Episode 111 | Our Souls on Technology with Andy Crouch and Jonathan Haidt

Our Souls on Technology

We were made for relationship — to be seen, loved, known, and committed to others. And yet we increasingly find ourselves, in the words of sociologist Jonathan Haidt, “disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.”

On our podcast Haidt and bestselling author Andy Crouch pair up to explore how the technology era has seduced us with a false vision of human flourishing—and how each of us can fight back, and restore true community:

“A person is a heart, soul, mind, strength, complex designed for love. And one of the really damaging things about our technology is very little of our technology develops all four of those qualities.” – Andy Crouch

We hope you enjoy this conversation about the seismic effects technology has had on our personal relationships, civic institutions, and even democratic foundations — and how we might approach rethinking our technologies and reclaiming human connection.

This podcast is an edited version of an online conversation recorded in 2022. Watch the full video of the conversation here. Learn more about Jonathan Haidt and Andy Crouch.

Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:

The Happiness Hypothesis, by Jonathan Haidt
Culture Making, by Andy Crouch
Playing God, by Andy Crouch
Strong and Weak, by Andy Crouch
The TechWise Family, by Andy Crouch
My TechWise Life, by Amy and Andy Crouch
Ernest Hemingway
Francis Bacon
Howard Hotson
Greg Lukianoff
Wolfram Schultz
The Sacred Canopy, by Peter L. Berger
Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius
Related Trinity Forum Readings:
Brave New World, by Alduous Huxley
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard
City of God, by St. Augustine of Hippo
On Happiness, by Thomas Aquinas

Related Conversations:

To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org/podcast and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, join the Trinity Forum Society.

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