The Book Club: James Marriott episode artwork

EPISODE · Sep 2, 2026 · 41 MIN

The Book Club: James Marriott

from Best of the Spectator

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by The Times columnist James Marriott, whose new book is The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-literate Society.Are we witnessing the end of the reading age? James explains why literacy has shaped not just our culture but the way we think – and why its decline could have profound consequences for politics, democracy and public life. They discuss how television, TikTok and short-form video have transformed our attention spans, whether AI will further erode the status of writing, and why the readers of the future may become a new cognitive elite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Sep 2, 2026

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The Book Club: James Marriott

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