Attention Lab

4.6 (9K) · SCIENCE · UPDATED WEEKLY

Pushkin Industries explores the science of attention — how we focus, why we get distracted, and what the research actually says about living and working in the most distracting era in human history.

5D AGO

The Attention Economy: How Tech Companies Steal Your Focus and Why You Let Them

Tristan Harris, former Google Design Ethicist and founder of the Center for Humane Technology, on the specific psychological mechanisms that tech platforms use to capture attention — and why knowing about them doesn't make you immune.

12D AGO

Deep Focus: The Neuroscience of Getting Into Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research on flow states is foundational but underexplored. Neuroscientist Dr. Arne Dietrich on what's actually happening in the brain during flow — the specific neural correlates, the conditions required, and why it's impossible to force.

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Lab Notes: Extended Experiments in Attention Recovery

Three Attention Lab listeners agree to be observed while implementing different attention recovery protocols for four weeks. Their results — with expert commentary — are both encouraging and sobering.

26D AGO

The Myth of Multitasking: What Your Brain Actually Does

The research on multitasking is unambiguous and widely ignored: humans cannot multitask cognitive tasks. Dr. David Strayer on what we actually do when we think we're multitasking, the IQ-equivalent drop it produces, and the specific situation where multitasking is catastrophically dangerous.

33D AGO

Attention and Education: How Schools Are Failing at the Most Important Skill

Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang on what neuroscience tells us about how children learn to focus — and why current educational environments are structurally opposed to developing the sustained attention skills that learning requires.

40D AGO

Nature and Attention: Why Going Outside Actually Works

Attention restoration theory predicts that nature exposure restores directed attention capacity. Dr. Marc Berman on 20 years of research confirming this — and the specific types of natural environments that produce the strongest effect.

47D AGO

ADHD and Attention: What the Diagnosis Actually Means

ADHD diagnoses have tripled in the last 30 years. Psychiatrist Dr. Edward Hallowell on what ADHD actually is neurologically, why its relationship to technology is complicated, and the ways in which ADHD brains have genuine advantages in certain environments.

54D AGO

The Boredom Paradox: Why Being Bored Might Be Good for You

Psychologist Dr. Sandi Mann on boredom research — what happens in the brain when we're bored, why boredom is necessary for creativity, and the evidence that smartphones have eliminated a state that the human brain actually needs.

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Pushkin IndustriesProducer

4.6

out of 5

9K Ratings

The most useful science podcast I've found

Attention Lab has directly changed how I work. The multitasking episode alone — I've sent it to everyone on my team. Pushkin consistently makes science podcasts that are both rigorous and practical, and this is their best.

KnowledgeWorker · Mar 3, 2026

Timely and important

In an era where everyone's attention is being systematically degraded, having a show that takes the science seriously is genuinely valuable. The ADHD episode was particularly thoughtful — it didn't sensationalize or simplify.

NeuroscienceNerd · Feb 17, 2026

Required listening for modern life

Every single person I know is struggling with focus and nobody talks about why in a scientifically grounded way. Attention Lab fills that gap. The boredom episode reframed something I'd never thought about before.

ProductivityFan · Feb 2, 2026

About

Attention Lab is a Pushkin Industries production examining attention as a scientific, cultural, and personal phenomenon. In a world optimized to capture and fragment our focus, Attention Lab talks to neuroscientists, psychologists, technology researchers, and attention experts to understand what's actually happening in our brains — and what the evidence says we can do about it. Each episode takes a specific aspect of attention and examines it rigorously: how social media changes our baseline focus levels, what flow states actually require, why some people are naturally better at sustained attention, and how to recover focus that has been systematically degraded. The show is one of the most practically useful science podcasts available.