Episode 57: Is Gen Z’s “Freedom” Just Leaving Them Empty? (Jeremy S. Adams Returns)

Jeremy S. Adams is back for his third lap (gold jacket at five, Jeremy—pace yourself), and this one was the full classroom autopsy: phones, friendlessness, politicized identity, and why the kids know they’re miserable yet can’t look away from the glowing rectangle. He’s 27 years in and calls teachers “Mr. Nostradamus” because they see cultural decay in embryonic form years before the think‑piece crowd “discovers” it. All the stuff he flagged in Hollowed Out—addiction to screens, collapsing attention spans, loneliness, no books, cynicism about America, delayed adulthood—has now gone mainstream. He takes the victory lap and honestly, earned.

Core punch: they’ve confused liberty with being untethered to anything—family, faith, friendship, duty, even a favorite movie—so the soul drains out. Freedom from every anchor isn’t flourishing; it’s drift. And when you’re drifting you try to stuff the hole with politics. Marching becomes personality. Protest cosplay is treated like meaning even when they can’t articulate the cause beyond a vibe. Politics should be eighth on your life list; for too many it’s first because the normal formative stuff never rooted.

We drill into why “civic engagement” isn’t just chanting slogans. He wants foundation before activism: know founding documents, basic history, a sense of trajectory (yes, imperfect past and massive progress) before declaring the whole project irredeemable. The “America hasn’t improved” line gets a flat come on from a guy who teaches the receipts daily.

Phones: the kids are self‑aware now. His seniors literally formed a “30 Years Back” club to simulate 1995—talk after class instead of instant silence + scrolling. They know childhood got stolen; they’re starting to push back, but the habit loop is vicious—anxiety spikes → reach for phone → attention fragments further. And right behind the phone wave comes AI. He’s blunt: take‑home homework is almost dead because students openly admit anything that leaves the room gets outsourced. Reading, writing, even math practice—auto‑completed. Skills atrophy. He’s wrestling with “How do we assess authenticity now?” in real time.

Bigger social fragmentation theme: loss of shared cultural moments. No “everyone saw the episode last night.” Micro‑feeds replace common vocabulary. That fuels the loneliness paradox—you can sit among people and still not participate in anything shared. Less shared activity → weaker empathy muscles → easier to villainize the kid who stands (or doesn’t) for the pledge.

Dating, marriage, birth rates: politics has replaced the old “religion mismatch” dealbreaker. Men drift a bit right, women drift left, both absolutize identity, and a lot of potentially functional pairings never even start. Turn politics from scorecard back into one dimension of a whole human and half the “no one to date” crisis eases.

He’s cautiously optimistic: some cultural excesses (performative racial absolutism, “dig every site now” style impatience in other episodes, etc.) already hit peak and are receding. Middle America still defaults to a durable core—rule of law, gradual reform, shared ideals over tribal purity. We’re a hypochondriac republic: always declaring terminal decline while institutional muscle quietly holds more than we admit.

Key takeaways: (1) Untethered “freedom” is producing emptiness; anchors (relationships, purpose, shared rituals) aren’t optional luxury items. (2) Phones moved from tool to anxiety pacifier; kids know it and early counter‑culture is emerging. (3) AI just detonated traditional homework—assessment has to evolve or learning hollowing accelerates. (4) Politics-as-identity is crowding out development, fueling loneliness and relationship failure. (5) Cultural resilience still exists; pushing substantive alternatives (real community, reading, slow attention, humility) beats yelling “put the phones down.”

If you want dopamine outrage there’s infinite supply; if you want someone who’s in the trenches explaining why the attention span crater matters before Congress notices—this is your show. Subscribe, send this to the friend convinced “kids are fine, it’s just old man yelling,” and meet us Wednesday at 4 PM EST. We’ll keep sounding the alarm and tracking the green shoots.