Podcast Summary: Kennedy Saves the World

Episode: Landlines Are Back, Baby!
Date: October 2, 2025
Host: Kennedy (FOX News Podcasts)

Episode Overview

In “Landlines Are Back, Baby!”, Kennedy explores the surprising resurgence of landline phones and analog technology among kids and families. With her signature wit and unapologetic honesty, she discusses the new movement to protect children from the negative effects of digital overexposure—social media, smartphones, and screen addiction—by harnessing the limitations (and unexpected freedoms) of old-school tech. The episode is an engaging, personal reflection on parenting, generational shifts, mental health, and what it means to cultivate real, analog connections in a high-tech world.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Analog Resurgence Among Kids and Families

• Landlines as Trendy & Protective

  • Kennedy notes a "trend" where parents are replacing their kids’ smartphones with landlines and flip phones, trying to mitigate “the social and mental fallout from a generation of kids completely wired.”
    “Kids are going back to landlines. It is a little bit of a trend.” [00:28]
  • Analog options are lauded for their limitations—no FaceTime, no constant visual presence—which can actually “be great because having to be seen all the time...is in its own way anxiety provoking.” [01:26]

• Mental Health Fallout from Tech Overuse

  • Kennedy links the rise in youth mental health struggles—“suicide attempts, unfortunately, suicides, ER visits”—to the combination of pandemic isolation and social media overload. [00:55]
  • She frames the analog shift as a protective act by “parents and their kids...trying to find solutions.”

Reflections on Generational Parenting

• Swing from Lax to Overly Protective Parenting

  • Kennedy muses on generational differences, contrasting her own “Gen X” experience—“they let us do pretty much whatever we wanted”—with today’s hyper-involved, tech-enabled parenting.
    “So the pendulum swing of that is a generation of parents who are overly involved...there’s no freedom of movement. And that also generates its own type of anxiety.” [02:41]

• Smartphone Addiction Isn’t Just a Kid Thing

  • Adults share the addiction:
    “If you get into an elevator and look around, every single person on the elevator is on a smartphone. And these are adults.” [01:34]
  • Many parents “gave [kids] phones and access way, way too young, even with all the safeguards in place.” [01:42]

Tech Taste & Status Markers: Wired Headsets Make a Comeback

• Emerging “Cool” of Retro Tech
  • Kennedy mentions a NY Post article: “wired headsets are now a sign of wealth and evolution that you have forgone the AirPods because they break, they fall out, they’re too easy to lose. And, and so celebrities are now using wired headsets so younger people will too.” [03:04]
  • The “race home to talk...on their landlines” is both “kitschy and...funny.”

Anecdotes: The Rotary Phone and Family Memories

• Navigating Old Technology

  • Kennedy shares a humorous personal story:
    “The funniest thing is going to my mom’s house and having my daughters try and make a phone call with a rotary phone because they don’t know if they’re supposed to include the one in the number before the area code and they have no concept of what it was like to only have to dial a seven digit number when you wanted to get hold of one of your friends.” [04:26]

• Nostalgia Meets Security Concerns

  • She reminisces about the quirky fun of phone numbers that spelled out words, while also acknowledging today’s difficult balance between nostalgia and the “terrifying realities” of digital predation and surveillance.
    “If there is a way to shield kids from, you know, the terrifying realities...it’s really difficult to be a free range parent when it feels like the world is so predatory. It may not be, but it feels that way.” [05:21]

Tech Anxiety: From Chatrooms to AI

• Evolving Dangers for Kids
  • Kennedy raises alarms about new threats:
    • “Now it’s AI chatbots that are targeting kids.” [05:45]
    • Highlights concerning stories about AI chatbot conversations, citing disturbing examples:
      “A chatbot was like, your mother is a horrible mother. And it’s like, who is programming these? It’s a scary world.” [06:10]

Honest Parenting & Standing Up to Social Pressure

• Countercultural Parenting Is Empowering

  • Kennedy encourages parents to resist peer pressure:
    “Stand up against the idea that they’re the only ones who don’t have smartphones. So they’re pariahs. Like, maybe it’s good to be a pariah for a little bit, because you might find that there are others out there, parents and children alike, who are just like you, who just want to be a family and just want kids to be kids.” [07:07]

• Looking Back With Regret and Hope

  • On imagining life if her daughters hadn’t had smartphones:
    “One of the most heartbreaking things for me was imagining what my daughter’s lives would have been like without their smartphones. And I imagine they would have been so different.” [06:39]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Kids are going back to landlines. It is a little bit of a trend.” — Kennedy [00:28]
• “The social and mental fallout from a generation of kids completely wired has been too much for parents and families to bear.” — Kennedy [00:36]
• “So the pendulum swing of that is a generation of parents who are overly involved...there’s no freedom of movement.” — Kennedy [02:41]
• “Wired headsets are now a sign of wealth and evolution...” — Kennedy [03:04]
• “It’s really difficult to be a free range parent when it feels like the world is so predatory.” — Kennedy [05:21]
• “Now it’s AI chatbots that are targeting kids...who is programming these? It’s a scary world.” — Kennedy [05:45-06:10]
• “One of the most heartbreaking things for me was imagining what my daughter’s lives would have been like without their smartphones.” — Kennedy [06:39]
• “Maybe it’s good to be a pariah for a little bit.” — Kennedy [07:07]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:28 — Landline trend among kids and the analog shift
• 01:26 — FaceTime and the anxiety of constant visibility
• 02:41 — Generational parenting differences and over-involvement
• 03:04 — Wired headsets as a new status symbol
• 04:26 — Family story: Using a rotary phone
• 05:21 — The difficulties and anxieties of free-range parenting today
• 05:45 — Threats from AI chatbots
• 06:39 — Reflections on how smartphones might have altered her children’s lives
• 07:07 — Advice and encouragement for parents resisting digital peer pressure

Conclusion

Kennedy delivers a lively, thoughtful meditation on whether stepping back from cutting-edge technology can foster both safer and more authentic childhoods. Drawing from parenting experience, generational memory, and current tech trends, she argues the analog revival says as much about family values and freedom as it does about nostalgia. Her signature humor and candor make the episode both entertaining and reassuring for parents grappling with similar issues.