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Every day, we consume a mind-boggling amount of information. We scan online news articles, sift through text messages and emails, scroll through our social-media feeds \u2014 and that\u2019s usually before we even get out of bed in the morning. In 2009, a team of researchers found that the average American consumed about 34 gigabytes of information a day. Undoubtedly, that number would be even higher today.\n\nBut what are we actually getting from this huge influx of information? How is it affecting our memories, our attention spans, our ability to think? What might this mean for today\u2019s children, and future generations? And what does it take to read \u2014 and think \u2014 deeply in a world so flooded with constant input?\n\nMaryanne Wolf is a researcher and scholar at U.C.L.A.\u2019s School of Education and Information Studies. Her books \u201cProust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain\u201d and \u201cReader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World\u201d explore the relationship between the process of reading and the neuroscience of the brain. And, in Wolfe\u2019s view, our era of information overload represents a historical inflection point where our ability to read \u2014 truly, deeply read, not just scan or scroll \u2014 hangs in the balance. \n\nWe discuss why reading is a fundamentally \u201cunnatural\u201d act, how scanning and scrolling differ from \u201cdeep reading,\u201d why it\u2019s not accurate to say that \u201creading\u201d is just one thing, how our brains process information differently when we\u2019re reading on a Kindle or a laptop as opposed to a physical book, how exposure to such an abundance of information is rewiring our brains and reshaping our society, how to rediscover the lost art of reading books deeply, what Wolf recommends to those of us who struggle against digital distractions, what parents can do to to protect their children\u2019s attention, how Wolf\u2019s theory of a \u201cbiliterate brain\u201d may save our species\u2019 ability to deeply process language and information and more.\n\nMentioned:\n\nThe Glass Bead Game (Magister Ludi) by Hermann Hesse\n\nHow We Read Now by Naomi S. Baron\n\nThe Shallows by Nicholas Carr\n\nYiruma\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nThe Gilead Novels by Marilynne Robinson\n\nWorld and Town by Gish Jen\n\nStanding by Words by Wendell Berry\n\nLove\u2019s Mind by John S. Dunne\nMiddlemarch by George Eliot\n\nThoughts? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. (And if you\u2019re reaching out to recommend a guest, please write \u201cGuest Suggestion\u201d in the subject line.)\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at\xa0nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at\xa0https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.