Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet
Wonder Cabinet Productions
Rewilding Attention with D. Graham Burnett
39 minutes Posted May 23, 2026 at 11:00 am.
Introduction
Human Fracking
Attention as Generosity
Wonder and Disenchantment
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39:10
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Show notes
We all know our attention is being competed for — but historian of science D. Graham Burnett calls it something more alarming: a "civilizational biohack." In this episode, we talk with Burnett, a Princeton historian of science and co-founder of "The Friends of Attention," about the movement to liberate our minds from the 17-trillion-dollar attention economy. He draws on surprising sources — the German Romantics, St. Augustine, Simone Weil, Henry James — to argue that we've lost touch with older, richer forms of attention. And he makes the case that reclaiming it will require more than screentime apps or digital detox – it’ll take collective resistance. Plus: why your Pilates class, your evening needlework, or your walk with the dog might already be forms of radical attention — and how reframing everyday activities can make ordinary life feel richer, more mysterious and more full of wonder.
“Attensity: A Manifesto of the Attention Liberation Movement”
The Friends of Attention
The Strother School of Radical Attention
D. Graham Burnett website