Books vs. Brain Rot: why it's so hard to read

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2025

⏱️ 21 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Data from Gallup and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that Americans are reading fewer books and spending less time reading than ever.

There's been reporting on college kids struggling to finish longer texts. And last month, in a viral post, one user lamented their loss of concentration for reading, which led to a larger online discourse about how to approach books again.

Brittany is joined by Elaine Castillo, author of the book How to Read Now, and Abdullah Shihipar, Research Associate at the People, Place and Health collective at Brown University, to get into why reading books is on the decline, the battle for our attention, and what people can do to get their reading grooves back.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Matt Wilson spent years doing rounds at children's hospitals in New York City.
0:04.9	I had a clip on tie. I wore helies, size 11.
0:07.6	Matt was a medical clown.
0:09.7	The role of a medical clown is to reintroduce the sense of play and joy and hope and light into a space that doesn't normally inhabit.
0:18.0	Ideas about navigating uncertainty.
0:20.9	That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.
0:26.5	Hello, hello.
0:28.0	I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR,
0:31.7	a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.
0:43.3	Yeah. culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. In the words of Rupal,
0:45.4	Reading is what fundamental?
0:48.5	But are we losing our grasp on it?
0:51.9	Our ability to read books, or our lack thereof, has been in the zeitgeist lately.
0:57.4	There's been some viral reporting on college kids struggling to finish longer texts.
1:02.1	I've seen multiple posts on X where adults are bemoaning their waning attention spans
1:07.2	and asking for advice on how to read books again.
1:10.3	I mean, you know we're cooked when Oxford's
1:13.1	24 word of the year was brain rot. I'll say for myself, I've been there. I love to read, but I feel
1:20.6	like I've really had to work to be able to enjoy books like I used to. And the data says the same thing.
1:27.4	Polls from Gallup and the Bureau of Labor Statistics
1:30.0	show that Americans are spending less time reading than ever.
1:34.1	So I wanted to know.
	...

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