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February 7, 2023 64 mins

You can also listen to this interview on a free app on iTunes and Google Play Store entitled 'Raj Persaud in conversation', which includes a lot of free information on the latest research findings in psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience and mental health, plus interviews with top experts from around the world. Download it free from these links. Don't forget to check out the bonus content button on the app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rajpersaud.android.rajpersaud

All over the world, our ability to pay attention is collapsing. In the US, college students now focus on one task for only 65 seconds, and office workers on average manage only three minutes. New York Times best-selling author Johann Hari went on an epic journey across the world to meet the leading scientists and experts investigating why this is happening to us – and discovered that everything we think we know on this subject is wrong.

We think our inability to focus is a personal failing – a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to us – by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep cases of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows how he learned this in a thrilling journey that takes him from Silicon Valley dissidents who figured out how to hack human attention, to veterinarians who diagnose dogs with ADHD; from a favela in Rio where everyone lost their attention in a particularly surreal way, to an office in New Zealand that discovered a remarkable technique to restore their workers’ attention.

Crucially, he learned how – as individuals, and as a society – we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it. The answers will surprise and thrill you. This is a book about our attention crisis unlike any you’ve read before.

Johann Hari’s books on addiction and depression transformed those debates, appearing in 37 languages, praised by everyone from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky to Hillary Clinton. His TED talks have been viewed 78 million times.

 

What They’re Saying About “Stolen Focus”

‘I think this book is exactly what the world needs right now … I hope everybody buys the book. I promise you it will be worth your time and certainly worth your focus.’

– OPRAH

‘If you want to get your attention and focus back, you need to read this remarkable book. All over the world, Johann Hari interviewed both the leading scientists investigating why we’re losing our focus, and the people developing solutions. He has cracked the code of why we’re in this crisis, and how to get out of it. We all need to hear this message.’

– ARIANNA HUFFINGTON

‘A visionary, systemic, revolutionary and practical guide for creating the new world. Through tireless research and genius insight Johann Hari certainly snapped me to attention. A life changing book.’

– EVE ENSLER

‘Johann Hari’s superb STOLEN FOCUS is a beautifully researched and argued exploration of the breakdown of humankind’s ability to pay attention. It’s a story that so many of us have felt needs to be told, but whose cause and consequences are hard to capture and articulate without guesswork, prejudice or ideology. Hari not only achieves this and mor

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