Season 13 • Episode 1013

1013 - A College Course for Digital Detoxing

Feb 19, 2026

16:08

Episode Description

About this episode:

A class at Loyola University Maryland has pushed students to think critically about their technology use in an age of constant scrolling. In this episode: class instructor Shreya Hessler and student Emma Hester reflect on the value of getting offline and how to spend less time on our devices.

Guests:

Dr. Shreya Hessler, PsyD, is a psychologist and the director of the MINDset Center.

Emma Hester is a senior studying psychology and speech, language, and hearing sciences at Loyola University Maryland.

Host:

Stephanie Desmon, MA, is a former journalist, author, and the director of public relations and communications for the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs.

Show links and related content:

Phones ruled their lives. A new college class helped them break free.—Washington Post
Mental Health in the Scroll Age—Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine

Transcript information:

Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel.

Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website.