The Sirens Call

From the New York Times bestselling author and television and podcast host, a powerful, wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society.

We all feel it - the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they're us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket.

Something has changed utterly - for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, 'With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.' Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition - attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated.

Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. The Sirens' Call is the big book we all need to wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.

'Chris Hayes sees around corners - not just naming and explaining but also solving problems that the rest of us are only starting to sense. The Sirens' Call is his biggest idea yet, and his most urgent. Reading it has made me change the way I work and think. Brilliant book.'
- Rachel Maddow, host of the Emmy Award-winning Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Prequel, Blowout, and Drift

Attention has always been an undervalued commodity, yet it's the very foundation of a meaningful life. In The Sirens' Call, Chris Hayes uses his keen intellect and knowledge of history to show how the war over our attention is undermining us 24/7. What is the antidote for the urge to constantly grab what he calls "the little attention box" in our pockets? Read this book to find out!'
- Katie Couric, award-winning journalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Going There

'With dazzling knowledge and insight, Chris Hayes not only diagnoses our growing social alienation but provides a path to sanity. If you long for something that will hold your attention and even help restore it, then read this utterly compelling and enlightening book.'
- David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Wager and Killers of the Flower Moon