Literacy is declining sharply across the West. In the era of vertical video, who has the time or concentration to read a long article — let alone a whole book?As we lose the ability to read long-form text, we might also be losing the capacity for democratic deliberation and self-governance. That’s the argument this week’s guest, the Times of London columnist James Marriott, makes in his recent book, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/829140/the-new-dark-ages-by-james-marriott/" rel="noopener noreferrer">The New Dark Ages</a>.” He sits down with guest host Mary Harrington to discuss our return to oral culture, the political consequences and what we can learn from the medieval era about storing information in a digital world.Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.<ul><li>00:00 Intro</li><li>00:52 Post-Literacy</li><li>02:05 The Data Behind the Decline</li><li>05:13 The Shift Toward Video</li><li>08:48 Why Reading Is Hard</li><li>10:45 Walter Ong on Orality and Literacy</li><li>14:27 Tribal Politics and Emotion</li><li>17:16 The Reading Revolution</li><li>21:14 Literacy as an Engine for Democracy</li><li>25:15 Scarcity and Authority</li><li>27:27 Lessons from Medieval Times</li><li>30:13 Remembering Everything and Nothing</li><li>33:29 How Bukele Commands the Attention Economy</li><li>37:04 Monarchy vs. Democracy</li><li>40:16 Other Postliterate Leaders</li><li>43:29 Can We Resist the Slide?</li><li>46:33 Closing</li></ul>(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@InterestingTimesNYT" rel="noopener noreferrer">Interesting Times</a>.&nbsp;
<blockquote>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</blockquote> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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