Big Celebration as this is the 500th Episode of "Take it from the Ironwoman" Special guest: Dr. Annie Margaret, teaching faculty at the Atlas Institute, University of Colorado Boulder. Her work: courses on the impact of technology on culture and human wellbeing. Her impressive background is in PhD in Molecular Biology & Biochemistry (Northwestern University), later teaching chemistry in San Francisco. 🌐 Teaching & Research Focus: she has taught courses: Neuro hacking – nervous system health & human potential / Empathy & Technology – impact of algorithms on compassion, polarization, and connection. The central idea is that technological evolution is outpacing human & spiritual evolution, and her work helps close that gap. 📉 Social Media Addiction & Programs: Developed a five-week intervention program for “excessive media consumption.” 100% of participants move from problematic/clinical use to healthy range. A Coursera class will come shortly. 👥 Generational & Social Differences: Most research focused on 18–25-year-olds (college students). New research expanding into 40–80-year-olds with start his year. 🌱 Key Theories & Takeaways: Chimpanzees vs. Bonobos origin story: shapes how we see human nature (aggressive vs. cooperative). Social Comparison Theory: explains constant upward/downward comparisons fueled by social media.
Annie is an educator, researcher, and human enthusiast motivated by questions at the intersections of mental health, technology, addictive design, the attention economy, and mindfulness.
Her work at CU Boulder and through the Post-Internet Project focuses on helping people align their media consumption with their values, meaning, and purpose - which often means consuming less, not more. She frequently speaks to spiritual communities and organizations about how we can close the gap between our paleolithic emotional wiring and our godlike technologies in service of deeper connection and collective thriving.
She also teaches and podcast on post-materialism, idealism, and the view of consciousness as foundational to reality, which has surprisingly practical implications for how we direct our attention and intention in everyday life.
These two threads—media and mind—dovetail more than one might expect. As tech companies compete to extract our attention and commodify our intention, the frontiers of science are simultaneously discovering the power of our attention and intention to (literally) shape material reality. From this post-materialist perspective, we have a moral imperative to limit extraction and reclaim our focus in order to create the more beautiful worlds our hearts know are possible.
Connect with her and follow her journey:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-margaret-b4753261/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annie.are.we.okay/