Here’s a dystopian stat for you: Prisoners get 20x more outdoor time than our kids.
A UK study revealed that prisoners get about two hours of outdoor time daily. Kids get about 4 to 7 minutes.
Why is that? Where is that time going? What’s the impact? And: how do we handle it?
That’s the focus of the latest Thought Liters, featuring Ketaki Desai, CEO of Dashstrom. Full episode below:
The Crisis of "Safetyism"
We are living in an era of what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls "safetyism," marked by a culture where obsession with protecting children from discomfort actively harms their development.
As Ketaki put it over our first pour (Gen. Braddock’s — good stuff): "We’re raising kids thinking that there are no potholes. There is no failure. Everything is perfect.".
But the road does have potholes. And because we aren't letting kids stumble over them on the playground, they are crashing when they hit the real world. The consequences are tragic: suicide attempts have become alarmingly prevalent in children aged 5 to 11, and rates of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing.
Rewiring the Brain for Resilience
Clearly, there’s a problem. Ketaki took “flight” with me to share the solution.
Her company, Dashstrom, is built on a single, powerful truth: Confidence comes from doing hard things.
Drawing on the concept of neuroplasticity, Ketaki explains that a child's brain is moldable. When a kid scrapes their knee, resolves a fight with a friend, or pushes through physical exhaustion, their brain literally wires itself for resilience. When we remove those struggles, we short circuit that process.
Ketaki’s mission is personal. Growing up below the poverty line in India, she learned early that no one was going to fix her problems for her. She combined that grit with the experience of her co-founder: a self-described former "kid in the back of the gym smoking pot" who transformed herself into an Iron Man triathlete. Together, they’re scaling and spreading a curriculum that teaches kids how to fail, get up, and try again.
Why You Should Watch
Whether or not you’re a parent, there are a ton of tidbits and anecdotes to enjoy here, like:
The "Old Lady" Technique: A brilliant way to teach kids how to handle negative thoughts without letting them take over.
The Science of Struggle: Why "safe spaces" shouldn't mean freedom from failure, but the freedom to fail safely.
The Summit: Ketaki’s harrowing story of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro at -60°C, and the business advice she found at the top.
We can’t banish screens forever. But we can change how we prepare the next generation to navigate the world beyond them.
This is the second installment of the “Six Pack” series, in partnership with Innovation Works. IW is an investor in Dashstrom.
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And: if you know someone whose story should be told here: please reach out.
Cheers!
Adam
