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E03
← Are We Cooked? · All episodes
Season 1 · Episode 03Family
what ai is doing to children’s brains in 2026…

Are kids cooked?

May 12, 2026|● ~16 min listen|Solo investigation
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13→54%US teens using AI for school,
2023 to 2026
72%Of teens have tried
AI companions
1 in 3Chose AI over humans for
serious conversations
25Age the brain
finishes wiring
The numbers in this episode · Pew Research 2026 × Common Sense Media 2025
the setup

About this episode.

→ The hook

13% of US teens used AI for schoolwork in 2023. 26% in 2024. 54% in 2026. The Pew Research curve that quadrupled in three years. And 72% have tried AI companions. A third have chosen AI over humans for serious conversations (Common Sense Media 2025).

Episode 3 of Are We Cooked? is the most important episode of Season 1. The kid question is permanent. The brain finishes wiring at 25. What happens between now and then cannot be undone.

inside the investigation

What this episode covers.

  • The Pew 2026 + Common Sense 2025 stats that should keep parents up at night
  • The optimist case: every kid finally gets a personal tutor (Khan, Karpathy, Agarwal, Gates)
  • The pessimist case: cognitive offloading is rewiring kids before brains finish forming (Turkle, Haidt, Kamenetz, Twenge)
  • What both sides miss, including the parenting question nobody is answering
  • The pattern Anurag is watching with parents on his team
  • Three sharper questions every parent and policy-maker needs to sit with
skip around

Chapters.

00:00The Trajectory No Parent Saw Coming▶00:41Meet Your Host▶01:49Why Kids, Why Right Now▶03:41The Optimist Case▶07:41The Pessimist Case▶09:56What Both Sides Miss▶12:09Are We? You Decide.▶
louder proof

Sources cited.

Pew Research Center, ‘How Teens Use and View AI’, February 2026: 54% of US teens use AI chatbots for schoolwork (up from 13% in 2023, 26% in 2024)
Common Sense Media, ‘Talk, Trust, and Trade-Offs’ (2025): 72% of teens have used AI companions, 33% have chosen AI over humans for serious conversations
Common Sense Media, 2025 Census on Media Use by Kids 0-8: 1 in 3 young children using AI for learning
Bloom (1984), ‘The 2 Sigma Problem’; Khan Academy Khanmigo deployment data 2024-2025
Jonathan Haidt, ‘The Anxious Generation’ (2024); Sherry Turkle, ‘Reclaiming Conversation’
Gates Foundation reports on AI tutoring in low-income schools
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E02 · Work
Are Jobs Cooked?
not a hype show. not a doom show…

Don’t miss the next investigation.

Are We Cooked? is a thinking show about what AI is really doing to humans: work, parenting, creativity, relationships. New episodes weekly.

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