Stolen focus

I first met Johann Hari in a coffee shop in London. Chasing the Scream, his deep dive into the war on drugs, radically shifted the thinking around addiction. When I sat down with him, we were discussing his next game changer, Lost Connections, which transformed the public conversation around mental health.

This week Hari has published a new “big think” book, and he’s now poised to have a similar impact on the debate over the attention crisis. Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — and How to Think Deeply Again is a thought-provoking journey into the forces robbing us of our attention, from big tech to poor nutrition, pollution, and stress — and a look at how we might begin to reclaim our minds, and our lives.

I’m thrilled to have one of my favourite writers on the Lean Out podcast this week, in a wide-ranging discussion about how the attention crisis affects us as individuals and as a society. (And as media!) My guest today is the excellent and very engaging Johann Hari.