WITHpod Special: Hear a Chapter of Chris’ New Book: ‘The Siren’s Call’

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hi, WITHpod listeners! It’s an exciting day and we have a special treat for you. Today, we’re sharing the first chapter of Chris’ new book, “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource.’ From the book description: We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from The Sirens’ Call by Chris Hayes, read by Chris Hayes. © 2025 Christopher Hayes, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, and welcome to why is this happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
0:20.5	Well, today's a big day for me. A day I've been looking forward to for a while, and I'm really excited what we have for you, the listener. The book that I've been working on for the last few years, The Sirens Call, how attention became the world's most endangered resource, is out today. You can get it wherever books are sold. And also, and this is crucial,
0:39.4	you can get it from your local library. And if they don't have it, you can go to your local
0:42.9	library and you can say, I would love for you to order this book. And often, in most cases,
0:47.5	they will. Also, there are apps for your local library to get audiobooks if you want to listen
0:52.9	to me read the book, which I think a lot of people
0:54.8	who are with pod listeners might be interested in. And on that note, we have a special exclusive
0:59.3	treat for you today. The first chapter of the book, I read the audiobook. I've read the last two books
1:05.0	I've done. I've read the audiobooks. I love reading the audiobooks. Obviously, I talk for a living,
1:09.2	so it's something I'm pretty comfortable with, as you probably know. And so I read the audiobooks. Obviously, I talk for a living, so it's something I'm pretty comfortable with,
1:11.1	as you probably know. And so I read the audiobook. I really enjoyed reading this audio book.
1:16.5	I actually wrote the book in a kind of, I don't know, fairly voicy oral register, if that makes
1:22.2	sense. I think influenced by the now 12 years of cable news I've been doing. So today, in your feed right now, after I stopped talking, the first chapter of the Sirens Call
1:32.8	Call, read by yours truly, again, go to sirenscallbook.com if you want to order the book,
1:39.6	and there's all sorts of places, including independent booksellers, and also talk to your library. If you don't want to order the book, but would like to listen or read it nonetheless.
1:48.3	So, without further ado, the sirens call.
1:57.7	Chapter 1.
1:59.9	Let us begin with a story from Odysseus' journey.
2:03.4	In book 12 of the Odyssey, our hero is about to depart the island of the goddess Circe,
2:08.1	when she gives him some crucial advice about how to navigate the perils of the next leg of his voyage.
2:14.1	Pay attention, she instructs him sternly.
2:17.4	First you will come to the sirens who enchant all who come near them.
	...

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