'Attention merchants' scramble for our attention (and money)

Hosted by and

Advertisers have tried to get our attention in myriad ways and have increasingly entered our private lives. Tim Wu writes about the history of the “attention merchants,” from snake oil salesmen at 19th century county fairs to today’s Instagram stars. His book is The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads.

Credits

Guest:

  • Tim Wu - professor of law, science and technology at Columbia Law School, former special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy during the Biden Administration - @superwuster