Today we present for our paid subscribers the full audio recording of our conversation with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
Earlier this week, the surgeon general intensified his call for the regulation of youth use of social media platforms, asking for the use of warning labels akin to those applied to products such as alcohol and tobacco. While some researchers have objected, suggesting the data isn’t yet complete enough to make that kind of decision, for Dr. Murthy the time to act is now, as today’s children and teenagers simply don’t have the luxury of waiting for further research.
We spoke with Dr. Murthy in April, as he was still planning the next steps in his work to address social media harms in the face of continued legislative inaction, so the conversation provides unique insight into the thinking behind this week’s announcement.
We also covered many of the other issues Dr. Murthy has been concerned with as the nation’s chief physician: the epidemic of loneliness plaguing Americans, what the way we work means for people struggling to parent, and what he thinks we need to do to reach men in crisis before the authoritarians who are offering easy answers that threaten democracy.
To read our edited transcript of the conversation, just click on the link below.
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