{"podcast":{"title":"Heavy Things Lightly","slug":"heavy-things-lightly-296775","podcast_index_feed_id":296775,"rss_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/1370745/s/105738.rss","website_url":"https://johnheersftf.substack.com/s/podcast","image_url":"https://substackcdn.com/feed/podcast/1370745/s/105738/215a2cf1757192be63d7f527ec08531e.jpg","author":"John Heers","episode_count":250,"summary":"This “Enlightened” New World utopia isn’t turning out to be all it was cracked up to be. Society is disenchanting, but are the only alternatives hiding out in the hills or burying yourself in books? With an air of levity and a touch of humor, John Heers teaches how to examine the confusing New World by calling upon the mind and wisdom of oft-forgotten Old. Heavy Things, Lightly.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-05T04:17:21.449038+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/heavy-things-lightly-296775"},"episode":{"title":"Why This App Designer Hides His Face | An Old-World Cure Built as a New-World App","slug":"why-this-app-designer-hides-his-face-an-old-world-cure-built-as-a-new-world-app","published_at":"2026-08-28T16:33:04+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/heavy-things-lightly-296775/why-this-app-designer-hides-his-face-an-old-world-cure-built-as-a-new-world-app","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/heavy-things-lightly-296775","url":"https://johnheersftf.substack.com/p/why-this-app-designer-hides-his-face","audio_url":"https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/213171307/1b9b648a519fa6cf8c4821d3ebc030fb.mp3","summary":"John Heers sits down with \"Justin Smith\" — an anonymous app designer you'll never see, only hear.His app, This Life, is audio-only and anonymous by design: you record your own voice, then get paired with a stranger for a day to hear three minutes of their life.In this episode John pushes back hard — is a phone app really the cure for the isolation it helped create? Is writing down your thoughts making us more ill, not less? And where does the whole thing come from — what's the \"well\" underneath it?They go deep on:→ Why Justin hides his face (and the Bill Wilson / AA logic behind it)→ The \"force of unhelpful negative emotion\" and how it plays us all→ Spiritual hitchhiking — the app's one-day anonymous pairing→ Whether an app can ever replace the in-person Supra table→ Christianity, Orthodoxy, and building something beautiful out of love for a fatherA fascinating, honest conversation about what we've lost in the modern world — and one man's attempt to build a piece of it back.Get the app 👇 http://www.jointhislife.com or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/this-li... Chapters 00:00 Intro & Sponsors 02:19 Meet \"Justin Smith\" — The Anonymous App Designer 02:45 Why He Hides His Face (The Bill Wilson Logic) 06:14 The Problem: The Human Heart at War With Itself 08:24 The Force of Unhelpful Negative Emotion 10:42 Watching His Father Break 19:14 How the App Works 22:05 Spoken Notes & Spiritual Hitchhiking 25:30 Is Writing It Down Making Us Sicker? 28:38 Orthodoxy, Christianity & \"the Well\" 42:38 Why Digital? The Trade-Offs 45:07 The Demon & the Puppet Strings 01:05:07 Get the App & Closing Thoughts__🏷️ Sponsored by Conrad's Beef Jerky — loyalty not guaranteed.Conrad's Deli - The best jerky you'll ever have ➜ https://conradsdeli.com/ ⭐ Use promo code \"FIRST THINGS\" for 10% off.🔥 Suppor…","meta_description":"John Heers sits down with \"Justin Smith\" — an anonymous app designer you'll never see, only hear.His app, This Life, is audio-only and anonymous by design…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4421,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/heavy-things-lightly-296775/episodes/why-this-app-designer-hides-his-face-an-old-world-cure-built-as-a-new-world-app/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/heavy-things-lightly-296775/why-this-app-designer-hides-his-face-an-old-world-cure-built-as-a-new-world-app.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}