Why Reading Feels So Hard Now

Galaxy Brain

The Atlantic

Technology

4.5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 June 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Do you wish you could read more books? You’re not alone. These days, fewer people are reading for pleasure, and even those who do tend to struggle with distractions. Is this a literacy crisis, or has our attention just been warped? And what can we do? In this episode of “Galaxy Brain,” John Paul Brammer joins Charlie Warzel to talk about how he managed to ditch the allure of his screens and social media and rewild his attention. This is a conversation about how to reignite your curiosity, what deep reading does to your mind, and how anyone can learn to love to read again. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. This episode of “Galaxy Brain” was produced by Renee Klahr and engineered by Miguel Carrascal. Our theme is by Rob Smierciak. Hadley Robinson is our senior supervising producer. Claudine Ebeid is the executive producer of Atlantic audio, and Andrea Valdez is our managing editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Carla Lally, cookbook author and snack enthusiast. Do you have a sweet tooth? Check out
0:06.0	Sweets Unwrapped, a podcast from Ferreiro and Atlantic Rethink, the Atlantic's Creative Marketing
0:11.6	Studio. Together we're celebrating the traditions that make life sweet. Tune in now.
0:18.4	Akamai Cloud, GPUs for Agenic AI, bring AI inferencing closer to users everywhere.
0:24.1	Get started at acamy.com slash GPU.
0:26.6	I was just such a dire case of brain being adult by social media that I knew on like a
0:33.6	sort of intuition level that I needed to find a way to make myself hungry for books
0:38.9	because I knew that if I wasn't hungry for them, it was simply not going to happen. It's like
0:43.1	giving yourself homework as an adult. As long as the option is there to not do it, you probably just
0:48.0	won't do it. I'm Charlie Warzel and this is Galaxy Brain, a show today.
0:56.9	We're going to talk about rewilding our attention, and maybe, just maybe, getting a jumpstart on the summer reading lists.
1:03.4	Outside of hosting this podcast, I'm a writer.
1:06.3	And as a writer, I've often harbored a pretty deep insecurity about my reading habits.
1:11.5	Great writers,
1:16.4	at least according to the stereotypes, are supposed to be excellent readers. And it's not just about amassing knowledge, but also picking up on style and form. To read is to be in conversation with
1:21.8	somebody else's ideas. Somebody else's words end up rattling around in your mind. And it is this
1:27.2	intimate, almost
1:28.3	sacred, world-expanding process.
1:30.3	Being a voracious reader doesn't guarantee that you'll be a fantastic writer, but it's
1:34.3	no coincidence that many of the greats confess to getting lost in the written words of others.
1:39.3	But unfortunately, it's hard to get lost in a book these days.
1:42.3	It's not that I'm not reading. Like many of you,
	...

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