Welcome listeners to the First Things Editor's Desk podcast.

This is Rusty Runeo here in New York.

And I'm just delighted to have Michael Tuscano with us for a discussion of his piece in the May 2022 issue ensnared in the web.

Michael Tuscano lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and has written for us on many occasions.

And welcome to the podcast, Michael.

Thank you, Rusty. You opened the piece... and has written for us on many occasions and welcome to the podcast michael thank you rusty

you opened the piece with what i call the prayer position the 21st century prayer position that we often see people at coffee shops or restaurants or even at the dinner table and with their heads bowed.

But they do not have a bribery in their hands, do they?

No, they do not.

No, it's the glowing screen that seems to rivet us.

Yes, absolutely.

When did you first, you know, in your, when did that, I mean, I have a hard time dating that.

What was that for you?

I have a series, a group of memories from when I was a young man living in New York City, I was in Brooklyn.

And I had, was surrounded by some very fashionable hip people.

And these fashionable hip people preferred their Macs. And so whenever a new

Macintosh product was out on the market, they were the first to get it. And so all of a sudden

there was this, I was surrounded by these new handhelds, and I was still analog.

I've always been slow ever since childhood to adopt the latest technological fad.

I think I got that from my parents who were similarly slow.

But it just became impossible to not notice that, as you said, the prayer position was

around me everywhere I went, especially on the subway where you would have dozens of young

...