Who would have thought that we’d need a manual on how to breathe? Having done it since the day I was born, I assumed I knew the basics: you get air in, you get air out. It was with this healthy dose of skepticism that I first picked up James Nestor’s Breath.

The book is a deep dive into the practice and science of respiration, challenging the traditional medical assumption that the method of breathing is irrelevant as long as oxygen reaches the lungs.

This is less a formal book review and more a collection of thoughts on Jonathan Haidt’s exploration of the seismic shift in childhood: the transition from a play-based existence to a phone-based one. Haidt meticulously outlines the rise of the "constantly connected, instantly available" life and its correlation with the ongoing deterioration of mental health among young people.

Have you noticed that focusing your attention feels significantly harder than it used to? I remember a time as a teenager when I could spend an entire afternoon or evening, sometimes until four in the morning lost in a book. Fast forward a few decades, and the landscape has changed.