You know how people say reading makes you smarter? since most of us haven’t finished a book in six months, it’s starting to show.
In this episode of Rationally Insane, Rachel D. Oak digs into the slow cultural suffocation of reading. When did literacy become a liability? And is there any hope of bringing back the bookworm era before our collective attention span combusts?
We talk:
The “aesthetic” book epidemic (coffee table books, I’m looking at you)
How being smart became a PR nightmare
The death of attention (why dopamine wins over depth)
What happened to bedtime stories (and empathy)
Why we stopped calling it “reading” even though we read more than ever
This episode is a love letter to literacy, matcha-fueled tangents included. Because hopefully we didn’t lose reading, we just stopped giving it room to breathe.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
Subscribe to Rachel’s Substack for more long-form essays and reading recs: racheldoak.substack.com
Watch book reactions and commentary on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheAuthorRach
🎧 Follow Rationally Insane wherever you listen to podcasts!
