*** Named a best podcast of 2021 by Time, Vulture, Esquire and The Atlantic. *** Each Tuesday and Friday, Ezra Klein invites you into a conversation on something that matters. How do we address climate change if the political system fails to act? Has the logic of markets infiltrated too many aspects of our lives? What is the future of the Republican Party? What do psychedelics teach us about consciousness? What does sci-fi understand about our present that we miss? Can our food system be just to humans and animals alike?

Every day we consume a mind-boggling amount of information. We scan online news articles sift through text messages and emails scroll through our social-media feeds — and that’s usually before we even get out of bed in the morning. In 2009 a team of researchers found that the average American consumed about 34 gigabytes of information a day [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/technology/10data.html]. Undoubtedly that number would be even higher today.

But what are we actually getting from this huge influx of information? How is it affecting our memories our attention spans our ability to think? What might this mean for today’s children and future generations? And what does it take to read — and think — deeply in a world so flooded with constant input?

Maryanne Wolf is a researcher and scholar at U.C.L.A.’s School of Education and Information Studies. Her books “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/proust-and-the-squid-maryanne-wolf?variant=32122454671394]” and “Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/reader-come-home-maryanne-wolf?variant=32128334594082]” explore the relationship between the process of reading and the neuroscience of the brain. And in Wolfe’s view our era of information overload represents a historical inflection point where our ability to read — truly deeply read not just scan or scroll — hangs in the balance.

We discuss why reading is a fundamentally “unnatural” act how scanning and scrolling differ from “deep reading” why it’s not accurate to say that “reading” is just one thing how our brains process information differently when we’re reading on a Kindle or a laptop as opposed to a physical book how exposure to such an abundance of information is rewiring our brains and reshaping our society how to rediscover the lost art of reading books deeply what Wolf recommends to those of us who struggle against digital distractions what parents can do to to protect their children’s attention how Wolf’s theory of a “biliterate brain” may save our species’ ability to deeply process language and information and more.

Mentioned:

The Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780312278496/theglassbeadgame] by Hermann Hesse

How We Read Now [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-we-read-now-9780190084097?cc=us&lang=en&] by Naomi S. Baron

The Shallows [https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393357820] by Nicholas Carr

Yiruma [https://open.spotify.com/artist/0fauHpmSHwodVYIjTqOGHz?si=l8-EYpXpT2y2y6fkUk_x4w]

Book Recommendations:

The Gilead Novels [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374605353/thegileadnovelsoprahsbookclub] by Marilynne Robinson

World and Town [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/87014/world-and-town-by-gish-jen/] by Gish Jen

Standing by Words [https://www.counterpointpress.com/dd-product/standing-by-words/] by Wendell Berry

Love’s Mind [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Love_s_Mind/WMgCAAAACAAJ?hl=en] by John S. Dunne

Middlemarch [https://www.gutenberg.org/files/145/145-h/145-h.htm] by George Eliot

Thoughts? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. (And if you’re reaching out to recommend a guest please write  “Guest Suggestion” in the subject line.)

You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast [https://www.nytimes.com/column/ezra-klein-podcast] and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs [https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.html].

This Conversation About the 'Reading Mind' Is a Gift

The Ezra Klein Show