March 09, 2026

Ep. 395: Should I Try a “Social Media Pause”?

1 hour 27 minutes

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:

- Focused work in early modern time [1:00:18]

- Tool suggestion from a programmer [1:05:10]

- Staring at a painting for three hours [1:13:26]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

- Changes to the show [1:18:44]

- What Cal read [1:20:04]

- What Cal watched [1:21:34]

- Renovation of Maker Lab [1:25:38]

The Age of Extraction (Tim Wu)

John and Paul (Ian Leslie)

Movies:

Train Dreams

The Hurt Locker

Three Days of the Condor

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.youtube.com/watch?v=sgMUBMqrE7M
https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/161jik7/please_share_how_you_use_obsidian_for_task/

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.

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By Cal Newport

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