The Next Big Idea

By Next Big Idea Club

Society & Culture Education

What's The Next Big Idea about?

The Next Big Idea is a weekly series of in-depth interviews with the world’s leading thinkers. Join our host, Rufus Griscom — along with our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — for conversations that might just change the way you see the world. New episodes every Thursday.

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ABOLISH POVERTY: Matthew De...

03.23.2023

RUFUS GRISCOM: Could you share with us your broader mission and how your new book, “Poverty, by America,” supports that mission? MATTHEW DESMOND: I want to end poverty. I want to be part of the movement that’s growing around the ...

The Next Big Idea episodes:

03.23.2023 ABOLISH POVERTY: Matthew Desmond on How We Can Do It RUFUS GRISCOM: Could you share with us your broader mission and how your new book, “Poverty, by America,” supports that mission? MATTHEW DESMOND: I want to end poverty. I want to be part of the movement that’s growing around the ...
03.16.2023 READING: Are We Forgetting How To Do It? Maryanne Wolf is a professor at UCLA and the renowned author of "Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain" and "Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World." She says deep reading makes ...
03.09.2023 David Chalmers Thinks We May Be Living in a Simulation (and He’s OK With It) Last year, Rufus sat down with philosopher David Chalmers to talk about the allure of virtual reality, whether robots will ever achieve consciousness, and the likelihood that we’re living in a simulation (David thinks it’s about 25 percent). It was ...
03.02.2023 Is AI Moving Too Fast? A Conversation With Kevin Roose When Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times, demoed an AI-powered version of Microsoft's search engine last month, he was blown away. "I'm switching my desktop computer's default search engine to Bing," he declared. A few days ...
02.23.2023 LIFE IS SHORT: The Upside of Death Life without death, says philosopher Dean Rickles, is like playing tennis without a net. In his new book, “Life Is Short: An Appropriately Brief Guide to Making It More Meaningful,” Dean challenges us to rethink what it means to get ...
02.16.2023 MUSIC: What the Songs You Love Say About You In this special episode, Susan Rogers, a record producer turned cognitive neuroscientist, and Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your Brain on Music,” get together to discuss what music has meant in their lives, debate what separates a great artist ...
02.09.2023 AI: The Origin Story Imagine a world where AI is everywhere — where self-driving cars roam the streets and chatbots can do your homework. Oh, wait. That world already exists. This is exciting news for some. For others, it's slightly terrifying. Whichever camp you ...
02.06.2023 Not Finished Is Not Failure (from The Next Big Idea Daily) Doing is more important than being done. That’s the provocative argument at the heart of a new book by artist and entrepreneur Becky Blades, “Start More Than You Can Finish: A Creative Permission Slip to Unleash Your Best Ideas.” Becky ...
02.02.2023 CELLS: Siddhartha Mukherjee on the Breakthroughs That Are Revolutionizing Medicine Siddhartha Mukherjee is an oncologist, professor, researcher, and biotech entrepreneur. He’s also a writer, and a fine one at that. His first book, “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” won a Pulitzer Prize. His second, “The Gene: ...
01.30.2023 Introducing: The Next Big Idea Daily Great news, folks. We just launched a new podcast! It's called The Next Big Idea Daily. Tune in Monday through Friday for quick master classes in better, smarter living with help from thinkers like Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Greg McKeown, ...
01.26.2023 PLEASURE: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life The Greek philosopher Epicurus made a rather bold claim over two thousand years ago. The key to life, he said, was simple: pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Around this maxim he developed a school of philosophy, Epicureanism, which promised its ...
01.19.2023 POWER FAILURE: What Happened to GE? (with Malcolm Gladwell & William Cohan) General Electric used to be the most valuable company in the world; now it's practically irrelevant. What happened? Today on the show, we're going to find answers. And to help, we're turning to two writers who have followed the saga ...
01.12.2023 DIET: The New Science of Healthy Eating “Our food decisions,” writes Dr. Tim Spector in his new book, Food for Life, “are the single most important modifiable factor in preventing common diseases and staying healthy.” But how do we know we’re making the right choices? In this ...
01.05.2023 How to Develop Your Passions and Avoid Burnout (with Atul Gawande and Adam Grant) Renowned surgeon Atul Gawande spends his days in the operating theater and his nights writing articles for The New Yorker and bestselling books like Being Mortal. Today on the show, he tells our curator Adam Grant how he balances his ...
12.29.2022 FEELINGS: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work Today, in a special bonus episode, we bring you a live conversation between Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, authors of “No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work,” and our curator Susan Cain. They discuss over-sharing, ...
12.22.2022 SAPIENS: Yuval Noah Harari on Our Past, Present, and Future Yuval Noah Harari is a historian and philosopher whose books — "Sapiens," "Homo Deus," "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," and most recently "Unstoppable Us: How Humans Took Over the World" — have sold more than 40 million copies. He ...
12.15.2022 ANALOG: Let’s Build a More Human World “The future is digital,” they said. Then the pandemic came along and forced that digital future on us. We traded offices for Zooms, gyms for Pelotons, schools for YouTube videos, restaurants for takeout apps. And guess what? It sucked. Many ...
12.08.2022 SLEEP: How Understanding Your Body’s Clock Can Revolutionize Your Health Sleep can enhance your creativity, lift your spirits, improve your sense of humor, and amplify your sociability. So why do so many of us struggle to get a good night's rest? Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at the ...
12.01.2022 ANIMALS: They’re Smarter Than You Think Alexandra Horowitz takes us inside the mind of a puppy. James Bridle introduces us to slime mold that can outwit the best human engineers. Justin Gregg makes the case that thinking like an animal is the key to living a ...
11.24.2022 HUMOR: The Case for Navigating Life on the Precipice of a Smile Humor is no laughing matter. It inspires innovation, strengthens relationships, disarms tension, and makes you look smart. Seriously. Stanford professors Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas say the recipe for professional success and personal fulfillment is to lighten up, pack a ...
11.17.2022 GOOD ARGUMENTS: Adam Grant and Champion Debater Bo Seo on the Craft of Persuasion When Bo Seo was 8 years old, his family moved from Korea to Australia. He did not speak a world of English. At school, to deflect attention from his inarticulacy, he became an agreeable wallflower. But that all changed when ...
11.10.2022 NEURODIVERSITY: Why No Two Brains Are Alike There's no such thing as a "normal" brain. And according to Dr. Chantel Prat, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington, that's a very good thing indeed. In her new book, "The Neuroscience of You," Chantel tells readers how their ...
11.03.2022 STATUS: Does Our Need for It Explain ... Everything? “Life is a game. There’s no way to understand the human world without first understanding this. Everyone alive is playing a game whose hidden rules are built into us and that silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions. This game ...
10.27.2022 Bittersweet: An Audio E-Course by Susan Cain The Next Big Idea presents an audio masterclass from bestselling author Susan Cain. Drawing on her latest book, "Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole," Susan shares practical insights that you can use to bolster your creativity, deepen your ...
10.20.2022 Bonus: Eric Barker Gives Daniel Pink Relationship Advice Eric Barker teaches our curator Daniel Pink how to make friends, disarm marital conflicts, and spot liars.
10.13.2022 LONGTERMISM: Why You Should Care About Future People 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 to come. Oxford philosophy professor William MacAskill says it's up to us to ...
10.06.2022 QUIT: Why You Have to Give Up if You Want to Get Ahead 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 decisions. --- Download the Next Big Idea app today at nextbigideaclub.com/app
09.29.2022 PUZZLES: What Crosswords, Riddles, and Wordle Can Teach You About the Meaning of Life 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 mind and body,” he says, “some of which have been fruitful, some ...
09.22.2022 BUILD: Tony Fadell’s Guide to Making Cool Stuff Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Learning Thermostat. In his new book, “Build,” he shares everything he’s learned about building great companies and game-changing products. --- Download the Next Big Idea app today at ...
09.15.2022 SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST: How Tech Billionaires Are Preparing for Doomsday 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 build their doomsday bunkers? Absurd as it may sound, that actually happened to media ...
09.08.2022 HAPPINESS: Arthur C. Brooks Shares His Roadmap for Finding Purpose, Meaning, and Success 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. So Arthur quit his job and set out to transform his life. Now ...
09.01.2022 DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on the future of AI (from The TED Interview) Demis Hassabis is one of tech's most brilliant minds. A chess-playing child prodigy turned researcher and founder of headline-making AI company DeepMind, Demis is thinking through some of the most revolutionary — and in some cases controversial — uses of ...
08.26.2022 Summer Getaway #4: The Making of ‘Bull Durham’ (with Ron Shelton) 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 memoir called "The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham — Home Runs, Bad Calls, ...
08.19.2022 Summer Getaway #3: The 12-Hour Walk (with Colin O’Brady) 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, with help from adventurer Colin O’Brady. » To learn more about Colin’s new ...
08.11.2022 Summer Getaway #2: An American Odyssey (with Ben McGrath) The Ohio, Hudson, Mississippi, and Yellowstone — Dick Conant canoed them all. And then he disappeared. In his riveting new book, “Riverman,” journalist Ben McGrath tries to track down the man who may be the greatest American folk hero you’ve ...
08.04.2022 Summer Getaway #1: The Beach (with Sarah Stodola) 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 fantasy come from? Sarah Stodola, author of “The Last Resort: A Chronicle of Paradise, Profit, ...
07.28.2022 Finding Stillness With Ryan Holiday 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 shared his tips for slowing down, calming your mind, and accessing the tranquility deep inside.
07.21.2022 Amanda Little on the Fate of Food Today we’re bringing you a timely — and tasty — episode from our archives. Science journalist Amanda Little tells Rufus that the biggest threat posed by climate change is the collapse of our food systems. Provisions we love, like coffee ...
07.14.2022 John Colapinto on the Power and Beauty of the Human Voice 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 Voice," John says that while opposable thumbs are handy, the voice is our species' greatest ...
07.07.2022 THE ESSENTIALS: Our Favorite Moments From Season 4 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 Club HQ. Further Listening: • REGRETS: Daniel Pink Has a Few (And ...
06.30.2022 BICYCLES: Are They the Future of Transportation? 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 called “Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle.” Today, he takes ...
06.23.2022 BIG DATA: Cracking the Codes of Love, Happiness and Success “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, a former Google data scientist, has mined massive data sets in order to answer some of ...
06.16.2022 Susan Cain & Daniel Pink: Writing, Longing, and the Search for Meaning 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 insist on turning every frown upside down? Those questions are at the ...
06.09.2022 RELATIONSHIPS: Why Everything You Know About Them Is (Mostly) Wrong Eric Barker is not a people person. “Getting me to write a relationship book,” he says, “is like asking Godzilla to improve the infrastructure in your city.” But he did it anyway. Guided by leading social psychologists, Eric went on ...
06.02.2022 How To Be a Grown-Up In this special episode, Daniel Pink delivers a commencement address, Stanford-dean-turned-bestselling-author Julie Lythcott-Haims shares her manual for being an adult, and Arthur C. Brooks provides his roadmap for finding success, happiness, and purpose in the second half of life. Next ...
05.26.2022 IMAGINABLE: How Anyone Can Predict the Future (Yes, Even You) In January 2020, when the coronavirus started making headlines around the world, Jane McGonigal’s inbox was flooded with emails from Silicon Valley execs, government officials, and non-profit leaders. They all had the same question: “Jane, didn’t you run a simulation ...
05.19.2022 CULTURE: How Successful Groups Work 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? Strong team culture. But what exactly is culture, and how do you build it? ...
05.12.2022 GET IT DONE: How the Science of Motivation Can Help You Achieve Your Goals University of Chicago professor Ayelet Fishbach has spent the last two decades studying the science of motivation. She has developed a framework for turning idle ambition into forward-moving action. That framework is the subject of her new book, “Get It ...
05.08.2022 Bonus: The Not-So-Great Resignation (WorkLife with Adam Grant) 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 will come to regret. So when’s the right time to leave? How do you ...
05.05.2022 FUN: How to Have More of It 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 latest book, “The Power of Fun,” is jam-packed with research-backed hacks for finding meaning, forging connections, improving ...

Older episodes

The Next Big Idea

What's The Next Big Idea about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

The Next Big Idea episodes:

ABOLISH POVERTY: Matthew Desmond on How We Can Do It

READING: Are We Forgetting How To Do It?

David Chalmers Thinks We May Be Living in a Simulation (and He’s OK With It)

Is AI Moving Too Fast? A Conversation With Kevin Roose

LIFE IS SHORT: The Upside of Death

MUSIC: What the Songs You Love Say About You

AI: The Origin Story

Not Finished Is Not Failure (from The Next Big Idea Daily)

CELLS: Siddhartha Mukherjee on the Breakthroughs That Are Revolutionizing Medicine

Introducing: The Next Big Idea Daily

PLEASURE: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life

POWER FAILURE: What Happened to GE? (with Malcolm Gladwell & William Cohan)

DIET: The New Science of Healthy Eating

How to Develop Your Passions and Avoid Burnout (with Atul Gawande and Adam Grant)

FEELINGS: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work

SAPIENS: Yuval Noah Harari on Our Past, Present, and Future

ANALOG: Let’s Build a More Human World

SLEEP: How Understanding Your Body’s Clock Can Revolutionize Your Health

ANIMALS: They’re Smarter Than You Think

HUMOR: The Case for Navigating Life on the Precipice of a Smile

GOOD ARGUMENTS: Adam Grant and Champion Debater Bo Seo on the Craft of Persuasion

NEURODIVERSITY: Why No Two Brains Are Alike

STATUS: Does Our Need for It Explain ... Everything?

Bittersweet: An Audio E-Course by Susan Cain

Bonus: Eric Barker Gives Daniel Pink Relationship Advice

LONGTERMISM: Why You Should Care About Future People

QUIT: Why You Have to Give Up if You Want to Get Ahead

PUZZLES: What Crosswords, Riddles, and Wordle Can Teach You About the Meaning of Life

BUILD: Tony Fadell’s Guide to Making Cool Stuff

SURVIVAL OF THE RICHEST: How Tech Billionaires Are Preparing for Doomsday

HAPPINESS: Arthur C. Brooks Shares His Roadmap for Finding Purpose, Meaning, and Success

DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on the future of AI (from The TED Interview)

Summer Getaway #4: The Making of ‘Bull Durham’ (with Ron Shelton)

Summer Getaway #3: The 12-Hour Walk (with Colin O’Brady)

Summer Getaway #2: An American Odyssey (with Ben McGrath)

Summer Getaway #1: The Beach (with Sarah Stodola)

Finding Stillness With Ryan Holiday

Amanda Little on the Fate of Food

John Colapinto on the Power and Beauty of the Human Voice

THE ESSENTIALS: Our Favorite Moments From Season 4

BICYCLES: Are They the Future of Transportation?

BIG DATA: Cracking the Codes of Love, Happiness and Success

Susan Cain & Daniel Pink: Writing, Longing, and the Search for Meaning

RELATIONSHIPS: Why Everything You Know About Them Is (Mostly) Wrong

How To Be a Grown-Up

IMAGINABLE: How Anyone Can Predict the Future (Yes, Even You)

CULTURE: How Successful Groups Work

GET IT DONE: How the Science of Motivation Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

Bonus: The Not-So-Great Resignation (WorkLife with Adam Grant)

FUN: How to Have More of It

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