The Week Unwrapped podcast: Dopamine fasting, AI interviews and old tunes

Olly Mann and The Week delve behind the headlines and debate what really matters from the past seven days.

In this week’s episode, we discuss:

Dopamine fasting

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Flicking through Twitter, shopping online and even engaging in deep conversation are some of the many daily activities that tech executives are dodging in the latest trend that’s set to sweep across Silicon Valley: dopamine fasting. The idea is simple: go without life’s instant thrills for an hour or so every day to improve productivity and reduce stress - but some may already be taking it a step too far.

AI recruitment

Singapore’s largest bank has been using an AI chatbot named Jim to screen entry-level job applicants. The bank says AI is better at evaluating applicants because it’s faster and has no bias. Soon the company may deploy AI to help with the actual interview process. This raises several questions: is speed really the most important factor in sorting applicants? How do you write a cover letter that appeals to a robot? What kind of biases might creep in? And are we ready to lose the human element of hiring?

New music for old people

When your elderly relatives decry your youthful taste in music, it's easy to dismiss them as curmudgeonly or simply out of touch. But it turns out science may be on their side, with a new study revealing that people stop discovering new music at around the age of 30. But will streaming and available music break this rule for good?

You can subscribe to The Week Unwrapped on the Global Player, Apple podcasts, SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts. It is produced by Sarah Myles and the music is by Tom Mawby.