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I'm here today with Laura Spells to talk about a book called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. And we are thinking about Gen Z in particular and the generation behind that, the younger children. We're thinking about smartphone use. We're thinking about the effect that phones and social media have on developing brains. The move that has happened in the world from play-based to a phone-based childhood and what we're losing in that and what we're gaining in terms of anxiety, anxiety, alterations in social social skills, children being less able to take physical risks, less able to resolve conflict.

I felt quite conflicted about reading the book because I thought that Jonathan Haidt was going to be very anti-technology and was going to be telling everybody to get rid of their phones. And actually the message is incredibly compelling, but much more nuanced than that. It is a really good read and I have absolutely loved exploring some of the themes with Laura.

Resources for parents:

• Smartphone free childhood; https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk; the campaign hub! Provides links to all the evidence to all the harms there are linked with phone use.
• SFC parent pact; https://parentpact.smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/
• The anxious Generation; https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/; Lots of further information from the book - all the graphs, resources and additional material.
• Jonathan Haidt You tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOf0v_ZYfU9_KlGn77h49; Tons of brilliant videos of him talking on here
• Feel better, live more Dr Ranjan Chaterjee podcast episode talking to Jonathan Haidt; https://drchatterjee.com/how-smartphones-are-rewiring-our-brains-why-social-media-is-eradicating-childhood-the-truth-about-the-mental-health-epidemic-with-jonathan-haidt/
• Let Grow Project; https://letgrow.org/; Ideas to help parents let go of their children with confidence
• The healthy selfie; https://thehealthyselfie.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOoq9PZA1KQPogR59HR1zbJovmLmkgy_kgD4Bp1dbkTn7gXvLGMzt; fantastic book full of practical tips for helping your child develop a healthy relationship with their phone and themselves

Resources to point headteachers to:

• Smartphone free schools; https://smartphonefreeschools.co.uk/; All the evidence behind the need to go fully smartphone free, including success stories from headteachers who have done this.
• Sophie Windosr presenting a fantastic speech on the need for schools to reduce their invading Edtech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6nucKFK88
• PAPAYA (Parents Against Phone Addiction in Young Adolescents); https://www.papayaparents.com/; amazing charity delivering parent and child workshops about phone addiction. If you look closely in Meet the Teamhttps://www.papayaparents.com/meettheteam you may see a familiar face

Resources for Health Professionals:

• Health Professionals for safer screens; https://healthprofe

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It is a great pleasure today to re-release an episode from back in season 7 to celebrate the paperback edition of to Jane Campbell’s novel “Interpretations of Love” which was published on 5th June

Jane joined me to talk about her first novel, Interpretations of Love. Regular listeners may know that I've talked about one of Jane's books before, which is a short story collection called Cat Brushing, which I absolutely loved. Jane was a group analyst and then became a writer in her late 70s, publishing her first book in her 80s and I think she's a real inspiration that it's never too late to start writing but that also to remember that as we interact with people and as we work with them we will collect stories and we will get a better understanding of what a narrative is and different people's perspectives and that probably actually makes people better writers. It was a real joy talking to Jane and I'm really hoping you're going to enjoy our conversation.

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Welcome to season 10 of Bedside Reading and what a series I've got lined up for you this time around! I am delighted to be launching today with two very special guests, Debbie Hicks and Gemma Jolly from The Reading Agency.

The Reading Agency is an absolutely wonderful charity and their Reading Well "Books on Prescription" scheme is absolutely fantastic. If you don't know about it already, there's plenty in the show notes to tell you about it and we will be talking about it during today's episode.

https://readingagency.org.uk/

We are here today to talk about three different and absolutely brilliant books that the Reading Agency recommend on their Reading Well scheme. Frankie's World by Aoife Dooley, Slow Puncture, Living Well with Dementia by Pete Berry and Deb Bunt, and Boy with a Topknot by Satnam Sanghera