Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2025-01-17
Books mentioned on Democrats are Losing the War for Attention. Badly. | The Ezra Klein Show
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Sirens' Call
The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes investigates how human attention became one of the most endangered and commodified resources in the modern world.
Recommended“but he just wrote a great book called the sirens call how attention became the world's most endangered resource”
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a media ecology classic arguing that television and modern electronic amusements have trivialized public discourse, transforming serious political and social topics into mere entertainment.
Recommended“always our final question what are three books You'd recommend to the audience so so first I'll start with a classic which is Neil postman's amusing ourselves to death the the goat The Goat in this in this discourse I think it still totally holds up”
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1984
1984 by George Orwell is a dystopian masterpiece depicting a totalitarian regime characterized by extreme surveillance, historical denial, and absolute psychological control.
Discussed“between 1984 which is information constraint and Brave New World which is Overflow of entertainment and information about how we ended up in the Brave New World”
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Brave New World
Aldous Huxley's classic dystopian novel explores a futuristic society conditioned through technology, pharmacological pleasure, and strict social stratification.
Discussed“between 1984 which is information constraint and Brave New World which is Overflow of entertainment and information about how we ended up in the Brave New World”
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How to Do Nothing
How to Do Nothing is a cultural critique and guide by Jenny Odell that examines the attention economy and argues for deliberate disengagement from digital noise.
Recommended“great um another book that has been mentioned on your podcast a lot and relevant which is again I I feel like I'm sort of citing can Tex here and it's important for me to do because I want to be clear as we all are as authors you know lots of people have been thinking about this very well”
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Rejection
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte is a sharp, contemporary collection of short stories that delves deeply into modern isolation, internet subcultures, and the psychological weight of rejection.
Recommended“and then my final is a work of fiction of short stories by an author named Tony Tula Tudi called rejection”
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“when I was a kid I knew the manufacturer suggested retail price of every single car on the road by year like I could tell you not just not just what what a Camry cost but what a 93 Camry cost right cuz you must have had some book I had like the blue book”