In his chilling Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, Sundance award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice and Chasing Coral) sounds the alarm about the insidious effects of social media and its potentially devastating consequences for society. Using a range of documentary and fiction techniques, Jeff argues that  tech’s attention extraction model is the “Frankenstein’s Monster” of our time.

How did Jeff crack the code of telling this story in a compelling way that would make visible social media companies’ use of A.I. to prey upon all of us? And what was it like to direct actor  Vincent Kartheiser (Mad Men) playing three versions of himself? Things get personal when Mike confronts his own “dilemma” as someone who has used “growth hacking” in his work, and we ask Jeff, “What apps are still on your phone?”

Jeff’s activist site supporting the move:  thesocialdilemma.com

You can follow us @topdocspod

Other Films by Jeff:

Chasing Ice

Chasing Coral

Hidden Gem: Baraka

Also Mentioned in the Pod:

Center for Humane Technology

The Big Short

Vincent Kartheiser and Mad Men

Citizen Kane

Sundance Film Festival

Yesterbox

Frankenstein

Sophocles' Antigone

Growth Hacking

Mirror Neurons

A/B Testing

Hippocratic Oath

Section 230

Woz and Jobs