Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt is the Best Twilight Book Ever Written
- Leah Renee
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
If you like vampires, this book is for you because it's all about compulsive blood suckers!: 19th century opiųm smugglers and 21st century tech billionaires.
This episode is not just about old timey trade relations between Britain and China, it's about addiction. What we can learn about China's handling of the dangerous opiųm epidemic admidst our modern day attention fracking crisis?
Is there hope for the human race when it comes to reclaiming our attention which is being harvested at a rate that would make the East India Company blush. This episode is full on with anecdotes, personal stories, excerpts, animated GIFS, and of course: unnecessary references to Mormonism. How could I not get in on the Mormon + Twilight game that Stephanie Meyer started? You'll have to wait for the monkey anecdote, just like I did. It was over 400 pages deep in the book when Platt dropped the most delightful glitter bomb of an aside, as the book was wrapping up. Only those who stay until they've eaten their dinner get dessert.
For the purposes of indexing and clarity, here's what episode 21 of the Leah Renee Podcast covers:
Is social media the opiųm of our day?
Cal Newport's five cognitive fitness tips, I promised to share where you can learn the five things from Episode 16 here: • White men can't jump. White women can't we...
The Switch Cost Effect (including references to Johann Hari and Gloria Mark's research at UC Irvine)
Lin Zexu's famous letter to Queen Victoria and the physical, social, and economic harm of the opiųm trade to China
British dependence on Chinese goods, and China's indifference to their "toys"
The sobering social media statistic that matches up with heavy opiųm users, that I ran by a teenager to find the numbers may just be right
New social media bans rolling out in Australia and UK
Center for Humane Technology www.humantech.com a fantastic site run by digital ethicists and the creators of The Social Dilemma
Current bills and legislation to protect children from the harms of the modern digital world: Kids Off Social Media Act, COPPA 2.0, KIDS Act
I also complain about how everyone's handwriting sucks, and I don't remember phone numbers or basic math any more.
The ChatGPT study MIT published about cognitive debt and why using ChatGPT makes you dumber
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