Kibbitzing with Neil and Mitch

A Podcast: Listen on Apple Podcasts

Watch Video

Reading is dying...or is it? And Tolstoy doesn't give a crap

Neil Offen, a writer and inveterate reader, is bummed out that people, especially young people, are increasingly watching and listening instead of reading. Mitchell Stephens, author of the rise of the image the fall of the word, notes that Socrates was upset that people in his day were reading instead of sitting at the feet of wise old men. Mitch thinks human beings should be able to find better ways to enlighten themselves than black lines of type on white pages or the equivalent. Neil thinks reading, on whatever medium, is the route to wisdom.