4 Podcasts Exploring Our Relationship With Technology
I’ve been going deep on my reading and listening around our relationship with technology. I listened to the Tyler Cowen pod a couple weeks back and then again this week. It’s one of my favorites in recent memory. The other three I listened to today on my drive to and from Santa Barbara. If you have even a remote interest in gaining a deeper understanding how technology is impacting us, I highly recommend the following (in order):
Waking Up with Sam Harris: #71 — What Is Technology Doing to Us?
If you’re only going to listen to one of these, let it be this one. I’m a huge fan of Sam and his podcast is simultaneously challenging and rewarding. It’s always thought-provoking. This episode is a fascinating discussion with Tristan Harris, who most recently left Google where he was a Design Ethicist to start a non-profit called Time Well Spent. This one has had my brain and stomach in knots all day long.
The Ezra Klein Show: Tyler Cowen explains it all
Ezra’s podcast is one of the best out there. He’s a terrific interviewer. Cowen’s blog, Marginal Revolution, has been a staple in my feeds for as long as he’s been doing it. I consider it a secret knowledge weapon of sorts. This conversation covers a vast array of topics, but Tyler’s take on technology and, well, everything else floored me. This is one of the few podcasts I’ve gone back and listened to a second time so I could make notes.
Hidden Brain: Ep. 68: Schadenfacebook
I quit Facebook a while ago and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Almost no one says they are happier using Facebook (or Twitter for that matter) and the severely addictive nature of social media isn’t just making us unhappy, but it’s contributing to the destruction of our ability to do deep thinking and deep work (see below).
The Ezra Klein Show: Cal Newport on doing Deep Work and escaping social media
This was my introduction to Cal Newport, who has some pretty extreme views on how we can break our addictions to distractions and do more meaningful things with our time, particularly at work. It is a struggle to resist the temptations of distractions like email, Slack, Twitter, etc. and focus on deep work and I was inspired by a lot of what Cal talked about.
