#115 Be Here Now: Yondr CEO Graham Dugoni shares why he founded a company creating phone-free spaces

A few months ago, my family and I plus about 20,000 other people went to see a live comedy event. What made it so unusual was that none of the 20,000 of us had our smart devices available. Instead, those devices were locked away in magnetic pouches required by the venue.

The result? We, and everyone we talked to, agreed that the tech-free show was a superior experience. Simply put, we connected better with the comedian—who we had paid to see—and felt less distracted by cameras and the lights of the smart devices we had not paid to see.

On the drive home I decided to get in touch with the CEO of the company to have a conversation about the psychology behind the product.

That CEO, who is named Graham Dugoni, was happy to meet and gave a great interview as you’ll hear. His company called Yondr (https://www.overyondr.com/) has been gaining popularity at live events with both the attendees and artists. It’s even being used successfully at schools to the benefit of teachers and students. Yondr’s motto, “Be here now,” is on-point and may even be a tip of the hat to the brilliant thinking of Ram Dass. Graham is very philosophical and thoughtful and we talk about how he came up with the idea for Yondr as well as the costs that unwanted technology has had on our attention spans.

So, listen in as Graham and I have a lively conversation about our attention and how to temporarily shut down unwanted technology.