Banning TikTok, ‘Coming of Age in a Digital World’, Ramadan

The holy month of Ramadan began this week. Salima Suswell, the founder and CEO of the new Black Muslim Leadership Council, joins us talk about how she observes Ramadan, the daily rituals and the festive evening meals. We’ll also talk to her about the concerns of Philadelphia’s large Black Muslim community.

Congress is debating a ban on TikTok, the wildly popular social media app. Lawmakers are concerned the app poses a national security threat and could be used to surveil Americans. The House votes Wednesday on a bill to force the China-based parent company ByteDance to either divest or be banned in U.S. app stores. We’ll talk with Washington Post tech reporter Will Oremus about the arguments for and against the ban, how millions of users are responding, and why former President Trump flip-flopped on TikTok.

Young people spend a lot of their life online – the average teen spends nine hours a day, streaming shows, playing games and on social media. That may sound scary but it’s not all bad, says media scholar Devorah Heitner. In her recent book, Growing Up in Public: Coming of Age in the Digital World, she offers realistic advice on how to teach kids to be tech smart and advises parents to be aware but not overbearing – she suggests limiting the parental tracking. We’ll talk with Heitner about the good and bad of online life, the big digital pitfalls young people face and how to avoid them.