Jan 26, 2022 • 42M

Stolen focus

My conversation with bestselling British author Johann Hari

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Tara Henley
Conversations with heterodox authors and journalists from around the world, asking the questions that are not being asked.
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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.