Deep Questions with Cal Newport

By Cal Newport

Cal Newport is a computer science professor and a New York Times bestselling author who writes about the impact of technology on society, and the struggle to work and live deeply in a world increasing... more

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The podcast currently has 463 episodes available.

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Number 1: Has AI “Gone Rogue”? Let’s Look Closer… | Tech Decoded
Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) Has AI “Gone Rogue” (2:25) Observation #1 - Most Superhuman AI is well behaved (4:28) Observation #2 - A specific type of AI system is causing these problems (9:59) Observation #3 - This specific type of system is a bad idea (21:25) Observation #4 - The AI companies are negligent (27:04) Observation #5 - We can push back Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow https://www.anthropic.com/news/investigating-incidents-cybersecurity-evals https://apnews.com/article/meta-ai-hacking-anthropic-irregular-openai-0e8061437da6779be962b24ac134a514 https://x.com/_NathanCalvin/status/2080685870877757551 https://huggingface.co/learn/agents-course/unit1/agent-steps-and-structure https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwAOHVBKTwg Sponsor: https://www.donedaily.com Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
August 27, 202636min
Number 2: Did OpenAI Create “Secret AI Civilizations”? | Tech Decoded
Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) Does OpenAI create “secret AI civilizations”? (1:59) What’s the deal with “agent swarms”? (8:54) Should we be worried that the agents are plotting? (17:39) How should we be thinking about all of this? Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/openai-huggingface https://calnewport.com/has-ai-gone-rogue/ https://calnewport.com/are-we-at-war-with-ai-agent-civilizations/ Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
September 03, 202627min
Number 3: How I’m Organizing My Life this Fall | Advice
It’s that time of year again when Cal tunes up his organizational systems for the onslaught of the fall. In this episode, Cal walks through the exact system he’s personally adopting for the next few months. He also discusses why such systems are key to thriving in our current frenetic technological world, why it’s important to continue to tweak your systems, and best practices for constructing your own setup. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How I’m organizing my life this fall (24:36) An Irish novelist talks about her use of AI (30:11) Developing a more balanced approach to tech products (35:04) Cal’s opinion on an AI article (41:55) Large corporations move away from all enterprise AI (48:46) What Cal is up to August 2026 Books The New Dark Age (Nigel Biggar) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ https://culturedcode.com/things/ https://www.timeblockplanner.com/ Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.superhuman.com https://www.shopify.com/deep https://www.monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”) https://www.mybodytutor.com Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
September 07, 202652min
Number 4: How to Build a Cognitive Training Plan | Monday Advice
In the world of physical health, we use so-called “key performance indicators” (KPIs) to help measure and improve our fitness. In today’s episode, Cal proposes a collection of three KPIs for measuring and improving your *cognitive* capabilities – a small step toward his larger vision of a cognitive fitness revolution. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How to build a cognitive training plan (29:48) What is Cal’s opinion on information fatigue syndrome? (37:04) Comments on the new book, “Pardon Our French: The Parisian Way to a Happier Life” (40:17) An interesting way to think about AI and thinking (47:37) An article about Disneyland, high quality leisure, and deep living (57:53) What Cal is up to August 2026 Books The Laws of Thought (Tom Griffiths) This is For Everyone (Tim Berners-Lee) Into the Deep (Bob Ballard and Christopher Drew)202 Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba? https://workplacepsychology.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/information-overload-when-information-becomes-noise/ https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/08/12/reading-between-the-lines-part-1-a-cognitive-framework-for-ai-in-scholarly-publishing/ https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/18/boredom-and-its-discontents-part-ii/ https://pluralistic.net/2026/08/12/insurance-value-of-biodiversity/ https://archive.ph/WvW1F Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.calderalab.com/deep (Use code “DEEP) https://www.vanta.com/deepquestions https://www.gusto.com/deep https://www.babbel.com/deep Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
August 24, 20261h 3min
Number 5: How Do I Finish Meaningful Projects? | Monday Advice
Only 8% of people finish their yearly goals. At the same time, the percentage of people feeling a sense of meaning of purpose in their life is falling. These two numbers are connected: the more we struggle to accomplish meaningful projects, the less meaningful our lives might feel. In this episode, Cal looks back to a classic article he wrote nearly twenty years ago to both better understand why this problem is getting worse and how we can solve it. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia (0:00) How do I finish meaningful projects? (39:36) A new study about children with cellphones having poorer reading comprehension (43:14) A nurse practitioner in search of deep work (45:45) Using AI to improve both your work and life (52:24) A recent Wall Street Journal article about AI and jobs (1:00:07) What Cal is up to July 2026 Books Orality and Literacy (Walter Ong) Lost (Rachel Harrington) Sapiens (Yuval Harari) More Everything Forever (Adam Becker) Disneyland the Rise of Automation (Roland Bethencourt) A Brief History of Intelligence (Max Bennett) Links: Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/ Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba? https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/science-says-92-percent-of-people-dont-achieve-goals-heres-how-the-other-8-perce.html https://news.gallup.com/poll/711836/gen-zers-missing-sense-meaning-purpose-life.aspx https://calnewport.com/the-einstein-principle-accomplish-more-by-doing-less/ https://futureoftuesday.substack.com/p/techno-analog https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/owning-a-cell-phone-associated-with-poorer-reading-comprehension-schoolchildren https://www.wsj.com/business/big-companies-are-starting-to-hire-again-defying-predictions-of-ai-wipeout-f4974e99?mod=hp_lead_pos10 Thanks to our Sponsors: https://www.scribe.how/deep https://www.superhuman.com https://www.mybodytutor.com https://www.factormeals.com/deep50off Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
August 10, 20261h 5min