HAMPTONS INSTITUTE: POST-PLAY CHILDHOOD

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an Epidemic of Mental Illness he brings to light the  “great rewiring of childhood” in which play-based childhood has been replaced by phone-based childhood.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

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.

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