In a real retreat, if you choose to, your brain retreats into itself. That's a different kind of retreat that into the phone. And it allows a chance for it to go places it wouldn't otherwise go If somebody wasn't talking to you. So I think there's something really powerful there that's not obvious until you've experienced it.
Journalist and author Michael Easter talks about his book The Comfort Crisis with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Easter thinks modern life is too easy, too comfortable. To be healthy, he says, we need to move out of our comfort zones and every once in a while try to do something, especially something physically demanding, that we didn't think was possible. Easter discusses rising levels of anxiety and depression in the West and why taking on challenges can be part of the solution.