Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson
Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson
4 Rating(s)
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Everything Bad is Good for You
How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter

Author: Steven Johnson

Narrator: Jason Culp

Unabridged: 6 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/02/2006

Synopsis

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Mind Wide Open comes a groundbreaking assessment of popular culture as it's never been considered before: through the lens of intelligence.Forget everything you’ve ever read about the age of dumbed-down, instant-gratification culture. In this provocative, unfailingly intelligent, thoroughly researched, and surprisingly convincing book, Steven Johnson draws from fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics, and media theory to argue that the pop culture we soak in every day—from Lord of the Rings to Grand Theft Auto to The Simpsons—has been growing more sophisticated with each passing year, and, far from rotting our brains, is actually posing new cognitive challenges that are actually making our minds measurably sharper. You will never regard the glow of the video game or television screen the same way again.

About The Author

Steven Johnson is the author of many bestsellers, including The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad Is Good for You. He is the editor of the anthology The Innovator’s Cookbook and the founder of a variety of influential websites. Johnson also writes for Time, Wired, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. He lives in Marin County, California, with his wife and three sons.Jason Culp has been featured on television in Days of Our Lives and General Hospital and in the cult film Skinheads. His roles in regional theater include Trigorin in The Seagull. He has been an audiobook performer for 13 years. He lives in New York City and is currently finishing work on a memoir.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kai

A refreshing thesis and a convincingly told story, paired with a healthy dose of cultural and psychological optimism. This would ordinarily have gotten four stars from me, but I give it five to cancel the silly deluge of very bad reviews based on sciencey catchphrasing and moral bias. Yes, "correlati......more

Goodreads review by Daniel

Ironically, this was a difficult read. Not because the theme is hard to digest, or because Johnson's diction is criminally elevated (neither of those are true), but because I couldn't really decide whether I believed him. The crux of Johnson's argument relies on the increasing complexity with which o......more

Goodreads review by Michael

In Everything Bad is Good for You, Johnson attempts to de-bunk the popular narrative that the culture industry is making us stupider, by feeding us more and more banal television shows, video games, and movies. He argues for understanding a Sleeper Curve in popular culture that is actually making te......more

Quotes

"Revelatory...Daring...Finally, an intellectual who doesn’t think we’re headed down the toilet!" —Washington Post Book World

"Persuasive...The old dogs won’t be able to rest as easily once they’ve read Everything Bad is Good for You, Steven Johnson’s elegant polemic.... It’s almost impossible not to agree with him."—Walter Kirn, The New York Times Book Review

"A thought-provoking argument that today's allegedly vacuous media are, well, thought provoking...A brisk, witty read, well versed in the history of literature and bolstered with research...Johnson, it turns out, still knows the value of reading a book. And this one is indispensable." —Time

"There is a pleasing eclecticism to [Johnson’s] thinking. He is as happy analyzing Finding Nemo as he is dissecting the intricacies of a piece of software ... Johnson wants to understand popular culture…in the very practical sense of wondering what watching something like The Dukes of Hazzard does to the way our minds work." —Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker

"The author Newsweek called one of the most influential people in cyberspace...is back. The beauty of Johnson’s latest work — beyond its engaging, accessible prose — is that anyone with even a glancing familiarity with pop culture will come to the book ready to challenge his premise. Everything Bad Is Good for You anticipates and refutes nearly every likely claim, building a convincing case that media have become more complex and thus make our minds work harder." —Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Through a string of airtight, academic and very entertaining essays, Johnson maintains that prime-time TV is more intellectually engaging than ever." —Time Out New York

"Sophisticated...nimble...strangely satisfying." —Newsday

"Johnson’s challenge to the oft-repeated lament that mass culture is dumbing down is as enlightening as it is necessary." —BookForum

"Johnson may be the first mainstream writer to bring neuroscientific inquiry to The Apprentice...It’s scientific and literary rigor, couch-potato style." —Chicago Tribune

"Johnson paints a convincing and literate portrait, and he shows himself to be a master of many disciplines, which deepens the well of his credibility." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Engaging...Intriguing...Breezy and funny... Johnson is a forceful writer, and he makes a good case; his book is an elegant work of argumentation." —Salon.com

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