How Ezra Klein maintains digital hygiene

Strategies from a dude in the eye of the hurricane

It’s been nearly four years since I retired from the news business—and with every passing day, I am increasingly confident in my decision.

The amount of staring-at-my-phone time the job required was badly degrading my mental health. I can’t imagine how I would strike a balance if I were still on the job these days, with the pace and insanity of the news cycle increasing exponentially.

So I was keenly interested to hear how Ezra Klein keeps his shit together. The author of the must-read New York Times column (and host of the must-hear podcast) lives in the eye of the hurricane in this era of Trump, war, AI, and climate crisis. How does he maintain any semblance of digital hygiene?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s thought about this a lot. Here are four of his strategies:

1. “Don’t leak energy.” Ezra got this phrase from a friend of his, and he now puts it at the top of his to-do list almost daily. The phone, he argues, is a giant energy suck.

2. Use a distraction blocker. He relies on this device to temporarily block distracting apps and notifications on his phone.

3. Read on paper, not screens. He tries to spend a few hours most days consuming information the old-fashioned way, instead of through the phone. He says it’s a vastly different experience.

4. Powering down. After his kids are in bed, Ezra switches to candlelight in the living room—listening to music, reading on paper, talking with his wife, or looking out the window—a ritual he says reduces the input stream.

Check out my full conversation with Ezra on today’s episode of the podcast, where we discuss all of the above plus: his meditation practice, his tattoo, and the future of the species.

And of course, as part of our new paid subscriber benefit, I’m excited to bring you today’s companion meditation from our July Meditation Teacher of the Month, Dawn Mauricio. It’s designed to help you cultivate equanimity when everything feels like it’s going off the rails—part of our ongoing effort to help you put the ideas from the show into practice.

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Episode Cheatsheet

The big takeaway

To stay sane in an age of chaos and overload, Ezra Klein leans on strict phone boundaries, reading on paper, and nightly wind-down rituals. His takeaway: You don’t need to disengage from the world—but you do need to protect how, and how much, you let in.

Sanity in the Age of Chaos: Ezra Klein on Digital Hygiene, Embodiment, and Intellectual Humility

Key takeaways: