web01.fireside.fm Thu, 12 Mar 2026 17:23:56 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Increments - Episodes Tagged with “Education” https://www.incrementspodcast.com/tags/education Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0700 Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. en-us episodic Science, Philosophy, Epistemology, Mayhem Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. no Philosophy,Science,Ethics,Progress,Knowledge,Computer Science,Conversation,Error-Correction Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani incrementspodcast@gmail.com #83 - The Anxious Generation Round II: Alternative Explanations https://www.incrementspodcast.com/83 86e1b3be-036b-4c37-8930-3dbd17ad3dab Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:00:00 -0700 Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani full Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani Are there other hypotheses on the rise in self-harm rates among adolescents? Not any good ones, it turns out. 1:21:20 no Round two on the anxious generation. Well, honestly, round three. But we had a false start with round two, which is why this episode is a little late in coming. If you want to hear the gory, data-heavy details of our second attempt, you can access the episode by becoming a patron (https://www.patreon.com/c/Increments) (was there ever a better sell?). We discuss Whether the rise in self-harm rates was due to reporting changes Whether education and common core could be affecting mental health Whether cultural pessimism is on the rise Cyberbullying Martin Gurri's thesis on the digital revolution How Vaden will handle social media with his kids References David Wallace Wells opinion piece (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/smartphones-social-media-mental-health-teens.html) Our patreon episode (https://www.patreon.com/posts/subscriber-ep-23-124502992) on David Wallace Wells' thesis Peter Gray on common core (https://petergray.substack.com/p/letter-51-common-core-is-the-main) Revolt of the Public (https://www.amazon.com/Revolt-Public-Crisis-Authority-Millennium/dp/1732265143/) Errata Ben said The Revolt of the Public was written in 2014. It was written in 2018. Vaden said he would list all four of Haidt's points about why girls are uniquely vulnerable to negative effects of social media, and only got halfway in before forgetting he said that. The four reasons Haidt gives are: Girls are more affected by visual social comparison and perfectionism Girls' aggression is more relational Girls more easily share emotions and disorders Girls are more subject to predation and harassment Quotes Here is a story. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone, initiating the smartphone revolution that would quickly transform the world. In 2010, it added a front-facing camera, helping shift the social-media landscape toward images, especially selfies. Partly as a result, in the five years that followed, the nature of childhood and especially adolescence was fundamentally changed — a “great rewiring,” in the words of the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt — such that between 2010 and 2015 mental health and well-being plummeted and suffering and despair exploded, particularly among teenage girls. For young women, rates of hospitalization for nonfatal self-harm in the United States, which had bottomed out in 2009, started to rise again, according to data reported to the C.D.C., taking a leap beginning in 2012 and another beginning in 2016, and producing, over about a decade, an alarming 48 percent increase in such emergency room visits among American girls ages 15 to 19 and a shocking 188 percent increase among girls ages 10 to14. Here is another story. In 2011, as part of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new set of guidelines that recommended that teenage girls should be screened annually for depression by their primary care physicians and that same year required that insurance providers cover such screenings in full. In 2015, H.H.S. finally mandated a coding change, proposed by the World Health Organization almost two decades before, that required hospitals to record whether an injury was self-inflicted or accidental — and which seemingly overnight nearly doubled rates for self-harm across all demographic groups. Soon thereafter, the coding of suicidal ideation was also updated. - David Wallace Wells, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/smartphones-social-media-mental-health-teens.html Studies confirm that as adolescents moved their social lives online, the nature of bullying began to change. One systematic review of studies from 1998 to 2017 found a decrease in face-to-face bullying among boys but an increase among girls, especially among younger adolescent girls.[47] ... According to one major U.S. survey, these high rates of cyberbullying have persisted (though have not increased) between 2011 and 2019. Throughout the period, approximately one in 10 high school boys and one in five high school girls experienced cyberbullying each year.[49] In other words, the move online made bullying and harassment a larger part of daily life for girls. \ - Haidt, The Anxious Generation p. 170 Socials Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link Become a patreon subscriber here (https://www.patreon.com/Increments). Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations here (https://ko-fi.com/increments). Click dem like buttons on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ) Anyone you want to cyberbully into body dismorphia? Tell us who to send photos of our hot bods to over at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. social-media, Jonathan-Haidt, anxious-generation, education, mental-health, pessimism Round two on the anxious generation. Well, honestly, round three. But we had a false start with round two, which is why this episode is a little late in coming. If you want to hear the gory, data-heavy details of our second attempt, you can access the episode by becoming a patron (was there ever a better sell?).

We discuss

  • Whether the rise in self-harm rates was due to reporting changes
  • Whether education and common core could be affecting mental health
  • Whether cultural pessimism is on the rise
  • Cyberbullying
  • Martin Gurri's thesis on the digital revolution
  • How Vaden will handle social media with his kids

References

Errata

  • Ben said The Revolt of the Public was written in 2014. It was written in 2018.
  • Vaden said he would list all four of Haidt's points about why girls are uniquely vulnerable to negative effects of social media, and only got halfway in before forgetting he said that. The four reasons Haidt gives are:
    1. Girls are more affected by visual social comparison and perfectionism
    2. Girls' aggression is more relational
    3. Girls more easily share emotions and disorders
    4. Girls are more subject to predation and harassment

Quotes

Here is a story. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone, initiating the smartphone revolution that would quickly transform the world. In 2010, it added a front-facing camera, helping shift the social-media landscape toward images, especially selfies. Partly as a result, in the five years that followed, the nature of childhood and especially adolescence was fundamentally changed — a “great rewiring,” in the words of the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt — such that between 2010 and 2015 mental health and well-being plummeted and suffering and despair exploded, particularly among teenage girls.

For young women, rates of hospitalization for nonfatal self-harm in the United States, which had bottomed out in 2009, started to rise again, according to data reported to the C.D.C., taking a leap beginning in 2012 and another beginning in 2016, and producing, over about a decade, an alarming 48 percent increase in such emergency room visits among American girls ages 15 to 19 and a shocking 188 percent increase among girls ages 10 to14.

Here is another story. In 2011, as part of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new set of guidelines that recommended that teenage girls should be screened annually for depression by their primary care physicians and that same year required that insurance providers cover such screenings in full. In 2015, H.H.S. finally mandated a coding change, proposed by the World Health Organization almost two decades before, that required hospitals to record whether an injury was self-inflicted or accidental — and which seemingly overnight nearly doubled rates for self-harm across all demographic groups. Soon thereafter, the coding of suicidal ideation was also updated.

Studies confirm that as adolescents moved their social lives online, the nature of bullying began to change. One systematic review of studies from 1998 to 2017 found a decrease in face-to-face bullying among boys but an increase among girls, especially among younger adolescent girls.[47] ... According to one major U.S. survey, these high rates of cyberbullying have persisted (though have not increased) between 2011 and 2019. Throughout the period, approximately one in 10 high school boys and one in five high school girls experienced cyberbullying each year.[49] In other words, the move online made bullying and harassment a larger part of daily life for girls.
\
- Haidt, The Anxious Generation p. 170

Socials

  • Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani
  • Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link
  • Become a patreon subscriber here. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations here.
  • Click dem like buttons on youtube

Anyone you want to cyberbully into body dismorphia? Tell us who to send photos of our hot bods to over at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.

Support Increments

]]> Round two on the anxious generation. Well, honestly, round three. But we had a false start with round two, which is why this episode is a little late in coming. If you want to hear the gory, data-heavy details of our second attempt, you can access the episode by becoming a patron (was there ever a better sell?).

We discuss

  • Whether the rise in self-harm rates was due to reporting changes
  • Whether education and common core could be affecting mental health
  • Whether cultural pessimism is on the rise
  • Cyberbullying
  • Martin Gurri's thesis on the digital revolution
  • How Vaden will handle social media with his kids

References

Errata

  • Ben said The Revolt of the Public was written in 2014. It was written in 2018.
  • Vaden said he would list all four of Haidt's points about why girls are uniquely vulnerable to negative effects of social media, and only got halfway in before forgetting he said that. The four reasons Haidt gives are:
    1. Girls are more affected by visual social comparison and perfectionism
    2. Girls' aggression is more relational
    3. Girls more easily share emotions and disorders
    4. Girls are more subject to predation and harassment

Quotes

Here is a story. In 2007, Apple released the iPhone, initiating the smartphone revolution that would quickly transform the world. In 2010, it added a front-facing camera, helping shift the social-media landscape toward images, especially selfies. Partly as a result, in the five years that followed, the nature of childhood and especially adolescence was fundamentally changed — a “great rewiring,” in the words of the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt — such that between 2010 and 2015 mental health and well-being plummeted and suffering and despair exploded, particularly among teenage girls.

For young women, rates of hospitalization for nonfatal self-harm in the United States, which had bottomed out in 2009, started to rise again, according to data reported to the C.D.C., taking a leap beginning in 2012 and another beginning in 2016, and producing, over about a decade, an alarming 48 percent increase in such emergency room visits among American girls ages 15 to 19 and a shocking 188 percent increase among girls ages 10 to14.

Here is another story. In 2011, as part of the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a new set of guidelines that recommended that teenage girls should be screened annually for depression by their primary care physicians and that same year required that insurance providers cover such screenings in full. In 2015, H.H.S. finally mandated a coding change, proposed by the World Health Organization almost two decades before, that required hospitals to record whether an injury was self-inflicted or accidental — and which seemingly overnight nearly doubled rates for self-harm across all demographic groups. Soon thereafter, the coding of suicidal ideation was also updated.

Studies confirm that as adolescents moved their social lives online, the nature of bullying began to change. One systematic review of studies from 1998 to 2017 found a decrease in face-to-face bullying among boys but an increase among girls, especially among younger adolescent girls.[47] ... According to one major U.S. survey, these high rates of cyberbullying have persisted (though have not increased) between 2011 and 2019. Throughout the period, approximately one in 10 high school boys and one in five high school girls experienced cyberbullying each year.[49] In other words, the move online made bullying and harassment a larger part of daily life for girls.
\
- Haidt, The Anxious Generation p. 170

Socials

  • Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani
  • Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link
  • Become a patreon subscriber here. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations here.
  • Click dem like buttons on youtube

Anyone you want to cyberbully into body dismorphia? Tell us who to send photos of our hot bods to over at incrementspodcast@gmail.com.

Support Increments

]]> #37 - Montessori Education w/ Matt Bateman https://www.incrementspodcast.com/37 13c4c535-99eb-4d21-90c0-1a2af43199af Wed, 16 Feb 2022 11:45:00 -0800 Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani full Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani We're joined by Matt Bateman, the director of the Montessori think tank Montessorium, to talk all things education. 1:21:46 no We're joined today by Matt Bateman, one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, to discuss the Montessori method of education and how it compares to other teaching methodologies. Get ready for tiny furniture, putting on your jacket upside down, and teaching your toddler to make eggs benedict. We discuss: Maria Montessori What is a Montessori education (besides tiny furniture)? How Montessori classrooms differ from regular ones Why long periods of interrupted problem solving is important for a child's development How Montessori integrates with technology Drawbacks of traditional methods of testing and grading, and how they might be amended The importance of cultivating a love of work How Matt wants to reform high school education Bio: Matt is one of the founders of Higher Ground Education (https://www.tohigherground.com/), a worldwide Montessori network. He runs Montessorium, Higher Ground’s think tank. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on the philosophy of science. Make sure to follow him on twitter (https://twitter.com/mbateman) for some golden education nuggets References: Matt on the Where We Go Next (https://podcastaddict.com/episode/116009974) (formerly New Liberals) podcast. Montessorium (https://montessorium.com/) Vocational Training for the Soul: Bringing the Meaning of Work to Schools (https://thechalkboardreview.com/latest/vocational-training-for-the-soul-bringing-the-meaning-of-work-to-schools) Matt's History of Education Course (https://montessorium.com/courses/the-history-of-education) Social media everywhere Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani Check us out on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link Special Guest: Matt Bateman. Maria Montessori, childhood, education, work, education reform, child development We're joined today by Matt Bateman, one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, to discuss the Montessori method of education and how it compares to other teaching methodologies. Get ready for tiny furniture, putting on your jacket upside down, and teaching your toddler to make eggs benedict. We discuss:

  • Maria Montessori
  • What is a Montessori education (besides tiny furniture)?
  • How Montessori classrooms differ from regular ones
  • Why long periods of interrupted problem solving is important for a child's development
  • How Montessori integrates with technology
  • Drawbacks of traditional methods of testing and grading, and how they might be amended
  • The importance of cultivating a love of work
  • How Matt wants to reform high school education

Bio:

Matt is one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, a worldwide Montessori network. He runs Montessorium, Higher Ground’s think tank. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on the philosophy of science. Make sure to follow him on twitter for some golden education nuggets

References:

Social media everywhere

Special Guest: Matt Bateman.

Support Increments

]]> We're joined today by Matt Bateman, one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, to discuss the Montessori method of education and how it compares to other teaching methodologies. Get ready for tiny furniture, putting on your jacket upside down, and teaching your toddler to make eggs benedict. We discuss:

  • Maria Montessori
  • What is a Montessori education (besides tiny furniture)?
  • How Montessori classrooms differ from regular ones
  • Why long periods of interrupted problem solving is important for a child's development
  • How Montessori integrates with technology
  • Drawbacks of traditional methods of testing and grading, and how they might be amended
  • The importance of cultivating a love of work
  • How Matt wants to reform high school education

Bio:

Matt is one of the founders of Higher Ground Education, a worldwide Montessori network. He runs Montessorium, Higher Ground’s think tank. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he focused on the philosophy of science. Make sure to follow him on twitter for some golden education nuggets

References:

Social media everywhere

Special Guest: Matt Bateman.

Support Increments

]]> #23 - Physics, Philosophy, and Free Will with Sam Kuypers https://www.incrementspodcast.com/23 Buzzsprout-8450979 Mon, 03 May 2021 10:00:00 -0700 Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani full Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani 1:33:44 no <p>We are joined by the great Sam Kuypers for a conversation on physics, philosophy, and free will. <br><br>Vaden spends most of the episode preparing for a huge debate on free-will, and Ben spends it worried about what alternate versions of himself are up to in parallel universes. Still, we manage to touch on a few topics: </p><ul> <li>Realism and antirealist interpretations of quantum theory</li> <li>The advisory styles of Dennis Sciama and John Wheeler and the standardization of education </li> <li>Reconciling the Harris / Deutsch perspectives on Free Will</li> <li>Restorative and Rehabilitative justice</li> <li>A universe in which Ben spontaneously explodes into dust while speaking</li> </ul><p>Links: </p><ul> <li>Sam's <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.02328">recent paper</a> with David Deutsch</li> <li> <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Micro-Macro-Adventures-Wandering-Physicist-ebook/dp/B077YXQ2C8?sa-no-redirect=1">From Micro to Macro</a>, by Vlatko Vedral </li> <li>Hayek's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Constitution_of_Liberty">Constitution of Liberty</a> </li> </ul><p><br><em>Sam Kuypers is a  DPhil student at the University of Oxford, where he researches foundational issues in quantum theory. He's also one of the founders of the </em><a href="https://oxfkarlpopper.squarespace.com/"><em>Oxford Karl Popper Society</em></a><em>, an Oxford-based student society created to facilitate discussions about science and philosophy.<br></em><br><em>Follow him on Twitter at: </em><a href="https://twitter.com/crit_rat"><em>https://twitter.com/crit_rat</em></a><em>.</em></p><p>Send us an email or explode into dust - your choice:  <em>incrementspodcast@gmail.com</em>. </p> Special Guest: Sam Kuypers. free will, education, learning, justice, physics, quantum mechanics, many worlds We are joined by the great Sam Kuypers for a conversation on physics, philosophy, and free will. 

Vaden spends most of the episode preparing for a huge debate on free-will, and Ben spends it worried about what alternate versions of himself are up to in parallel universes. Still, we manage to touch on a few topics: 

  • Realism and antirealist interpretations of quantum theory
  • The advisory styles of Dennis Sciama and John Wheeler and the standardization of education 
  • Reconciling the Harris / Deutsch perspectives on Free Will
  • Restorative and Rehabilitative justice
  • A universe in which Ben spontaneously explodes into dust while speaking

Links: 


Sam Kuypers is a  DPhil student at the University of Oxford, where he researches foundational issues in quantum theory. He's also one of the founders of the Oxford Karl Popper Society, an Oxford-based student society created to facilitate discussions about science and philosophy.

Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/crit_rat.

Send us an email or explode into dust - your choice:  incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 

Special Guest: Sam Kuypers.

Support Increments

]]> We are joined by the great Sam Kuypers for a conversation on physics, philosophy, and free will. 

Vaden spends most of the episode preparing for a huge debate on free-will, and Ben spends it worried about what alternate versions of himself are up to in parallel universes. Still, we manage to touch on a few topics: 

  • Realism and antirealist interpretations of quantum theory
  • The advisory styles of Dennis Sciama and John Wheeler and the standardization of education 
  • Reconciling the Harris / Deutsch perspectives on Free Will
  • Restorative and Rehabilitative justice
  • A universe in which Ben spontaneously explodes into dust while speaking

Links: 


Sam Kuypers is a  DPhil student at the University of Oxford, where he researches foundational issues in quantum theory. He's also one of the founders of the Oxford Karl Popper Society, an Oxford-based student society created to facilitate discussions about science and philosophy.

Follow him on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/crit_rat.

Send us an email or explode into dust - your choice:  incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 

Special Guest: Sam Kuypers.

Support Increments

]]>