Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport explores whether discipline is essential for resisting distraction, with Brad Stulberg discussing ideas from his New York Times bestseller "The Way of Excellence." The episode covers the foundations of discipline, managing media overload, and practical tools for deep work like typewriters and information sabbaticals.

Ep. 400: Should I Embrace “Slow Technology”? If there was one word to describe modern digital tools, it would be “fast.” But not everyone thinks this is better.

AI Reality Check: Is AI Stealing Entry-Level Jobs? Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia OPENING: Is AI stealing entry-level jobs?

It’s been a decade since the original publication of DEEP WORK. Do its ideas still hold in 2026? This is the question Cal tackles in today’s episode: reviewing the four major “rules” from his book, reviewing what still holds and what changes he would add.

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Here’s a key question: Did technology like smartphones make us miserable, or were we already miserable and smartphones made it worse?

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia SUB QUESTION #1: What is Yan LeCun Up To? [2:55] SUB QUESTION #2: How is it possible that LeCun could be right about LLM’s begin a dead-end?

A new study finds that for many workers, AI increases shallow efforts while decreasing time focusing on what really matters. This is not the first digital productivity technology to create this paradoxical effect.

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia STORY #1: Did an AI Agent Email an AI Researcher? [1:01] STORY #2: Does the Pentagon Think Claude Has a Soul? [10:20] STORY #3: What’s Going on with Anthropic Revenues?

Remember how much we loved our iPhones when they first came out? Can we get back to that relationship with these devices?

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News. Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal!

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.

AI Reality Check: Did the LLM Job Apocalypse Begin Last Week? Cal Newport takes a closer look at recent AI news. Below are the topics covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal!

It’s hard to live deeply in a distracted world if you don’t have control over how you spend your time. This goal requires a planning system that both works and can last. Do you have a reasonable planning system in place? If not, don’t worry.

Last month, the Atlantic reported that film students are now struggling to sit through entire films. In this episode, Cal argues that this is both an issue and an opportunity. The fact we can’t watch full movies indicates the impact of digital tools on our brains is worse than we assumed.

There remains a gap between the production values of professional streaming services like Netflix and independent content that appears on platforms like YouTube. But what happens when that gap disappears?

Is there something rotten in the state of AI reporting at the moment? In the ideas segment of this episode, Cal details three common traps in AI coverage that distort or distract from the reality of this technology.

Everyone knows that excessive smartphone use can be harmful. But the question we don’t ask enough is what the advantages are of not using these devices.

It’s natural to feel ambition, as we’re wired to find great satisfaction in accomplishing hard goals. But what impact has the internet had on this instinct?

Despite some initial skepticism, Jonathan Haidt’s crusade against kids using smartphones has been more or less completely vindicated. Which got us thinking: what’s he worried about next?

Last year, when columnist Paul Krugman left the NYT, it seemed like yet another example of the traditional media crumbling. But Krugman, as it turns out, is doing great. His popular substack now reaches massive audiences and earns him a seven-figure salary.

Ep 386: Was 2025 a Great or Terrible Year for AI? (w/ Ed Zitron) 2025 was a year that was saturated in AI news, from Deep Seek, through claims of economic “bloodbaths,” to GPT-5, Sora, and Chatbot girlfriends. Frankly, it was exhausting.

In this replay of a classic episode from March 2024, Cal discusses his transformative experience using a small analog notebook to tackle a complicated problem in his life. He makes the broader argument that sometimes simple analog tools can far exceed the utility of their digital counterparts.

In our annual holiday episode, Cal tackles one of the questions he’s asked most often: What should I read? But with a twist. He recommends six books that are not from the self-help or advice genre that will nonetheless help you change your life into something deeper.

Earlier this fall, the activist, novelist, and essayist Paul Kingsnorth published an anti-technology polemic called “Against the Machine.” To say it hit a nerve is an understatement.

Last month, Derek Thompson published an intriguing essay that made waves in technology criticism circles.

Newport revisits the ideas from Deep Work a decade later and examines whether AI changes the calculus. Argues that AI makes deep work more valuable, not less, because AI handles shallow tasks while humans must provide the deep thinking that directs AI.

Newport revisits Digital Minimalism and updates his recommendations for the age of AI, short-form video, and algorithmic feeds. Argues the core thesis has only gotten more important.

Newport lays out the thesis of his new book Slow Productivity: do fewer things, work at a natural pace, and obsess over quality. Argues that pseudo-productivity (visible busyness) has replaced real output in knowledge work.