Superhuman - From Engineered Desire to Engineered Consent

In the season finale of Superhuman, Aaron brings on four guests for a closer look at the cracks in the system, at the incentives that put them there, and why remembering is the first step to fixing them.Click here to watch a collection of video clips of Avery set to the music from Koyaanisqatsi.GuestsDanica Noble www.electdanica.comBrian Boland www.delta-fund.orgJulianna Arnold https://parentsrise.org/Reiko CallnerMusicJoachim Cooder Various tracks www.joachimcooder.com/Evelyn Simone Requiem Theme https://evelynsimone.com/ Kjartan Abel CC BY-SA 4.0 https://kjartan-abel.comChapters00:00 The Last Concert and Life Out of Balance06:08 Brian Boland: A Whistleblower's Perspective08:46 The Algorithm's Impact on Society11:45 When the FTC did not see CrowdTangle15:02 Brian's Fight Against Corporate Power28:02 Danica Noble: The Disparity in Legal Resources33:09 The Role of the First Amendment36:01 The Need for New Business Models39:01 The Call for Action and Change50:40 The Tragic Case of Coco54:25 Juliana Arnold: The Power of Survivor Voices01:00:44 Grassroots Advocacy for Change01:04:33 The Role of the Criminal Justice System01:09:14 Reiko Callner: Understanding Legal Frameworks01:21:28 The System's Failures and Victim Voices01:27:35 The Extraction Economy and Reclaiming PowerSubscribe for updates or follow me on Substack. https://substack.com/@superhumanpodcastContact Us

A bill can say “child safety” on the front and still protect the companies causing the harm. In Wolves and Children, Aaron traces how lobbying, legal misdirection, and manufactured public pressure shape the laws parents are told to trust. Featuring Brody Mullins, Julia Duncan, Sarah Gardner, and Lennon Torres.Links and ResourcesBrody MullinsThe Wolves of K Street PodcastA companion podcast exploring lobbying, corporate influence, and power in Washington.https://www.thewolvesofkstreet.com/podcastThe DecidersA show about the people and forces shaping politics, business, and public life.https://www.deciders.show/subscribeJulia DuncanAmerican Association for JusticeThe national organization representing trial lawyers and civil accountability work.https://www.justice.org/Sarah GardnerHEAT InitiativeAdvocacy focused on tech accountability and child safety.https://heatinitiative.orgScrolling 2 DeathA podcast about social media harms and digital safety.https://www.scrolling2death.com/Lennon TorresDiary of a Palatable Trans WomanLennon’s Substack and personal writing.https://thediaryofapalatabletransgirl.substack.com/More Links and RecommendationsParents RISEA parent-led group advocating for reform and accountability around online harms.https://parentsrise.org/The Amazing GenerationA youth-facing guide to understanding persuasive technology and healthier digital habits.https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/book/amazinggenerationOverturned by Kelly StonelakeNot mentioned in the episode, but one of my personal favorites by a close friend in the movement.https://overturned.substack.com/Chapters00:00 Introduction: what keeps the truth buried02:05 Brody Mullins on how lobbying really works06:20 The 50-year rise of corporate influence12:30 SOPA, engineered outrage, and the outside game16:04 Julia Duncan on Big Tobacco, opioids, and Big Tech19:39 Inside the KIDS Act markup27:30 Sarah Gardner on pressure, app stores, and accountability34:37 Section 230 versus product design44:05 Lennon Torres on queer kids, grooming, addiction, and false tradeoffs55:00 Why civil discovery still matters1:01:33 Where parents go from hereContact Us

In “Muted Cases,” Aaron recounts the days after Avery’s death—the evidence scramble, and the slow, brutal realization that what the community most needs to understand can be narrowed, negotiated, and effectively erased from the official record. The episode expands beyond one family’s loss into a repeatable pattern: teen networks, platform mechanics, and legal structures that struggle to name what’s happening in plain language. Through an anonymous former teen witness, the Chapman family’s push for Sammy’s Law, and a second youth perspective from Cole, “Muted Cases” makes the case that these aren’t isolated tragedies—they’re predictable outcomes of a system that prioritizes speed, scale, and plausible deniability over child safety and public warning.00:00 — Opening: the part of the story Aaron could not tell until now07:23 — Anonymous witness: TravisOlympia’s Snapchat delivery system13:25 — Snapchat's baked safety plan, Counterfeit vapes and the nicotine pipeline19:50 — Sam Chapman: Sammy’s story and the fight for accountability25:52 — California’s SB 918 and the push for operational accountability29:19 — APIs, profit motive, Snapchat’s AI claims, and the legal gap40:18 — Cole’s story: growing up inside the Snapchat drug economy46:01 — Closing reflection: from one boy’s story to a larger pattern Contact Us

I wasn’t planning to write or record this week, but the one-year angelversary and a lonely holiday got under my skin, and I couldn’t help myself. What follows is a bit of a spiral: a walk through the same spiral logic so many of us get pulled into, where fear and outrage compound, the feed “finishes” the story for us, and the loudest narratives start to feel like reality.This is a companion episode to the main arc of the season, part personal processing and part pattern-spotting, connecting propaganda, algorithms, and the business incentives that reward escalation. In the second half, I’m joined by Jennie Desario for a deeper conversation about how these spirals show up in real life, and what it looks like to step back and find the signal again.(00:00) The Invisible Protest(03:36) The Binary Machine(10:45) Making Monsters Respectable(13:07) Growth at All Costs(20:05) Both Sides of the Same Coin(28:44) When Reality Inverts(31:12) Free Typing(33:34) Mason's Search for Help(40:27) The Adults in the Room(01:02:42) Ideas vs RealityAudio clips featured in this episode are sourced from the All-In Podcast and are included for commentary.Contact Us

Twenty-six words written in 1996 gave platforms legal immunity. One court decision in 1997 turned that immunity into a business model.Attorney Carrie Goldberg shares what it's like representing hundreds of victims, from sextortion to cyberbullying to suicide, and watching nearly every case slam into the same wall. Brett Allred and Kristin Bride reveal what the absence of "good faith" looks like when platforms know the patterns but wait for children to die.And as Section 230 finally begins to crack, we expose the tech industry's next move: rebranding the same harmful systems as "AI" to claim a new decade of immunity.When courts won't look under the hood, we will.Content warning: Discussion of suicide, drug overdose, online exploitation00:00:00 - Twenty-Six Words The three-week delay and Section 230's shield00:03:29 - The Good Samaritan Betrayed What Congress intended vs. what courts decided00:05:30 - Zeran's Inversion How one 1997 case changed everything00:09:00 - The Business Model of Blindness Operating anatomy: Why platforms choose ignorance00:11:00 - Carrie's Courtroom A decade fighting the same wall00:18:30 - The Algorithm Problem Why Section 230's walls are finally cracking00:22:00 - The AI Escape Hatch Tech's next immunity play00:25:30 - Riley's Story When the website wishes you luck as you die00:29:30 - What They Knew Evidence that leaked out anyway00:34:30 - The Supreme Court Punts Gonzalez v. Google and the pattern they ignored00:40:00 - The Tobacco Playbook Profitable ignorance at scale00:45:30 - Carson's Story 220 million downloads of a documented deadly pattern00:52:00 - The Privileged Defense Why people fight for platform immunity00:57:00 - The Movement Survivor parents refusing to stay silent01:02:30 - The Light We Hold Call to action: How to talk to your kidsMusic by: Kjartan Abel CC BY-SA 4.0 https://kjartan-abel.comContact Us

How did corporations get more constitutional rights than your children?When a bookshelf tips over and harms one child, there's an immediate recall. When platform algorithms push suicide content to depressed teens, they claim First Amendment protection.To understand how we got here, Aaron traces the path from Jefferson's worst fears to today's reality. In 1886, a court reporter's unauthorized footnote gave corporations personhood. In 1971, the Powell Memo blueprinted corporate capture of democracy. In 2010, Citizens United unleashed unlimited dark money—corporations buying elections while hiding in shadows.These aren't ancient developments. You or your parents lived through most of this. The same First Amendment that platforms use to avoid accountability when children die is the one they use to pour millions into elections—anonymously.We traded away our democracy piece by piece, precedent by precedent. To reclaim it, we first have to see how we lost it.00:00  Cold Open — The Platform Claims the Right to Look Away02:10  Jefferson’s Nightmare & the Corporate Empires That Came Before06:52  The Tea That Started a Revolution10:00  Jefferson’s Vision & the Original Corporate Chains17:20  The Pendulum of Power — People vs. Corporations23:15  The Powell Memo — How Business Fought Back29:38  Citizens United & the Age of Corporate Speech36:45  The Tech Takeover — Lobbying, Loopholes, Immunity47:47  Section 230 & the Right to Look AwaySocial Media Online Child Sexual Exploitation Audio clips from C-SPAN Contact Us

 This Episode explores how a century of manipulation techniques became smartphone features, through conversations with Jean Cavendish, a clinical psychiatrist who spent decades helping people escape cult programming. Jean died on November 17, 2025, a month after recording. This episode is a dedication to her life and work.The episode features testimony from Lori Schott about how Meta targets children's insecurities, and Taj Jensen, a fellow parent who lost his son to fentanyl purchased on Snapchat.At its core, this is about recognizing the systems designed to keep us scrolling, buying, and reacting—and asking the question that matters: What are you really hungry for?00:00 — Opening Reflection03:46 — The Birth of Influence07:26 — The King of the Engineers11:18 — The Toolkit of Persuasion13:03 — Selling Our Own Destruction14:29 — The Shame Machine (testimony from Lori Schott)21:06 — Fear as a Business Model25:54 — The Science of Addiction30:55 — The Human Cost32:32 — The Wisdom of Jean Cavendish36:12 — The Teenage Brain38:15 — Hooked Forever43:08 — Receipts and Responsibility45:06 — Tanner’s Story (Guest Taj Jenson)50:19 — Breaking the CycleContent warning: teen death, drug sales, and exploitation.Music by: Kjartan Abel CC BY-SA 4.0 https://kjartan-abel.comContact Us

 The episode opens by introducing the Superhuman series—how corporations became entities with more legal rights than humans but none of the accountability. This isn't just about technology or social media—it's about power, who wields it, and how we built a system where companies can harm children at scale and face no consequences.Then Laura Marquez-Garrett of the Social Media Victims Law Center, who represents over 4,000 families harmed by social media, walks us through the massive gap between what platforms claim and what actually happens. She exposes the hidden realities no safety guide mentions—what law enforcement knows but parents don't, why evidence vanishes by design, and how platforms' actual practices contradict their public promises.When my 15-year-old son Avery convinced me to let him use Snapchat in 10th grade, I thought I understood the risks. I'd read "The Anxious Generation." I worried about screen time and social pressure. I had no idea what was really happening on the platform. This episode covers the information I wish had been made more publicly available, so that I would have known what I was dealing with.00:00 - Two Stacks of Paper (Season Introduction)11:05 - Laura Introducton13:05 - Snapchat Knew18:04 - Colorado SB 86 23:35 - Product Design29:15 - Reporting Criminal Activity to Snapchat32:21 - Perla Mendoza's Hunt for Justice39:13 - Unreported Crimes44:36 - Parents Can't Fathom the TruthContent warning: teen death, drug sales, and exploitation.Contact Us