Pop Culture is Good (Exchange Favorite)

Our guest today tells us that shows like The Simpsons and video games like Grand Theft Auto and The Sims actually challenge us mentally rather than turning our brains into mush and have become more and more sophisticated over the past thirty years. Steven Johnson draws on fields as diverse as neuroscience, economics and literary theory to make his point about pop culture. Laura's guest is Steven Johnson, author of "Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture is Actually Making us Smarter".

*This show originally aired on 5/10/06*