Why You Can’t Pay Attention with Johann Hari | SXSW Sydney 2024 Keynote

New York Times best-selling author of Magic Pill and #StolenFocus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention, #JohannHari will take to the SXSW Sydney stage.
Johann Hari is the author of three New York Times best-selling books and the Executive Producer of an Oscar-nominated movie and an eight-part TV series starring Samuel L. Jackson. His books have been translated into 40 languages and have been praised by a broad range of influencers, from Oprah to Noam Chomsky, from Elton John to Naomi Klein.
”Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention” (Crown, January 2022) was number three on Amazon’s list of the best books of 2022, and it was named as a Book of the Year by The Financial Times, The New York Post, and The Spectator. It was also chosen as Book of the Month by Britain’s biggest bookseller, Waterstones, and Australia’s biggest bookseller Dymocks. It won several awards, including being named as Most Important Book of the Year at the Non-Obvious Book Awards and Business Book of the Year at the 2022 Porchlight Book Awards. It has been a best-seller on three continents.
Johann’s first book, ”Chasing the Scream: the First and Last Days of the War on Drugs” (Bloomsbury USA, January 2015) was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film ‘The United States vs. Billie Holiday’. It has also been adapted into the documentary series #TheFix on The Roku Channel.
His second book, ”Lost Connections: Uncovering The Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions” (Bloomsbury USA, January 2018) was described by the British Journal of General Practice as “one of the most important texts of recent years”, and shortlisted for an award by the British Medical Association.
Collectively, Johann’s TED Talks ”Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong” and “This Could Be Why You Are Depressed or Anxious” have been viewed more than 93 million times.
He has written over the past decade for some of the world’s leading newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Spectator, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Politico. He has appeared on NPR’s All Thing Considered, HBO’s Realtime With Bill Maher, The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the BBC’s Question Time, and many other popular shows.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, when Johann was a year old his family moved to London, where he grew up and where he has lived for most of his life. His father - a Swiss immigrant - was a bus driver, and his mother was a nurse who later worked in shelters for survivors of domestic violence.
Johann studied social and political science at King’s College, Cambridge, and graduated with a Double First.
Johann was twice named National Newspaper Journalist of the Year by the Amnesty International UK Media Awards. He has also been named Cultural Commentator of the Year and Environmental Commentator of the Year at The Comment Awards.
South by Southwest (SXSW) Sydney is an annual meeting place for Asia-Pacific’s pre-eminent creative industries to connect and explore. The event is a week-long program stacked with more than 1,000 ground-breaking events and networking sessions across pillars of Tech and Innovation, Games, Music, Screen and Culture. Informed by a multicultural landscape and an enduring preservation of past and present Indigenous cultural heritage, Sydney offers a rich arts and culture scene with beautiful galleries, acclaimed theatres and burgeoning performance spaces.
We acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land we now call Sydney, where #SXSWSydney will take place. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging for their continuing connection with cultural, spiritual and educational practices, and extent this respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Always was, always will be.
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