Johann Hari

Biography

Johann Hari is a New York Times best-selling writer. He has written five books, which have sold two million copies across the world, in 40 languages. He has also been the Executive Producer of an Oscar-nominated movie and an eight-part TV series with Samuel L. Jackson. His work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky, from Elton John to Naomi Klein.

His TED talks have been viewed more than 93 million times (including Facebook views). The first is named ‘Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong’. The second is entitled ‘This Could Be Why You Are Depressed or Anxious’. 

Every book he writes comes from a question he wants to investigate and answer for himself. Why are so many of us finding it hard to pay attention, and how do we get our brains back? Why are so many of us depressed and anxious, and how do we get our lives back? What can we all do to help the people we love with addiction problems? To find out the answers, he then goes on a big journey all over the world, meeting the leading experts, doing a deep dive into the science, and telling the human stories beyond the statistics.

His book ‘Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention’, was named as one of the three best books of the year by Amazon.com, 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 awards and accolades across the world. It was named as ‘Most Important Book of the Year’ at the Non-Obvious Book Awards and ‘Best Book of the Year’ at the Porchlight Book Awards in the United States. It was named as the best business book of the year by Knowsquare in Spain, and voted ‘Book of the Year’ by one of South Korea’s biggest booksellers. It has been a big best-seller on three continents.

‘Chasing the Scream: the First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’, was adapted into the Oscar-nominated film ‘The United States Vs Billie Holiday’. It has also been adapted into a documentary series which is available to view now.

‘Lost Connections: Uncovering The Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions’ 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.

‘Magic Pill: the Extraordinary Benefits – and Disturbing Risks – of the New Weight Loss Drugs’ received hugely positive reviews from the Wall Street Journal to The Times to the Telegraph, and was named as one of the best science books of the year by Amazon.com.

He has written 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 Podcast, the BBC’s Question Time, and many other popular shows.

He was twice named ‘National Newspaper Journalist of the Year’ by Amnesty International. He has also been named ‘Cultural Commentator of the Year’ and ‘Environmental Commentator of the Year’ at the Comment Awards.

To read about what he is working on now, please click here.