Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being [9781250411204]

Overview

“A compelling, necessary and hopeful read for our busy, burned out, overwhelming and tech-addicted times. This book will make you want to move!" ―Brigid Schulte, New York Times bestselling author of Over Work

From award-winning journalist and host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour Manoush Zomorodi, a timely investigation into how screens and sitting are reshaping our bodies―and how a simple shift can change everything.

In today’s world, a perfectly normal day means sitting in front of a screen for eight to ten hours. Meeting after meeting. Task after task. Email after email. If we’re not chained to our chairs, we’re attached to our devices, looking down at our phones and plugging in headphones. And then we go home, sit down on the couch, and scroll some more before going to bed and doing it all over again. Even children are not exempt: Many hours of their social and academic lives are spent on a screen.

We all know there has to be a better way—but what is it? In Body Electric, Manoush Zomorodi, host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour and the Body Electric podcast, draws on expert interviews, cutting-edge research, and real experiences from tens of thousands of everyday participants in her own citizen experiment to reveal the surprising physiological costs of our digital existences, from posture problems and dwindling eyesight to disrupted breathing and weight gain, and shares scientifically-backed, easy-to-manage tactics and solutions for better health and well-being. Along the way, she also debunks myths and misconceptions about what helps and hurts us, offers useful insights into the labs, offices, schools, and homes where small shifts are making big difference, culminating in an easy-to-apply protocol that will get us all moving.