Chris Hayes makes a dwelling from consideration: What deserves some, what doesn’t, and the way to verify the general public offers their very own restricted span of it to the fitting issues.
That sounds easy sufficient. However as I discovered throughout my dialog with Hayes, which kicks off season two of The Large Interview podcast, it’s more and more not. In 2025, the host of MS Now’s All In With Chris Hayes launched The Sirens’ Name: How Consideration Turned the World’s Most Endangered Useful resource—a ebook whose central thesis argues that focus has change into the defining commodity of recent life.
In line with that theme, Hayes himself is in all places audiences spend time: opining on TV, internet hosting a podcast known as Why Is This Occurring?, interacting along with his 1000’s of followers on social networks, and posting vertical movies there as properly. In different phrases, Hayes is each adept at contemplating the eye economic system from an mental perch and is collaborating in it as an consideration service provider himself.
That’s particularly why I needed to speak to Hayes, and speak to him proper now. He has, in spite of everything, spent years learning and theorizing about consideration. Given our present circumstances, it will in all probability behoove the remainder of us to perform a little of the identical. I used to be searching for Hayes’ tackle how the eye economic system is more and more shaping every thing from leisure and elections to ICE raids and world wars, and the way each customers and journalists might take into consideration their very own function in that economic system as soberly and thoughtfully as attainable.
Once we sat down in early March, the US and Israel’s warfare with Iran was simply getting began. Even in these early days, it had change into a black gap for our consideration, from relentless information alerts to President Trump’s Fact Social posts to AI-generated Division of Conflict propaganda. We needed to discuss it—together with Hayes’ views on the uneasy alliance between Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, his social media technique, and what the left is getting flawed about AI.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Chris Hayes, welcome to The Large Interview.
CHRIS HAYES: It is nice to be right here. I am a giant fan of WIRED. You guys are doing superb work.
Thanks.
I write about WIRED within the ebook. I bear in mind asking my mother and father for the subscription. I feel it was for Christmas. I used to be like a diehard. Each single web page.
I’ve been considering so much about WIRED previous, current, and future. I feel the very early WIRED had a really rebellious, countercultural spirit. And I’d argue the WIRED we’re working has that very same spirit, however directed on the business that was born of the 1993 WIRED.
Completely. We take into consideration who’s the incumbent, who’s the rebel, and the valence of that switching. That WIRED vibe was Complete Earth ’Lectronic Hyperlink, like the unique large bulletin board, form of post-hippie cybernaut. Kinda libertarian, but additionally form of left-coded, however undoubtedly very hopeful utopian and in addition very rebel towards the powers that be. What occurred was the powers that be are actually the those that sat with the president at his inauguration.
They positive did. And we positive did cowl that.
So the rebel vibe is now directed in a unique course.
We’re sitting down in New York. It is a Wednesday in early March. It’s laborious to consider only a few days in the past that the US and Israel launched an all-out assault on Iran, which has escalated remarkably rapidly. I’d be remiss to not point out that that is the second chief this 12 months that President Trump has ousted. The primary being Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. What is going on within the Center East is terrifying. It’s unhappy. Lots of of individuals are useless, together with US service members. It is usually, although, yet one more all-consuming information cycle. It’s a brain-melting, mind-numbing tempo of reports. We’re going to spend so much of time on this dialog speaking about consideration. When you consider international battle and warfare on this period, how a lot of it’s about consideration?
