Looking Back at a Virtual Year, Boycotting Amazon, Charles Yu, Jenny Odell on 'How To Do Nothing'

Big tech platforms have helped us through a year of uncertainty and isolation. We've leaned on social media to stay connected, and we've used sites like Amazon and Instacart to stay well-supplied. But they're not without their skeletons in the closet. The attempted insurrection yesterday at the Capitol is one result of an online ecosystem where disinformation thrives and where algorithm-driven opinion bubbles have driven a lot of us to the fringes of conspiracy. Sarah Frier, a Silicon Valley reporter for Bloomberg News joins us to talk about how the past year has changed our relationship with the internet in the long term, and what we should keep our eye on in the year ahead.

The New York Times’s John Herrman, who covers tech and media for the Styles section and the Magazine, joins us to discuss his recent piece, “Life Without Amazon (Well, Almost).” Herrman looks at the rising trend of people who are trying to boycott Amazon, but who are finding it difficult to avoid using the company’s services in one way or another.

Charles Yu, winner of the 2020 National Book Award Winner for Fiction, joins us to talks about his first short work of literary fiction since Interior Chinatown. Titled, "The Only Living Girl on Earth," this 10,000-word story will be published on January 8 by Scribd Originals as an e-book and audiobook.

Artist and critic Jenny Odell joins us to discuss her bestselling book How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy now out in paperback. She argues that our attention is the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. Using the lenses of art, philosophy, literature, historical events, and science, Odell challenges readers to take a deeper look at the forces vying for attention and how we respond. We'll also take calls from our listeners about productivity, the pressure to appear busy and productive, and their views on doing "nothing."