 Okay, hey friends, you're watching behind the scenes divine intimacy radio first. I got to just tell you EW 10 rocks They do I I don't know lately. I've been thinking about what watching the Synod on Synodality and I I'm I am shocked That a German Bishop actually said Yesterday that we need to set aside apostolic tradition And I'm just gonna say it that he's not deposed right this second is a scandal to the church Now why is the church in the United States and my wife's afraid she's like Well, no, no, no, I'm just trying. I'm waiting for the connection to EWT So now yeah, here's the EWTN connection. Why is that not the case in the United States? Because of mother Angelica EWTN Bishop Fulton sheen. Yeah, I mean, you know, Tom Monaghan I mean just a handful of people That are just faithful people who have held fast to the truth some good faithful bishops That you know, we've been friends with for a long time And I'm just like so grateful to EWTN for holding the line and for you know doing what they do And I'm just blown away by what's going on Outside of our country and I mean there's some things inside of our country too in the church But I wonder if anybody's doing a Navina to mother Angelica. I don't know the Senate on synodality Yeah, and she's a she was a woman of fire. I'm praying and sacrificing every day. I can tell you that it's really quite striking so hopefully Anyway, I just I didn't want to focus on the negative. I just want to say thanks to EWTN for Allowing us to do this show and folks you got to support them If you're looking for good Catholic books always go to EWTN's religious catalog So before we jump into the show, I always say I'm excited about shows Because I am I'm telling the truth But this one, you know It's a higher level really because I just think what we're gonna talk to you about is so cool And I want every grandma grandpa mom dad That's got young people in their lives every priest every priest. You got to hear what we're gonna talk about Cation director every youth director. I'm telling you the solution The this young man we're gonna talk to today is contributing huge is Atomic bomb in the devils You know, don't say any My wife is really oh my she's my she is my she's my prudence meter Andrew, so I she just has to look at me like don't say She she uh that that's really the look and she's only given it to me about a million times Are we ready get started yes, I will one second still the pregame I know I know I so just gosh I just want everybody to know about what this guy is doing Before we do our Community apostolate VA and the Avala Foundation, of course also needs your support We have formed over 500 men and preparing them for seminary in the United States Teaching them prayer Catholic anthropology How to pray the literature the art of the solution part of the solution ding ding ding We have an auction going on spiritualdirection.com forward slash events if you want to help us out Auctioning off an altar that I've used in my in my Here at the retreat center. That's really beautiful as my favorite icon of the Pato Krontor an amazing items We've had so many beautiful things donated for this auction. Yeah, so very cool spiritualdirection.com forward slash events, okay? That's good enough We we do have intro to introduction to spiritual theology course coming up here November 27 Mondays 8 3 8 30 p.m. Eastern Avala-institute.org Dr. Mary and Sigmund is just an incredible woman and You'll want if you want to dive into graduate level studies and spiritual theology check that out So we're gonna start the show on your mark get set go This is Dan and Stephanie Burke. Welcome to divine intimacy radio your radio haven of rest your hermitage of the Heart your monastery of the mind where we lift our hearts and minds to heaven to draw upon the wisdom of the saints to help us navigate this crazy insane wacky life Yeah, yeah, she's valley of tears this valley of tears We're in by the way We can be joyful right and we can be warriors for Jesus and we can make a difference and the dude that's coming on the show today Is a warrior for Jesus and he's making a difference. I think in a way That is so unique and so powerful As we said before the show every priest every grandparent every parent every vocation everyone who touch every vocation director Everyone touches a young man or a young woman every Catholic school principal. Yeah, I'm telling you so who is this guy? What's his name again? We have a new friend. We're so happy to welcome a new friend Andrew lawback lawbacker And he Andrew I'm just gonna go right into his bio Andrew is the executive director for human humanality Humanality Andrew has been traveling the country and world Leading worship and speaking the last 15 years sharing the gospel and is now helping people heal and detox Did you hear that helping people heal and detox from phone and tech? Addiction phone and tech addiction. I the most dehumanizing Mind-scrambling forces in our time and this guy's got the got the antidote. He's got them. He's got some help M16 he's got them the tank weapon. He's blowing this Stupid thing up. Well, we're really happy you're here with us Andrew I'm happy to be here. That was an incredible intro I'm so excited now I'm always passionate to talk about These topics, but you guys got me even like more excited. So I'm ready. I'm ready to get into it How old are you Andrew? I am the year. Uh, I'm as old as Jesus was I'm 33. Oh, great year. Just love it This is gonna be the year for you. Just you know You you know, I we're fighting for the church and fighting for you know healing and all that And I'm always you know, it's always is so much more exciting to me When young people like you Are out on the front lines and figuring out new ways jordan you and jordan need to hang out our producer He has an amazing, um Instagram page called do the harder thing. I really think you too should do an interview As well to get to his audience because his audience is dead center um to the folks you're serving so but You know, I so what I'm struggling with is how to talk about this because I want to I want to say I want to get to what it is but Uh, just humanality is what tell tell our listeners what what what the project is about Yeah, so humanality is a 501c3 nonprofit That is helping people discover freedom through an intentional relationship with technology So it actually started at franciscan university last year by hope and justin schnear um and this unplugged scholarship some people might have heard about but Started with 30 kids, uh who joined this scholarship where we paid them scholarship money To give up their smartphone and take on a dumb phone To really start to engage reality again and detox from phone and tech addiction. So that same year Over 50 kids just willingly gave up their smartphones to be part of the movement And now we're expanding to universities across the whole country And we really believe that this is a movement that's gonna really transform the way that we interact with each other And we really want to lead with the good of technology like you and me are communicating right now on technology It's a good thing But at this point the data is very clear that there is negative mental health outcomes I'd say physiological spiritual Uh, you know negative outcomes that come with direct, uh exposure To these devices and social media platforms. So that's a little bit about how we started Let's get right to what a dumb phone is. Yeah, I want to know what that is Yeah, so we're partnering with light phone Light lightphone.com and uh, this phone literally is just calling Texting uh, it has an alarm clock calculator A hotspot in some directions. So it's the phone I use And it's literally just it fits in the you know palm of your hand And it's just the basics, uh without the addictive aspects. Let's pause for a second. Um, He's his audio faded back A little bit ago I noted that too It's it's coming through good on you. Okay. All right. We won't worry about it So I'm what I want to do is uh So we'll just come right back in and after that last sentence. Okay. Look, do you have it near you? Yeah, I can give you more volume too. You're good. No, that's fine. Is that better? We want it? Yeah, we want to see it. Can you hold up the? Oh the light phone. Oh, we have it in your pocket. Yeah, and let me let me just direct how we come back in really quick Okay Got it. Okay. I want to come back in just like we were on that Hold on on that same sentence. Hold on to the phone. Yeah, hold it. Put it down the table Just okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna just say I'm gonna say the sentence over again and I want you to show it We'll describe it more on your market set go. Do you have the phone with you right now? Yes, this is the light phone. Okay, so if you can see that it's simply, uh, the basics it has Yep, there's the phone alarm clock calculator directions hotspot and it's just the basics, you know It looks like the size of a credit card. Is it bigger than the credit card? Yeah, it's very small. I mean it Yeah, it's in the palm of your hand, right? Yeah, and when we so just to describe so that's for the live streamers can see that Yes, and you can see our live stream show by the way out on spiritualdirection.com. We post them all out there, but The you showed it to us. We were at where we met andrew was at a wedding of a mutual friend And he showed it to us now the difference visually than a smartphone is How a smartphone is designed and I want you to comment on this It's it's designed to make you addicted to Looking at it all the time dings colors sounds vibrations vibrations emojis all these things that add That give you, uh, what is that? Stimulus? Stimulus dopamine hit. Yeah, the dopamine hit that caused us to be addicted, right? Yeah, yes So the science on this is actually like really interesting and this is what many phds and mds are talking about But these devices are directly correlating to this dopaminergic pathway in the brain Which you know makes us feel good when we eat and when we sleep if you have sex. I mean, it says the good feeling You know chemical in the brain and there's multiple ways that these devices are essentially hijacking that neural pathway to keep you as addicted and and the word that they're actually using in Uh in the tech world is engaged So they want to keep you engaged in their products So there's two really main ways and this is out of uh cal newport's book digital minimalism But the two main ways that they're keeping us addicted to these platforms is through intermittent positive reinforcement So the idea that when you're scrolling And you have no idea what's going to come next That is preparing the brain for that pathway for dopamine to be released to make you want to Keep scrolling so you're seeing the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and you don't know and that unknown Keeps you scrolling and another way they're doing it is keeping us You know addicted is through this idea of social approval, which is so Deep in our anthropology and our desire to belong and our desire to be accepted And when we're on these platforms, they're literally playing on on multiple Psychological realities that are keeping us as engaged as possible. So they're not really interested In our well-being they're interested these companies are interested in us being engaged in their products, right? And that's how they make money. It's your attention That's actually being bought you you think it's a free platform But they're really using your time to be able to uh, you know get to their to their ends their means Which is again engagement the other thing about it the other the other thing about it that's nefarious at a Profound level is people who are trained with phd's in psychology are on these software development teams. Correct They're violating the Hippocratic oath To they are they are harming people To make money. Yeah, and they're using psychological sciences And software and they test the software and they can use kind of I read an article about it imagery of the brain and neural and watching activity in the brain And it's literally it's like brainwashing. Yeah, they do everything to tune the device color Yeah speed length of presentation haptics, which is like the physicality of it To watch where the maximum fire of neurons go Correct. It is it is it is deep. Yeah, it's demonic Trillions of dollars being paid into These platforms to keep you as engaged as possible. So most people don't want to be a slave, right? Most people want to be free and we and we obviously let especially my generation loves this idea of Of freedom and not, you know, having any rules or regulations and we don't realize that these devices I mean haven't slaved us. It's about 10 years, you know, since they've been out and it's funny There's an interview with steve jobs. I think in 2010 when the ipad initially came out And you know, the journalist was asking, you know, steve, how do you how are your kids enjoying the ipad and he's And he said quote, we don't give it to them Right, right, you know, like there's people doesn't give his didn't give his own kids these the stuff Right. Yeah one. I had there was a horrifying moment in our own family one time Where I just my eyes just about popped out of my head. Stephanie and I went to visit A good some good friends of ours Who have kids our age good? They're all good people are devout catholics, you know and So we're all we're in the kitchen or something meeting with our friends And I walk into the living room and every stinking kid Is on their own device In a room not interacting Yeah staring at a screen the different screens and doing whatever And I'm just like this what what what are the long-term ramifications? But I want to turn one more corner on this. Okay, and that is what elan musk has put a nuclear bomb to God be praised for that guy. I I'd love to see him become a man of faith All the lies and manipulation that that that's become a channel for political power to manipulate people Toward belief systems that are destructive socialism right communism, you know, all of the sort of The the the fake awake, you know, I don't want to use the words to get get, you know Tripped the youtube stuff, but the fake awake folks At just being fed this junk through these channels that they're addicted to I mean you can you can look at so many so many of the social ills right now Yeah, and and I'll just name a few of them One of them is this idea that that that we should not be having children anymore That there are too many children out there that need to be adopted. You shouldn't have children You shouldn't be open to life You need to give I mean the moral ills that are going on and if you think about all of the Temptations to adultery to to any kind of and that's going to be Harmful to you. I I now give you an example. I had a and I'll do it this real quick, but I had a student years ago started cutting You know an eighth grade student that started cutting and I and I met with her because it started to spread through my eighth grade class And I said, okay, I need to talk to you Tell me this idea didn't just come out of the air You didn't just reach up and grab it and started I said when's the first time you saw it Well, I don't know. I know I said when is the wind go back and think about this when is the very first time you saw it And she took a minute and she thought about it and she said I saw it on my snapchat Yeah, and it was just a picture with a a kid cutting It was just an arm with a cut slice in the wrist And then she kept seeing it over and over and over and over again and all of a sudden that idea and the demonic attached to that Absolutely, and then it passed through our eighth grade class and they all had to get counseling We had the priests come in and pray, but we're we're coming up on a break But technology is a problem and I love this solution. I love this solution So we'll be right back with andrew lawbalker on your markets, uh The auction go check it out help us avala foundation Up a Stoli be a community if you love the fact that we have prepared 500 men for the priesthood that we're training Priests who are already ordained to be spiritual directors for seminaries that we're serving 85 dioceses in the formation of with orthodox deeply spiritual all the richness of the church and we need your help to do that and we we don't ask for money much But we we could really use your help spiritual direction dot com forward slash events There's an auction there with amazing cool stuff including a couple of beachfront Properties for a week and you know really neat stuff that people have donated There's one other thing that's coming up. That's really really really important. Oh, yeah for married couples out there Or engaged couples. It's this it's divine intimacy and marriage retreat And it's coming up at the shrine of blessed sacrament in handsville alabama. Listen This is an amazing retreat. It is transformative to your marriage We have met with so many couples after the fact when they have gone through this Not because of us but because of a work of the holy spirit Of what is happening in their marriages and how it's changing their marriage for the better And so please please please please check it out. We have one coming up in the next few weeks In november and then we have another one in february. They will fill But we will get you in if you contact us. I will get you in personally Um, I will make sure you're there because it's it's a huge huge And it's it's for pre-marriage pre-married marriages in trouble marriage is doing well We have testimonies all across the spectrum and and anywhere from, you know, that you know the 20 year olds to the We've had couples in their 80s that are coming to an age and it's so beautiful So don't miss it spiritual direction dot com forward slash events for the auction and for the marriage retreat Yep, we're jump your i'm going to dumb my phone nicky palomino Yay Go out to humanality the dot com or dot org. I'm sorry humanality dot org All right, let's jump back into the show in your market set go This is danis ebony burk. Welcome back to divine intimacy radio. We're here with I don't know I'm saying top 10 important guests of this year. Yes And i'm dead serious about that That his work is called humanality humanality dot org Helping kids get free of addiction and i'm going to say everyone out there to you out there listening YouTube if you're on radio if you if you're lamenting the state of the world And you really want to make an impact. I'm dead serious share this Show all over wherever you can send it in an email to your family share it on your social media Give it to your priest and tell them about humanality Now I want to go back to the design of the phone because for the radio, you know, people can't see So you talk the phone has no visual appeal So it doesn't have like you can text but it doesn't have those, you know, cute little bubbles and you can't do You know all the things you can do so it doesn't have the visual stimulus. It's just gray font This is dull gray font. The phone does not look cool at all. It just looks like a piece of black plastic um, so I mean describe A little bit more andrew. Yeah how the phone is Counteracts all the evil junk that people are trying to do to our to us. Yeah, maybe just i'll articulate too quickly just again Some of the data of the problem and then we can kind of get to how humanality is sharing solutions And like you said at the beginning, I don't think there's anyone I've talked to yet once that's like Oh, there's not a problem like with our phones or like every single person is like, oh my gosh I need this. Oh my gosh. I need. Oh my gosh my kizzies. Oh my gosh my husband You know the wives look to the husbands and call them out and everyone we're all addicted to these devices And here's what I want to lead with is with mercy Because like we talked about earlier, they are very powerful Uh, you know companies that are literally trying to get you as addictive as possible And the thing is we're not strong enough. So we're we're actually being Um, you know used by our attention spans for means that I would say You know are not good, but here's some of the quick data points I'm just going to go through them briefly, but the average american is looking at their phones 87 times a day If you're 18 years and older the average time spent on entertainment based screen content is 12 hours This was in 2020 data Elementary age children now are using their phones or technology 7.5 hours a day A survey from common sense media reports that three out of four children view porn prior to 13 years of age 52 percent of those children viewed violent porn We are now 11 years 2 percent Viewed violent porn at what age? This is prior to the age of 13 God Yep So we are now 11 years into the largest epidemic of teen mental health on record Self-harm amongst 10 to 14 year old girls has quadrupled since 2010 That's gene m 20 her book iGen The number of college students who have seriously considered suicide jumped 60 percent six 2011 And 2016 and more than four to five adults in the united states Say they check their emails messages and social media accounts frequently or continuously So the problem is is real and I think first just being aware right of the problem is necessary and actually in the dsm now Which you know helps diagnose You know mental disorders. There's legit behavioral Addictions which involve gaming technology or phones. So when I say that we're all addicted I'm not using that word. You know flippantly. This is actual Legit clinical data that's pointing to an addiction from our devices So, you know, some of the things we're doing if you want to get into that dan just with our clubs at university Yeah, please please. So the idea is with these clubs You join you get a free light phone or you can join with another dumb phone So there's you know other companies like pinwheel and the wise phone and there's other options But the light phone We're partnering with so the first 30 students that join our club at a university will get a free light phone And if you want to join with your smartphone, here's the parameters. You have to go grayscale So again to your point about the psychology behind the the colors and the flashing and the you know Paptonian experiment we're in of these dings and pings Uh, you go grayscale you take off the internet off of your device and all social media So you can join the club with your smartphone But those are kind of the parameters you have to do And then along with that each month, we're going to have monthly meetings where the students meet together And we actually start to dive into some of this data. There's incredible books out there sharing about what this technology is doing to us And what we can do Uh to counteract it. So the students will kind of have time of Accountability and as they're detoxing like literally withdrawing From snapchat and social media and instagram and tiktok. They're going to have community right because that's crucial So they're going to be diving into the data having that accountability and community We're going to bring in one of our speakers from our team. Maybe myself or another Speaker to actually come and give a presentation to the school on the science on the data And then along with that, you know, they get humanality hats shirts all the swag And then we're doing this really cool thing. Uh, we're really excited about it's a humanality concert on campus The idea is the students put on a concert whether a local band or cover band and the cost of admission to the concert is your phone So you have to go experience music without a screen and just be present to the moment, you know And so right now the stories that are coming out from students on campus are absolutely Mind-blowing one of them just to highlight. I really loved I was just visiting one of our campuses And one of the students said and I've never thought of this before but he's like I get to have first impressions with people You know, because now everyone goes and looks at your story. They look at your whole Last time many years and they see everywhere you traveled all your friends all your family There's no such thing as first impressions anymore. And I thought that was so Human it's human and that's really Humanality the word humanality our idea is humans engaging reality So again, we believe, you know, technology is good But if we don't create that real intentionality Around these devices they will addict us and you know part of my story is I was addicted to all these myself Right, you know, I had snapchat instagram facebook. I was traveling around the world leading worship like doing good Work for ministry, but at the same time I was addicted to all the platforms myself Okay, so I got to ask you a really tough question go for you can dodge if you want um If a parent gives a kind of food to their child That has just a tiny bit of arsenic in it like just the tiniest bit And uh And it eventually kills them You know, that's the grave evil Why is it different than this? I mean, how is it that when we when you know, you have these dumb phones And you know what's going on behind them. I mean I I If someone's listening right now, I mean, so I'm gonna get in trouble, but I'm just gonna say I'm not gonna look at my wife So she gives me that don't say it look If someone's listening right now and you give your kid a smartphone after what we're telling you I I think it's a grave sin. I really do. I just think it is so inevitably destructive We need to knock it off. We need to stop doing this to our kids because who's paying for these stupid things? Yeah, it's not the kids. Oh, yeah, and that was that's always been one of my conversations when people tell me Well, I'm distressed because my kid's doing xyz And they're living under their household. They're providing them a room to sleep in food Giving them insurance paying for everything paying for the car paying paying for the smart paying for the computers And yeah, oh, but they're not acting right They're dishonoring me. They're destroying their lives. They're suicidal. They're addicted to pornography xyz and it's like you're funding it Funding it. Yeah, and here's one point to do to parents that are hearing this that are also Maybe feeling that conviction and also maybe feeling shame. I've noticed anytime I bring this up You know, especially traveling like people initially feel shame because they know we're all addicted And I really want to you know, lead with mercy in so far is that we did not know that this was going to happen to us Right, right like we were given these devices without without knowing. I mean for me Yeah, my friends showed me porn in high school and I left the faith in high school and I was Atheist I didn't believe in God my my conversion was after high school And you know, I was kind of being told that I need to show You know, what I'm doing for the gospel on media and it just started to become really odd For me to think about the saints like would Padre Pio have An instagram where he's showing like himself like hashtag just spent 14 hours in the confessional You know, like I I started feel the narcissism myself And my own life and it was leading instagram was leading me to lust It was leading me to so many other things and again, even thinking of uh, you know, blaze pascal this I love his quote, you know that all of humanity's problems stem from the fact that man cannot sit alone with himself for just one hour In silence in silence, you know, I think for me The more that I noticed this addiction in myself the more I was like, whoa, I need to do something I went back to flip phones I went back to these other options and I knew early on that this was a problem And then God has obviously now brought me into this work But now yeah with the data that we know that's out, which you know, you can go to humanality.org We're gonna have a lot more info in the next two weeks about the data about the stories And and I do believe Dan at this point. Uh, I think you're right I think there's no good reason To give a child a smartphone honestly before the age of 18 and for me, I'm like maybe 30 would be good You know, because there's so many negative outcomes that we're seeing with the devices That it's hard to use it as a tool, which is it's intended for without getting these addictive aspects Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I can't wait to get that website all updated with all this So that people can go and and make their case and and make their case and look at the reality of it And individuals can see it and their eyes can be open because it is staggering The yeah, we're looking and we're looking to get into the home humanality home in the workplace We're actually talking with a couple of seminaries right now Uh, we're actually partnering with hallow to create on their app Which you can access an app from a desktop a 30 day digital detox with humanality Well, we're really gonna walk you through like some of our simple challenges Keep the phone out of the bedroom. Keep the phone out of the bathroom You know sometimes dad just disappears, you know for 40 minutes on the bathroom and it's like dad You're not going to the bathroom for 40 minutes, you know Or uh, you know your meals Whatever it is it and then it is kind of funny like we have to start to see Some of the comedy in some of this because it is kind of so dark But what we're what we're doing with these phones. It's hilarious. I mean, they are always Attachers people are running into signs looking down. I mean people. I mean, it's it's insane, you know, so There's some coming out in in in masses Totally. Yeah, and just some of the simple things like keep it out of your bedroom Like I would wake up scrolling. I'll go to sleep scrolling Just keep it out of the bedroom and and I know you need an alarm clock Go buy a digital alarm clock and have that, you know, wake you up in the morning And I guarantee your life will start to feel exponentially better Just with that one little tool St. Thomas Aquinas taught that entertainment causes spiritual dissipation Facts your prayer life and it It deteriorates your interior life and that's when there was no such thing as a smartphone, right? So it's Andrew. It's been great being with you. I'm so appreciative every one of you out there You know, I'm telling you you got to share this. This is a bomb in the devil's lap Blow them up everywhere and anywhere you can Support them support this project I just there's not much out there. I believe in more than this in terms of like Direct assault against the enemy's work in the church in the world Humanality is the organization H-u-m-a-n-i-l-i-t-y dot o-r-g Humanity dot org Andrew, we're so grateful for the good work you're doing. There's anything we can do to support you You just you just give us a call And with that Okay, until next time may the god of peace make you perfect in holiness May he preserve you whole and entire spirit soul and body irreproachable at the coming of our lord Jesus christ amen. Amen