Big Think

Big Think

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Big Think episodes

  • Harvard psychiatrist on happiness: Positive vs. toxic relationships | Robert Waldinger

    **💡 The #1 Investment for a Happy Life Isn't What You Think**

    If you could make just one investment to stay happy and healthy for life, what would it be? Most people say money or success—but **the longest-running study on human development proves it's something else entirely**.

    According to Dr. Robert Waldinger, director of the **Harvard Study of Adult Development**, the secret to long-term well-being isn’t wealth or fame—**it’s strong, warm relationships**. People with close, reliable bonds not only feel happier, but they actually live longer and stay healthier.

    The study, which spans over **85 years and 2,000+ lives**, reveals that **good relationships reduce chronic stress, protect our bodies, and help us weather life’s hardest moments**—from war to personal loss. Even people with difficult childhoods can reshape their well-being through healthy adult relationships.

    Relationships require work, just like physical fitness. Waldinger calls it **“social fitness”**—a habit of checking in, reaching out, and maintaining connections that energize you. Mapping your social universe—identifying who uplifts you and who drains you—can change your life.

    And here’s the real truth: **no one has it all figured out**. The "good life" isn’t static—it’s a moving process of **connection, care, and resilience**. Ups and downs are part of the journey, not a sign you're failing.

    ✨ *So don’t chase the illusion of perfect happiness. Instead, build relationships that help you grow through the messiness of life. That’s the real key to thriving.*

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    22 min
  • Exploring our biggest questions _ Dispatches from The Well (Trailer)

    One of humanity’s universal experiences is the search for meaning. How did we get here? What is my life’s purpose? What is consciousness? How will I be remembered?

    These are questions that have plagued humanity’s biggest thinkers and continue to challenge us today. Join host Kmele Foster on a new show as we set out around the world to explore how we create meaning from a new lens, weaving together insightful conversations with writers, scientists, religious leaders, philosophers, artists, and more to help us explore life’s biggest (and most exciting) questions.

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    5 min
  • 3 doctors explain how to reframe your trauma, anxiety, and internal dialogue

    We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

    Three doctors break down brain function, somatic awareness, and how to recover from bad experiences.
    It is with sadness that we acknowledge the recent passing of Dr. James Doty.
    According to neuroscientists and psychiatrists, healing begins with awareness and compassionate connection.
    Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, Dr. Wendy Suzuki, and Dr. James Doty explain how trauma and anxiety are processed through both the brain and body: trauma isn’t just what happens to us, but how our nervous system holds onto it, disrupting our ability to feel safe, connect with others, and think clearly.
    Often a feeling people want to avoid, anxiety actually functions to motivate action and can be leveraged as a tool for focus and productivity. Through breathwork, mindfulness, and reshaping negative internal dialogue, we can begin to retrain the brain, regulate the body, and support a lifetime of growth.
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    About Wendy Suzuki:
    Dr. Wendy Suzuki is a neuroscientist and professor of neural science and psychology at NYU. Her research explores the effects of exercise, meditation, and emotion on brain plasticity and cognition. As best-selling author, Dr. Suzuki is known for translating complex brain science into practical insights for mental health, focus, and happiness, empowering audiences to optimize their well-being through everyday lifestyle choices.
    About Bessel van der Kolk:
    Dr. Bessel van der Kolk is a pioneering psychiatrist and trauma researcher, best known for his groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score. With decades of clinical experience, he has led the field in understanding how trauma reshapes both brain and body. Founder of the Trauma Research Foundation, Dr. Van der Kolk advocates for integrative therapies that heal trauma’s deep psychological and physiological wounds.
    About James Doty:
    Dr. James Doty was a neurosurgeon, author, and founder of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE). His work bridged neuroscience, mindfulness, and compassion science, exploring how positive mental states impact brain function and human potential. As a best-selling author of Into the Magic Shop, Dr. Doty spoke worldwide on the transformative power of kindness, purpose, and emotional resilience.

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    11 min
  • Meet the 3 kinds of people who are stealing your money | Kelly Richmond Pope

    Fraud is a $5 trillion “industry.” But not all its perpetrators look alike. Kelly Richmond Pope, a professor of accounting, breaks down who commits fraud — and why.

    When we think of someone who commits fraud, we think of people like Bernie Madoff or companies like Enron: intentional perpetrators of financial crimes. But other kinds of people commit fraud, too. Accounting professor Kelly Richmond Pope explains who else falls prey to the "fraud triangle", and they might be even scarier than the big bads.
    0:00 How does fraud happen?
    1:00 Meet Kelly Richmond Pope
    1:28 The Fraud Triangle
    2:18 Three types of fraudsters
    2:26 Intentional perpetrators
    3:50 Righteous perpetrators
    4:20 Accidental perpetrators
    5:56 And then there's Wells Fargo…

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    12 min
  • Why having a vision isn’t enough to be an effective leader | Suzy Welch for Big Think+

    **Why Everyone Hates Bad Leaders—And How to Avoid Being One**

    If you’re all vision and no execution, your team will hate you. If you’re all grind and no strategy, they’ll hate you too. In this eye-opening episode, Suzy Welch breaks down why great leadership isn’t about choosing between managing and leading—it’s about mastering both. She introduces the concept of the **"lanager"** (leader + manager) and reveals the one thing every successful leader must do: make tough decisions and own their mistakes.

    How do you balance vision with action? How do you earn respect while making hard calls? And why is being a “fingerprintless” leader the ultimate failure? Listen in and find out.

    "If you're a manager or a leader and all you do is dream big dreams and talk about the future in lofty visionary terms and you don't actually get anything done, everyone is going to hate you."

    The work of a good leader takes diplomacy, courage, and conviction. Finding the right approach to guide others can be difficult, and many miss the mark. But best-selling author and professor at the NYU Stern School of Business Suzy Welch argues that a blend of leading and managing is the key. Welch crafted the word “lanager” to describe this approach: A merging of the big sky, visionary thinking that leaders inspire as well as more tactical, managerial strategizing. The “lanager” also acts as the conduit between employees and the C-suite. Implementing this dualistic approach can foster trust with employees and inspire united action towards common goals. Here are Welch’s top tips for genius-level leadership.

    About Suzy Welch:An award-winning NYU Stern School of Business professor, tech entrepreneur, and three-time New York Times best-selling author, Suzy Welch is known for imparting warmth and wisdom about business and culture, captivating an enthusiastic and expanding audience.Over the course of her multifaceted 40-year career, Suzy has been a crime reporter in Miami, a consultant at Bain & Co., and a columnist for O: The Oprah Magazine. A graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School, she has been (and remains) a frequent guest of the Today Show and an op-ed contributor to the Wall Street Journal. But Suzy Welch’s greatest passion is in the classroom at NYU Stern School of Business, where she teaches two acclaimed classes, “Becoming You: Crafting the Authentic Life You Want and Need,” and “Developing Managerial Skills.” She is also the director of the NYU | Stern Initiative on Purpose and Flourishing, a community of management scholars and practitioners committed to advancing the discovery of authentic meaning.

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    9 min
  • Why your brain creates trauma | Lisa Feldman Barrett

    Aided by best-selling psychology books of the last decade, such as Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, discussions about trauma and how to deal with it have entered popular public discourse. From police departments to school classrooms, trauma-informed approaches have taken center stage.

    But leading neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges the popular notion that trauma resides solely in the body. She asserts that trauma is rooted in the brain’s predictions and the construction of our experiences. When an adverse experience becomes traumatic, the brain heavily weighs and anticipates that experience in its future predictions. This ongoing prediction and re-experiencing of the traumatic event strengthens the neural connections associated with it, making the predictions more likely to occur in the future.
    Rather than focusing on the body as the site of healing, she suggests that changing the brain’s models of prediction is what needs to be addressed to break free from the cycle of trauma. By understanding the role of predictions and the brain’s plasticity, Feldman Barrett offers hope for transforming traumatic experiences and finding new, lasting paths to healing.
    0:00 Why your brain creates trauma
    1:44 Does your body keep the score?
    2:53 Effective treatments for trauma
    4:33 Trauma IS in your head (but everything else is too)
    Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/neurosc...
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    About Lisa Feldman Barrett:
    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett is among the top 1% most-cited scientists in the world, having published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Dr. Barrett is a University Distinguished Professor of psychology at Northeastern University with appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is Chief Science Officer for the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior. She is the recipient of a NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for transformative research, a Guggenheim Fellowship in neuroscience, the Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and from the Society for Affect Science (SAS), and the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA). She is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, and a number of other honorific societies. She is the author of How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, and more recently, Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain.

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    9 min
  • 3 experts reveal how psychedelics can expand the walls of perception

    This video was made in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

    What happens when the boundaries of “you” disappear? James Fadiman, PhD, Jamie Wheal, and Matthew Johnson, PhD explore how supported experiences with psychoactive drugs can dissolve identity and reveal a deeper reality.
    What if one experience could make you lose your sense of self, forget time, and feel deeply connected to everything around you?
    Experts Jamie Wheal, Matthew Johnson, PhD., and James Fadiman, PhD. Give us a deeper look at psychedelic medicine, exploring how substances like psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca change the way we see ourselves and the world. Used carefully, they can bring insight and unity. However, without support, they can be overwhelming and reveal just how fragile our sense of reality can be. These researchers explain the difference.
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    About Matthew Johnson, PhD:
    Matthew W. Johnson, PhD, is The Susan Hill Ward Endowed Professor of Psychedelics and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins. Working with psychedelics since 2004, he is one of the world’s most widely published experts on psychedelics. He has published research on psychedelics and mystical experience, personality change, tobacco smoking cessation, cancer distress treatment, and depression treatment.
    About James Fadiman PhD:
    Dr. James Fadiman is a leading scientific expert on the use of psychedelics for personal exploration, healing, and transformation. He has been researching, writing and lecturing on the topic for more than fifty years. His research focuses on exploring the potential of psychedelics to help individuals achieve a more meaningful, balanced and enlightened life.
    About Jamie Wheal:
    Jamie Wheal is the author of the global best-seller and Pulitzer Prize-nominated Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs and Maverick Scientists are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work and the founder of the Flow Genome Project, an international organization dedicated to the research and training of ultimate human performance. Since founding the organization in 2011, it has gone on to become the leading voice of evidence-based peak performance in the world, counting award-winning academics, legendary professional athletes, special operations commanders, and Fortune 500 business leaders among the hundreds of thousands of people in its global community.

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    9 min
  • How evolution creates problem-solving machines | Michael Levin

    Evolution doesn’t fix things — it reinvents them. Michael Levin, a biologist, explains.

    Esteemed biologist Michael Levin explores a captivating biological perspective of evolution — one that’s hard for engineers to come to terms with. In their work, making random changes to a system usually makes things worse, not better.
    But evolution, on the other hand, doesn't just produce specific solutions to specific challenges; instead, it creates what Levin calls "problem-solving machines." These machines are made up of hierarchical biological hardware with incredible adaptability, capable of tackling various challenges without assuming specific environmental conditions.
    Contrary to commonly held ideas about evolution, it doesn't just search for the best possible physical characteristics in organisms. It also uses signals and behaviors to shape how organisms function, so when things change or get damaged, the different parts of an organism can continue to function. From metabolic to physiological dilemmas, Levin highlights evolution’s remarkable ability to adapt.

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    9 min
  • The science of effortlessness: How to activate flow | Steven Kotler: Full Interview

    “Flow states have triggers: these are preconditions that lead to more flow. 22 of them have been discovered.”


    What if peak performance wasn’t a mystery, but a state you could wire your brain to enter on-demand? This isn’t about "getting in the zone." It’s about specific brain circuits, chemicals, and triggers that anyone can learn to activate.
    Backed by science, stripped of fluff, Steven Kotler explains the science of flow, from the inside out.
    00:00 Introducing Steven Kotler
    00:11 Chapter 1: The biology of our brains
    00:35 Psychology’s “outside-in” blind spot
    03:45 The brain works in networks
    06:35 Making biology your ally: the four performance pillars
    07:40 Finding flow’s sweet spot
    08:49 Chapter 2: What is flow?
    09:55 Six signs you're in flow
    12:15 A brief history of flow
    15:00 22 triggers that spark flow
    19:00 The golden rule of flow: challenge-skills balance
    21:47 What do we mean by "challenge" and "skills"?
    24:16 How to harness intrinsic motivation
    26:28 Why purpose is better than passion
    31:50 Flow is a focusing skill
    32:35 What is your primary flow activity?
    37:39 Chapter 3: Flow and peak performance
    37:50 We are all wired for flow
    39:05 How flow impacts creativity and happiness
    40:50 Group flow: empathy, cooperation and innovation
    41:55 Physical boosts and evolution’s logic
    43:00 The brain’s internal drug store
    49:30 Using flow to rewrite PTSD
    52:00 From chemicals to habits
    56:15 Final takeaways: The 6 basics
    1:02:20 Support Big Think and explore further
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    About Steven Kotler:
    Steven Kotler is a New York Times bestselling author, an award-winning journalist, and the Executive Director of the Flow Research Collective. He is one of the world’s leading experts on human performance. He is the author of ten bestsellers (out of thirteen books total), including The Art of Impossible, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Stealing Fire, The Rise of Superman, Bold and Abundance. His work has been nominated for two Pulitzer Prizes, translated into over 40 languages, and appeared in over 100 publications, including the New York Times Magazine, Wired, Atlantic Monthly, TIME and the Harvard Business Review. Steven is also the cohost of Flow Research Collective Radio, a top ten iTunes science podcast. Along with his wife, author Joy Nicholson, he is the cofounder of the Rancho de Chihuahua, a hospice and special needs dog sanctuary.

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    1 hr 10 min

About Big Think

From the publisher's feed

Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content -- with thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, we help you get smarter, faster.…

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Ranked by our users in the last 21 days

  1. Number 1: The #1 antidote to aging | Daniel Lieberman, Morgan Levine & more
    20 min
  2. Number 2: The friendship recession | Richard Reeves
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  3. Number 3: Stop fighting your anxiety and start using it | Jesse Eisenberg for Big Think+
    16 min

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