Your Mind Is Being Fracked

In this episode of The Ezra Klein Show, Ezra Klein interviews D. Graham Burnett, a historian of science at Princeton University and co-founder of the Strother School of Radical Attention, about the concept of attention in the modern world. They discuss how attention is being "fracked" by the attention economy, comparing it to the extraction of petroleum resources. Burnett explains the historical context of attention, its study in laboratories, and the contradictory definitions of attention by different theorists. They explore the idea of attention as agency versus awareness, the moral panic surrounding technology and attention, and the need for "attention activism." Burnett shares insights from his work at the Strother School, including exercises to experience different kinds of attention, and offers advice on finding "sanctuaries" for true attention in a world of constant distraction.