The Global Story - The death of reading
We are away for Christmas, so this is a repeat of a previous episode.
Are we living through the slow death of reading - replaced by an addictive screen culture that fragments our attention and floods us with trivial or unreliable information? Writer and voracious reader James Marriott believes we are entering a post-literate age with profoundly negative consequences for education, culture and democracy itself. In today's episode, James traces how an 18th century ‘reading revolution’ shaped the modern-world - and what might follow its sudden decline.
Producers: Aron Keller and Sam Chantarasak
Editor: James Shield
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: The al-Nahda al-Arabiya library (Arab Renaissance Library) in central Baghdad. AHMED JALIL/EPA.
Published on Thursday, 1st January 2026.
Available Podcasts from The Global Story
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