{"podcast":{"title":"Decoding the Gurus","slug":"decoding-the-gurus-1328110","podcast_index_feed_id":1328110,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/decoding-the-gurus/","website_url":"https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/ca36b15f-e9a3-44d0-b341-cb03f96046e3/aj9LitB3bvW15m3-LL0fusjp.jpg","author":"Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne","episode_count":247,"summary":"An exiled Northern Irish anthropologist and a hitchhiking Australian psychologist take a close look at the contemporary crop of 'secular gurus', iconoclasts, and other exiles from the mainstream, offering their own brands of unique takes and special insights. Leveraging two of the most diverse accents in modern podcasting, Chris and Matt dig deep into the claims, peek behind the psychological curtains, and try to figure out once and for all... What's it all About? Join us, as we try to puzzle our way through and talk some smart-sounding smack about the intellectual giants of our age, from Jordan Peterson to Robin DiAngelo. Are they revolutionary thinkers or just grifters with delusions of grandeur? Join us and let's find out!","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110"},"episode":{"title":"Decoding Academia: Moral Entrepreneurs, Measurement Issues, & Screentime with Andrew Przybylski (Patreon Preview)","slug":"decoding-academia-moral-entrepreneurs-measurement-issues-screentime-with-andrew-przybylski-patreon-preview","published_at":"2026-02-27T21:20:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/decoding-academia-moral-entrepreneurs-measurement-issues-screentime-with-andrew-przybylski-patreon-preview","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110","url":"https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/decoding-academia-moral-entrepreneurs-measurement-issues-screentime-with-andrew-przybylski-patreon-preview","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/193e3562-7f66-4598-8e1f-5dc3dd8597fd.mp3","summary":"Another episode where the guest is not a sense-making prophet or a galaxy-brained guru, as we engage in academic dialogos with Oxford psychologist Andrew Przybylski. This is a preview of our Decoding Academia series on Patreon (now 30+ episodes deep), where we swap internet gurus and rhetoric for actual researchers and empirical debates. Andrew’s work spans motivation, gaming, and digital technology. His most recent crime is that he studies the impact of technology and has not found evidence that it is destroying wellbeing and ushering in civilisational collapse. We discuss the ongoing moral panic around smartphones, social media, and teenagers’ allegedly pulverised minds and why much of the debate rests on statistical techniques roughly equivalent to staring deeply at Excel spreadsheets and hammering SPSS until the desired narrative appears. We get into measurement problems around “screen time,” why trivially small correlations become front-page catastrophes, and how the discourse rewards confident storytelling far more than (boring) careful causal inference. Also covered: cross-cultural evidence, the policy implications of airport pop science bestsellers, and the potential civilisational threat posed by Warhammer 40k. If you enjoy episodes where we analyse methods rather than metaphysics, the full Decoding Academia series lives on Patreon. Relevant Research (Przybylski & collaborators) Andrew's Academic Profile and Personal Website Fassi, L., Ferguson, A. M., Przybylski, A. K., Ford, T. J., & Orben, A. (2025). Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions. Nature human behaviour , 9 (6), 1283-1299. Vuorre, M., & Przybylski, A. K. (2023). Estimating the association between Facebook adoption and well-being in 72 countries. Royal…","meta_description":"Another episode where the guest is not a sense-making prophet or a galaxy-brained guru, as we engage in academic dialogos with Oxford psychologist Andrew…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4389,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/episodes/decoding-academia-moral-entrepreneurs-measurement-issues-screentime-with-andrew-przybylski-patreon-preview/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/decoding-the-gurus-1328110/decoding-academia-moral-entrepreneurs-measurement-issues-screentime-with-andrew-przybylski-patreon-preview.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}