How To!

How To Put Down Your Phone

Tips from Jia Tolentino, New Yorker writer, and Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism, about how to break your phone addiction.

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About the Show

What if Dear Abby were an investigative reporter? Each week, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit) takes on listeners’ toughest problems and, with the help of experts, finds the answers to questions you’ve always wanted to ask but couldn’t. Until now.

Do you have a problem that needs solving? Have you found the advice on our podcast helpful? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might play it on the air.

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Episode Notes

How many times have you looked at your phone so far today? Do you feel like you’re choosing to look or automatically craving it when you ought to be enjoying life? In this episode of How To! we get advice from Jia Tolentino, New Yorker writer and author of Trick Mirror, who spends hours on the phone every day for her job. And Cal Newport, author of Digital Minimalism, whose 30-day “digital declutter” helps us think more deeply, be more present, and control our devices so they don’t control us.

Podcast production by Derek John.