Loading summary
A
Hi, this is Knox from the podcast with Knox and Jamie and maybe like us at the podcast you also know people who have been smokers or vapers and Zyn is the one product it seems like everyone is talking about because there are many good reasons to make a change to Zyn nicotine pouches reasons like Zyn nicotine pouches are still America's number one choice for smoke free hands free nicotine satisfaction and you can choose between 10 varieties, each variety available in either 3 or 6 milligrams. Check out zen.com find to find Zyn at a store near you. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
B
The market's uncertain, revenues tight and hiring on hold. That's why results driven companies are using upwork to keep work moving. Go to upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead, no rigid long term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them.
C
Work.
B
Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's up. W o r k.com Post a job for free and get started. Today.
D
Bombas makes the most comfortable socks, underwear and T shirts.
E
Warning. Bombas are so absurdly comfortable you may throw out all your other clothes.
D
Sorry, do we legally have to say that?
A
No, this is just how I talk. And I really love my Bombas.
D
They do feel that good. And they do good too. One item purchased equals one item donated. To feel good and do good, go to bombas.com and use code AUTOMATIC AUDIO for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O-M B-S.com and use code audio at checkout from executive producer Isaac Saul.
C
This is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and today we're talking about the tech backlash. A revolution is brewing. If it were a pot of water, I'd say it's been on the stove for seven or eight minutes. It's not quite boiling and bubbling and bursting, but the water's hot, the pot is hissing, and the stainless steel is shimmering. It won't be too long before it boils over. Signs of this revolution are everywhere. On the front pages of the New York Times, in niche corners of the Internet, among my closest friends and family. It's a backlash, really, one that began quietly and tentatively, but is turning thunderous and unapologetic. It's happening in homes, schools, restaurants, the workplace, and at parties. It is a resistance and a genuine dread of just how much time we are all spending in front of our screens. Whatever the latest ubiquitous consumer technology is, and however it's designed to demand, we spend more time looking at our phones or computers. We loathe it. We resist our acquiescence to it. This is a new phenomenon. For the last few decades, the dominance of these screen based consumer technologies has been accelerating exponentially. For a long time, there was no predictable end in sight and very few signs of resistance. In the early 1990s, just 27% of Americans had computers in their homes. By the end of the decade, over 40% did. In 2007, Apple launched the Apple iPhone, Dropping a miniature computer into everyone's pocket. By 2011, about 1 in 3Americans had a smartphone, and the number was rapidly accelerating. Today, roughly 90% of Americans have a smartphone and about 95% own a computer. As these technologies boomed in popularity over the last 30 years, many people believe that we'd eventually look around and say, wow. The world these innovations created has transformed our lives in positive ways. I want more of this and will embrace the innovations to come. I think we're actually realizing the opposite. We're finally pausing to take stock of where this technology has taken us, and we don't much like where we've landed. We sense the severity of this new reality all around us. Toddlers are absorbed in iPads, at restaurants or the park. The Internet, once a luxury you may have had to trek to a cafe to access, is now like oxygen. Meta is building chatbots that can have sensual conversations with children. Teachers report their students disassociating with their phones at school and incre support phone bans. Black mirror episodes feel increasingly prophetic. We look around and wonder, why is everyone so anxious? What happened to all the parties? Where are all the kids playing outside? And I think we know the answers. It's just a hard thing to admit, given what it would demand of us to change our behavior accordingly, many Americans are primed to reject the next world changing technology. Well, the next world changing technology is already here. I'm speaking, of course, of artificial intelligence, AI. In a seemingly impossible turn, the rise in AI may be more meteoric than even the explosive growth of computers, the Internet, the smartphone, or social media. In just a few short years, ChatGPT has amassed 700 million weekly users. 70% of high school students say they used AI during the 2023-2024 school year. And and 90% of college students say they use ChatGPT for homework help. In the first two months after its launch, 28% of employed adults say they have used ChatGPT for work tasks, and over one in six report using it on a weekly basis. People fire up the platform for relationship advice, planning, travel, learning, new languages, meal planning, and even medical advice. This rapid adoption has created plenty of problems, and the backlash against AI has been nearly as swift as its rise. Like any movement, this anti AI backlash has its extremists, but the resistance is leveling more sophisticated critiques than hair pulling apocalyptica about unleashing genius killer robots that could eradicate humanity. Some students are now resisting AI, sensing that its functionality as a cheat code for schoolwork might be making them dumber and less capable. The increasing frequency of stories in which AI lies to people, blackmails them, encourages suicide, or causes psychosis has now garnered national attention, and the family and friends of the victims in these stories are increasingly incensed. The chatbots themselves are susceptible to delusional spirals, imagining events, threats, and people who never existed so often that these mistakes should degrade trust from users over time. Meanwhile, despite all of their notable flaws, the very same technologies might be stealing jobs from new entrants to the labor market and are quickly taking over our government. In a lot of ways, the AI industry's attempt to penetrate our everyday lives comes at an inopportune moment for its products. Nearly all of my friends share an increasing understanding that our personal devices, our screens are depleting us of richer, more authentic experiences. Rather than handing their kids iPhones, parents are turning the clock back and introducing them to the magic of landlines. Schools that emphasize outdoor and independent play are rapidly growing across the US More and more people are insisting that you put your phone away when you socialize, and restaurants, parties, and social events built around going phoneless are rising in popularity. 71% of parents worry that their children spend too much time on screens, and that was in 2020, before ChatGPT or artificial intelligence was even part of our lexicon. Four in 10 teens say they spend too much time on their phone, and 72% say they sometimes are often feel peaceful when they don't have their devices. Most teens still think the benefits of smartphones outweigh the harms, which is unsurprising given they've never experienced anything else. In my personal life, I've made a habit of hosting Shabbat dinners on Friday nights with friends and family, Jews and non Jews alike. Since the table often includes non observant attendees, I don't make any religious requirements, but I do make the bare minimum ask that attendees don't use their phones at any time during the evening. This seemingly small suggestion has never once been violated. Without exception, guests tell me that they come away from the night feeling like they just participated in a refreshing kind of social event, one both nostalgic and rare. While I'm heartened by these experiences, I'm also starting to get an odd and frightening feeling, one I can't quite grasp tangibly, but feels true and I sense is shared by many of my peers, that this is our last chance. This moment, these next few years, as we stare down the barrel of AI generated everything, it feels like our last opportunity to do something to detach ourselves. It seems to me genuinely that if we don't pull back from our over reliance on these technologies right now, we'll soon lose our ability to do so at all.
E
Hey everybody, this is John, Executive Producer for Tangle. We hope you enjoyed this preview of our latest episode. If you are not currently a newsletter subscriber or a premium podcast subscriber and you are enjoying this content and would like to finish it, you can go to readtangle.com and sign up for a newsletter subscription. Or you can sign up for a podcast subscription or a bundled subscription which gets you both the podcast and the newsletter and unlocks the rest of this episode as well as ad free daily podcasts, more Friday editions, Sunday editions, bonus content, interviews and so much more. Most importantly, we just want to say thank you so much for your support. We're working hard to bring you much more content and more offerings, so stay tuned. I will join you again for the daily podcast. For the rest of the crew, this is John Law signing off. Have a great day y'.
C
All.
E
Peace.
C
Our Executive Editor and Founder is me, Isaac Saul and our Executive Producer is John Law. Today's episode was edited and engineered by John Law. Our editorial staff is led by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman with Senior Editor Will K. Back and Associate Editors Audrey Morehead Bailey Saw Lindsay Knuth and Kendall White. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75 and John Law and to learn more about Tangle and to sign up for a membership please visit our website@readtangle.com.
F
Hey, I'm Elise Hu, host of the podcast Ted Talks Daily. Did you know Paylocity offers one platform for HR finance and it that means innovative solutions like On Demand Payment which offers employees access to wages prior to payday, flexible time tracking features which enables staff to clock in through their mobile device and numerous other cutting edge integrations are available to to all your teams in one single place. Learn more about how Paylocity can help streamline work and bring teams together@paylocity.com 1.
A
Hi, this is Knox from the podcast with Knox and Jamie and maybe like us at the podcast you also know people who have been smokers or vapers and Zyn is the one product it seems like everyone is talking about because there are many good reasons to make a change to Zyn Nicotine Pouches. Reasons like Zyn Nicotine Pouches are still America's number one choice for smoke for free hands free nicotine satisfaction and you can choose between 10 varieties, each variety available in either 3 or 6 milligrams. Check out zyn.com find to find Zyn at a store near you. Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
D
If you're a custodial supervisor at a local high school, you know that cleanliness is key and that the best place to get cleaning supplies is from Grainger. Grainger helps you stay fully stocked on the products you trust, from paper towels and disinfectants to floor scrubbers. Plus, you can rely on Granger for easy reordering so you never run out of what you need. Call 1-800-granger. Click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
Host: Isaac Saul
Air Date: September 26, 2025
Host Isaac Saul explores the rising "tech backlash," a growing collective skepticism and pushback against pervasive consumer technologies—especially screens and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI). Isaac describes an atmosphere of mounting resistance as people reassess the effects of digital technology on daily life, well-being, and society. This episode argues for reflection and calls for intentional change before tech’s influence becomes even more entrenched.
"A revolution is brewing. If it were a pot of water, I'd say it's been on the stove for seven or eight minutes. It's not quite boiling and bubbling and bursting, but the water's hot, the pot is hissing, and the stainless steel is shimmering." – Isaac Saul [02:01]
"For a long time, there was no predictable end in sight and very few signs of resistance... I think we're actually realizing the opposite." – Isaac Saul [04:08]
AI adoption outpacing even smartphones and social media:
The backlash is immediate and sophisticated:
"Some students are now resisting AI, sensing that its functionality as a cheat code for schoolwork might be making them dumber and less capable." – Isaac Saul [06:25]
"More and more people are insisting that you put your phone away when you socialize, and restaurants, parties, and social events built around going phoneless are rising in popularity." – Isaac Saul [08:02]
"Without exception, guests tell me that they come away from the night feeling like they just participated in a refreshing kind of social event, one both nostalgic and rare." – Isaac Saul [08:48]
"It seems to me genuinely that if we don't pull back from our over reliance on these technologies right now, we'll soon lose our ability to do so at all." – Isaac Saul [09:18]
The revolution metaphor:
“A revolution is brewing... the pot is hissing... It won't be too long before it boils over.” [02:01]
On the roots of tech regret:
“We're finally pausing to take stock of where this technology has taken us, and we don't much like where we've landed.” [04:47]
Personal device-free tradition:
“...they come away from the night feeling like they just participated in a refreshing kind of social event, one both nostalgic and rare.” [08:48]
The feeling of ‘last chance’:
"This moment, these next few years, as we stare down the barrel of AI generated everything, it feels like our last opportunity to do something to detach ourselves.” [09:11]
Isaac Saul blends journalistic observation with personal reflection, maintaining an independent, contemplative, and at times urgent tone. He avoids alarmism but clearly frames this tech backlash as a major social inflection point requiring honest reassessment and collective action.
In this episode, Isaac Saul contends that the backlash against tech—and especially AI—is not just inevitable, but necessary. It's a call for awareness and for reclaiming control of our attention, habits, and communities before the opportunity for change is lost. Saul’s argument is underscored by historical context, fresh statistics, and evocative personal anecdotes, making the case both intellectually and emotionally engaging.
This summary covers the core content of the episode, omitting ad reads and non-content sections.