Description

Free the Anxious Generation!

Jonathan Haidt’s bestseller The Anxious Generation was an instant bipartisan hit with parents, policy-makers, teachers, school administrators, and young people sick of social media’s addictive rat races and traps. The book traces the negative impacts of the currently-dominant “phone-based childhood” on mental and physical health and social development, and advocated for a return to the “play-based childhood” that was the global norm until very recently.

So of course the movement needed a rap anthem (or several) to drive home the key messages.

Jon and his team turned to Baba Brinkman and Event Rap to produce a collection of rap songs and videos to amplify the ideas and science in the book, as well as some of the affiliated public policy campaigns.

The music video “Hold Calls” was released in February 2025 and shared by Jon on LinkedIn and also on X (Twitter) and Baba also performed multiple ‘rap up’ recap summaries of virtual meetings and workshops discussing the book and advocating for the legislative changes inspired by the book’s research.

Watch the PSA rap video “Hold Calls”, read the book, and learn more about the campaign.

Videos