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Cal Newport offers insights on productivity, digital fatigue, and the importance of focusing on quality work while minimizing context switching and protecting one's attention in an increasingly distracted world.
Cal Newport and Ed Zitron dissect the tumultuous year of AI in 2025, revealing a narrative of technological hype, financial unsustainability, and diminishing returns, ultimately concluding that it was a terrible year for artificial intelligence.
Cal discusses the power of using single-purpose notebooks for creative exploration, highlighting how dedicating a small notebook to a specific idea can help focus cognitive context, reduce friction in capturing thoughts, and create a ritualistic approach to developing creative insights.
Cal recommends six books for starting 2025 deeper: Walden by Thoreau, Lincoln's Virtues by Miller, The Case for God by Armstrong, You Are Not a Gadget by Lanier, The Shallows by Carr, and Falling Upward by Rohr, each offering unique insights into living a more meaningful life.
In this episode, Cal Newport and Tyler Austin Harper discuss Paul Kingsnorth's provocative book "Against the Machine," exploring why it's resonating with readers by offering a humanistic critique of technology that focuses on setting personal limits to preserve human flourishing.
A comprehensive year-end ritual that guides listeners through six powerful questions to reflect on the past year's low and high points, extract valuable lessons, and strategically plan for making the upcoming year the best one yet.
Cal Newport unpacks Derek Thompson's essay "Everything is Television" by exploring how internet-based media is increasingly adopting the continuous, non-specific video flow characteristic of traditional television, driven primarily by economic incentives in the media landscape.
Cal explores life advice from five legendary writers, transforming their writing insights into practical strategies for cultivating a deeper, more intentional life by minimizing distractions and focusing on meaningful progress.
Cal Newport explains why current language models are not conscious or alive, debunking claims by Brett Weinstein and others by detailing the static, computational nature of AI systems and emphasizing the need to focus on AI's actual current impacts rather than speculative fears about superintelligence.
Cal explores the hidden factor making knowledge workers miserable: unpredictable work boundaries caused by digital communication technologies, which disproportionately impacts women and creates constant, unscheduled work expectations.
In this episode, Cal Newport explores the concept of "long thinking" - a critical cognitive skill being eroded by digital technology, and offers a notebook-based method for reclaiming the ability to generate original, meaningful insights through persistent and intentional thought.
In this episode, Cal Newport explores how Abraham Lincoln navigated the distractions, dangers, and darkness of his era through purposeful reading and continuous self-improvement, offering a "Lincoln Protocol" as a model for modern individuals to resist digital traps and build a meaningful life.
Cal Newport provides a detailed critique of Eliezer Yudkowsky's arguments about the existential threat of superintelligent AI, arguing that current AI models are simply unpredictable word-guessers rather than intentional beings, and that fears of superintelligence are based on a philosophical thought experiment that has been mistaken for reality.
Nathan Labenz discusses the ongoing progress in AI capabilities, countering arguments that AI is stalling, by highlighting advances in reasoning, context windows, multimodal abilities, and scientific contributions, while also exploring potential societal impacts and challenges in AI development.
Cal Newport explores how Abraham Lincoln navigated the distractions, dangers, and darkness of the 19th-century frontier by using purposeful reading and a systematic approach to self-improvement, offering a protocol for modern individuals to resist digital traps and build meaningful lives.
Nathan Labenz and Eric discuss the current state of AI, arguing that contrary to claims of slowing progress, AI is continuing to advance rapidly across various domains, including reasoning, scientific discovery, and multimodal capabilities.
In this episode, Cal Newport explores the neuroscience behind phone addiction, explaining how dopamine-driven reward systems in our brain make smartphones so compelling, and offering practical strategies to reduce phone overuse by eliminating strong reward signals and reducing the ubiquity of digital cues.
In this episode, Cal Newport explores the internet's best advice for reinventing your life by analyzing five popular reset videos, extracting key insights about brain dumping, information consumption, goal-setting, reading, and multi-scale planning.
Cal explores the inner workings of TikTok's recommendation algorithm, revealing how its machine learning system blindly curates content without human values, potentially amplifying humanity's darker impulses and creating concerning societal impacts.
Cal Newport interviews Brian Keating, a distinguished physics professor, about his journey in academia, his latest book on Nobel Prize winners' focus strategies, and the importance of deep work and crystallized intelligence in scientific research.
Cal Newport argues that curated conversation platforms like Twitter and Facebook are inherently harmful, creating a "slope of terribleness" that pulls users into distraction, demoderation, and potential disassociation, ultimately suggesting people should quit these platforms entirely.
Cal explores the unexpected productivity impact of AI on software developers, revealing that interactive AI collaboration can actually slow down deep work by reducing focus intensity and creating a less efficient workflow.
In this episode, Cal Newport explores the phenomenon of declining IQ scores, known as the "reverse Flynn effect," attributing it to decreased reading habits and smartphone-induced attention degradation. He offers practical strategies for maintaining cognitive abilities in a world of increasing technological distraction, emphasizing the importance of focused work, attention training, and mindful technology use.
Tim Ferriss discusses creating Coyote, a fast-casual card game designed to be fun while also serving as a brain workout for players. The conversation explores the intricate process of game design, the importance of play in maintaining creativity, and Ferriss's journey of finding balance and depth in his professional life.
Professor Cal Newport shares strategies for reclaiming your time and productivity by adopting a "slow productivity" approach that focuses on doing fewer things with higher quality, working at a natural pace, and being intentional about how you spend your time.
Here's a two-sentence description for the episode: In this episode, Cal Newport critically examines a provocative Wall Street Journal op-ed by 22-year-old entrepreneur Emil Barr, who argues that work-life balance leads to mediocrity. Newport systematically breaks down different definitions of professional success, demonstrating that while some career paths may require intense effort, most definitions of success do not necessitate sacrificing health, relationships, or well-being.