In August of 2022, I was asked by the Heart Brothers Foundation to give a keynote address at their annual fundraiser, a golf outing followed by a banquet. I was nervous about the prospect of playing eighteen holes of playing golf and then giving a speech, but it turned out that they only wanted a very short speech. The audience were folks who were heart transplant survivors, supporters and family members, and members of the community who came out to play round of golf and contribute to a great cause. Here’s what I said to them.

In the past few years we have seen an explosion of misinformation and spin about topics that are vital to human flourishing: vaccines, climate change, international conflict, gender norms. One effective remedy for this unhappy trend would be for academics to do a better job of communicating their research and ideas to the public. The careful thinking that we do in the academic world needs to find a wider audience—one that extends beyond our classrooms and disciplinary journals and conventions.

Thanks to everyone who has reached out to me and my family over the past three months with love, support, prayers, and well wishes. We are incredibly grateful for the blessings of you all. I thought I would just post a quick overview here of what happened to me for those who don't know the specifics . . .

Many years ago I made a pledge that I would donate 10% of any money I made from writing to charity. At the time, this was a meaningless pledge; the only income I made was from my columns in the Chronicle of Higher Education, which appeared a half-dozen times per year, and from occasional essays for newspapers or magazines. 10% of all of that would never have amounted to more than a few hundred dollars.

When I arrived as a first-year student at the University of Notre Dame, I was assigned to a first-year seminar which focused on Beowulf and other works of early English literature. The professor had us purchase the 4th edition of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, a thick green hardback that I had to lug with me from one corner of the campus to the other twice per week.

Yesterday I gave a virtual presentation on Distracted to the faculty and graduate students at another university, and at one point mentioned a technology policy that I had created in pre-pandemic era. I developed this policy as a result of the research I conducted for the book, and it offers a pretty clear statement of my view on the role of devices in the face-to-face classroom: student use of them should be context-specific.

This month the Chronicle of Higher Education published the fifth in my six-part series of essays on distraction and attention in education. Timed for the start of the new semester, this MOST RECENT ESSAY argues that we should think about our courses as opportunities for our students to retreat from the anxiety and chaos of our pandemic year and focus on learning something meaningful, intriguing, or beautiful. I hope it inspires faculty to renew their commitment to the value of attention in their classrooms, whether they are face-to-face or online or somewhere in between.

A quick and easy essay, designed to be shared with students, about research-supported study strategies that work—and the ones that don’t work.

Three of the major sources for pre-publication reviews have been good enough to devote a little space in their pages to the book, and I have also begun my series of articles on distraction and attention in education for the Chronicle of Higher Education. Here are some quick highlights from each of these places.

Welcome to my new website, where you can learn more about my writing across multiple genres and formats. You can find here as well links to my Twitter and Instagram accounts, and information about contacting me for speaking engagements.