Episode · The Ezra Klein Show · 2024-05-31
Books mentioned on Your Mind Is Being Fracked
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Anxious Generation
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is a prominent book examining the negative impacts of modern technology and social media on youth mental health.
Discussed“so John height writes this book The anxious generation part of the book's thesis is that smartphones and social media have kicked off a mental health crisis”
Where to get it
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The Attention Economy
Discussed“two Biz School theorists Davin Porton Beck do a book called um the attention economy I think it's 2001”
Where to get it
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Taking Care of Youth and the Generations
Discussed“the recently deceased French philosopher Bernard eer in a beautiful and difficult book called taking care of the youth and the generations centers that book on attention”
Where to get it
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The Wings of the Dove
Discussed“in the early 20th century novel wings of the dove the American novelist Henry James describes a really beautiful and intense scene”
Where to get it
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Suspensions of Perception
Discussed“in a book called suspensions of perception published around 2000 he made a super challenging argument about where that language of attention comes from”
Where to get it
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman is a media theory classic examining how the shift from print to television has degraded public discourse into mere entertainment.
Discussed“you go back in your readal Postman amusing ourselves to death”
Where to get it
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The Affluent Society
The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith is a classic economic treatise that examines the consequences of increased wealth and material abundance in modern societies, arguing that society focuses too heavily on private consumption while public infrastructure and what truly makes life worth living are neglected.
Discussed“you can read the affluence Society by John Kenneth GB and he's very interested in this question”
Where to get it
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Jim Fixx's second book of running
Jim Fixx's second book of running by James F.
Discussed“he wrote the book Running in what was it 77 before that regular people didn't go jogging”
Where to get it
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Addiction by Design
Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schüll is a 2012 cultural anthropology and science-and-technology studies book that investigates the machine-human interface of gambling, focusing specifically on how modern video poker and slot machines are engineered to induce hypnotic states of flow and compulsive behavior in players.
Recommended“uh it's called addiction by Design Natasha dul is a science and technology studies scholar”
Where to get it
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Objectivity
Objectivity by Lorraine Daston and Peter L.
Recommended“a second book that I love and that also comes out of my field and that I think is a deep and hard but beautiful and important book for thinking about the history of science would be the book objectivity by Peter Gallison and Lorraine daston”
Where to get it
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The Confidence Man
Herman Melville's final novel The Confidence Man is a darkly satirical and deeply philosophical work set aboard a Mississippi River steamboat on April Fool's Day, examining human gullibility, trust, and deception.
Recommended“but I'm going to invoke his much stranger book The cont man which is a book about how belief happens and who the people are who can make us believe”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“it's by Herman Melville of course the author of Moby Dick a book I also love”