Charlie Warzel talks with writer John Paul Brammer about recovering a reading life in the age of feeds, alerts, and algorithmic distraction. Their conversation reframes the so-called attention crisis as a crisis of curiosity, arguing that books can restore stillness, deepen thought, and sharpen both writing and the sense of what feels genuinely human.

As AI’s appetite for computing power fuels a nationwide build-out of data centers, local fights over noise, water, electricity, secrecy and tax revenue are turning obscure industrial projects into a volatile new political issue. The backlash is scrambling familiar partisan lines, with populists on the left and right converging against a technology many communities feel is being imposed on them.