On this episode, Mia Silverio - a Research Lead at Prof G Media joined me to talk about storytelling, and within minutes we went from laughing about dodging motorcycles in Saigon to nearly crying over Thai insurance commercials that hit harder than most feature films. What makes a story actually stick with you instead of just being more noise in the feed?

Mia broke down the specifics effect and how Gen Z spending 18 years of their lives on phones becomes way more dramatic when you frame it that way, and we explored how AI is literally reducing information flow through people's brains by 55% when they use it to write. The conversation shifted to my daughter and how we banned devices in our house and watched her suddenly rediscover reading for hours instead of complaining about ten minutes, which led us into this whole territory about critical thinking skills disappearing and why asking "why" might be the most important thing we can teach kids right now. We talked about Prof G's genius in calling tech companies the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, how to tell stories when you have zero audience, why trying to sound smart absolutely kills your connection with people, and where the line is between storytelling and manipulation.

This whole thing reminded me that the best content makes you feel something, challenges you to think deeper, and gives you permission to question everything you're being told, which feels pretty revolutionary when everyone's optimizing for the algorithm instead of actual human connection.

What's the last piece of content that made you actually feel something instead of just scroll past it, and why do you think it worked when everything else doesn't?