming up. You feeling optimistic?

[Marissa]

I don't know if I'm optimistic or pessimistic. I never optimistic about politics or politicians. You know, I'm, I'm a freedom junkie and so I, I think government is always the problem and never the solution. I think ultimately if we want to fix things, we have to fix things in our own communities, in our own homes. Again, it's personal responsibility and individualism that'll be antidote to groupthink and collective grievances. I don't know what to think about the midterms. I hope people will wake up, you Know, oftentimes people don't go and vote during midterms. They think that, you know, those things are not that significant.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, well, local politics matters more. You could argue.

[Marissa]

It sure does. It does.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. I'm sure people don't even realize because they only talk about the federal stuff these days.

[Marissa]

Yeah. I mean, there's glitz and grammar, glamour behind the federal elections. Right. The president and the vice president. But truly what hits home is, are the local elections. And I think people are starting to pay more attention to what's going on.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, Fishback's gotten a lot of attention.

[Marissa]

You know, what's interesting is people seem to be very knowledgeable about all the folks that are running and what's going on. But do they actually go and vote? I don't know.

[Podcast Host]

The Thomas Massie thing was like, what, 20,000 votes?

[Marissa]

It's like everybody complains and everybody talks about it. Like they're so knowledgeable about politics. No, but they don't actually go and vote.

[Sponsor/Promoter]

No.

[Podcast Host]

Literally, the Thomas Massie race. Billions of views on social media. I think it ended up. It'll tell us exactly how many votes, but it was not a lot of votes. Yeah.

[Marissa]

Well, I bet you a lot of these views and clicks and. And comments actually come from abroad, from our adversaries that are trying to create problems here in America and serve grievances, which is yet another proof that Americans don't want that. They don't want the collective grievance. They don't want this group thing that actually do still believe in personal responsibility and, you know, e pluribus unum, as I say, from many one, they're not into this extremism. Most Americans are not into that.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah. These bots are out of control, especially on. Yeah. On Twitter. Twitter is almost unusable for me.

[Marissa]

I'm. I'm really glad you say that. I wonder how many of your listeners would agree. I also, I mean, look, I really appreciate Elon Musk. I think. I think Starlink is amazing. And so many of. I drive a Tesla, et cetera. I'm so appreciative of what he is trying to do and what he has successfully done. But X is a nightmare. Yeah, it really is.

[Podcast Host]

Well, it sounds good on paper. Right. Free speech, social media.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

But people take advantage of it.

[Marissa]

Well, and I think our adversaries are clearly taking advantage. They take advantage of our freedom of speech. They take advantage of our tolerance. And so, you know, I don't know where we draw the line. Right. I'm. I'm the first to say that I believe in freedom of speech and you and I may not agree on a lot of things, but I'll defend your right to say it. Right. The problem is when we're allowing our adversaries to have these avatar accounts, we don't even know who they are and they're impacting young people. I mean you, you can fact check this, but I, I think 17 to 35 year olds spent between seven to nine hours every single day on social media.

[Podcast Host]

That's about what I spend.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

So that sounds about right.

[Marissa]

Sounds about right.

[Podcast Host]

I mean granted I'm trying to learn off YouTube. A lot of it.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

But I do be doing doom scrolling for a couple hours.

[Marissa]

I've been doom scrolling and I'm just the type of influence that it has on you. And so your brain is basically in the hands of America's adversaries who are taking advantage of our freedom of speech. You know that's not happening in China. There's no freedom of speech in China, right?

[Podcast Host]

No, definitely not in China. My mom grew up there. Yes. 7.6 hours per day average. Crazy. That's almost eight hours a day. That's like 80% of your waking hours.

[Marissa]

I mean I just multiply that by many years. Think about how many hours young people have spent online. Way more time online than in any educational institution that you would send them to.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Marissa]

So they're more influenced by Chinese bots or adversarial bots than actually our schools.

[Podcast Host]

You could say that your online Persona matters more than your IRL Persona these days.

[Marissa]

Certainly if you don't have the wisdom and discernment to pull yourself out of it. Right. I, I, this is why I think parents do need to step in. So many of them spend so much time thinking about whether they can be their kids friends.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Marissa]

Rather than whether they can. And I'm sure you had a, you have a Chinese mother, so.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. She's not her friend. Donut? No, I was not her friend. I don't think that approach works. I think you could be friendly.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

But not friend loving.

[Marissa]

Loving. I'm a loving mother. But you gotta have boundaries. And I think a lot of parents are afraid to put boundaries on their kids. They'll buy them a phone at as early as age 11. I see kids running around with phones and some of them have these gab phones and so they can't go on social media. But if you start with a phone when you're 10 years old, what do you think you're going to be asking for? By the time they're 13 years old, they want social media, they want YouTube, they want Snapchat, all their friends are on it, TikTok, et cetera. All their friends are on it. And there's all that pressure, and before you know it, you're having a 15 year old. Their entire mind is in the hands of America's adversaries. That wants to make you dumber, that wants to make you disaffected, that wants to make you hate your own country, wants to make sure that you'll never want to enlist. Right. All of these things, it's, it's, it's pretty terrifying, isn't it?

[Podcast Host]

Absolutely. Yeah. I'm sure you've had to battle with that as a parent, right?

[Marissa]

I do battle with it as a parent. I mean, thankfully, thanks to the work that I do, I have that strength to push against my kids and say, I know you really want this, but.

[Podcast Host]

So no phones for your kids right now.

[Marissa]

I don't allow my kids to have.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Marissa]

My son has a phone, no social media, and he can only use the phone if he's riding on his bike outside. And I want to know where he is.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Marissa]

Aside from that, I don't allow him to spend time on social media.

[Podcast Host]

That's impressive because I'm sure he sees his friends having them and he's like, mom, I don't know how.

[Marissa]

Yes, my son's no geek. He's definitely not a geek. But I'll tell you, he fights with me and he wants more access. But I think he also recognizes that mom's job is, is to protect him and to make sure that he has all the tools that he needs to grow up to be, you know, a good, proper, thinking adult. I mean, I don't know how many parents have that kind of courage to tell their kids that. Not yet, Sonny, not yet.

[Podcast Host]

I'm going to hold off as long as I can.

[Marissa]

Well, the other benefit of it is if you make sure that your kids don't spend time on phones and on screens, they will actually learn how to read.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Marissa]

And they'll learn to enjoy reading. I just read another statistic with your fact check can check me, but I think it used to be that people would read for leisure. 38% of Americans would read for leisure. I think that the data shows that now that number has been sliced basically in half. It's down to 16% of Americans reading for leisure. And you bet that those 16% of Americans are not young people. It's probably people 40 and up. Right. So Kids don't want to read books because their brains are constantly pumped with dopamine. And the more you pump your child's brain with dopamine, the. The less you're able to get them to read. And this is not just for a child. For a grownup, too. If you find yourself spending a lot of time online consuming content that constantly pumps dopamine into your brain, don't be surprised why you can't sit down and read a book. You just can't. Your brain is on overdrive. This applies to everybody, which is why people can't read anymore. They just sit still.

[Podcast Host]

I can't read a book. I have to do audiobooks. I'm just being honest.

[Marissa]

Yeah. And I bet you listen to the audiobook on double speed 2x.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, but I'm trying to get it to 3x because a lot of my friends are at 3.3x on audible. Yeah, well, on audible, YouTube, whatever. YouTube has 4x.

[Marissa]

Now, are you actually remembering?

[Podcast Host]

No. No. So it depends if I'm just listening to it. Yes. But I try to multitask and that's when I don't remember anything, you know, so if I'm in a car, 2x I could handle.

[Marissa]

Yeah. You know, it's a lot of white noise. It's just white noise.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, it's bad. But you're right. 16 of America's read for Leisure. And I believe the average reading level in America is fifth grade level now for adults. Some like that.

[Marissa]

It depends where. I mean, there are certain areas, areas in our nation where kids can't pass a basic literacy test. And I want you to remember that the assessment tools for reading have been lowered. Right. And so it's not just that kids are scoring very poorly on these tests. The tests themselves are a lot easier than what they were 50 years ago.

[Podcast Host]

That makes sense. Yeah. They make them easier to make you not feel as bad. Right, right.

[Marissa]

Well, now, the nea, which I mentioned earlier, the National Educators association, they are trying to push for no tests whatsoever.

[Podcast Host]

Wow.

[Marissa]

Why hold the teachers accountable for getting the kids to actually pass the test and say that, you know, it's racist to actually have accountability.

[Podcast Host]

I remember the year after I took the sats, they removed the essay and I was like, really? The year after I leave? That was the hardest part about the sat is the Essler.

[Marissa]

Right.

[Podcast Host]

You know, you remember that?

[Marissa]

Of course.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Marissa]

Yeah. Or the DBQs when it comes to American history. Like they're going to try to get rid of the DBQs that require some sort of Discernment and understanding what it is that you're looking at.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, yeah, I'm conflicted on it because I. Tests, I mean, what do we learn from tests? You know what I mean? So one hand, I don't really care about them. But also you need some sort of measure of intelligence.

[Marissa]

Well, I think the issue is that you need, you need to test properly. So if you actually construct a test that teaches and actually tests for discernment, then that could be a good test. Right. Rather than a regurgitation of, of what it is that your teacher told you to learn. And memorization, if it actually requires that you explain something in your own words or that you create connections between two ideas, you, you understand the connection between American history and virtues and why, what it has, why it has led America to be prosperous. If you get a kid to write an essay like that, then that's certainly worth testing for. But if you're just going to give them a multiple choice Scantron where you're asking them to memorize stuff, of course that's not worth anything, especially not going to be worth anything with, with AI coming our way. Right. Like if you have AI, you don't need the tools for memorization.

[Podcast Host]

I mean, look at this thing. Yeah, it's listening to us every five seconds, fact checking us.

[Marissa]

Right. And so I, I actually, I'm a big fan of AI, and I really think that kids should utilize AI, but they should use, use AI to actually assess for their own wisdom and discernment. Right. And so what happens if, if you get a summary for a child, let's say through AI, but then the child has to then respond in their own words and explain what it is that they read.

[Podcast Host]

I like that.

[Marissa]

Right. And so not only are you teaching technology, but you're also pushing the child to use technology to use their own mind and their own brain.

[Podcast Host]

Go. Are you guys using AI@Prickru right now?

[Marissa]

You know, I've gone back and forth and so some of my team members, I would say generally 40 and up, when they use AI, it's amazing because they have already trained their mind to use their own abilities to digest things and to set standards and to know what to expect. Generally, the people under the age of 40 who are new to the workforce, when they lean on AI too much, they don't have that barometer for wisdom and discernment and the ability to kind of really create connections and mental fibers between reality and what it is that they're reading. And so sometimes it actually sets them back. I'll Give you a perfect example. When I'll sit in a meeting, some of my team members will use AI to record the meeting minutes. And some of them, a week later, I'll say to them, do you remember that meeting that we had together and what have you done? And they don't remember anything. They don't remember a thing. But they gave me the perfect meeting minutes. I'm like, well, your computer might remember the meeting, but you don't remember any fireflies. So sometimes I'm like, you know what? Shut down at your computer, grab a pen and a paper and start taking notes. Because when you take notes, you actually ignite a portion of your brain that helps you memorize things. People ask me all the time, how do I give speeches without notes? Because I write all of my speeches with pen and paper. So I memorize everything instantly. But if you're going to use memorization tools, but the memorization tools are only used by your computer to memorize, then you're not going to anything at all.

[Podcast Host]

No shot.

[Marissa]

And this is a huge problem. So am I okay with AI Sometimes. But if you're going to forfeit your responsibility and your ability to process things by giving AI all of the power over your brain, you're gonna find yourself behind.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah, I take notes on every episode.

[Marissa]

I love that.

[Podcast Host]

You have to.

[Marissa]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host]

Or else you'll forget it. The mind can only remember so much, you know, but yeah, you could use this, but don't rely on this.

[Marissa]

Yeah. Technology, like any technology throughout the centuries, it really depends on how to use it. You can use it for good and you can use it for evil. You can use it to make you stronger and more capable. Or it can. You can use it in a way that it's just gonna self destruct.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah. What's next for Prager U? Any upcoming events or anything exciting?

[Marissa]

We are doing something really big next year. I don't know if I can announce it yet, but I want everybody to stay tuned. My hint is PBS is not doing very well. They have lost a lot of funding.

[Podcast Host]

I haven't heard that.

[Marissa]

They have been very reliant on the government, which is incredibly unfair because I just don't think in this digital age where so many people can make media and there's so much edutainment out there, why should the people be forced to use their taxpayers to fund something like pbs? And so you're seeing that PBS is losing a lot of funding, especially in local states, and Prager is paying very close attention to what's going on there. And I, you know, I think they're going to.

[Podcast Host]

I haven't seen that channel since I was, like, seven.

[Marissa]

Yeah, they have some good things, too. But again, there should be no reason why taxpayers are forced to pay for PBS to exist, given the competition that's out there. And so we're looking into competing against them. That's all I can say about that.

[Podcast Host]

Well, thanks for coming. We'll link your show, your podcast and all that.

[Marissa]

Good job.

[Podcast Host]

Cool seeing you. Good seeing you again. See you guys.

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[Podcast Host]

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[Sponsor/Promoter]

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