About this episode
We are away for Christmas, so this is a repeat of a previous episode.
Are we living through the slow death of reading - replaced by an addictive screen culture that fragments our attention and floods us with trivial or unreliable information? Writer and voracious reader James Marriott believes we are entering a post-literate age with profoundly negative consequences for education, culture and democracy itself. In today's episode, James traces how an 18th century ‘reading revolution’ shaped the modern-world - and what might follow its sudden decline.
Producers: Aron Keller and Sam Chantarasak
Editor: James Shield
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: The al-Nahda al-Arabiya library (Arab Renaissance Library) in central Baghdad. AHMED JALIL/EPA.
Get every episode summarized
Each time The Global Story publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The Global Story
The gathering economic storm
The Global Story
Will his UK ban kill Kanye West's ‘comeback’?
The Global Story
Back from the brink: The Iran ceasefire
The Global Story
The medications that can trigger sex and gambling addictions
The Global Story