This is a broadcast-ready version of Thinking Clearly, a show about critical thinking and related topics, hosted by Julia Minton and Bob Froehlich. The program features guests involved in cutting edge research, writing and teaching relating to improving the quality of our information environment, belief formation and civil dialogue. This show is produced in KMUD's studios in Redway, California. If your station decides to carry the show, please drop us a line at tc@kmud.org.
The term âattention economyâ has become a buzzword in our current zeitgeist. But 30 to 40 years ago Michael Goldhaber, who has a PhD in physics coupled with a passionate 1960âs brewed concern about social and political justice, began thinking and writing about human attention as a scarce resource and made predictions about how the newly emerging internet would interact with our attention and eventually transition us to an attention economy. His early predictions were then rediscovered and described in a New York Times article published in Feb., 2021. Topics discussed in this episode include: the attention economy, how it contributes to misinformation and what we can all do can do to reduce the pollution in our information environments.