Amusing Ourselves to Death

Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing, built the modern automobile industry, and amassed one of the greatest fortunes in American history. Then he decided to conquer the Amazon. In this installment of our series on company towns, we explore Fordlandia—the bizarre Midwestern uto ...  Show more

George Pullman built his employees a sparkling company town with clean homes, parks, libraries, luxury trains, and some of the best living conditions in the country—but demanded obedience in return. When recession hit and workers rebelled against wage cuts and paternalistic contr ...  Show more

We use “Orwellian” to describe everything from campus dust-ups to authoritarian crackdowns. But what did George Orwell actually stand for, what did he get wrong, and what can we learn from him about our age of surveillance capitalism and distraction? Sean’s guest is Laura Beers, ...  Show more

From doublethink and thoughtcrime to coming face-to-face with our worst nightmares inside Room 101, few writers have had as much impact on the popular imagination as George Orwell. But what compelled the author of 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' to conjure up such dark, ...  Show more

In an Orwellian twist, the word “Orwellian” has been misused so much over the decades that it’s essentially lost its meaning. But George Orwell, author of the classics Animal Farm and 1984, was very clear in his beliefs. While he was progressive and prescient in many ways, he was ...  Show more

Matthew Syed asks what it means to be distracted in a media world vying for our attention.In this first episode, he seeks answers in the work of the media theorist and educator Neil Postman. Forty years ago Postman wrote 'Amusing Ourselves To Death: Public Discourse in the Age of ...  Show more