The Mirror We Built | Dr. Léa Steinacker on Presence, Attention & What AI Reveals About Us

At a glance

In this episode of The Future Is HOW, I sit down with Dr. Léa Steinacker — social scientist, bestselling author, and co-founder of ada Learning. Léa opens with a surprising observation: the moments technology makes her feel most human are not the moments of wonder — they are the moments of frustration. And from there, the conversation goes somewhere unexpected. We talk about running along Lake Zurich at sunrise, listening to birds instead of podcasts, and why she once spent an entire hour eating a single raisin.

We explore AI as a mirror — not just for our thinking, but for our deepest tendencies: our hunger for confirmation, our preference for frictionless relationships, and what Esther Perel calls "artificial intimacy."

And we talk about centaur skills — the rare ability to know when to let the machine run and when to bring the human back in. Not as a technical skill. As a way of living.

The future Léa imagines is more inefficient, on purpose. More alive. A conversation about what it means to dare to pay attention — to another person, to yourself.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome, Léa Steinacker!

01:37 A moment when technology made me feel deeply human

05:08 Morning rituals: How my connection to nature brings me to myself

11:49 AI as a mirror: Reflecting human behavior

16:59 The future of relationships with AI

17:55 Why Esther Perel called Frederik a non-futurist

21:27 Imagining humanoid robots and emotional connections

32:06 The power of eye contact

36:09 Centaur skills for the future

43:10 What I'd do while my AI is working for me

46:34 Why I ever wanted to be inefficient

50:03 I was eating a raisin for one hour.

53:44 Fast Future Round — final questions and answers

Where to Find Frederik G. Pferdt

NextLetter: https://www.nextletter.frederikgpferdt.com Book: whatsnextisnowthebook.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgpferdt YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/frederikgpferdt Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frederikgpferdt Website: https://www.frederikgpferdt.com Make the test: https://awareness.frederikgpferdt.com

Where to Find Léa Steinacker

Website: https://www.leasteinacker.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr... ada Learning: https://www.ada-learning.com

Books – Alles überall auf einmal (co-authored with Prof. Dr. Miriam Meckel, 2024): https://www.amazon.de/Alles-üb...

Music: Andreas Horchler
Producer: Florian Dietrich