Ep. 268: Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (Part One)

On Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985) with guest Brian Hirt.

How does the form in which we receive media affect how we think? Education theorist Postman (building on Marshall McLuhan) claimed that television has eroded our capacity to reason and given us the expectation that everything in the world must entertain. Is this a viable piece of social construction theory? How does the critique apply to the Internet age?

Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview.

Sponsors: Save 20% on an annual membership of at TheGreatCoursesPlus.com/PEL. See headspace.com/PEL for a free month's access to a library of guided meditations. Learn about St. John's College summer programs at SJC.edu/summer2021. Get a loan to lower your monthly payments at Upstart.com/PEL.