The Next Big Idea
Episodes
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...
SUCCESSFUL AGING: How to Live a Full, Long Life
19 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, we're living longer, on average, than at any time in history. So why do so many of us act like our last decades are a...
Rethinking Big Ideas: Adam Grant on Finding Balance
12 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For the grand finale of our stay-at-home miniseries, Rufus talks about work-life balance, the future of education, and the addictive nature of generos...
Rethinking Big Ideas: Priya Parker on Gathering Apart
05 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In “The Art of Gathering,” conflict resolution specialist Priya Parker writes that “Every gathering is an opportunity to create a world we wish ...
Rethinking Big Ideas: The Path to a More Generous World
28 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler has never felt comfortable with an economic system that values short-term profits over long-term human needs. ...
Rethinking Big Ideas: Daniel Pink on the Future of Work
21 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How will the pandemic change the way we organize our days? Our sense of purpose? Our commitments to others? So many questions! Who better to answer th...
Rethinking Big Ideas: On Finding Joy in Simple Pleasures
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last season, author/designer Ingrid Fetell Lee taught us about joy spotting. It’s the practice of going out into the world and finding ordinary obje...
Rethinking Big Ideas: Steven Johnson on Scientific Breakthroughs
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What kinds of bold thinking might lead us out of this pandemic? In this lively conversation, Steven Johnson and Rufus Griscom talk about the innovatio...
Rethinking Big Ideas: Susan Cain on Solitude
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Last season, we brought you ideas with the power to change the way you see the world. Now that the world’s been turned upside down, we thought it’...
STILLNESS: How to Find Peace in a Frantic World
28 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What do the Buddha, John F. Kennedy, Mr. Rogers, and Leonardo da Vinci all have in common? The ability to be still and tune out the busy, buzzing dron...
FREE MONEY: Why Andrew Yang Thinks a Giveaway Can Save the Economy
21 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Yang has a pretty bleak vision for the future. The way he sees it, we’re staring down the barrel of a techno-apocalypse. Robots will replace ...
HABITS: How to Let Go of The Old and Bring in the New
14 Jan 2020
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...
GATHERING: How to Make Our Time Together Meaningful
07 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Why do so many of our get-togethers feel awkward and unproductive? Priya Parker, author of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,”...
FUTURE: Can We Build a More Generous World
24 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we’re peering into the future with Kickstarter co-founder and CEO Yancey Strickler. He’s got a new book out called “This Could ...
SUCCESS: The Dirty Secret of Getting Ahead
17 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us are taught hard work and talent are the keys to getting ahead. Turns out it’s not so easy. In his new book, “The Meritocracy Trap,” Y...
TRUST: Malcolm Gladwell on How We Talk To Strangers
10 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Roses are red, violets are blue, and Malcolm Gladwell has written yet another bestseller. It's called "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about...
POWER: Why You Have More Than You Think
03 Dec 2019
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 ...
PERCEPTION: Why What You See Is Not Reality
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What you see is what you get, right? Nope. In his mind-bending new book, "The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes," Don Ho...
UNCENSORED: What Free Speech Debates Teach Us About Empathy
19 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a college student, Zachary Wood ignited a national debate when he invited controversial speakers — anti-feminists, climate-change deniers, and se...
CONFLICT: How to Have More Productive Disagreements
12 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever had one of those arguments — whether with a friend or a colleague, a loved one or a perfect stranger — that you both vehemently disa...
JOYFUL: Why Ordinary Objects Can Make You Extraordinarily Happy
06 Nov 2019
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 mu...
CODERS: The Invisible Architects Who Shape Our Lives
30 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our world is awash in code, and those zeroes and ones aren't as impersonal as you might think. In his new book, "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and...
RACIAL BIAS: Why We Have It and What We Can Do About It
22 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Stanford psychology professor Jennifer Eberhardt has spent years studying how racial bias affects all of us — yes, all — in ways we don't realize....
INDISTRACTABLE: Staying Focused in a World of Distractions
16 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Nir Eyal’s last book, “Hooked,” taught Silicon Valley how to make addictive technology. In his new book, “Indistractable,” he gives you the...
RANGE: Why Generalists Succeed in a Specialists’ World
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You know Malcolm Gladwell's “10,000-Hour Rule.” But did you know that, according to David Epstein, it doesn't work? That's what Epstein argues in ...
Introducing The Next Big Idea
01 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Next Big Idea premieres October 15th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices