Paper and Smoke: A Technologist's Journey Through Digital Detox

Paper and Smoke: A Technologist's Journey Through Digital Detox

By: Joe Casabona

Language: en

Categories: Society, Culture, Philosophy, Education, Self Improvement

This is a closer look at how real-world craft happens, through the lens of a technologist going through digital detox. In a society increasingly online (and outsourcing thinking to AI), Paper and Smoke celebrates the real, the tangible, and the analog. paperandsmoke.com

Episodes

2026: The Year of Digital Detox
Jan 09, 2026

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they’ve consumed too much of something, and they find the very notion of consuming more sickening. This is the very basis for my yearly theme. 2025 was finally the year were I felt my overconsumption of technology was getting the best of me. So this year, my theme is digital detox.

Read about it here: https://paperandsmoke.com/p/my-2026-yearly-theme-the-year-of

Show Notes

My 2026 Yearly Theme

My 2025 Yearly Theme

Yearly Theme Archive

My Interview with Amanda Goetz (It was...

Duration: 00:29:51
The Rabbit Hole of Futility
Jan 04, 2026

It’s likely a coincidence that the best quarter in my business was also the quarter where I left nearly all social media behind. The truth is that it’s been a gradual process that started when I left Twitter in December 2024.

I was tired of reading garbage, and engaging in garbage, and the benefit I was getting from being on the platform was basically non-existent.

Since then, I realized most social media apps are like that. I got rid of Threads (apparently right before they changed it to be less like garbage), then TikTok. Thos...

Duration: 00:18:49
On Generosity: My Favorite Christmas Story
Dec 20, 2025

I knew from a young age, I wanted to play the drums. I got my first small kit when I was five, and when my friends and I started a "band," heavy quotes, I played paint buckets. When I was 15 years old, I knew I needed a real kit.

This is the story of how I got it, and how one man's incredible kindness had a profound effect on me.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit paperandsmoke.com

Duration: 00:06:54
Welcome to Paper and Smoke
Dec 08, 2025

I am no Luddite. I have three pieces of technology that monitor my health and wellness. I’ve come to rely on many devices.

That is why I am doing a digital detox.

This is Paper and Smoke. It’s a look at how real-world craft happens, through the lens of a technologist going through digital detox. In a society increasingly online (and outsourcing thinking to AI), Paper and Smoke celebrates the real, the tangible, and the analog.

Subscribe at https://paperandsmoke.com or wherever you get your podcasts



This is a...

Duration: 00:03:25