Rewilding Attention with D. Graham Burnett

About this episode

D. Graham Burnett discusses the alarming competition for our attention and the movement to reclaim it from the attention economy.

We all know our attention is being competed for — but historian of science D. Graham Burnett calls it something more alarming: a "civilizational biohack." In this episode, we talk with Burnett, a Princeton historian of science and co-founder of " The Friends of Attention ," about the movement to liberate our minds from the 17-trillion-dollar attention economy. He draws on surprising sources — the German Romantics, St. Augustine, Simone Weil, Henry James — to argue that we've lost touch with older, richer forms of attention. And he makes the case that reclaiming it will require more than screentime apps or digital detox – it’ll take collective resistance. Plus: why your Pilates class, your evening needlework, or your walk with the dog might already be forms of radical attention — and how reframing everyday activities can make ordinary life feel richer, more mysterious and more full of wonder. – “Attensity: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement ” The Friends of Attention The Strother School of Radical Attention D. Graham Burnett website – 0:00 Introduction 3:00 Human Fracking 27:30 Attention as Generosity 30:55 Wonder and Disenchantment Wonder Cabinet is hosted by Anne…

People in this episode

Hosts: Anne Strainchamps, Steve Paulson

Guest: D. Graham Burnett

Topics covered

• attention economy
• civilizational biohack
• collective resistance
• radical attention
• historian of science

Keywords

• attention
• biohack
• resistance
• German Romantics
• digital detox
• ordinary life
• radical attention

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Friends of Attention

Books & works: Attensity: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement

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