Podcasts / Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Ep. 398: How Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (w/ Arthur Brooks)

Mar 30, 2026 · 1h 20m · YouTube

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Transcript

asr · 15,286 words · docs

0:01So here's a conundrum about technology and happiness in our current moment.

0:07Did smartphones make us miserable?

0:10Or were we already miserable and then turned to smartphones to cope and this ended up making things worse?

0:17Now this answer matters.

0:19If the second option is right, then creating a deep life in a distracted world is not just about reforming our use of technology.

0:25It involves fixing a more fundamental problem.

0:29And this is what I want to talk about today.

0:32To help me, I'll be joined by Arthur Brooks, who is a number one New York Times best-selling author, columnist for the Atlantic, and professor who teaches leadership and happiness at Harvard.

0:45Brooks has a new book out that's called The Meaning of Your Life, Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness.

0:53In it, he argues that we entered into this age of emptiness starting in the 1990s.

0:58And then in the last decade, new technologies like smartphones and social media served to make things worse.

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