Broken Traditions

09/17/2026

Ask yourself: how many things on your timeline actually make you upset or shift your mood? That's not a coincidence. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube all lean into negativity bias — the psychological tendency for negative content to grab and hold our attention more than positive content does — because their main goal is keeping you on the platform. Step away from social media for an extended period and you'll actually notice your mood shift, simply because you're no longer bombarded with negative content. New episode breaks this down.

09/16/2026

Here's something I noticed after quitting social media for a year: normal life starts to feel boring when your brain is used to the fast pace of social media. You catch yourself rushing conversations, even finishing other people's sentences before they're done — not because you're rude, but because you've trained your brain to expect content at scrolling speed. People don't talk at the speed of a social media post. They talk at the speed of actual words being spoken. Full story in the new episode: "I Quit Social Media For a Year. Here Is What Happened."

09/10/2026

Richard Ryles said illiteracy is generational. That got me thinking, this also applies to doomscrolling.

09/10/2026

There's a pattern worth noticing: reports have long suggested that Steve Jobs limited his own kids' iPad use, and that Mark Zuckerberg restricted his children's access to Facebook and Instagram — the very platforms they built. Meanwhile, the rest of us are left to figure it out on our own, while these companies' main goal is turning our kids into customers at the earliest age possible. This is why we need to come together on this. Full conversation from last night's live stream.

09/10/2026

've been talking about digital overconsumption for over a year now on this podcast, and I want to be honest about something: minimalist phones — the ones getting all the buzz as a fix for doomscrolling — might be one of the biggest wastes of money when it comes to actually solving digital addiction. I'm not saying this to be a contrarian or to chase clicks. I'm saying it because when you actually look at the hardware and software of these "minimal" phones, they're not built to help you overcome the real problem — your relationship with your habits, not your device. New episode breaks this all down.

09/07/2026

Here's something a lot of parents don't realize: once you go to sleep, that's the window your kids are using to stay up scrolling — YouTube, Netflix, video games, social media, and yes, sometimes po*******hy. There's little to no monitoring happening during those hours. Then they're going to school running on almost no sleep, and nine times out of ten, that shows up in how they're doing academically. Full conversation from last night's live stream.

09/07/2026

Have you heard of "popcorn brain"? It's not a medical term, but it describes something a lot of us recognize — brains so used to constant app-switching, pings, and stimulation that slowing down for a conversation, a TV show, or a workday feels genuinely difficult. Kids experience this too, and with school starting up, it's showing up in classrooms in ways parents should know about. I talked through this in depth on last night's live stream — full replay is up now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts, and BrokenTraditions.com. Search Leron Gaskins or Broken Traditions to find it.

09/07/2026

We sat down with Lenny Bradley for an honest conversation about p**n addiction — what drives people toward it, how isolation plays a role, and the difference between artificial intimacy and real human connection. It's a vulnerable, sometimes uncomfortable conversation, but an important one. New episode is out now.

09/06/2026