Gospel Tech with Nathan Sutherland

Today we get to talk with Kristen Jenson, author of Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, a resource that has been an encouragement to Anna and I as we raise our humans in a tech world. It's also one of the resources we reference most when giving workshops for parents on how to engage this tough conversation. Today we discuss Kristen's new book: Good Pictures, Bad Pictures, A Guide for Girls. Show Notes: h...

Our opportunity as parents is to set loving boundaries. This will involve saying "yes" whenever we can and "no" as often as we need to. When it comes to tech, it is unloving to give our children gifts we know will harm them or those around them. Instead we give them gifts that will produce good fruit, that are safe by design and, in the case they're not inherently safe, they are appropriate for th...

Our kids are capable of having fun at the pace of real life. It's hardwired into them. Teaching sixth grade this year gave me a front row seat for just how much today's youth love having social, interactive, creative fun at the pace of real life. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4xFUpmw 

The last six months of consistent classroom teaching has reminded me of an important lesson: Students are more capable than they think. In reading, writing, and math, many times what our students need aren't intensive lessons covering specific steps for success, but rather repeated opportunities to achieve, to practice doing important skills even if they do it poorly early on, and a chance to see...

Many of us feel the tension between wanting to use technology well and wondering if it’s quietly shaping us in ways we didn’t choose. This episode digs into that tension, from Pope Francis’s vision for Christian humanism in the age of AI to the surprisingly spiritual discipline of embracing boredom, and why both matter for families trying to follow Jesus in a noisy world. If you’ve ever caught you...

Students risk losing up to 40% of their learning over summer break (Atteberry and McEachin). In 2020 two researched looked at 200 million test scores from 18 million students across all 50 states over an 8 year period (2008-2016). The take away: The Summer Slip is real, and it can be neutralized with just 15 minutes of reading and math each day. Parents, we don't have to run a boot camp, but we ha...

Today we cover how Anthropic's Claude Mythos was trained, the sheer enormity of the processing power we're putting into making these AI resources, and what this might look like for us to use this tech well and not as a Tower of Babel to reach heaven whether God likes it or not. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/49jyqrb 

This past week Neal Katyal, one of the leading Supreme Court Advocates in the US, indulged in a little self-adulation via a TED Talk and X tweet, where he revealed his custom AI named Harvey, is credited with helping achieve victory in a Supreme Court Case. While a lesson on humility could certainly be poignant from this episode, we are going to focus on AI, how we have learned to use it over the...

Meta, a trillion dollar company, is convinced you need more Virtual Reality in your life, but they also like making money, so they're moving to mobile gaming. That might be great for revenue, but it's going to be bad for focus and downtime. Make some time this week to take a brain break and experience some boredom. I dare you. While you're working on being bored, check out Mark 7:14-23 where Jesus...

After a recent talk at a local church I was approached by someone who works for a major tech company and regularly works with AI. He stressed three points heavily: Our children need to be intentionally prepared for AI. It makes up info, it lies to cover its tracks, and even the best AI trainers don't know what they're going to get out of this resource. Our children use AI more than adults do, so t...

Nick Bostrom once compared our pursuit of superintelligence to mice trying to domesticate an owl. The most recent news concerning Anthropic's Mythos strikes a little too close to home. Yet not all tech news is so grim: Is Apple's Neo laptop the ed tech solution we've been waiting for? We also dive into a parent question concerning how much time is too much on tech in a day. Show Notes: https://bit...

WARNING: The subject matter, and the content itself, can be triggering. I include this so you can be informed, but use prayerful discretion when it comes to how much you really need to know to be loving and helpful for your family, children, and community. Did you know it takes 17 strikes for a child predator to be banned on Meta's platforms? After five, eight, fourteen reported violations the per...

This week we saw the first prosecution of AI-based abuse under the Take It Down Act, discuss how to have friends if we're phone free, and answer a parent question about what to do if our children look up something naughty online. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/480pLZV 

This week in tech we saw Artemis II round the dark side of the moon, had a new study from Sweden that found we can decrease our chances of dementia by lowering our sedentary screen time, and we get to answer a parent question about the best way to build hedges for teen social media use. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/47T5Ax3 

As a follower of Jesus, every day is Easter! Jesus is alive, and that's a big deal in every area of life: How we think about ourselves, how we parent our kids, and how we go about doing the good works we're called to do. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3PJeaYU 

AI can be an amazing tool, if we use it right. Today we'll discuss the three best ways to use AI well, and three uses of AI that we should avoid. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4v8cRTN 

Our children want to have fun, and we can give them adventures that: Maximize adventure Happen at the pace of real life Are with real world people Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3PgUU4O 

Choosing the right tech is simple, but that doesn't make it easy. Before we give our children new tech we need to ask three questions: Is it safe? Is my child ready? Is the fruit good? Show Notes: https://bit.ly/4bfWawm 

Parenting is an impossible task, and God knows this. We don't need to be perfect. We can do three things today to love our children well and do our job as parents: 1. Make time for them.  2. Correct them in love (discipline) 3. Point them to Christ. Show Notes: https://bit.ly/46DuXCp 

Everyone listening to this podcast knows someone who has been hurt by this content. So how do we parent it well? Parenting p*rnography well is scary, but it can be done with hope. We can build hedges around our tech and our families to help us raise healthy youth in a tech world.  Show Notes: https://bit.ly/3ZSU9RA 

I've been at a conference this week with thousands of Jesus loving people from around the country, and the conversation on walking in freedom from pornography is relevant and needed. It is relevant because people are hungry to see themselves, or their brothers and sisters in Christ, walk in the freedom Christ has won for them. It is needed because few churches are having this conversation well. We...

CONTENT WARNING: We’re diving into the tough but important topic of parenting in an AI-shaped world, and while younger kids probably shouldn’t listen in, this could be a great conversation to share with your middle or high schoolers so it feels more like learning together than an interrogation. My hope is that this equips you to parent well as we raise kids in a world shaped by AI.  Today we conti...

CONTENT WARNING:We’re diving into the tough but important topic of parenting in an AI-shaped world, and while younger kids probably shouldn’t listen in, this could be a great conversation to share with your middle or high schoolers so it feels more like learning together than an interrogation. My hope is that this equips you to parent well as we raise kids in a world shaped by AI. The first step t...

Is your child ready to play video games? If they already play, how do you know if it's going well. First we need to look at our children in real-world activities, because if they're faithful in little they can be faithful in much, and then assess their RESET to ensure the tech they use produces good fruit.  Show Notes: https://bit.ly/45OiGKP 

We make three mistakes when parenting video games. We focus on whether it will be fun. We believe the lie of the "digital cul de sac" We take the path of least resistance The good news is that each of these have simple, if not easy, fixes! We can focus on the high priorities, build healthy real-world friendships, and choose the activities that make our children more of who God has created them to...