#40: Reframe The Day: Embracing The Craft of Life, One Day at a Time: Interview with Adam Lowenstein

Book Talk Today with Aun Abdi

On Episode #40 of the Book Talk Today podcast we are joined by Adam Lowenstein(@adamlowenstein)

Adam M. Lowenstein spent eight years working in American government and politics in the United States, most recently as speechwriter and strategic communications advisor in the United States Senate.

We discussed:

📚 Reading challenging book

📚 Enjoying the process

📚 In depth discussion about ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death’

📚 Many book recommendations.

Timestamps

[0:00] - Intro

[1:49] - Adam's experience of publishing a book after one year

[5:36] - Practising what you preach

[12:19] - Why there is value in sharing knowledge

[13:34] - The power of keeping a video journal

[16:10] - The tradeoffs of being a creator

[17:26] - Short-term vs long-term thinking

[19:31] - Finding value in the process

[25:01] - Consumption vs creation

[31:39] - Book - The Shallows by Nicholas Carr

[34:09] - How to be selective over content

[40:04] - There is no hack to reading

[43:09] - What you learn from reading more

[48:28] - The misleading nature of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

[54:25] - Neil Postman story

[57:04] - The past is not that long ago

[1:00:06] - Book - The Map of Knowledge

[1:04:01] - Why everyone should read history

[1:15:09] - Discussion around 'Amusing Ourselves To Death'

[1:35:26] - Analogue vs. Digital

[1:43:11] - Reading as a distraction

[1:44:46] - Adam's experience of writing by hand

[1:51:27] - What would 50 year old you say?

[1:55:04] - Book recommendations

[1:56:38] - 'The Ministry for the Future' by Kim Stanley Robinson

[1:58:50] - 'Parable of the Sower' by Octavia E. Butler

[2:01:54] - Fyodor Dostoevsky

[2:06:39] - 'Uncanny Valley' by Anna Wiener

[2:12:07] - Writing for questions, rather than answers

[2:13:17] - The Heretics' by William Storr

[2:16:15] - The Map of Knowledge' by Violet Moller

[2:21:24] - Outro