Audio only
Pay Attention
How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your BrainBy David PakmanNarrated by David PakmanLength9h 26m
About this audiobook
Narrated by the author himself, in this provocative follow up to his New York Times bestselling The Echo Machine, David Pakman offers a dire warning on the cultural and technological forces that are already melting our brains and transforming the pursuit of truth into an almost impossible, even quaint activity.
Has the dystopian future of 1984 and Brave New World arrived? As Pakman forewarns in Pay Attention, we confront a very Orwellian threat of totalitarianism, as technological “advancements” have rendered us not just passive but willing participants in a Huxleyesque world where our humanity becomes swallowed by the Attention Economy. Drawing on his experience fighting in the digital trenches, Pakman illustrates how and why political news and commentary has become more fragmented, extreme, and divisive in a self-fulfilling, self-feeding media environment. His reports from the front line of the media and culture wars are beyond eye-opening, including:
How he rose to prominence by methodical trial and error in an ever-changing media landscape
How a requirement for controversy means we are already losing the battle for truth
How audience capture is rewiring our brains
The dark science behind thumbnails
Why the Right is built for the Attention Economy
The myth of media “independence”
How the user has become the product…and why we no longer even need human creators to mine this product.
The future is already here—and with AI creep, it’s only accelerating!Sure to speak to his millions of avidly engaged viewers, as well as to readers of such titles as Chris Hayes’ The Sirens’ Call, Jenny Odell’s How To Do Nothing, and Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized, Pay Attention is a perfectly timed book that will show us how “the machine” works…and what we must do lest we become part of it.
Audiobook details
GenrePolitics and Government, Psychology
Length9 hrs 26 mins
Narrated byDavid Pakman
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 22, 2026
LanguageEnglish
KrantikariSanjeev Sanyal11h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$16 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Legally YoursManasi Chaudhari8h 52m4.7 (223)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
RiggedMollie Hemingway12h 48m4.6 (4.2K)$23 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m4.6 (2.3K)$25
SledgehammerDavid Friedman8h 21m4.7 (589)$26 · $0.00
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m4.6 (146.2K)$17
Citizenship in a Republic (Annotated)Theodore Roosevelt2h 44m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
In Defense of the Second AmendmentLarry Correia6h 50m4.6 (866)$17
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
UnthinkableJamie Raskin15h 8m4.5 (9.3K)$8 · $0.00
The ManbookNick Freitas5h 43m4.7 (171)$24 · $0.00
My Fourth Time, We DrownedSally Hayden13h 59m4.6 (2.9K)$23 · $0.00
A Revolution of Common SenseScott Jennings9h 29m4.6 (528)$29 · $0.00
Statement From the Dock at the Rivonia TrialNelson Mandela2h 18m4.6 (1.3K)$1 · $0.00
Lessons from the EdgeMarie Yovanovitch17h 11m4.5 (5.9K)$40 · $0.00
The Essential Works of George OrwellGeorge Orwell115h 42m4.5 (2.3K)$1 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m4.7 (594)$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m4.6 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
The Thomas Sowell ReaderThomas Sowell14h 51m4.6 (2.3K)$25
So You Want to Talk about RaceIjeoma Oluo7h 41m4.6 (146.2K)$17
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$0.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m4.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m4.6 (503)$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m4.6 (595)$23 · $0.00
Nobody Knows My NameJames Baldwin5h 49m4.5 (5.2K)$17
You may also like
WE (Dystopian Classic)Yevgeny Zamyatin7h 23m3.9 (140.2K)$0.99 · $0.00
System ErrorRob Reich, Mehran Sahami, Jeremy M. Weinstein11h 29m4.0 (1.6K)$29 · $0.00
Ignorance Is Strengthvarious authors, John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, Christie Yant11h 32m4.2 (301)$20
FeedbackRobison Wells7h 13m3.7 (9.4K)$24 · $0.00
How the World Ran Out of EverythingPeter S. Goodman12h 18m4.2 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00
Attention SpanGloria Mark10h 52m3.7 (2.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Moon Is a Harsh MistressRobert A. Heinlein14h 12m4.2 (156.4K)$25
Making SenseSam Harris22h 27m4.1 (3K)$46 · $0.00
The AI ConEmily M. Bender, Alex Hanna7h 51m3.7 (1.7K)$26 · $0.00
The Rule of the Machines: 5 Sci-Fi Titles in One Edition (Annotated)Philip K. Dick6h 58m3.8 (11)$2 · $0.00
The Planet of ShameBruce Elliot4h 26m$2.40
History Emergent: Janus and the Identity CrisisK.W. Moser1h 21m4.3 (24) Only with Ultra
Masters or Slaves?Jeremy Peckham6h 44m4.2 (23)$23
Screen PeopleMegan Garber7h 40m3.5 (100)$26 · $0.00
The Variable Man, The Skull & Meddler - 3 Time Travel SF Classics in One EditionPhilip K. Dick4h 41m3.9 (18)$0.99 · $0.00
Bread And CircusesHannah Stevens/ Luiz Santos4h 42m$7 · $0.00
The Power Of Mass PersuasionEdivaldo Ascaneo28m$6 · $0.00
No More WorkJames Livingston3h 16m3.7 (449)$15
Queers Destroy Science Fiction!Seanan McGuire, Sigrid Ellis, Steve Berman, Gabrielle de Cuir11h4.0 (303)$20
When Machines Take Over (Annotated)Philip K. Dick7h$2 · $0.00