The Next Big Idea
Episodes
Bonus: Eric Barker Gives Daniel Pink Relationship Advice
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Barker teaches our curator Daniel Pink how to make friends, disarm marital conflicts, and spot liars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg...
LONGTERMISM: Why You Should Care About Future People
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If the human race lasts as long as a typical mammalian species and our population continues at its current size, then there are 80 trillion people yet...
QUIT: Why You Have to Give Up if You Want to Get Ahead
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, “Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away,” Annie Duke says mastering the art of quitting is the key to making smart decision...
PUZZLES: What Crosswords, Riddles, and Wordle Can Teach You About the Meaning of Life
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the last 25 years, writer A.J. Jacobs has attempted to live his life as a human guinea pig. “I’ve engaged in a series of experiments on my min...
BUILD: Tony Fadell’s Guide to Making Cool Stuff
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Learning Thermostat. In his new book, “Build,” he shares everything he’s learn...
SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST: How Tech Billionaires Are Preparing for Doomsday
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever found yourself sitting around a table at a luxury resort with five mega-rich strangers who want to know where you think they should buil...
HAPPINESS: Arthur C. Brooks Shares His Roadmap for Finding Purpose, Meaning, and Success
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur C. Brooks used to run a prominent think tank where he was paid handsomely to influence public policy. Did all that success make him happy? Nope...
DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on the future of AI (from The TED Interview)
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Demis Hassabis is one of tech's most brilliant minds. A chess-playing child prodigy turned researcher and founder of headline-making AI company DeepMi...
Summer Getaway #4: The Making of ‘Bull Durham’ (with Ron Shelton)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ron Shelton is an Academy Award–nominated writer and director, former shortstop for the Bluefield Baby Birds, and author of a humdinger of a new mem...
Summer Getaway #3: The 12-Hour Walk (with Colin O’Brady)
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you put your phone in airplane mode, walk out your front door, and don’t come home for 12 hours? Our producer Caleb finds out, wit...
Summer Getaway #2: An American Odyssey (with Ben McGrath)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Ohio, Hudson, Mississippi, and Yellowstone — Dick Conant canoed them all. And then he disappeared. In his riveting new book, “Riverman,” jo...
Summer Getaway #1: The Beach (with Sarah Stodola)
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Close your eyes and picture paradise. What do you see? For many people, it’s a turquoise ocean crashing into a white-sand beach. Where did this fant...
Finding Stillness With Ryan Holiday
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s another episode from our archives that we love: Rufus’s 2020 interview with Ryan Holiday, the author of “Stillness Is the Key,” who sha...
Amanda Little on the Fate of Food
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’re bringing you a timely — and tasty — episode from our archives. Science journalist Amanda Little tells Rufus that the biggest threat ...
John Colapinto on the Power and Beauty of the Human Voice
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today, we are revisiting one of our favorite episodes: an interview with New Yorker staff writer John Colapinto. In his brilliant book, "This Is the V...
THE ESSENTIALS: Our Favorite Moments From Season 4
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We laughed. We cried. We learned. As our fourth season draws to a close, we thought we'd share the moments we're still talking about at Next Big Idea ...
BICYCLES: Are They the Future of Transportation?
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jody Rosen is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and a bike nut who has just published a rousing (and sometimes arousing) book calle...
BIG DATA: Cracking the Codes of Love, Happiness and Success
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“You can make better life decisions. Big Data can help you.” So begins “Don’t Trust Your Gut,” a new book by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. Seth,...
Susan Cain & Daniel Pink: Writing, Longing, and the Search for Meaning
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do we lose when we avoid sorrow and chase empty delights, when we mask our pain and feign cheerfulness, when we profess to have no regrets and in...
RELATIONSHIPS: Why Everything You Know About Them Is (Mostly) Wrong
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Barker is not a people person. “Getting me to write a relationship book,” he says, “is like asking Godzilla to improve the infrastructure i...
How To Be a Grown-Up
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode, Daniel Pink delivers a commencement address, Stanford-dean-turned-bestselling-author Julie Lythcott-Haims shares her manual f...
IMAGINABLE: How Anyone Can Predict the Future (Yes, Even You)
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2020, when the coronavirus started making headlines around the world, Jane McGonigal’s inbox was flooded with emails from Silicon Valley ...
CULTURE: How Successful Groups Work
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The filmmakers at Pixar. The servers at Union Square Cafe. The badasses on SEAL Team Six. What do these super successful groups all have in common? St...
GET IT DONE: How the Science of Motivation Can Help You Achieve Your Goals
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
University of Chicago professor Ayelet Fishbach has spent the last two decades studying the science of motivation. She has developed a framework for t...
Bonus: The Not-So-Great Resignation (WorkLife with Adam Grant)
08 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past year, the Great Resignation has been all over the news. Many people are celebrating quitting their jobs — but it’s a decision some w...
FUN: How to Have More of It
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are we all so busy doom-scrolling and binge-watching that we’ve forgotten how to have fun? Catherine Price thinks so. But don’t despair. Her lates...
TWITTER: What Elon Musk’s Acquisition Means for the Future of Social Media
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why did Elon Musk buy Twitter? What does he plan to do with it? Is this the end of big social or a chance to reinvent it? This week, we’re interrupt...
EMOTIONAL: Do Your Feelings Make You Smarter?
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We all strive to think rationally. But it doesn’t always do us much good. Cutting-edge science has revealed that if we want to sharpen our thinking,...
ORIGIN: How Did Humans Migrate to the Americas?
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Thousands of years ago, humans crossed a land bridge from Siberia into Alaska. They tried to move south, but a two-mile-high, coast-spanning ice wall ...
BITTERSWEET: Susan Cain on the Beauty of Sorrow and Longing
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are you elevated by sad songs? Have you ever been brought to tears by a TV commercial? Do you relish rainy days? If you answered yes to any of those q...
Regrets: Daniel Pink Has a Few (And So Should You)
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Embedded in songs, emblazoned on skin, and embraced by sages, the anti-regret philosophy is so self-evidently true that it’s more often asserted ...
REALITY+: Are We Living in a Simulation?
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Philosopher David Chalmers reckons there’s a 25% chance that we are living in a simulation. And he’s OK with it. David's new book is "Reality+: Vi...
HURT SO GOOD: The Pleasures of Suffering (Paul Bloom & Susan Cain)
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Some people think humans are natural pleasure seekers. But not psychologist Paul Bloom. In his new book, “The Sweet Spot,” Paul says we’re pain ...
EMPIRE: Why Ray Dalio Thinks We May Be Headed for Civil War
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
History, in the eyes of legendary investor Ray Dalio, is a perpetual motion machine. Nations rise and fall according to an inevitable cycle where peac...
TIME MANAGEMENT FOR MORTALS: Malcolm Gladwell and Oliver Burkeman
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.” So begins Oliver Burkeman’s new book, “Four Thousand Weeks: Time Ma...
EVENING ROCKET: Decoding Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Visions of the Future
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to Elon Musk, it can be hard to separate the man from the myth. But in her new podcast, “The Evening Rocket,” Harvard historian and ...
GOOD ANXIETY: Can You Turn Worrying Into a Superpower?
12 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To fret is human. That’s according to recent estimates that suggest 90 percent of the population experiences anxiety. And because anxiety, even in m...
HACK YOUR HABITS: The Science of Making Changes That Stick
05 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is it so hard to break bad habits and replace them with good ones? You may think it all comes down to willpower. But social psychologist Wendy Woo...
TOGETHER: The Surgeon General’s Prescription for Health and Happiness
29 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Dr. Vivek Murthy became U.S. Surgeon General in 2014, he went on a listening tour. What he heard surprised him. Americans were lonely, and it w...
SPIRITUAL TECHNOLOGIES: Two Scientists Debate the Benefits of Religion
22 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The science is clear: people who engage in spiritual practices live longer, happier, healthier lives. For the past few years, two researchers — Dave...
DAWN OF EVERYTHING: The True History of Humanity
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What if everything we think we know about the history of our species is wrong? That’s the provocative question at the heart of a new book by today’...
DOPAMINE NATION: Why the Modern World Puts Us All at Risk for Addiction
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” Dr. Anna Lembke says today’s superabundance of pleasurable stimuli makes us all ...
AMBITION: How to Achieve Success on Your Own Terms
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From the time she was in high school, Shellye Archambeau had one dream: she wanted to run a business. Ultimately, she pulled it off, becoming one of S...
FRIENDSHIP: The Science Behind Life’s Deepest Bond
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Friends aren’t just fun to hang out with and handy in a pinch. They’re also a biological necessity. Rufus talks to journalist Lydia Denworth, auth...
EXPONENTIAL AGE: Everything Is Accelerating. Who’s at the Wheel?
17 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve all seen the meme. Two images, side by side. On the left, a photo of Jeff Bezos circa 1998. His hair is receding, his smile geeky, his sweater...
NEW POWER: How to Spread Ideas, Build Movements, and Leap Ahead
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Colleges, businesses, and bureaucracies have long operated on an "old power" model — rigid hierarchies that rule from the top down. But Henry Timms ...
SPORTS: Life Lessons From an Olympian, a Hockey Coach, and a Middle-Aged Beginner
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode, three writers share the hard-won wisdom they acquired running track, coaching hockey, and attending surf camp in Costa Rica. ...
FEELING & KNOWING: Unlocking the Secrets of Consciousness
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Look up the term “Renaissance man” in the dictionary, and you'll probably find a photo of Antonio Damasio. He is a polyglot, an avid reader of fic...
Bonus: Adam Grant and Annie Murphy Paul
20 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our curators — Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — recently named “The Extended Mind” by Annie Murphy Paul one of the ...
LAZINESS: There's No Such Thing
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Are you lazy? Social psychologist Devon Price doesn’t think so. In their provocative new book, “Laziness Does Not Exist,” Devon invites us to im...
HOW TO CHANGE: Science-Backed Tips for Becoming Your Best Self (Katy Milkman & Daniel Pink)
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Katy Milkman was a newly minted professor at Wharton, she came across a statistic that stopped her cold: 40 percent of premature deaths result fr...
RATIONALITY: Steven Pinker’s Love Song to Critical Thinking
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, “Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters,” Steven Pinker writes: “When humans set themselves the goal of i...
LOONSHOTS: The Science of Generating Crazy Ideas (Safi Bahcall & Daniel Pink)
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What if the fates of careers, companies, even entire industries depend on nurturing crazy ideas? In “Loonshots," physicist turned biotech entreprene...
DEADLINE EFFECT: Can You Work Like It's the Last Minute Before the Last Minute?
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The deadline is one of the most powerful tools we have for getting work done. So why are we all so afraid of it? After studying organizations that man...
EXTRA LIFE: We Doubled Life Expectancy in the Last Century. Can We Do It Again?
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past century, the average human lifespan has doubled. That astonishing statistic is the subject of a new book and PBS series by acclaimed sci...
PARENTING: Learn How to Do It Better With Science, Data, and Mr. Rogers
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every season, we invite the authors of the best new non-fiction to distill their books into five big ideas. Then they read those ideas aloud. We call ...
PERSONALITY: The Science of Being Who You Want
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cognitive neuroscientist Christian Jarrett believes your personality is not etched in stone. Instead, he says, it's made of soft clay, and with the ri...
JOYFUL: Ingrid Fetell Lee and Adam Grant on the Objects That Make Us Happy
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Conventional wisdom tells us that real joy comes from within: from exercise or meditation, acts of service or the way we look at the world — pretty ...
CULT OF WE: How WeWork's CEO Vaporized $40 Billion
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Adam Neumann, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home (eight of them, actually) and a happy (if slightly hyperactive) disposition, seemed ...
BREATH: Is Deep Breathing the Secret to Long Living?
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We do it 25,000 times a day, but most of us rarely give breathing a thought. Author James Nestor says we’re missing out on one of the most powerful ...
DRUNK: Can Alcohol Make You More Creative, Sociable, and Attractive?
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do we have alcohol to thank for civilization? The answer, according to Edward Slingerland’s new book, “Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled ...
DEATH, SEX & MONEY: Anna Sale Talks About Hard Things
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of us run away from tough conversations. Anna Sale runs toward them. For nearly a decade, as the host of the podcast “Death, Sex & Money,” s...
THE BOMBER MAFIA: Malcolm Gladwell on Warfare, Audiobooks, and the Future of Storytelling
14 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Malcolm Gladwell’s extraordinary new book, “The Bomber Mafia,” tells the story of a group of pilots who met on a muggy airbase in central Alabam...
EFFORTLESS: Embrace the Easy Option
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Teddy Roosevelt once said that nothing is worth doing “unless it means effort, pain, and difficulty.” And to that bestselling author Greg McKeown ...
HIGH CONFLICT: How to Defuse Any Squabble (Amanda Ripley & Susan Cain)
30 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever lain awake at night, obsessing over a conflict with a colleague or a relative or a politician you’ve never met? That’s what journali...
EXTENDED MIND: Want to Get Smarter? Try Thinking Outside of Your Brain
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Modern life has not been easy on our brains. Average IQ scores rose steadily throughout the last century. Now they appear to be leveling off. The prob...
DELUSIONS: How Self-Deception Can Help You Flourish (Shankar Vedantam & Daniel Pink)
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Is it really so bad to be a little bit delusional? Not according to Shankar Vedantam. In his new book, “Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of t...
AI: The Extraordinary Story of the Tech That’s Changing the World
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1958, a psychologist named Frank Rosenblatt took a five-ton computer, fed it a steady diet of punch cards, and taught it how to recognize the lette...
MINE: How the Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ownership is simple, right? Something is either yours or it isn’t. Case closed. But who owns the space behind your airplane seat, the results of the...
GATHERING: Mastering the Art of Hanging Out
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You’ve posted a photo of your vaccine card on Instagram. The CDC says it’s okay to leave your bunker. Some of your friends have expressed interest...
EMAIL: Would the World Be Better Without It?
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What’s the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning and the last thing you do before bed? If you’re a modern knowledge worker, your answ...
WORK: Should You Do Less of It? Adam Grant and James Suzman on the 15-Hour Workweek.
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Our work consumes us. But does it have to? Anthropologist James Suzman has spent decades living in the Kalahari Desert with one of the world’s last ...
CODE BREAKER: Why Walter Isaacson Thinks CRISPR Will Change Life As We Know It
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Almost a decade ago, the biochemist Jennifer Doudna and her team at Berkeley figured out how to rewrite our genetic code using a system called CRISPR....
FOOD: Can We Taste Climate Change?
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What’s for dinner? How will we answer that question in 50 years? In this thought-provoking (and occasionally hunger-inducing) conversation, science ...
CHATTER: Learning to Love the Voice in Your Head
21 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Whether or not we care to admit it, we all talk to ourselves. A lot. The voice in our heads yaks it up about half the time we’re awake, and it can s...
HUMOR: How to Turn Levity Into Your Secret Weapon
14 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Humor is no laughing matter. It inspires innovation, strengthens relationships, disarms tension, and makes you look smart. Seriously. So why are we al...
BEGINNERS: The Joys of Being an Amateur
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A few years ago, as he watched his young daughter try out one hobby after another, a thought crossed Tom Vanderbilt’s mind: Why do we work so hard t...
THINK AGAIN: Adam Grant on the Power of Changing Your Mind
31 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taught that the mark of surefire intelligence is the ability to think and learn. But in his new book, “Think Again,” Adam Grant says that ...
VOICE: You Are What You Speak
24 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sure, opposable thumbs are handy. But in his brilliant new book, “This Is the Voice,” John Colapinto says the voice is our species’ greatest att...
THE BRAIN: A User’s Guide to the Blob Between Your Ears
17 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you managed to stay awake during Bio 101, then you probably think you have a basic understanding of how your brain works. Not so, says neuroscienti...
SERENDIPITY: Good Luck and How to Get It
10 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In all likelihood, some of the biggest moments in your life, like meeting your spouse or finding your job, were the result of a chance encounter or fo...
DRUG USE: Is Getting High an American Right?
03 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every day, Dr. Carl Hart goes into his laboratory at Columbia University and gets people high. That research has led him to a surprising conclusion: t...
POST CORONA: Predicting the Future With Scott Galloway
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We don’t know when the pandemic will end, but we do know this: while we’ve been stuck at home, the world has been spinning faster than ever. Name ...
Season 3: New Ideas, Same Great Taste
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Next Big Idea returns on February 25th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
LET’S BE REASONABLE: Sam Harris and Rufus in Conversation
25 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Neuroscientist, philosopher, podcaster, author, meditation guru, and unabashed atheist Sam Harris is one of our best-known — and most controversial ...
MIND GAMES: What Poker Can Teach Us About Luck, Skill, and Ourselves
01 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You have to play with the hand you’re dealt. At least that’s what we’re always told. But is it really true? How much of what we achieve in life ...
TRANSCENDENCE: Finding Fulfillment Beyond Ourselves
25 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
You may have heard about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which sees human development as a sort of a pyramid, with survival needs at the bottom, social...
HUMANKIND: Finding Hope in Human History
18 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our society is built on the assumption that we’re all a broken stoplight away from reverting to our animal selves. It’s what we’ve come to call ...
MIGRATION: Why Human Beings Were Built to Move
11 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Birds do it, bees do it, even fishes in the seas do it. So why do we have such a hard time when people migrate from one place to another? Science writ...
BREATH: Harnessing the Power of a Lost Art
04 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We do it 25,000 times a day, but most of us rarely give breathing a thought. Author James Nestor says we’re missing out on one of the most powerful...
PERSUASION: How to Change People’s Minds
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Businesses want people to buy their products. Parents want their kids to eat their vegetables. We all want to convince someone to do something. So we ...
ALCHEMY: How Our Creations Recreate Us
21 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Since humans sharpened the first stick and lit the first fire, we have been on an innovation spree, constantly developing new tools and materials to s...
UPSTREAM: Solving Problems Before They Happen
14 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We knew a pandemic was coming. We knew our police were treating some of us differently than others. So why were we so unprepared for what happened? In...
CIVILIZATION: Recalculating the Price of Progress
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Cutting-edge science, music and art, powerful technology, plentiful food. It’s no wonder we sing the praises of civilization. But do we really have ...
TOGETHER: A Doctor’s Prescription for Health and Happiness
30 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Dr. Vivek Murthy became U.S. Surgeon General in 2014, he went on a listening tour. What he heard surprised him. Americans were lonely, and it w...
WEIRDNESS: How to Make it Your Superpower
23 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Olga Khazan describes weirdness as not fitting neatly into a box — regardless of what that box may be. It doesn’t just make other people see you a...
BOYS & SEX: Coming of Age in America
16 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Hook-ups, sexting, friends with benefits, ubiquitous porn — sometimes it seems like boys today are growing up in a world of easy sex and mindless gr...
FRIENDSHIP: The Science and Power of Life’s Deepest Bond
09 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Friends aren’t just fun to hang out with and handy in a pinch. They’re also a biological necessity. Rufus talks to journalist Lydia Denworth, auth...
THINKING AHEAD: How to Make Life’s Big Decisions
03 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We all face fork-in-the-road moments in our lives. In his 2005 bestseller “Blink,” Next Big Idea Club curator (and this episode’s guest intervie...
LISTENING: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters
26 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In the cacophony of modern life, it can seem that talking, scoring points, and being heard are more important than paying attention to what others hav...