Manoush Zomorodi Examines Tech’s Toll on Health

Technology no longer just competes for our attention — it now stands accused of changing our bodies.

NPR journalist, podcast host, and author Manoush Zomorodi is back with a new line of inquiry in Body Electric, a book that examines how technology affects physical health. The project builds on the concerns she raised in her earlier book, Bored and Brilliant, which focused on the mental and behavioral consequences of constant digital stimulation. This time, the frame widens: reports indicate Zomorodi looks at screens, devices, and always-on habits through a medical lens.

The new book also carries institutional weight. It arrives as a collaboration between NPR and Columbia University Medical Center, linking public-facing reporting with academic expertise. That partnership suggests a broader effort to move the conversation beyond personal productivity tips and into evidence-based questions about how people live with their devices every day.

Body Electric appears to push the tech debate past distraction and into a harder question: what constant connectivity does to the human body.

The shift matters because the public conversation around technology often stops at attention, mood, or screen time. Zomorodi’s latest work points toward a deeper concern: modern tech may shape posture, sleep, movement, stress, and other basic functions of daily life. Sources suggest the book picks up where her first title left off, tracing the consequences of digital overload from the mind into the rest of the body.

What happens next will determine whether this discussion stays cultural or becomes practical. If Body Electric lands with readers, it could push more scrutiny onto the health costs of everyday tech use and sharpen demands for better habits, better design, and stronger research. For anyone who lives through a screen, that question now feels less abstract and more immediate.