Deep Questions with Cal Newport

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 #1 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 [email protected]. 

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]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

What Cal is reading [1:13:00]

Books:

Links:

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”)
butcherbox.com/deep
drinklmnt.com/deep
meetfabric.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

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

SUB QUESTION #1: What is Yan LeCun Up To? [2:55]

SUB QUESTION #2: How is it possible that LeCun could be right about LLM’s begin a dead-end? We’ve been hearing non-stop recently about how fast they’re advancing. [14:55]

SUB QUESTION #3: What would happen next if LeCun is right? [22:26]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/technology/ami-labs-yann-lecun-funding.html

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

A new study finds that for many workers, AI increases shallow efforts while decreasing time focusing on what really matters. This is not the first digital productivity technology to create this paradoxical effect. In today’s episode, Cal dives deep into why this happens and then details three strategies for avoiding these traps in your own professional life.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

DEEP DIVE:  Why Do “Productivity Technologies” Make My Job Worse? [3:17]

INBOX: 

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

Books:

Reader, Come Home (Maryanne Wolf)

Links:

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

calderalab.com/deep
cozyearth.com/deep (Use code “DEEP”)
grammarly.com
drinkag1.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

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

STORY #1: Did an AI Agent Email an AI Researcher? [1:01]

STORY #2: Does the Pentagon Think Claude Has a Soul? [10:20]

STORY #3: What’s Going on with Anthropic Revenues? [14:16]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/philosopher-ai-consciousness-startled-ai-email

https://x.com/dioscuri/status/2029227527718236359

https://x.com/thomaschattwill/status/2029273517175263679

https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2032122638852640951

https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/anthropic-gives-lesson-ai-revenue-hallucination-2026-03-10/

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/12/normal-technology/

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

Remember how much we loved our iPhones when they first came out? Can we get back to that relationship with these devices? In this episode, Cal explores five pieces of advice for transforming your current phone back to something that’s less distracting, more useful, and fun once again – a goal he calls “2007 mode.”

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

DEEP DIVE: Can I learn to love my phone again? [3:31]

INBOX: 

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

Movies:

Secret Agent

Links:

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

butcherbox.com/deep
vanta.com/deepquestions
1password.com/deep
shopify.com/deep

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

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

ARTICLE #1: America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs [2:15]

ARTICLE #2: Mass Hysteria. Thousands of Jobs Lost. Just How Bad Is It Going to Get? [9:23] 

ARTICLE #3: THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS: A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future [14:39]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/ai-economy-labor-market-transformation/685731/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/opinion/ai-jobs-white-collar-apocalpyse.html

https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/business/citrini-ai-stock-market.html

https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/

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

Do you need social media? Which services? For what purposes? These are complicated questions and in today’s episode Cal proposes a simple route to answers: conducting a “social media pause.” To help investigate this strategy, Cal is joined by T.K. Coleman, of The Minimalists, to talk about a social media pause that they tried and the surprising results it generated.

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

IDEAS SEGMENT: Interview with T.K. Coleman [3:26]

INBOX:

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

The Age of Extraction (Tim Wu)

Movies:

Links:

Thanks to our Sponsors:
https://www.monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”)
https://www.factormeals.com/deep50off
https://www.mybodytutor.com
https://www.wayfair.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI Reality Check: Did the LLM Job Apocalypse Begin Last Week?

Cal Newport takes a closer look at recent AI news.

Below are the topics 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

STORY #1: Jack Dorsey announces layoffs at Block [1:28]

STORY #2: The education level of LLM-based tools [11:45]

STORY #3: What’s happening in the world of computer programming? [19:24]

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://x.com/jack/status/2027129697092731343

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technology/block-square-job-cuts-ai.html

https://x.com/emollick/status/2027153371241607420

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2026/02/27/block-lays-off-40-of-staff-and-blames-it-on-ai-dont-buy-the-excuse/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56HJQm5nb0U

http://calnewport.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s hard to live deeply in a distracted world if you don’t have control over how you spend your time. This goal requires a planning system that both works and can last. Do you have a reasonable planning system in place? If not, don’t worry. Today, Cal is joined by planning expert Sarah Hart-Unger (author of “Best Laid Plans”) to discuss the nitty-gritty details of creating sustainable systems that can help you regain autonomy over your schedule without becoming an over-scheduled drone.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

IDEAS SEGMENT:  Interview with Sarah Hart-Unger [2:12]

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK, NOTES, AND CHATTER: 

Dopamine addictions and TV shows [1:05:06]

Watching entire films [1:09:43]

Attention span and movies [1:16:38]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

Update on my AI Programmer Project [1:21:12]

Other Updates [1:28:02]

What Cal Consumed [1:29:17]

The Last Kings of Hollywood (Paul Fischer)

Movies:

The Smashing Machine

Song Sung Blue

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?

vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/07/why-are-movies-sooooo-long-an-investigation

science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz9311

Sarah Hart-Unger online:

Sarah Hart-Unger (MD, if you want to use that but I typically don't even bother in my creative work!)

practicing pediatric endocrinologist, author, and podcaster

Best Laid Plans Podcast

Best of Both Worlds Podcast (cohosted with Laura Vanderkam)

Best Laid Plans: A Simple Planning System for Living a Life That You Love, Sourcebooks Dec 2025

Website (since 2004 . . .): theshubox.com

Social media: none :) Partially due to your influence, I quit FB in 2016, IG in 2021, and thankfully never got into anything else! I guess I do have minimal Youtube (occasional planner videos + feed of podcast eps) @youtube.com/@BestLaidPlansVideo

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

This show is sponsored by Better Help: 

betterhelp.com/deepquestions

zapier.com/deep

calderalab.com/deep

shopify.com/deep

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last month, the Atlantic reported that film students are now struggling to sit through entire films. In this episode, Cal argues that this is both an issue and an opportunity. The fact we can’t watch full movies indicates the impact of digital tools on our brains is worse than we assumed. But in this problem, we also find a solution: maybe teaching ourselves to become better movie watchers can be the first step to reclaiming our own minds. Cal then dissects a viral AI essay that seems to have everyone worried (spoiler: Cal’s not impressed), reads a reader note about social media and the Olympics, and gives an update on his next book project.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode:  youtube.com/calnewportmedia

IDEAS SEGMENT:  Can Movies Save Us From Our Phones? [2:36]

NEWS AND NOTES SEGMENT: 

Something Big is Happening [31:23]

Digital Minimalism and the Olympics [49:31]

WHAT CAL’S READING: Cal gives his weekly reading update [56:03]

Attensity

The Lost Island (Eilis Dillon)

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?

theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/01/college-students-movies-attention-span/685812/

fortune.com/2026/02/11/something-big-is-happening-ai-february-2020-moment-matt-shumer/

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

pipedrive.com/deep

drinkag1.com/deep

butcherbox.com/deep

grammarly.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices