Stolen Focus Book Club

Bad On Paper

Becca Freeman

Skincare, Beauty, Society & Culture, Comedy, Advice, Books, Arts, Careers

4.9 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 January 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s our first Book Club episode of the year! As tradition dictates, we’re starting 2025 with a nonfiction book, Stolen Focus by Johann Hari.

We discuss our overall thoughts on the book, its major themes, how it connects to current events, and our evolving relationships to social media, reading, multitasking, focus, and more! We also ponder if we would go on a 3-month trip without using internet-connected devices.

Related to this topic! A listener suggested using the screen time app Opal. We also recommend reading the newsletter Break Free From the Internet, our Social Media Habits episode with Leslie Stephens, the Search Engine episode “Is there a sane way to use the Internet?,” and Kate Lindsay’s piece in Embedded ‘You might just have to be bored.’

Obsessions

Olivia - The Book Case Podcast

Becca - Peter Thomas Roth FIRMx® Collagen Face & Eye Hydra-Gel Patches

What we read this week

Becca - Beg, Borrow, or Steal by Sarah Adams, One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (out May 6), Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Olivia - Stolen Focus by Johann Hari, Isola by Allegra Goodman, Schroder by Amity Gaige

This Month’s Book Club Pick - Isola by Allegra Goodman (have thoughts about this book you want to share? Call in at 843-405-3157 or email us a voice memo at [email protected])

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, everyone and welcome to Bout on Paper Podcast. I'm Olivia Mentor.
0:21.7	And I'm Becca Freeman.
0:23.3	And today is our first book club episode of the year.
0:26.3	We're going to be talking about Stolen Focus by Johann Hari.
0:30.6	I'm looking forward to this one.
0:33.0	I am too.
0:34.0	Also, for some podcast inside baseball, I have cajoled Olivia into recording at 9 a.m. on Friday
0:41.0	because I have this theory that I sound better. I don't talk as fast. I don't say like as much
0:49.3	when we record first thing in the morning because my brain is moving slower. And it's funny because
0:55.2	you're the morning person among us. I'm not really a morning person. So we're going to see how
0:59.8	this goes. We've recorded early randomly when we've had to move the podcast. And I always end up
1:06.0	liking those episodes. So we'll see if we end up moving our recording time ongoing.
1:11.7	I did just do the intro and forget to introduce myself slash then forget how the intro goes.
1:17.5	So, but I do that all the time.
1:18.8	Strong starts.
1:20.2	I do that all the time.
1:21.0	It's fine.
1:21.3	It'll be good.
1:21.8	It's good to switch things up every now and then for sure.
1:24.4	Well, tell me your high.
1:26.2	My high is that finally everyone, I'm sure,
1:29.9	is on the edge of their seats. Finally, we have a heat source in the writing cottage. So it's done.
	...

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