Scrolling 2 Death

This week on  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , we reached a turning point. After weeks of testimony, we heard from the final witnesses — including Meta’s paid medical expert, internal researchers, and YouTube leadership. New details emerged about deleted watch history data, internal warnings about teen risk, and what company executives knew about under-13 enforcement. Then came closing arguments...

This week inside the courtroom, science took center stage — and the stakes were higher than ever. Dr. Kara Bagot, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who helped develop the NIH’s landmark ABCD brain study, spent five days on the stand. She testified that to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, Kaley developed social media addiction — and that YouTube acted as the “gateway,” beginning at just si...

What really happens inside one of the most powerful companies in the world? This week, we sit down with  Brian Boland , a former senior leader at Facebook (pre-Meta), who spent more than a decade helping build and scale Facebook and Instagram's advertising systems — and later testified in court about what he saw. Brian was in the courtroom for nearly five hours. In this candid conversation, he...

This week, we’re joined by Meta whistleblower Brian Boland, who appeared as a witness in this trial, and law student Christine Almadjian, who has spent hours inside the courtroom watching this case unfold. Christine is also a legislative consultant with END OSEAC. Thousands of families, school districts, and dozens of states have filed consolidated lawsuits against TikTok, YouTube, Meta, and Snap...

This week on  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , the spotlight was on  Mark Zuckerberg  — but it didn’t stay there for long. Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take you inside a dramatic week in court as Zuckerberg faced questioning about youth safety, platform design, and internal company practices — followed by testimony from a former insider whose statements directly conflicted with his. In this...

Week 3 marks a turning point inside the courtroom: opening statements begin, the first witnesses take the stand, and the stakes become unmistakably real. Hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner (of Heat Initiative ) bring you inside the proceedings as plaintiffs and defense lay out competing narratives about what happened to Kaley—and what responsibility tech giants bear. Plaintiff attorney  Mark L...

This bonus episode of  The Heat is On… Big Tech on Trial  slows down to hold space for the weight of this moment. Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner are joined by Brandy and Toney Roberts, parents of 14-year-old Englyn Roberts, whose life was cut short after being exposed to harmful content on Instagram and other social media platforms. What unfolds is not just a conversation about Meta’s technology...

Week 2 inside the courtroom didn’t unfold the way anyone expected. Just as jury selection was set to continue, the judge announced a sudden pause—triggered by illness, followed by a denied request from Meta to delay the trial for 30 days. What does a delay really mean in a case like this? And who benefits when time is bought? In this episode of  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , hosts Nicki Petro...

The courtroom doors are open—and the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this Week 1 recap of  The Heat is On…Big Tech on Trial , we take you inside the very beginning of what some are calling  the tobacco trials of our generation : the first case in the social media addiction litigation, where some of the most powerful companies in the world—Meta and YouTube—are facing off against a child. This week wa...

The Calm Before the Storm — What This Trial Means for Parents What happens when families finally take Big Tech to court—and win the right to be heard? In the premiere episode of  The Heat Is On… Big Tech on Trial , hosts Nicki Petrossi and Sarah Gardner take parents inside what some are calling the trial of the century: consolidated lawsuits brought by thousands of families, school districts, and...

In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , I’m joined by  Emily Cherkin , known as  The Screentime Consultant —a leading voice pushing back against the digitization, commodification, and gamification of childhood. Emily is a best-selling author, professor, speaker, and  lead plaintiff in lawsuits challenging EdTech’s exploitation of children’s privacy . This week, she’s taking that fight straight to...

What happens when artificial intelligence stops acting like a tool—and starts acting like a  friend ? In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , I’m joined by  Sam Hiner , founder of  Young People's Alliance , a national youth-led organization organizing across 55 college campuses to take on Big Tech and protect the next generation. Sam began cold-calling lawmakers  as a high school student  duri...

What happens when a school-issued Chromebook starts talking to your child—without permission? In this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , Nicki is joined by  Julie Frumin , a mental health professional, mom, and education safety advocate in Southern California, who shares her shocking experience navigating school-issued devices, hidden AI chatbots, and a system that told her she had only two choices: ...

Today on  Scrolling 2 Death , Nicki sits down with Congressman Chris Deluzio—a dad of four and a fierce advocate for safer, healthier schools—to unpack one of the most urgent issues facing American families: screens in the classroom. Rep. Deluzio recently released a major report on smartphone use in schools after months of research and conversations with teachers, administrators, and parents acros...

In  Part 1 , we revealed how Meta’s products are harming kids — not by accident, but by design. In  Part 2 , we uncover how Meta responds when confronted with these dangers. Spoiler: it’s manipulation, PR spin, and “safety features” that don’t actually keep kids safe. We break down Meta’s Teen Accounts rollout, the massive marketing campaign behind it, and the independent tests and new research sh...

Neuroscientist and author  Jared Cooney Horvath  is back (check our  first conversation here )—this time to tackle  your most-asked questions about kids, learning, and technology. After a decade of research into tech-based education, his conclusion is stark and unapologetic:  technology isn’t helping kids learn… it’s making them dumber. The pushback he hears most? “But won’t my child fall behind w...

The Heat is On  is an investigative series by  Scrolling 2 Death , in partnership with  Heat Initiative . Sarah Gardner, Founder and CEO of Heat Initiative, joins Nicki (S2D) to expose the truth Big Tech doesn’t want you to hear – and this episode is about  Meta. Meta’s roots reveal a troubling origin story—from Facemash, where students were rated based on their appearance, to becoming one of the...

Parents everywhere are wrestling with the same impossible question: How do you protect your kids from online harm without raising them in a bubble? In this episode, Nicki is joined by  Titania Jordan, CMO of Bark Technologies , to take on one of the most common—and most misunderstood—parenting mindsets:  “We supervise. We talk about safety. We don’t want our kids to be naïve… so we let them use th...

On this episode of  Scrolling 2 Death , host Nicki Petrossi is joined by Clare Morell, author of The Tech Exit and fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  Together, they tackle one of the biggest questions parents face today: Do kids really need smartphones and social media to thrive? Clare reveals why the conventional wisdom—just add parental controls or screen-time limits—is a lie parent...

The Heat is On is a new investigative series by Scrolling 2 Death, in partnership with The Heat Initiative. Sarah Gardner, Founder and CEO of The Heat Initiative, joins Nicki (S2D) to expose the truth Big Tech doesn’t want you to hear – and our next episode is all about Snapchat. In  Part 1 , we revealed how Snapchat built its empire by marketing a sexting app to kids, fueling addiction, exploitat...

Ava Smithing, Advocacy Director at the  Young People’s Alliance , returns to Scrolling 2 Death to share an exciting new project. If you missed her previous episodes, Ava is a leading youth voice for nonpartisan policy solutions for safer technology development. Growing up in the early days of social media, she experienced firsthand how harmful algorithms can shape young users’ lives - even contrib...

The Heat is On is an investigative series by  Scrolling 2 Death , in partnership with Heat Initiative. Sarah Gardner, Founder and CEO of  Heat Initiative , joins Nicki (S2D) to expose the truth Big Tech doesn’t want you to hear – and this episode is all about Snapchat. From a disappearing-nude app in 2011 to a social media giant in 2025, Snapchat’s story is one of innovation, imitation, and contro...

This episode discusses youth suicide and social media harm; listener discretion is advised. London was bright, goofy, empathetic, brilliant. She played soccer year-round, read nonstop, danced through the kitchen, and filled her Michigan home with laughter. But during the pandemic, when she was just eight, a smartphone and social media entered her life. What followed was a years-long battle with al...

Have AI companies lost control of their bots — or are the bots designed to harm? In this episode, Sarah Gardner and Nicki Petrossi dive deep into the disturbing rise of  AI chatbots gone rogue  — and the tragic human cost. From teens who formed emotional bonds with bots that later encouraged suicide, to lawsuits against OpenAI, Character. AI, and others, we expose how Big Tech’s newest frontier of...

What happens when a tech-savvy parent — someone who’s been sounding the alarm about online dangers for years — realizes she could have made safer choices for her child? In this powerful and deeply personal episode, Nicki Petrossi sits down with Titania Jordan, Chief Marketing Officer at Bark Technologies & author of the new book  Parental Control — but more importantly, mom to a teenage son —...