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Big Think
By bigthinkEducation
Big Think episodes
- How music spreads, explained in 5 minutes | Michael Spitzer
Expert Michael Spitzer explains how culture can “tune” your musical taste.
Do humans have something like an instinct for music? The musicologist Michael Spitzer thinks so. As he points out, every person is born with an innate ability to recognize rhythm, beat in time to it, and to recognize and recall melody.Music-related abilities may be universal, but musical preferences and styles can differ greatly from culture to culture.In this Big Think video, Spitzer explores why cultures interpret music differently, and also whether the internet will have a homogenizing effect on music.0:00 The musical instinct1:13 How music is colonized and counter-colonized3:58 Why music will never homogenize----------------------------------------------------------------------------------About Michael Spitzer:Michael Spitzer is the author of The Musical Human and professor of music at the University of Liverpool, where he leads the department’s work on classical music. A music theorist and musicologist, he is an authority on Beethoven, with interests in aesthetics and critical theory, cognitive metaphor, and music and affect. He organized the International Conferences on Music and Emotion and the International Conference on Analyzing Popular Music and currently chairs the editorial board of Music Analysis Journal.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------06:30-19---------------------
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9 min - The psychology of loneliness
Popular media has made loneliness look bad, but is it really? Author and psychologist Ethan Kross explains his study of loneliness, finding that it is actually our response to loneliness – rather than the act of being alone itself – that has negative effects. If we reframe loneliness as an opportunity instead of a threat, it can have surprising benefits for our creativity, well-being, and relationships with ourselves.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------About Ethan Kross:Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top-ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------06:30-19---------------------
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5 min - The science of breaking bad habits (and building better ones)
We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.
Your brain makes habits stick. The good news? The same science shows how to replace the bad ones.Why are bad habits so hard to break?Neuroscientist Carl Hart, PhD, journalist Charles Duhigg, and psychologist Adam Alter, PhD explain how your brain wires habits as cue-routine-reward loops that control nearly half of your daily life. They show why willpower alone rarely works, why technology fuels new forms of addiction, and why habits can only be replaced, not erased.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------About Carl Hart, PhD:Dr. Hart is an Associate Professor of Psychology in both the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Columbia University, and Director of the Residential Studies and Methamphetamine Research Laboratories at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. A major focus of Dr. Hart’s research is to understand complex interactions between drugs of abuse and the neurobiology and environmental factors that mediate human behavior and physiology.About Charles Duhigg:Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on bestseller lists and has been translated into 40 languages, and Smarter Faster Better, also a bestseller. Mr. Duhigg writes for The New Yorker magazine and is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School. He has been a frequent contributor to CNBC, This American Life, NPR, The Colbert Report, NewsHour, and Frontline.About Adam Alter, PhD:Adam Alter is an Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department.-----------------------------------------------06:30-19
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11 min - The Fermi Paradox has a potentially terrifying answer: The Dark Forest | David KippingFolllow this Podcast for daily Episodes
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19 min - Hannah Ritchie: We can solve our biggest environmental problems | Full Interview
In this episode,
researcher Hannah Ritchie discusses the realities of climate change, the progress made, and the challenges ahead. She explains how her perspective shifted from pessimism to optimism by analyzing historical data and real-world solutions. Ritchie breaks down the main drivers of climate change, evaluates the feasibility of the Paris Agreement targets, and highlights four key sectors—energy, transport, food, and construction—that must be transformed to reduce emissions. While the challenges are significant, she emphasizes that solutions exist and that meaningful progress is possible.
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1 hr 25 min - How productive arguments can bring us closer together _ Bo Seo, Esther Perel, and Dan Shapiro
Bo Seo, Esther Perel, and Dan Shapiro share their tips for arguing better.
In this compilation video, our biggest thinkers share their insights on debating, including how to get your points across effectively, hold your own in an argument, and disagree better.----------------------------------------------06:30-19
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16 min - Your brain is biased by default. Here’s how to reset it. | David Eagleman
Expanding your worldview starts with understanding your brain. Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman explains.
David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Stanford and host of the Inner Cosmos podcast, explores how our brains shape the reality we experience and why we often accept our perceptions as the only truth. From a young age, we develop our understanding of the world based on limited experiences and biases, which can lead us to form narrow views about what's true.
**🧠 “Your Reality Is Just One Version” — Why Expanding Your Mind Could Save Humanity**
What if everything you believe to be *true* is just one narrow version of reality? According to neuroscientist David Eagleman, that’s exactly what’s happening — and it’s shaping not just your thoughts, but society itself.
We’re **born into a tiny slice of the world**, gathering experiences from a limited time, place, and culture. Our brains build internal models based on that — models we confuse with *universal truth*. But here’s the kicker: **no two brains experience the world the same way**, thanks to differences in genetics and life experiences.
This isn’t just philosophical. It’s biological.
🔬 Eagleman’s work in *perceptual genomics* explores how tiny differences in our genes change how we *see* reality. You might visualize a crawling ant in vivid detail; someone else sees only the concept. Both are “true” — just different.
But this brain wiring also makes us tribal.
We divide into **ingroups** and **outgroups**, trusting the familiar and fearing the unfamiliar — an ancient survival instinct. And it affects empathy, **literally**. Eagleman’s experiment showed people’s brains *cared less* when an outgroup member was hurt versus an ingroup one. The same action (like a needle stab) triggered weaker pain responses if the person wasn’t “one of us.”
This leads to dehumanization in conflicts, where we stop seeing the “other side” as fully human. The brain’s empathy centers don’t even light up. It’s how wars, hate, and division thrive.
But there’s hope. Eagleman lays out **3 strategies** to overcome this:
1. **Recognize and blind your biases** – Like orchestras using blind auditions, remove visual cues that trigger unconscious judgments.
2. **Learn the tactics of dehumanization** – Spot things like “moral pollution,” where groups are smeared to make them seem disgusting. Awareness is your shield.
3. **Complexify your identity** – Form bonds over shared interests *before* you discover differences. That connection builds understanding and curiosity instead of rejection.
🤝 The more we **entangle our identities** — across sports, hobbies, stories, struggles — the more we see each other as *people*, not strangers. That’s the key to bridging the gap between 8 billion different inner worlds.
**✨ Big idea:** You don’t live in *the* reality. You live in *a* reality. And the more you understand that, the more human the world becomes.
About David Eagleman:
David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University and an internationally bestselling author. He is co-founder of two venture-backed companies, Neosensory and BrainCheck, and he also directs the Center for Science and Law, a national non-profit institute. He is best known for his work on sensory substitution, time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw
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12 min - The psychology of persuasion, as told by an Ivy League professor _ Jonah Berger for Big Think+
It just takes one “yes.” Wharton professor Jonah Berger shares his three tips for getting what you want from others.
In appropriate contexts, the art of persuasion can go a long way. Wharton School of Business professor Jonah Berger shares three strategies for getting your peers and target audiences to "yes." Learn how to make your communications more convincing and easier to agree with.---------------------------------------------------------------------06:30-19
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10 min - Grow your brain by moving your body—just 10 minutes a day | Wendy Suzuki
xercise neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains how your brain can age gracefully and optimally — and it starts with just a 10 minute walk.
Did you know that just three months of consistent exercise can boost your brain function? Exercise neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki explains how working out can strengthen your cognitive abilities.According to Suzuki, even just ten minutes of walking can alleviate anxiety and depression because of the neurochemicals released during exercise. She shares a study that indicated people who were previously sedentary experienced notable improvements in their baseline mood, prefrontal function, and hippocampal function with only 2-3 exercise sessions per week.If you’re already exercising, don’t worry — you’re still able to reap these benefits! Suzuki believes increasing the intensity of your preexisting workouts only further boosts the benefits for your brain. Just don’t go overboard, she says, because that can hurt you more than help you.---------------------------------------------------------------------06:30-19
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6 min - Your reality narrows after trauma — here’s how to expand it | Bessel van der Kolk
What if the way you see the world is shaped by trauma you haven’t fully processed?
Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, explains how trauma isn't just remembered, it is physically lived and relived through the body and brain.He describes how traditional talk therapy often fails to reach the survival centers of the brain where trauma resides. Instead, healing comes through visceral experiences that help rewire perception, build a sense of safety, and reconnect the self. Through movement, touch, psychodrama, and even psychedelics, the brain can learn to see the present as safe again.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------About Bessel van der Kolk:Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., is a pioneering psychiatrist and trauma researcher, best known for his work on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He authored the bestselling book The Body Keeps the Score, which explores how trauma reshapes both body and brain. As founder of the Trauma Research Foundation, he has led innovative treatments combining neuroscience, psychotherapy, and body-based approaches to healing trauma. His work has transformed trauma care worldwide.------------------------------------------------------------------06:30-19
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10 min
About Big Think
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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.…
Get actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers & doers. Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields. We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life.
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