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

Here’s a key question: Did technology like smartphones make us miserable, or were we already miserable and smartphones made it worse? To help figure out this answer, I talked to Arthur Brooks, the New York Times bestselling author and Harvard professor, about this new book: The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. In our conversation, Brooks argues that our current Age of Emptiness began in the 1990s, but technology like smartphones and social media made it worse. We then discuss smart strategies for finding purpose in our current moment. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Send an email to podcast@calnewport.com. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia INTERVIEW: How Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (W/ Arthur Brooks) [1:44] INBOX: Tech employees being evaluated through LLM tokens [1:01:49] Can Cal comment on reading digital books? [1:07:35] WHAT CAL IS UP TO: What Cal is reading [1:13:00] Deep Work HQ update [1:14:37] Books: Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?gizmodo.com/tech-employees-are-reportedly-being-evaluated-by-how-fast-they-burn-through-llm-tokens-2000736627 Thanks to our Sponsors: monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”)butcherbox.com/deepdrinklmnt.com/deepmeetfabric.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, Nate Mechler for research and newsletter, and Mark Miles for mastering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can listen to Ep. 398: How Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (w/ Arthur Brooks) online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Ep. 398: How Do I Find Purpose in a Distracted World? (w/ Arthur Brooks) is an episode from Deep Questions with Cal Newport by Cal Newport.

This episode is 77:34 long.

This episode was published on Mar 30, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Deep Questions with Cal Newport when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.