Off The Grid: Leaving Social Media

Nic Antoinette, newsletter writer and essayist who explores collapse, systems, and community experiments. They chat about coping with a rocky Q1, grief showing up in daily rituals, reframing degrowth as right-sizing, money choices and microgrants, and setting boundaries around sharing and audience care. Short, candid, and unexpectedly warm.

Ayana Zaire Cotton, founder of Seeda School and author of the essay on transmuting AI shame, is a teacher of Erotic Engineering — a method for aligning desire with capacity. She explains why she paused using AI, explores the ecological and labor costs of current tools, and outlines practices for slowing down, reclaiming self-respect, and choosing technology that matches values.

JJ Lang, a high-level chess player and writer at the U.S. Chess Federation, joins for a nerdy, personal chat about AI. They trace chess tech from rule-based engines like Deep Blue to neural-net revolutions like AlphaZero. Short, accessible takes on how algorithms reshaped modern chess and why JJ chooses not to use generative AI in their work.

The conversation names three core sources of tension about AI and links them to familiar social media harms. It explores how AI’s efficiency conflicts with personal values and intensifies productivity pressures. The environmental and labor costs behind AI are highlighted. Listeners are offered harm-reduction steps and a suggestion to create a personal AI policy.

Casey Zabala, author, artist, and founder of Modern Witches who makes divinatory tools, joins to discuss AI and spirituality. They explore how chatbots reshape mystical practice. Conversations touch on AI’s impact on intuition and agency. They examine colonial power in tech, astrology linked to AI, and why AI is not a true oracle.

A practical walkthrough for crafting clear AI policies for creative businesses. Shortlists different policy types for personal use, collaborators, and communities. Defines assistive, generative, and agentic AI and outlines privacy, consent, and ownership concerns. Offers a spectrum of boundaries from abstention to unrestricted use and concrete tips for writing transparent, values-aligned rules.

Mel Mitchell-Jackson, adventure artist and craft tutor who helps people heal their relationships to art and tech. They recount early curiosity about chatbots, the seductive shortcut of AI, and moments it felt like addiction. They define AI sobriety as refusing cloud LLMs to protect creativity and labor. They also discuss local models, privacy risks, and reclaiming practice through slow, communal art.

Akua Nyame-Mensah, leadership advisor and certified executive coach with global experience, shares ways to shift from reactive to reflective mindsets. Short takes cover spotting reactivity through rituals, building simple reflection routines, tracking feelings versus facts, and naming practices to reclaim agency. Practical tactics for prioritizing strategic work and reshaping money and work rituals are highlighted.

This week, Cody Cook-Parrott returns to the show to share their new book, The Practice of Attention!We go deep into creative attention, social media addiction, and why we can’t stop checking our email. Tune in as we discuss:Why creative attention is different than distraction or focusHow tending to your attention helps you finish projectsExperimenting with tech breaks, the Wisephone, and the BrickWhich apps grab us: Pinterest vs YoutubeWays to cultivate hobbies, movement regimens & research practicesHow stepping back from social media empowers us to resist political violence  LINKS & RESOURCES:👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails 📔 If you like this episode, make sure you get a copy of Cody's book! (affiliate link)  COMING UP:✨ RSVP for the FREE 2026 Astro & Biz Planning Summit, happening April 17 & 24 on Zoom✏️ Get on the waitlist for COME TO CLASS, a spring workshop on how to teach & sell online with confidence & care COMMUNITY SPONSORS:🌞 Craving a planner that's about permission not perfection? Check out Nine to Kind Planners today. Get 50% off digital planners with code OFFTHEGRID50 & 25% off analog products with code OFFTHEGRID25. Learn more & claim your discount at: https://www.ninetokind.com/pages/offthegrid 

Let’s talk about how bad social media really is for our mental health and relationships. 🫠In this honest and vulnerable conversation, Natalie Lue of Baggage Reclaim helps us dig into:Growing up without the internetRealizing social media is a toxic, codependent relationshipHow your subconscious “goes shopping for flaws and failures” while you scrollThe problems with hate-followingHow to quit stalking ourselves, our friends, our exes, and total strangers onlineWhy we shop more when we’re active on Instagram or TikTokReclaiming your sense of self away from social mediaWhy it’s not your fault if you can’t cope with using the apps   This one goes out to anyone struggling with the harms of social media. Listen to the full episode on Baggage Reclaim here.  RESOURCES + LINKS👋 Download the FREE Leaving Social Media Toolkit🌐 Get on the Interweb waitlist for courses + community💓 Join the Clubhouse for more episodes + emails📔 Buy Amelia's book at yourattentionissacred.com!  COMING UP:✨ RSVP for the FREE 2026 Astro & Biz Planning Summit, happening April 17 & 24 on Zoom✏️ Get on the waitlist for COME TO CLASS, a spring workshop on how to teach & sell online with confidence & care COMMUNITY SPONSORS:🌞 Craving a planner that's about permission not perfection? Check out Nine to Kind Planners today. Get 50% off digital planners with code OFFTHEGRID50 & 25% off analog products with code OFFTHEGRID25. Learn more & claim your discount at: https://www.ninetokind.com/pages/offthegrid