Vishen LakhianiFounder of Mindvalley | NYT Bestselling Author | Transforming Lives Globally

Our surroundings poison us unknowingly

5 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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Vishen Lakhiani warns that modern environments (notably widespread use of smartphones/tablets by children born after 2008) may have long-term harmful effects that won’t be understood for generations, drawing an analogy to how ancient Romans unknowingly poisoned themselves with lead in aqueducts and suggesting current parents (including the speaker) may be part of the first affected generation.

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Ancient Romans, they built aqueducts and they coated the aqueducts with lead. And there's a theory that why there were so many mad Roman emperors like Calubala, who played the fiddle while Rome burned, was that the Romans were poisoning themselves with lead. And lead poisoning literally makes you mad. But the Romans didn't figure that out until many, many, many generations later. And many mad emperors. And anyone right now who's born after 2008 is basically growing up with iPhones and tablets. We could really be messing up our kids and we won't even know for many, many more years. Are we going to be smarter and figure this out? Because we're in the first generation and you just make me realize that that's my kids.