Episode 8 - Political Short-Termism Is Failing Our Children

The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the official position, opinions or views of the hosts, producers, or editorial team.In this episode of Broken Custodians, Molly and Ben Kingsley from UsForThem speak to William Clouston, leader of the Social Democratic Party, about children’s exposure to AI, smartphones and social media, and what these issues reveal about political short-termism and the erosion of community and personal responsibility.They discuss the use of AI in education and contemplate what is lost when technology supplants human interactions, and in particular, how reliance on AI weakens children’s ability to think, write and create for themselves. William explains why he shares Molly and Ben’s view that education should remain rooted in human instruction and independent work.William also explains why he believes attention-based technology and devices need to be tackled, and why restricting children’s exposure to addictive-by-design smartphones themselves may be the most robust and effective response. William also shares his views on the relative responsibilities of parents, schools and the state.The episode then broadens as William is asked to explain why he believes short-termism in politics has been failing our younger generations, before ending with a brief discussion of Epicureanism, William’s lodestar ancient philosopher, and what it means to live well.Broken Custodians follows paper trails, interrogates official claims and asks what went wrong, who benefited, and what it would take to do better.