Jenny Odell

Jenny Odell is a writer and artist whose work centers around the power of observation and attention in shaping our reality. Her first book, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, is “a complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto” (New York Times Book Review). A New York Times bestseller that Barack Obama named as one of his favorite books of the year, How to Do Nothing resists categorization, touching on everything from ancient Greek philosophy to birding to labor strikes to performance art. In it, Odell argues that our attention is our most valuable (and scarce) resource, and we must actively and continuously choose how we use it—instead of letting the forces of capitalism choose for us. Instead, we can use our attention to reimagine and reconnect with our environments and our communities.

Jenny Odell’s highly-anticipated, Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock, answers the question, “What if you don’t have time to spend in quiet contemplation?” Odell takes a deep dive into the fundamental structure of our society—time—and finds that the clock we live by was built for profit, not for humans. When life has become a series of moments to be bought, sold, and converted into productivity, Odell argues, our painful relationship to time becomes interwoven with social inequities, climate crisis, and existential dread. In Saving Time, Jenny Odell offers different ways to experience time, pulling from pre-industrial cultures, nature, and geological time scales, that provide a respite, a source of meaning, and a more humane way of living.

In her expansive, tailored talks to students, creatives, and communities, Odell shares powerful presentations that combine sociology, ecology, geology, economics, and cultural history to create a truly unique argument for reclaiming our relationships with attention and time. She also draws on her art background to ask questions about how art changes our relationships with the world around us. A fascinating and charming speaker, Odell leaves audiences renewed, invigorated, and with fresh perspectives.

Jenny Odell is also a talented visual artist who has been exhibited at The Contemporary Jewish Museum, the New York Public Library, the Marjorie Barrick Museum, Les Rencontres D’Arles, Fotomuseum Antwerpen, Fotomuseum Winterthur, La Gaîté Lyrique, the Lishui Photography Festival, and apexart. She has also been an artist in residence at Recology San Francisco (a.k.a. “the dump”), the San Francisco Planning Department, the Internet Archive, and the Montalvo Arts Center. From 2013 to 2021, she taught digital art at Stanford University.

In addition to her bestselling books, Odell’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Sierra, and other publications. She lives in Oakland, California.

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