
How are digital devices affecting the way adolescent minds develop, and is there a correlation between usage and illness? Author Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of the must-read book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness and Dr. Dave Anderson, Vice President of Public Engagement and Education and a senior clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit committed to transforming the lives of children and families struggling with mental health and learning disorders, are joined in conversation with Perri Peltz, Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist and public health advocate.
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FULL SCHEDULE:
GUARDRAILS ON DEMOCRACY
MONDAY, JULY 7, 7 PM
SNL: 50 YEARS OF AMERICAN SATIRE
MONDAY, JULY 14, 7 PM
POST-PLAY CHILDHOOD
MONDAY, JULY 21, 7 PM
ORDER OR CHAOS: THE ECONOMY UNDER TRUMP
MONDAY, JULY 28, 7 PM
Hamptons Institute is a forum for ideas that shape both our community and the world. Founded in 2010 at Guild Hall, the Hamptons Institute returns with a compelling series of dynamic conversations. Each session features world-renowned experts from diverse fields exploring a single topic through multiple perspectives, followed by an audience Q&A.
The Hamptons Institute’s 2025 installment is guest-curated by Ellen Chesler—author and Hamptons Institute co-founder (alongside Guild Hall’s late Chair, Mickey Straus)—and Patricia Duff, founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit The Common Good, dedicated to civic participation, civil dialogue, and finding solutions through common ground.
Founded in 1931 by Mary Woodhouse and her husband Lorenzo, Guild Hall began as a civic institution anchored by a museum and theater. The multidisciplinary arts institution has long been driven by the conviction that engaging with the arts—through exhibitions, performances, and meaningful dialogue—sparks connection, deepens understanding, and inspires people to participate more actively in the world beyond the boundaries of the East End.
This mission expanded in the 1980s with the launch of Hot Topics, a series designed to spark civic discourse, featuring notable panelists like Peter Jennings, recognized for his commitment to democratic journalism. Today, alongside its rich offerings in performing and visual arts, Guild Hall continues to foster thoughtful dialogue with leading luminaries across diverse fields.
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Jonathan Haidt
Jonathan Haidt (pronounced “height”) is a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, and taught for 16 years in the department of psychology at the University of Virginia
Since 2018 he has been studying the contributions of social media to the decline of teen mental health and the rise of political dysfunction. In his most recent release, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness he brings to light the “great rewiring of childhood” in which play-based childhood has been replaced by phone-based childhood. Jon continues to push towards the reforms to put an end to the youth mental health crisis through his public health campaign, The Anxious Generation.
Overall, Haidt’s research uncovers the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures––including the cultures of progressive, conservatives, and libertarians. His mission is to help people understand each other, live and work near each other, and even learn from each other despite their moral differences. Haidt has co-founded a variety of organizations and collaborations that apply moral and social psychology toward that end, including HeterodoxAcademy.org, The Constructive Dialogue Institute, and EthicalSystems.org.
Haidt is also the author of The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, and of The New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, and The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (co-authored with Greg Lukianoff). He has written more than 100 academic articles,which have been cited nearly 100,000 times. In 2019 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the world’s “Top 50 Thinkers.” He has given four TED talks and strives to shine a light into what makes morality with his continued work.
Photo: Rob Holys
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Dr. Dave Anderson
Dr. Dave Anderson is the Vice President of Public Engagement and Education and a senior clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute (CMI). During his 10 years at CMI, Dr. Anderson has directed the ADHD and behavior disorders clinical center at CMI’s NY headquarters, founded CMI’s school and community programs division, and now leads CMI efforts focused on brand ambassadorship, strategic partnerships, and national program dissemination. Programs that Dr. Anderson has directed at CMI have reached over 2.4 million youth, educators, and parents in over 9,000 schools in New York, California, and across the country.
Dr. Anderson frequently lectures and leads workshops for caregivers, educators, and policymakers, and he has contributed to media for organizations such as ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, NBC, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the New York Times, and NPR. Dr. Anderson’s career has been dedicated to reducing the stigma associated with mental health and learning disorders, contributing to a wide range of public education and outreach efforts, and increasing access to mental health support and treatment particularly in settings where these services are typically less available.
Born and raised in Georgia, Dr. Anderson received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University. Dr. Anderson lives in Connecticut with his wife and two children, ages 9 and 6.
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Perri Peltz
Perri Peltz – Journalist / Documentary Filmmaker is an Emmy® award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and public health advocate. Perri is a director with Matthew O’Neill of “She Runs The World,“ a 2025 Tribeca Festival official selection. Most recently, she directed “The Last Twins,” now in theatres, “Can’t Look Away” for Bloomberg Originals and “Surveilled” with Ronan Farrow for HBO with Matthew O’Neill. Perri and Matt also created the Emmy® winning documentary news series “AXIOS on HBO,” and directed and produced the 2019 HBO Documentary, “Alternate Endings: Six New Ways to Die in America.” Previously, Perri directed the HBO documentaries, “Warning: This Drug May Kill You,” about the opioid addiction epidemic and “Risky Drinking,” about alcohol use disorder. She also produced and co-directed along with Geeta Gandbhir “Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr" for HBO. She co-directed “A Conversation About Growing Up Black” as part of the “Conversation on Race” series for The New York Times Op-Docs. Perri hosts “The Perri Peltz Show” on SiriusXM Radio and has a Doctorate in Public Health from Columbia University. She was previously an award-winning broadcast journalist for NBC, ABC, and CNN.
Photo: Tom LeGoff
Sponsors
Principal Sponsor: Lisa Rosenblum
Performing Arts programs are supported in part by funding from Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Christine and Bill Campbell, John and Joan D’Addario, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Debbie and Henry Druker, Lena Kaplan, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, Susi and Peter Wunsch, and Andrew Yuder and Kyle Glaeser.