The Analog Hour

Michelle Henery

5.0 (3)
SOCIETY & CULTURE

In a world of endless content, The Analog Hour offers focused, meaningful conversations about media literacy, human connection, and finding our way back to each other.

4H AGO

The Courage Crisis: Why Making Friends as an Adult Is So Hard

Was it always this hard to make friends? In school, connection felt effortless. Then we graduated - and suddenly it wasn't as straightforward as it used to be. Adele Bloch says our increasing sense of isolation can't simply be labeled as a loneliness crisis. Instead she calls it: a courage crisis. Adele is a community builder, coach, and founder of Dining with Strangers and The Board Walks SF - a weekly Saturday morning walk series she hosted for over 100 consecutive weeks in San Francisco, bringing strangers together for deep, meaningful conversation. After years of hosting 300+ events and coaching people through social and relationship blocks, Adele has developed a practical, warm framework for rebuilding connection as an adult - starting with one simple question: what type of connection are you actually missing? In this conversation: "Ambient social connection" - what it is and why we've lost itWhy we're in a courage crisis, not just a loneliness crisisThe phone as social crutch - and how to get through "five seconds of courage"The four friendship buckets: do stuff friends, comfort friends, deep talk friends, ambient connectionConnection as a muscle: it's not something you have or don't haveThis Week's Analog Assignment: Think about Adele's four friendship buckets. Which one are you missing most? This week, take one step toward filling it. Go to one event. Text someone you've been meaning to see. Say hello to your barista/neighbor/the person you lock eyes with on the subway and actually mean it. Just one rep. Connect with Adele: Website: adelebloch.comInstagram: @adeleblochjourneyTwitter/X: @adele_blochThe Board Walks: theboardwalks.com

28 min
6D AGO

$15 Trillion vs. You: the Fight to Reclaim our Humanity

How many times have you promised yourself you'd put your phone down more - only to find yourself doom-scrolling at midnight again? Peter Schmidt wants you to know it's not a personal failing, that our ever increasing levels of distraction is by design. He is co-founder of the Strother School of Radical Attention, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit dedicated to "attention activism" - pushing back against the exploitation of human attention by coercive digital technologies. The attention economy is now a $15 trillion industry with one goal: capturing, quantifying, and commodifying your attention. Every time you pick up your phone, you're facing the most sophisticated predictive technology ever built, designed by some of the smartest people in the world, with one purpose: keeping your eyes on that screen. In this conversation: Why phone addiction is NOT a personal failing - it's a $15 trillion power asymmetryWhy social media isn't a town square - "it's a shopping mall where the staff are quietly mugging you"Why attention isn't just your attention span, it's your ability to loveThe one thing you can do this week to start reclaiming your attentionThis Week's Analog Assignment: Get together with your people. In person. Put your phone away. Every time we connect independently of these platforms, we carve out a space that big tech can't touch. Connect with Peter & the School: Strother School of Radical AttentionSeminars & enrollment: schoolofattention.org/enrollThe Empty Cup (School of the Attention's Substack)Friends of Attention book: Attensity! A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement (Crown, 2026)Peter's website: petercschmidt.com

26 min
MAY 8

The Arby's Test: Why America Feels Divided But Isn't (Quite)

If you want to figure out someone votes Republican or Democrat, one of the best questions you can ask is: Do you eat at Arby's? Many of us feel as if America is fracturing - liberals and conservatives living in completely different worlds. But economist Emir Kamenica's research reveals something counterintuitive: we're not actually drifting apart culturally. We may feel divided and often, we are - but not in the ways we think. This episode covers: Why Arby's predicts votingBaby names: Kurt vs. LiamGrey Poupon, iPhones, and consumer markers of identityIncome inequality is up, but cultural distance between rich and poor is stableCan we rebuild? Reasons for hopeAbout Professor Emir Kamenica: Emir Kamenica is the Douglas G. Baird Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research with Marianne Bertrand on cultural distance and political polarization uses decades of consumer behavior data to measure how American culture has - and hasn't - fractured along political lines. Find us: analoginadigitalworld.net | @analoginadigitalworld (IG)

20 min
MAY 1

What Our Phones Stop Us From Doing

A parent trying imperfectly to look at his kids instead of his screen. Instagram eating into reading time. Everything seeming urgent when it's not. The simple act of listening to the world go by. This week, no expert interview - just real people answering four honest questions about their phones: When did you get your first smartphone? What daily phone habit would have shocked you 10 years ago? Ever tried unplugging? What does your phone stop you from doing?The average American checks their phone 205 times a day. Over 43% of us admit we're addicted. In these confessions, you'll hear what we're missing: presence, books, conversation, silence, the sounds of life. This Week's Analog Assignment: Push aside all that your phone offers and identify what it's taking away. Take it back. The Analog Hour: analoginadigitalworld.net

10 min
APR 24

Why We Can't Tell Fact from Opinion Anymore

When you scroll through news online, can you tell what's fact and what's opinion? If you're struggling, you're not alone - and it's not your fault. Lynn Walsh is an Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist, former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, and former ethics chair. In 2016, at the peak of "fake news" claims, Lynn started taking phone calls from Americans who'd lost faith in journalism. What she learned during those conversations changed the trajectory of her career. In this episode, Lynn explains: The labeling problem that's impacting trust in the mediaHow sensationalism and bias complaints reveal deeper misunderstandingsWhat happens when good journalists go independentWhy we're all "committing acts of journalism" - and the responsibility that goes with thatPractical steps to rebuild trust and restore faith in the mediaThis Week's Analog Assignment: The next time you're about to share something online, pause and ask yourself: Is this accurate? Do I trust this source? Is this news or opinion? If you're not sure, either don't share it - or add context. Connect with Lynn Walsh: on LinkedIn and at Trusting News Resources: Everyone Should Help Minimize HarmSPJ Code of EthicsFAQ About Journalism EthicsSubscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and find out more: analoginadigitalworld.net

23 min
APR 17

Humpty Dumpty Culture: How Television United America — And Then Broke It Apart

There was a time when half of America sat down at the same hour and watched the same tv show. When a moonwalk or a moon landing or a series finale wasn't just an event — it was a shared experience, a cultural reference point that connected strangers at bus stops and colleagues at water coolers and kids on the playground. That era is over. But what exactly did we lose when it ended — and was it really as good as we remember? This week on The Analog Hour, I'm joined by Professor Bob Thompson, one of America's leading authorities on television and popular culture, who has spent more than 40 years at Syracuse University studying how what we watch shapes who we are. We cover a lot of ground — and Bob has a gift for reframing things you thought you understood. We talk about why the age of shared mass culture was actually a case of social engineering; how shows like Leave It to Beaver presented a perfectly polished version of America while the country was immense upheaval.; and why the same technology that once pulled us together is now pulling us apart. We also talk about I Dream of Jeannie in a way that will ruin it for you slightly. You're welcome. In this episode: Why the era of shared mass culture — from roughly 1890 to 1990 — may be the greatest cultural consensus in human historyHow cable didn't just add channels; it ended the shared cultural conversationWhat All in the Family, MASH, and The Cosby Show reveal about television's complicated relationship with social progressProfessor Bob Thompson is the founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications. He makes regular media appearances worldwide — from the BBC to the New York Times — to explain what pop culture says about society. New episodes of The Analog Hour drop weekly (every Friday). Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, and find us at analoginadigitalworld.net. If this episode resonated, please leave a review and share it with someone who still remembers exactly where they were when an event unfolded that touched all of us.

35 min
APR 10

AI Took Her Job But Not Her Humanity: Wanjiku Kamau, the Human Guide to AI

Wanjiku Kamau was laid off from Google — during one of the biggest AI investment booms in history — and realized she'd barely used the technology her own company was betting everything on. So she taught herself and wrote a book about it: Out of the Loop, Into the Algorithm: How I Finally Made Friends with AI. But this conversation isn't really about AI. It's about what Wanjiku lost when she lost her job — the barista who remembered her dog's name, the colleagues she spoke to every day for years, the quiet rituals that made her feel like she belonged somewhere. She calls it "an unintended colleague breakup." And if you've ever left a job and been surprised by the grief, you'll know exactly what she means. About our guest: Wanjiku Kamau is the author of Out of the Loop, Into the Algorithm: How I Finally Made Friends with AI. A former executive at Intel and employee at Google, she now works as a consultant and educator helping professionals understand and work with artificial intelligence without needing to code. Today she speaks and teaches about practical AI literacy, career transitions, and the human skills that matter more as technology accelerates. Find her book: Amazon or TikTok Shop Your analog assignment: Find a place where someone knows your name — or, at the very least, your dog's name. Show up and invest in the people there. We are slowly realizing we cannot take these seemingly minor encounters for granted.

29 min
APR 3

Dating Is Supposed to Be Messy... and Fun with Myisha Battle

What happens when love comes with upgrades, your best matches are behind a paywall, and a chatbot that never disagrees with you starts to feel like the safer option? Myisha Battle is a certified clinical sexologist, dating coach, and author of This Is Supposed to Be Fun and Sexual Pleasure for Dummies. Based in San Francisco — the tech capital of the world — she has a front-row seat to what technology is doing to intimacy. Her expertise has been featured in the Washington Post, New York Magazine's The Cut, Oprah Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. In this episode, Myisha and I talk about why Gen Z is rejecting dating apps, our increasing skills deficit in face-to-face connection, why our tolerance for the messiness of human interaction is at an all-time low, the rise of AI chatbots as romantic partners, and what she's seeing on the ground — from singles mixers in Oakland to clients learning to meet people "in the wild" again. Your analog assignment this week: Put your phone away and be present in your own life. Take the earbuds out, look around you, make eye contact. Links to Myisha Battle's website and books: myishabattle.com This Is Supposed to Be Fun: How to Find Joy in Dating Sexual Pleasure for Dummies

31 min

TRAILER

The Analog Hour - Trailer

Welcome to The Analog Hour - where we explore our increasingly divided society, the erosion of trust in institutions from government to media, and the isolation we feel from each other... and how we find our way back to connection. Hosted by Michelle, a "professional talker" and former journalist who reported across continents for almost 20 years. If you're yearning for clarity, conversation, and community - you're not alone. Subscribe now. Episode 1 drops in early January 2026.

S1

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2 min

5

out of 5

3 Ratings

In a world of endless content, The Analog Hour offers focused, meaningful conversations about media literacy, human connection, and finding our way back to each other.

Creator

Michelle Henery
Years Active

2K
Episodes

15
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© Michelle Henery 2025
Show Website

The Analog Hour