Sally Kohn: I have a really unusual and highly privileged life situation where my work is something that I find meaningful, which is the vast majority of people don't like their jobs. She says she was just so excited to write about this thing that she kind of wasn't thinking past like pub date. "I talk in the book about how I really like art that is almost like an empty space"
Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.
“I’ve noticed that the times I’m extra susceptible to being on social media is when I am feeling personally insecure or when I’m dealing with existential dread. That within itself is not part of the attention economy—that’s just a human being having feelings and reacting to things. For me, it’s a question of like, ‘What do I do with that?’ I can either feed it back into the attention economy and actually get more of it back—more anxiety or more existential dread—or I can go in this other direction and spend time alone or with people who care about the same things. Those are places where I can bring my feelings and they won’t destroy me.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@the_jennitaur
jennyodell.com
Jenny Odell on Longform
[00:49] How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Melville House • 2019)
[00:51] ”How To Do Nothing” transcript of keynote talk (Medium • 2017)
[01:10] “A Business With No End” (New York Times • 2018)
[02:30] Evan Ratliff on Cointalk
[02:42] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019)
[03:18] “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Watch” (Museum of Capitalism • 2017)
[05:05] The Bureau of Suspended Objects
[16:55] Gordon Hempton’s “Desert Thunder”
[29:27] Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life (Adam Greenfield • Verso • 2017)
[37:32] Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer • Milkweed Editions • 2015)
[39:25] “Notes of a Bioregional Interloper” (SFMOMA • 2017)
[53:30] Mark Lombardi’s drawings
[56:40] “On How to Grow an Idea” (Creative Independent • 2018)
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