Jerry Mander: An Author and Activist's Cautionary Take on our Obsession with Screens

Jerry Mander is an American activist and author, best known for his 1977 book, Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. After receiving his M.S. from Columbia, Jerry worked in advertising for many years. He later worked with the noted environmentalist, David Brower, managing the Sierra Club's advertising campaigns,  In 1971 he founded the first non-profit advertising agency in the United States, Public Interest Communications. Subsequently, in 1994, he founded the International Forum on Globalization and is currently the program director for MegaTechnology and Globalization at the Foundation for Deep Ecology.

Topics explored in this episode:

Does Jerry see parallels in the way that advertising strategists and tech companies attempt to capture consumers’ attention and sway ideas? Jerry owns a flip phone and rarely uses technology: how does he navigate in a world of computers and smartphones? What impression do whales have of us crazy humans?