📰 Subscribe to UnHerd today at: https://bit.ly/3Qdkd5y UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets James Marriott and Jared Henderson. Watch it on the UnHerd website: https://unherd.com/watch-listen/the-dawn-of-post-literate-society/ Listen to the podcast: https://plnk.to/unherd?to=page UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers brings together two leading voices on the decline of reading and the future of literacy: Times columnist and cultural critic, James Marriott, and YouTuber and philosopher, Jared Henderson. Marriott has written extensively about what he calls the dawn of a “post-literate society.” For him, the slow death of English literature and the retreat from serious reading mark a cultural crisis, with far-reaching consequences for politics, education, and civic life. He argues that without books and deep reading, society risks becoming shallow, distracted, and dangerously unserious. Henderson agrees and sees the problem through a different lens. On his YouTube channel he has chronicled the “male reading crisis” in American colleges, showing how boys and young men are abandoning reading altogether. But rather than mourning literature’s decline, he focuses on practical ways to reignite reading habits, from choosing the right books to rebuilding attention in an age of screens. In this discussion, Freddie Sayers asks: Is literacy truly collapsing, or simply evolving into new forms? As AI, smartphones and digital media reshape our minds, is the future of reading one of decline — or reinvention? Follow UnHerd on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/unherd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unherd/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unherd/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@unherdtv //TIMECODES// 00:00 - 07:01 - Literacy is in decline 07:01 - 14:12 - The impact of declining literacy and why reading is good for you 14:12 - 15:59 - Reading vs. smartphones 15:59 - 24:31 - How declining literacy could undermine democracy 24:31 - 26:43 - Are we just being reactionary ‘centrist dads’? 26:43 - 31:56 - Does social media need regulating? 31:56 - 34:23 - Is this the end of civilisation? Is there any hope for the future? #UnHerd #JaredHenderson #readingcomprehension