146: STOLEN FOCUS, and How You Can Reclaim Your Ability to Think Deeply with Johann Hari

The great Johann Hari is back on the show promoting his latest book "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention". This book is absolutely fantastic, from the front to the back. I personally believe Johann has touched on the most pressing issue facing our contemporary world as it bleeds into many of the problems our societies face. In fact, our ability to think deeply—to observe our impulses, emotions and thoughts—is the very thing that promotes and sustains democracies; so yes, this is seriously important stuff.

Johann Hari is a writer and journalist. He has written for the New York Times, Le Monde, the Guardian and other newspapers. His TED talks have been viewed over 70 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah to Noam Chomsky to Joe Rogan. He lives in London. 

About the book:

We think our inability to focus is a personal failing - a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to all of us by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep cases of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows us how in a thrilling journey that ranges from Silicon Valley dissidents, to a favela in Rio where attention vanished, to an office in New Zealand that found a remarkable way to restore our attention. Crucially, he learned how - as individuals, and as a society - we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it.

This is a really important show guys and one I truly think you will get a lot from; so please have a listen and let me know what you think about our ability to pay attention as a society as well as what we should do to reclaim it.