On October 14, 2026, MIT professor and bestselling author Sherry Turkle will join mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn for a live conversation at All Souls Church in New York City. The event celebrates Turkle's new book, Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines, published September 29 by Little, Brown and Company. This marks the third conversation between the two thinkers, produced by Steve Stein and WisdomFeed Publishing, following two online episodes of the StreetSmart Wisdom Podcast.
The discussion arrives at a critical moment when artificial intelligence is moving beyond information and productivity into deeply human territory: companionship, empathy, advice, loneliness, and relationships. Turkle's book examines what happens when people turn to machines not simply to accomplish tasks, but for forms of companionship, counsel, and emotional connection once associated with human relationships. This shift raises profound questions about the nature of empathy and the future of human interaction.
During their first StreetSmart Wisdom conversation, Turkle described the urgency of the moment: "This is a break the glass moment. How are we going to govern? How are we going to think about the challenge we face?" Kabat-Zinn approached the same moment through the relationship between the digital world and our analog humanity: "What is happening now is the convergence of the analog and the digital in such a way that we had best... realize the full dimensionality and potential of the analog world before... we lose it to... fake empathy from machines." Those questions are at the heart of Turkle's new book.
In that earlier conversation, Turkle posed a question that has become increasingly central as conversational AI enters everyday life: "The question for me is, is pretend empathy enough? And how do we as people who have this extraordinary gift for real empathy because of... the arc of a human life... How do we connect?" The October 14 event will bring these questions to a live audience and via livestream, marking the first time Turkle and Kabat-Zinn will meet in person for this dialogue.
The conversation brings together Turkle's decades of research into our evolving relationship with technology and Kabat-Zinn's decades of work on mindfulness, awareness, and presence. Kabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and his work has played a major role in bringing mindfulness into medicine, health care, and mainstream culture. Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and an internationally recognized scholar of the relationship between people and technology.
Following the program, Turkle will sign copies of Artificial Intimacy. The event will take place at All Souls Church, 1157 Lexington Avenue, New York City. In-person and livestream attendance are available, and information and registration can be found at https://wisdomfeed.thrivecart.com/artificial-intimacy/.
This conversation matters because it directly addresses the implications of AI's growing role in emotional lives. As machines become more adept at simulating empathy, the distinction between real and artificial connection blurs. Turkle and Kabat-Zinn argue that this is a pivotal moment to consider how we govern and think about these challenges, and to preserve the full dimensionality of the analog world before it is lost to fake empathy from machines. Their dialogue offers a timely exploration of what it means to be human in an age of artificial intimacy.
