# The Book Club: James Marriott

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-james-marriott
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373/the-book-club-james-marriott.md
Podcast: [Best of the Spectator](https://stenobird.com/podcast/best-of-the-spectator-45373)
Published: 2026-09-02T23:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/best-of-the-spectator/episodes/the-book-club-james-marriott
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68358fb5e1abc4be6b0308eb/e/6a9707273e79af5f4879fdae/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=KEg69y8v5LhOTKVwKjUiAfIgt8B7KVa4mHlZEUjNlQ8
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/best-of-the-spectator-45373/episodes/the-book-club-james-marriott
Duration seconds: 2486

## Resource

In this week’s Book Club podcast, Sam Leith is joined by The Times columnist James Marriott, whose new book is The New Dark Ages: The End of Reading and the Dawn of a Post-literate Society . Are we witnessing the end of the reading age? James explains why literacy has shaped not just our culture but the way we think – and why its decline could have profound consequences for politics, democracy and public life. They discuss how television, TikTok and short-form video have transformed our attention spans, whether AI will further erode the status of writing, and why the readers of the future may become a new cognitive elite. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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