Cal Newport is a computer science professor and a New York Times bestselling author who writes about the impact of technology on society, and the struggle to work and live deeply in a world increasingly mired in digital distractions. On this podcast, he answers questions from his readers and offers advice about cultivating focus, productivity, and meaning amidst the noise that pervades our lives.
407 episodes transcribedA blockbuster new study out of MIT takes a closer look at the impact of writing with the help of AI. In today’s episode, Cal breaks down this paper wi...
Back in 2023, Cal gave a detailed deep dive that described the three phases of scientific understanding of smartphones, social media, and kids. In tod...
Few philosophers in recent memory have enjoyed as much attention as Byung-Chul Han. His mix of profundity and pithiness in tackling some of the big is...
In this episode of IN-DEPTH, Cal is joined by Chris Guillebeau, the author of the new book, TIME ANXIETY, and creator of the beloved Art of Non-Confor...
The data shows knowledge workers really are more exhausted and more prone to burnout than ever before. But why? In this episode, Cal draws inspiration...
A common complaint about social media skepticism is that we’re falling into a classic moral panic. We’ve been concerned about many past mass media tec...
A few years ago, in a spirit of post-pandemic experimentation, multiple countries ran formal trials to test a radical idea: shortening the workweek. I...
Summer is here. It’s time to slow down. In this episode, Cal discusses his radically simplified summer schedule and then suggests you similarly inject...
When we think about important accomplishments, we think about grinding through long hours of work. But is this really necessary? In this episode, Cal...
Tyler Cowen recently wrote an article arguing that spending lots of time online is in fact a good thing. In this episode, Cal looks deeper at Cowen’s...
The white whale of modern productivity discourse is achieving an empty email inbox; a goal state that’s often referred to simply as “inbox zero.” In t...
Cal talks a lot about his ideas for producing meaningful work in a distracted world. But how do other people tackle this goal? To help better under th...
In this episode of IN-DEPTH, Cal is joined by David Dewane, the architect responsible for the “eudaimonia machine” featured in DEEP WORK. In this wide...
Cal has been writing about time management for a *long* time. In this episode, he returns to a chapter from a book he wrote twenty years ago that is t...
Phones have been receiving a lot of criticism recently, but what if these concerns are missing the mark? In this episode, Cal introduces the differenc...
In last week’s episode, Cal discussed data that indicate that the rise of the smartphones is making humans measurably dumber. Here he discusses aggres...
Multiple listeners recently sent in a Financial Times article that asks whether humans have passed “peak intelligence.” In this episode, Cal looks clo...
Modern knowledge work jobs should be cushy gigs. Fixed hours, air conditioning, no hard manual labor, flexibility. So why are we so often burnt out an...
One of the most commonly recurring themes on this show is the conflict between too much versus not enough productivity. In this episode, Cal attempts...
In this episode of IN-DEPTH, Cal is joined by the writers Brad Stulberg and Clay Skipper to talk about the topic of “greatness.” They attempt to pick...
