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welcome everyone to unbound, the bay area book festival virtual conversations. i want to start by acknowledging the partnership between this festival and kqed. joining me is tiffany shlain, emmy nominated filmmaker and author of "24/6", the power of unplugging one day a week". thank you for joining me today. >> i'm so happy to be here.>> is an interesting time to think about unplugging given this moment during the coronavirus pandemic as we are taping this interview. many of us are finding ourselves even more tethered to screens because we are able to

do things like meet people in person, go out to our workplaces or schools. or hang out in a bar or cultural venue. first we will hear more about the book from tiffany and then we will have a discussion. sending it over to you tiffany, take it away. >> it's so good to be here. i'm from the bay area. i love the bay area and i'm glad we are still able to make it happen this way. adapting doing literary adapting to this very extraordinary circumstance we are living in. which actually this moment we are in feels very similar to a moment i was personally in around 11 years ago. actually, this monday will be the 11 year anniversary of my father's death. what happened was my father died of brain cancer. my dad was also an author.

he died of brain cancer within days of my daughter being born and it felt like one of those moments where life was grabbing me by the shoulders and saying, focus on what matters. my husband and i decided with our kids to turn off screens one day a week for what we call our technology shabbat. that was over 10 years ago it's been the best thing i've done my life in terms of a practice that keeps giving and brings such balance. in meaning and so many things. which i will go into. in my 20s i found that the webby's. i spent my career either running the webby awards or

writing a lot of films about the potential of technology and the curse. what i was wrestling with 10 years ago at this very dramatic moment in my life as feeling distracted all the time. i couldn't get a complete thought without my phone buzzing in a notification and echo echosmith's constant state of being distracted and didn't like it. i think really what i was seeking by doing this one day without screens was just some time to think, some time to reflect in an authentic way. i should tell you, i'm jewish but i'm not a religious jew, and more of it humanistic jew a secular jew. i love rituals, there's a lot of things i love about being jewish. a lot of the ideas of shabbat, which is also called the sabbath, the constant of the day of rest. we started doing that 10 years ago, friday night, first of

all, we make hollow in the morning, we make red which has to rise all day. we usually make a beautiful meal and invite people over and that's the best meal of the week because abby has their phone topic we have this wonderful meal and the next day it's no screens and literarily our family's favorite day of the week. our older daughter is 17 our youngest daughter is 11, a lot of people can't believe they would love it as much as we do put they do. it's a day filled with things we love to do. that was all before the pandemic. then of course the last two months we've all had to be online so much more and i do feel like it's a very similar moment for the whole world in terms of i felt life was grabbing me by the shoulders and saying, focus on what's important. if you like right now all of us are being grabbed by the

shoulders and saying, focus on what's important. what matters. what's important. your health, your family, enough money to buy food. cooking food. being grateful. helping others. all these fundamental lessons i really felt like i spend my time thinking about more on my tech shabbat than others. a lot of people have asked, we are on screens so much more, it's a lifeline. screens are a way we can act. we often connect with family members around the country on zoom before we turn off the screens for tech shabbat. that brings me to my second point is that so many people said, are you still doing your tech shabbat now that we are to shelter in place. it's just always stuns me because my doing it it's like it's my saving grace? there are so many benefits to it. especially now. it magnifies the benefits because i've been so stressed. we all have been, about what's

happening, what's can happen and it allows me to take one foot in front of the other one week at a time. i look forward to something every week. it's weird because i'm a big planner and now we can't make any plans. every week i know, today is friday, it's shabbat. would it make a lovely meal, with shut off the screens, it feels different than every other day. i feel like doing a tech shabbat or screen free day, whatever you want to call it, feels like so much more beneficial during the pandemic when everything is blurring together, time is blurring together. work and social and everything is blurring together. we are on the news so much more which is we are bathing our bodies in cortisol and stress. of course there is so much beautiful things about the web right now. a couple months ago i actually did a show at ãcalled dear human, it was pulled from a lot of ideas in my book "24/6".

i was worried that in my early optimism with the web that it was going to connect us and collaborate in new ways that the tech industry and the business model of manipulating our attention was starting to bring out the worst in humanity. all of social media was making us compare ourselves, fomo, polarization, that's all about what the show was about i ended the show and said what could it take to bring the web back to the web we want? what could we all be focusing on together? in that moment was february 15, 2020. within weeks the whole country different parts of the world shut down and i'm seeing the web being used in so many incredibly miraculous ways. i have renewed faith of the

web, i have renewed faith in humanity if we choose to look at this is a huge opportunity and lesson and worried that everyone else my brother is a doctor who's been working at the frontlines of covid and that's been intense and wonderful because i'm really proud of him. just all the food donation coordination i've seen on micro donations to help people and go fund me campaigns. so many ways that the web is just rising to the occasion and allowing us to bring out the best of humanity, the best of our human strength. but you shouldn't be on it all the time that it is even more so i think we are craving human contact right now from other people that my biggest hope is that when we emerge from this period we are going to finally be together and not be staring at our phones all the time

because pre-pandemic that's what it was like, walked on the street everyone staring at their faults. people out for dinner they're all staring at their phones. a group of teenagers together there all staring at their phones. maybe we would be so hungry for true human connection after this that maybe we will put down our phones. it would be a great thing that will come out of this. the biggest ritual that i say in the book and i will share with you some of the benefits because in the book i really go deep on the neuroscience and historical reference and psychology of why it's so good and so many of the benefits that happen from us unplugging one day a week but i think right now we have so much time on our hands. if you have the privilege of being able to be at home and not an essential worker and you are thinking, how can i take this time and have something come out of it that would be really good and sustaining for the rest of my life, i really think integrating this ritual of day without screens. i will tell you why i think it is. this is my idea over 3000 years

old some people call it the sabbath some called the shabbat. every different religion has some form of day of rest. right now in modern society only the most observant and religious people in that faith will do it. the seventh-day adventist christians to full day of sabbath. orthodox jews do a full day of rest. i haven't met anyone except the one orthodox jew that i knew, i live in california, not new york. other than that it's either people do shabbat i have many friends that are jewish, they would maybe light the candles most people don't do a full day of rest. what of experience by doing the fist my family is the power is in the full day of rest. that there is some serious wisdom that it takes a whole day to truly reset and reboot

and turn off the outside world so you can tune into yourself and the people you might live with but if you are alone i highly recommend it. and to your kids and go a little more inward because right now we are online all the time, zooming with our family, connected to friends. i find a lot of times on saturday i think and i think we've created a society that doesn't value reflection because we need: leavefor it. i do a lot of writing on saturday. saturday is very social dinner with friends and family even with family we are talking about the week. everything is about the week. which is a very manageable way to think about great wisdom in that. saturday i do a lot of writing and journaling. and doing nothing.

which is a really important thing to also be able to do to do nothing. we value so much productivity and optimizing every second of our life these days. listening to a podcast, washing dishes and learning a new language. there is value in letting your whole soul i follow. even informing every seven years you're supposed to let the earth life follow no new crops. every seven days i also think you need to let your brain and slow life follow so you can have the necessary nutrients to ãbken and i feel so much more productive after giving ourselves a full day of rest. i don't think we ever give ourselves a full day of rest right now even make our leisure reacting and posting on social media enough to write a witty caption and check how it did. somehow that starts to feel like work. the other thing i noticed after doing this for 10 years, i am a

filmmaker. i run a film studio in san francisco and most of my time and making ãthis is my first book. always trying to put myself in the most creative flow state. every creative person is like what can you do? used to be traveling. i don't think i'd be doing a lot of that. traveling is very inspiring. if i look back on the last 10 years i have my best ideas on saturday. that's what i always have my breakthroughs. there is no science behind the set during the week you're getting all this info and stimulation but it's when you are daydreaming or washing the dishes are taking a shower and going for a run that your mind starts putting things together an unusual way, called the default mode network and that's usually where i think creativity comes from is an unusual connection tapping.

we feel so much more productive by truly taking a day off. i feel much more creative, i have problems sleeping, it really just started, and 50, in my 40s i started having problems sleeping. i'm always able to sleep on friday night. i generally think i'm more patient and pretty impatient person. long-term i know whatever i want to slow things down and be more patient is saturday. it's good to teach our kids how to be bored. how to not need to be stimulated every second. boredom is the runway to creativity. if you're feeling bored, great, something billy creative is gonna happen. it's good to teach our kids traits, boredom, and ourselves, every second if you're just flipping on your phone to distract yourself, which right now during the pandemic a lot

of it we need distraction also but not at every moment. and every in between moment or every pause moment just always turning into our phone or screen to be entertained or distracted or productive. it's good to leave space to just be, i find that i do that mostly on our tech shabbat. it has really led to practices i do, the other six days, i no longer look at my phone when i wake up because that's my most creative thinking time. looking on ãbworking on the book "24/6" i realize that's my sweet spot to write. i get up at 5:00 a.m. before the kids get up i read from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 ãbwhat i really noticed is when i wake up, if you just look at your phone right when you wake up, i do use my phone as an alarm clock.i've tried many others, that's the thing that works for me.

whatever. but i keep it on airplane mode in the morning, i don't turn it on. i come down have my coffee, drink my coffee and i'm writing. what am i thinking about? what am i grateful for, what is this day can be like? just 15 minutes so nice to start my day with where i am instead of where the world like a stressful email or stressful news headline or some social media thing. it's my own framing of the day. before i go to sleep i have my nighttime rituals. i have a bath, i read and i write in a journal about what happened in a day, what's great in the day what something i wish i did differently about the day and what we hope for for tomorrow. i think the sandwich to my day that doesn't involve the phone. super important.i also in our family we do know screens at the table when we are eating unless lately during the pandemic of we have resume with family members within the screens go away. i try to do a one hour walk every day without a screen. in the book i talk about all these things you can do the

other six days but then the plethora of benefits that happen from this one complete day off. and a lot of people have said to me, now i been out with the book for like six months it's been really fun because it talked about a lot of strategies of how to get people in your life ready for you to do this because you might be psyched to do this but maybe your husband or wife or partner or kids, i talk a lot about the best way to approach it because it's not like were to turn off screens, that would not go over very well. it's all about how you position it. if you say to them, what you wish we did more together? pre-much the day fills with that that's why it's our families every day of the week. it's a day of joy. as a day of cooking, napping, reading, biking, nothing can involve the screen. even have a section in the back of the book fun things to do that don't involve screens. i thought it was funny i had to

include it but i did. i think during the pandemic i know everyone saying i'm so exhausted from zoom or ãbi got carpal tunnel for my first time i get shooting pains in my forearms because i'm sitting in so many positions in my house on my screen in a weird way. think about it as more of a reason of how you should create space. it's thousands of years old it's about one whole day a week. to really reset. this brought me such comfort when i been so anxious during the week i just find that i completely, not to shut out the outside world, just for a day, and like think about what you are grateful for, which is always good. quiet all the anxiety voice. all the things you do have is to do things you don't have or

you might lose in the future with the pandemic. it's brought an amazing sense of balance and resetting for me personally. i was excited about the book before because it's like, oh my gosh i have this ancient symbol practice anybody can do it and you don't have to believe in whatever you're coming from my have a lot of christians doing it, people write to me they are like, it's an idea from judaism but, i have great respect for people who believe in religion, but that's not where i'm coming from. i don't like the word secular but i come from it as a secular practice. i want to make it a practice like yoga and meditation has brought great things to people from all different backgrounds. i really think the concept of tech shabbat, day without screens, to bring much joy and meaning and balance and peace to people especially right now during the pandemic.at that

point at this point i would love to bring chloe back and because i'm so excited to talk to her and just hear what questions you might have had about the book or anything i've said. >> thank you tiffany. sharing so much great information from your book. i know you're a nonpracticing jew, though i am myself. >> are you? your name did not give that away at all. >> feltman, an old dutch name but my relatives come from eastern europe. that was kind of my upbringing too. i'm just curious about how tech shabbat, as you practice it today with your family, may compared to the shabbat traditions, whatever they are when you were growing up. >> i didn't grow up with shabbat. i'm so glad you brought that up

because there's ways our practice differs from people truly observing shabbat. someone once said to me a rabbi said you the most religious and nonreligious person because i always do tech shabbat. and very observant in my tech shabbat. but i do have a lot of similar rituals. we set the table we bring fresh cut flowers, bring homemade hallah. it's a beautiful meal. if you are a really observant orthodox jew you're not even supposed to write. i do my best writing on journaling on shabbat. >> you not supposed to turn on a light. >> for me it was really about trying to take the essence and kernel of shabbat which i think his presence, gratitude, joy, family, sanctuary of home, cooking, being present.

that's what i was trying to do. and if you like screens take away so much of those things that that's how i interpret it. did you grow up with shabbat? >> loosely, certainly not at the very much a weekly practice. some of my parents siblings, my auntie in particular, were more into it. we would do that with them. some of the impulse from this idea comes from your husband. but the desire to be with family, that sort of thing, does that model for you in other ways when you were growing up? was there any what kind of rituals were around those ideas you want to manifest in that shabbat you do now? >> it's interesting because growing up, ãbit was actually i think in many ways doing a

shabbat, before they got divorced there was a lot of rituals. bagel lox and cream cheese every sunday we went to the movies every sunday night. when i was about eight euros old they got divorce which was really a hard period for me. i think in many ways, i do read about this in the book, when i really went deep on the book of why this was so important to me i think a lot of ways i understand how important ritual is for family. and what happens when it breaks. if osama therapy catch a lot of my understanding of how profound it's been for our family, although i think it can also be very meaningful if you're not married or without kids.but for me it's brought such an important ritual that ties us back together each week. during the week we are off doing our separate things and then friday night saturday night's we knit ourselves back together and this really connected way. it's the closest i feel to everyone in the family is on

friday nights, saturday nights. >> that's my daughter. do you want to say hi? >> chloe saiz hi mom. >> at my grandmother's name. >> at your grandmother's name. >> we are doing this for the big book festival. >> i know a little bit about you. >> in the book i talk about how we would make a hallah every week, as soon as the pandemic started, nine weeks ago, we decided to do our hallah baking on zoom. now every week we bake hallah with anywhere from 50 to 150 people on zoom. we bring in guest chef it's been such a fun part of the

pandemic. there was this funny moment today where somebody was asking about the dough was not moist enough and we were saying about how keep needing, that's how you get the dough right. it's so symbolic to the spirit we are in right now is we just have to keep needing the dough. it's so much about processing what's going on and i think a lot of learning the great lessons from this period is about being present for what's going on and not just living in a state of distraction from what's going on. which is very easy to do. you could be on netflix and scrolling this whole period but there's a real opportunity to also really be present to what's happening right now. that was a very long answer.

>> i really enjoyed meeting buma and finding out where some of these ideas generate from. apart from taking your hallah making i'm curious about how the stay-at-home orders and coronavirus pandemic has changed your tech shabbat practice. >> we don't have people over on friday night. we missed that. it's actually, i loved it because really having wonderful conversations is a family normally we have all these new people here. but i feel like that happens in the zoo holiday gets very social. that part was very social but we don't have people over which is very big difference but the saturday part is pretty similar. we've managed to do it when her kids had sports or basketball court but whether we try to not

make any plans saturday. not a lot of plans are happening right now. that way they feel very similar. then saturday night the girls go back online, we go back, we used to go out to the movies and dinner, that's not happening. we go upstairs now. we are all excited to go back online too. that's an important component is that turning it off everything once a week makes you re-appreciate technology in a whole new way to go back home because thank god we have the web right now. by living without it for one day helps to re-appreciate it in this new way when you go back on. kind of this dual benefit each week i can't wait to turn it off besides friday i can't wait to turn it off and then i can't wait i'm usually excited to know what's happened in the world and everything happens exists without you that's a really good thing to know people are saying, what if people can't get in touch with you? i should mention we have a

landline. that's a really good thing to have in california for earthquakes, for fires, for lots of natural disasters but if somebody really needed to get in touch with us they will call us on that landline but it hardly ever rains because saturday is really about us not going outward it's more inward. i think all week long we are text and facebook and zoom. i feel really good to have that boundary of not being available to everybody and everything for one day. >> i know you alluded to this a little bit in the presentation you gave today but i would like to dig in a little bit more because obviously some people would say the pandemic makes taking a tech shabbat more important than ever before how would you respond to those that think that taking a day off from screens maybe on theavaila

them ãbunattainable for them. >> i hear that. i guess i really just i would just ask the person, i think timmy it's really valuing time with or without a pandemic to listen to your own thoughts ......

what you read, i want to take a long walk, play music, water calling, all those things, you just don't realize how much you need a break. if you don't over stimulate, in a state of overstimulation all the time that we forgot what it feels like to not have that and it's so nourishing and all the things i mentioned, i think i would offer to anyone to just try it. leave without all those things, i watched a documentary about the spanish flu, there are journal entries of people and is an opportunity to write about how we are feeling right now and thinking about and it's

important to create a space for that so i would say just try and the other thing, or you try it, we got a lot of time right now but it is about the repetition. some people say i went on vacation and turn off my phone for a couple of days or weeks but to me, the power of unplugging one day a week is really about the ritual and every week i know i'll get a full reset. how might countries specifical specifically, how might it be different? >> you said in a different way, i was first thinking it's good for one day --

>> i think what you're saying is how we coordinate efforts. >> just thinking it's a bit of a mess and some countries more than others. our leaders and everyone else in this practice, how might it -- >> i think i'm not a fan of our present at all. if you spend a day thinking instead of being reactive or listen to the science, i think what's happening is we didn't see a plan in this country well executed. it is a bigger issue about our country but i have often thought, what if i do something

on the same day, what if everyone was with their families and didn't consume for one day, i think we would have better responses to do so many things but currently, i think it was a lot of just running around and not having a response of effort coordinates. of course hospitals can't do it, if they are taking care of patients, they are not going to turn off the screen to make monitor people. i would not think that of course but the majority of people online 24/7, do they really need to be? right now you're in an emergency situation with doctors and essential workers and healthcare workers but i might write about that a little more because i think about it a little more and more because of the great question. >> as opposed really to me, it's not really about -- we're talking about the state of mind

in which it's a manifestation of this idea. from yoga to meditation and i understand because it is the focus of the but i can't help but think the obvious, you have front-line workers, you have to be on the train, whatever it might be, certainly if everyone had that moment to stop and think, maybe we would somehow be a little different, i don't know. obviously the solutions. it might help a little bit. but i know what you're saying, it's a little bit about, we are

so reactive. the internet is built to be a response network. not about things and turn it off and think about that, it's think about what that means or is immediate which is why it's so exciting and fun. i want to live in a world that

the coronavirus, and the internet. to the extent we all are taking more time to connect with people and doing things like in that i agree that there might true living honestly, and think about

the device. an unprecedented way, see the kids going to school. some of them don't have access to the internet. so the fairly disadvantage not to mention in a population. >> i think is a renewed phase. three months ago i was like oh my gosh, all it is doing is human weaknesses comparison into the jealousy and polarization. then the pandemic happened. then i saw creativity happen with all of my collaborations. i agree with the digital divide issue. new york right now, made 29 percent of households didn't have wi-fi. so all of those kids don't have

access. i complete the we talked about a lot of this with the digital divide. then we went away and then finally, i see so many important articles about it. how do we get. one online. highly build more of the that we want. i'm also fearful, i am worried about the tracing software that's going to give the government more power. and that becomes a scarier thing. i am not completely like oh the web is right now. but it was really much more like the one thing is bringing out the worst three months ago and now in like while the web is bringing a lot of good in humanity out right now. and i have cried from laughter and some beautiful things in the last few months. people have shared on social media instead of it being like the thought party of matt, it's like looking for donations that i'm having predict and you can have this stubbornness collaborate or re-create best. i do not. i just see so much more about. so i think i feel like this is a

chance to look at the web. and its potential. it's that issue of the digital divide and really think about the power getting from the companies tracking is one of the applications of that. we have a lot of time to think about this because a lot of us are doing our normal jobs right now. had we take this moment and think what was just take the web to what we wanted to be. i think it is an opportunity. it's because i was feeling like really just this all of us were being sucked into this way we are using it a few months ago to change for me. >> it has change for so many of us. something i wanted to is the idea about taking away screens for one day a week. i think the best practices that i can have as the ones that help me the most where some are going cold turkey for an entire day. it for the rest of the week.

every day, have these boundaries. i don't know, that is just a privilege. just trying to do a little bit every day. and it tiny little bit of meditation or the things that you talk about. >> i thing impulsive to integrate the stuff. let's try and have this so that were not on 24 hours a day. >> i did mention that do these rituals these other six days. like the journaling in the morning. so i do integrate throughout the week, micro interventions. i kinda call them. but again what i feel like the power with a complete power of the practices of the full day. i think it is in tandem. it was is out every weekend. it is a reset and i feel like i was on so much i'm hearing so

much bad news i don't feel good. next week i'm not going to do that. so it gives me that bigger perspective on how to integrated throughout the week. and that i do all of these many things like you said, i felt like i want to be binging for six days. that is why i don't like the word digital detox . and appointed you can completely live without us. but you can't really. throughout the week you can have healthier relationship with it and this one full day, seems to give that perspective that you need every week. >> i thought ask you about the ukulele. [laughter]. >> are you in the computer . >> so, i wonder what some of your favorite shoes are. [laughter]. >> oh my gosh. that's a great question.

well i become an expert. let me just plug this and in one second. [background sounds]. >> the whole household, there there. i don't know if i'm actually in favorite . so what i will tell you is that lately i will play a song that i've been playing a lot is by buffalo springfield from the 60s. something happening here. what is the name of it. well my little family, we can play electric. i have been playing the song a lot. it's very poignant. the protest song. in odessa . my older daughter

plays acoustic guitar. it's like putting your mind in a different mode. i think we are to play music, not thinking about anything else except the music. it is really good to put your mind in a different mode. a little bit every day. and when i think is a whole day every week. i think it helps everything. to just get out of your head. with to on with the web, to get out of the phone and just exist in a different way. i think that is the biggest message. >> willingness musical mate. so i think i will leave it there. a huge thank you. thank you for joining us. you can have this shipped directly to you. and you have been watching bay area book festival.

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are being published this week. harvard university history professor alexander case on pass attempts to abolish change the electoral college in why we still have the electoral college. and, yes, i can say that, comedian judy gold weighs in on free speech and censorship. lawrence roberts recounts the protest against the vietnam war in washington dc. in the spring of 1971 in mayday, 1971. in the revolution, reporter matthew recounts the founding of the new site the drudge report. in his role in challenging mainstream media. also being published this week, former film executive, recalls exceed experiences in the markets and offers his thoughts on the challenges and other entertainment businesses make. then the hunting of hillary, journalists michael antonio reports in the attempt to damage hillary clinton's reputation. fi