Deep Questions with Cal Newport

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

STORY #1: Did an AI Agent Email an AI Researcher? [1:01]

STORY #2: Does the Pentagon Think Claude Has a Soul? [10:20]

STORY #3: What’s Going on with Anthropic Revenues? [14:16]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/philosopher-ai-consciousness-startled-ai-email

https://x.com/dioscuri/status/2029227527718236359

https://x.com/thomaschattwill/status/2029273517175263679

https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2032122638852640951

https://www.reuters.com/commentary/breakingviews/anthropic-gives-lesson-ai-revenue-hallucination-2026-03-10/

https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/12/normal-technology/

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Remember how much we loved our iPhones when they first came out? Can we get back to that relationship with these devices? In this episode, Cal explores five pieces of advice for transforming your current phone back to something that’s less distracting, more useful, and fun once again – a goal he calls “2007 mode.”

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

DEEP DIVE: Can I learn to love my phone again? [3:31]

INBOX: 

A new study on brain fry [30:29]

Use of phones in The Pitt [38:58]

17th Century scholar dealing with overload [42:05]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

What I’m trying [43:57]

What Cal read [48:45]

What Cal watched [49:44]

Movies:

Secret Agent

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at calnewport.com/slow

Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport

Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?
youtube.com/watch?v=x7qPAY9JqE4
youtube.com/watch?v=mJ4lsi2RtaI
youtube.com/watch?v=ENUO7dbZ-TY
youtube.com/watch?v=7jVb1lLniEw
youtube.com/watch?v=aC0JKAN5xVI
hbr.org/2026/03/when-using-ai-leads-to-brain-fry
instagram.com/reel/DUxCG_BDvWX/?igsh=a3pyZXNlNTZvdDVp

Thanks to our Sponsors: 

butcherbox.com/deep
vanta.com/deepquestions
1password.com/deep
shopify.com/deep

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cal Newport takes a critical look at recent AI News.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode:  youtube.com/calnewportmedia

ARTICLE #1: America Isn’t Ready for What AI Will Do to Jobs [2:15]

ARTICLE #2: Mass Hysteria. Thousands of Jobs Lost. Just How Bad Is It Going to Get? [9:23] 

ARTICLE #3: THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS: A Thought Exercise in Financial History, from the Future [14:39]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/03/ai-economy-labor-market-transformation/685731/

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/opinion/ai-jobs-white-collar-apocalpyse.html

https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/25/business/citrini-ai-stock-market.html

https://www.citadelsecurities.com/news-and-insights/2026-global-intelligence-crisis/

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering and Nate Mechler for research and newsletter.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Do you need social media? Which services? For what purposes? These are complicated questions and in today’s episode Cal proposes a simple route to answers: conducting a “social media pause.” To help investigate this strategy, Cal is joined by T.K. Coleman, of The Minimalists, to talk about a social media pause that they tried and the surprising results it generated.

Below are the questions covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode: youtube.com/calnewportmedia

IDEAS SEGMENT: Interview with T.K. Coleman [3:26]

INBOX:

- Focused work in early modern time [1:00:18]

- Tool suggestion from a programmer [1:05:10]

- Staring at a painting for three hours [1:13:26]

WHAT CAL IS UP TO:

- Changes to the show [1:18:44]

- What Cal read [1:20:04]

- What Cal watched [1:21:34]

- Renovation of Maker Lab [1:25:38]

The Age of Extraction (Tim Wu)

John and Paul (Ian Leslie)

Movies:

Train Dreams

The Hurt Locker

Three Days of the Condor

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow

Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/

Cal’s monthly book directory: bramses.notion.site/059db2641def4a88988b4d2cee4657ba?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgMUBMqrE7M
https://www.reddit.com/r/ObsidianMD/comments/161jik7/please_share_how_you_use_obsidian_for_task/

Thanks to our Sponsors:
https://www.monarch.com (Use code “DEEP”)
https://www.factormeals.com/deep50off
https://www.mybodytutor.com
https://www.wayfair.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production, Jay Kerstens for the intro music, and Mark Miles for mastering.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI Reality Check: Did the LLM Job Apocalypse Begin Last Week?

Cal Newport takes a closer look at recent AI news.

Below are the topics covered in today's episode (with their timestamps). 

Get your questions answered by Cal! Here’s the link: https://bit.ly/3U3sTvo

Video from today’s episode:youtube.com/calnewportmedia

STORY #1: Jack Dorsey announces layoffs at Block [1:28]

STORY #2: The education level of LLM-based tools [11:45]

STORY #3: What’s happening in the world of computer programming? [19:24]

Links:

Buy Cal’s latest book, “Slow Productivity” at www.calnewport.com/slow 

Get a signed copy of Cal’s “Slow Productivity” at https://peoplesbooktakoma.com/event/cal-newport/

https://x.com/jack/status/2027129697092731343

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/technology/block-square-job-cuts-ai.html

https://x.com/emollick/status/2027153371241607420

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2026/02/27/block-lays-off-40-of-staff-and-blames-it-on-ai-dont-buy-the-excuse/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56HJQm5nb0U

http://calnewport.com

Thanks to Jesse Miller for production and mastering.

 

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