Big Think

Big Think

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Big Think episodes

  • How to be a more loving person, in 3 steps

    What does it mean to build a moral life rooted in love? Philosopher Meghan Sullivan explores the concept of a "love ethic," a framework that calls us to extend the same compassion and concern we show loved ones to strangers.

    Drawing on Aristotle’s idea of a friend as a second self and the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, she outlines three principles at the heart of love ethics: the inherent dignity of every person, love as the foundation of moral reasoning, and practical applications in daily life.
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    About Meghan Sullivan:
    Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, where she leads the Ethics Initiative and founded the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. With support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Institute advances research and teaching on human flourishing. Sullivan’s work spans ethics, metaphysics, and religion. She’s the author of Time Biases and co-author of The Good Life Method, based on her acclaimed course “God and the Good Life.”

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    10 min
  • Kevin Smith: You must be unreasonable to achieve your dreams | Big Think+

    “You might as well go for it. You might as well do the thing that you dream about doing for heaven's sake.”

    Making a movie on credit cards and bombing your first screening doesn’t sound like the origin story of a film legend, but Kevin Smith, the mind behind Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob, and Dogma (recently released in 4K for the film’s 25th anniversary) did exactly that before shooting to stardom.
    Sometimes, success takes an unorthodox path, and reflecting back on his journey, Smith has an unconventional pearl of wisdom: Be a little delusional. Or, in his words, have a reasonable amount of unreasonability.

    Chapters:

    0:00 The First to Stand
    0:16 A reasonable amount of unreasonability
    0:34 The Kevin Smith Cinematic Universe
    1:55 Kevin’s origin story
    2:36 A $27,575 mistake?
    3:21 A cognitive reframe
    4:37 From an empty theater to Sundance
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    About Kevin Smith:
    Kevin Smith is an American filmmaker and actor. Smith rose to fame with the release of his irreverent low-budget comedy film Clerks, and became a household name with movies like Chasing Amy, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma, and more. In celebration of Dogma's 25th anniversary, the film was recently re-released in 4k

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    10 min
  • More accountants are leaving the field than joining. What’s going on? | Kelly Richmond Pope

    More CPAs are retiring than are joining the field. What’s going on? Forensic accountant Kelly Richmond Pope explains.

    Imagine a world without accountants – it's not as distant as you think. Over 300,000 accountants have left the field in the past two years, and fewer students are pursuing accounting majors or the CPA exam.
    Forensic accountant Kelly Richmond Pope explores this alarming decline in interest in accounting. Pope believes the difficulty and cost of getting an accounting degree have drawn prospective students away, along with shifting career interests driven by social media, ESG, cybersecurity, and IT.
    However, some changes could attract new learners and, thus, save the field. Pope shares a few ideas for how to revitalize a very necessary profession.

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    6 min
  • The beauty of our improbable existence with a NASA expert, physicist & futurist

    **🚀 From Mars Rocks to 10,000-Year Clocks: A Journey Through Time, Space & Human Curiosity**

    In this episode of *Dispatches from the Well*, we're taken on an awe-inspiring ride through the cosmos and deep into Earth's own history—guided by some of the most curious minds on the planet. 🧠🌍

    🔴 **Nina Lanza**, a planetary scientist, doesn't work *on* Mars—but she works *for* it. From the volcanic terrains of New Mexico, she studies rocks eerily similar to those found on the Red Planet. With NASA’s Rovers Curiosity and Perseverance, she's uncovering secrets about Martian geology, including tantalizing hints that microbial life *may* have once existed there. 🔬🪨

    ⚛️ **Sean Carroll**, the theoretical physicist behind the *Mindscape* podcast, reflects on the wonder and responsibility of scientific discovery. He stresses that while we don't yet understand dark matter or quantum gravity, we *do* know much about the atoms that make us—and that knowledge reshapes how we see ourselves. 🌀

    🛸 **Kevin Kelly**, futurist and co-founder of *Wired*, opens up his "curiosity wall" and gives us a glimpse of a future shaped by wonder and longevity. From freeze-dried birds to a prototype part of a 10,000-year clock, Kevin shows us how thinking long-term could be the most radical thing we do. ⏳🔧

    ✨ Whether it's vaporizing Mars rocks with lasers or building monuments meant to last ten millennia, this episode celebrates our endless hunger to *know more*—about our past, our universe, and what lies ahead.

    🧩 *What if curiosity isn’t just a trait—but our species’ best survival strategy?*

    Folllow this Podcast for daily Episodes

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    43 min
  • The great friendship collapse: Inside The Anti-Social Century | Derek Thompson

    “You can debate all sorts of things about how the texture of American life has changed. What you can't debate is the sheer, objective, existential fact that Americans are more alone than ever.”

    Why are we spending more time alone than ever? More importantly, why do we seem to prefer this solitude? Journalist Derek Thompson unpacks the rise of what he calls the “Anti-Social Century.”
    Each leap of technology hasn’t just made our lives easier, it’s made it lonelier. But this isn’t just about feeling isolated; it’s about how we’re choosing solitude, which in turn is rewiring our brains to prefer screens over people.

    Chapters:

    00:00 American Time Use Survey
    00:55 The decline of socializing over 60 years
    01:41 How the TV privatized leisure
    02:38 How the smartphone privatized attention
    03:12 The Anti-Social Century
    04:40 Dopamine and smartphones
    06:43 The emotional costs
    07:22 Is AI replacing friendship?
    09:37 What’s the antidote?

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    About Derek Thompson:
    Derek Thompson is a staff writer at The Atlantic and host of the podcast Plain English. He is the author of Hit Makers and the co-author of Abundance alongside Ezra Klein, which explores the case for renewing the politics of plenty in the modern world.

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    18 min
  • How rejection made Julie Plec an undeniable leader

    🎬 **Julie Plec on Insecurity, Leadership & Self-Forgiveness**

    Julie Plec — writer, producer, and showrunner — opens up about the emotional undercurrents of her creative journey, revealing how deeply insecurity can shape success.

    ✍️ **"I'm Not a Writer"**

    Despite her long career, Julie often feels like an imposter. A painful writing class in college planted self-doubt. Every project brings fears of failure and fraudulence — even after major success.

    💔 **Career Setback**

    After rising in the industry, she was called “disruptive” and blacklisted. It crushed her confidence for years. But with time and perspective, she realized her inexperience *did* show — and owning that truth became her path to growth 💪.

    🧊 **A Humbling Moment**

    That career bump brought a “bucket of ice water” in humility. Accepting her role in the failure made her a better leader — more grounded, self-aware, and compassionate.

    😨 **Fear of Death & Perfectionism**

    Julie confesses a fear of death — not dying, but *not having lived fully*. That fear may have kept her from personal milestones like marriage or children. At the same time, a perfectionist streak leads her to self-criticism whenever she falls short.

    👧 **The Origin of Doubt**

    Her core limiting belief — *“I’m doing it all wrong”* — traces back to a childhood swimming lesson where she felt laughed at. But revisiting the memory as an adult revealed they were actually charmed by her. That moment shaped decades of self-doubt.

    💗 **The Healing Journey**

    Now, she’s working to forgive herself, love herself *despite* her flaws, and rewrite that old belief. It’s a powerful journey of self-compassion that she encourages others to explore.

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    11 min
  • The intelligence explosion: Nick Bostrom on the future of AI

    We may build incredible AI. But can we contain our cruelty? Oxford professor Nick Bostrom explains.

    Nick Bostrom, a professor at the University of Oxford and director of the Future of Humanity Institute, discusses the development of machine superintelligence and its potential impact on humanity. Bostrom believes that, in this century, we will create the first general intelligence that will be smarter than humans. He sees this as the most important thing humanity will ever do, but it also comes with an enormous responsibility. 
    Bostrom notes that there are existential risks associated with the transition to the machine intelligence era, such as the possibility of an underlying superintelligence that overrides human civilization with its own value structures. In addition, there is the question of how to ensure that conscious digital minds are treated well. However, if we succeed in ensuring the well-being of artificial intelligence, we could have vastly better tools for dealing with everything from diseases to poverty. 
    Ultimately, Bostrom believes that the development of machine superintelligence is crucial for a truly great future.
    0:00 Smarter than humans
    0:57 Brains: From organic to artificial
    1:39 The birth of superintelligence
    2:58 Existential risks
    4:22 The future of humanity
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    About Nick Bostrom:
    Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence, as well as philosophy. He is the most-cited professional philosopher in the world under the age of 50.
    He is a Professor at Oxford University, where he heads the Future of Humanity Institute as its founding director. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias (2002), Global Catastrophic Risks (2008), Human Enhancement (2009), and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (2014), a New York Times bestseller which helped spark a global conversation about the future of AI. He has also published a series of influential papers, including ones that introduced the simulation argument (2003) and the concept of existential risk (2002).
    Bostrom’s academic work has been translated into more than 30 languages. He is a repeat main TED speaker and has been interviewed more than 1,000 times by various media. He has been on Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers list twice and was included in Prospect’s World Thinkers list, the youngest person in the top 15. As a graduate student he dabbled in stand-up comedy on the London circuit, but he has since reconnected with the heavy gloom of his Swedish roots.
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    9 min
  • The science behind the 10-minute brain reset walk | Wendy Suzuki

    “We know that as little as 10 minutes of walking can improve your mood, that is getting that bubble bath with the dopamine, serotonin, endorphins going, anybody can do that.”

    What if the simplest tool for mental health was already in your daily routine, you’ve just been overlooking its power all along?
    Neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki reveals how walking can deliver extraordinary benefits for your brain. Backed by hard neuroscience, she explains how just 10 minutes of movement can shift the chemical makeup of your mind, reducing anxiety, boosting mood, and improving focus.
    00:00 The Brain-Body Connection
    01:13 Neurochemical bubble bath
    02:05: The 10 minute fix
    02:35 Long term effects of regular exercise
    07:18 What is the least amount of movement?
    09:37 What is the best time to work out?
    12:22 Personal experimentation
    15:40 Find your motivations
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    About Wendy Suzuki:
    Dr. Wendy A. Suzuki is a Professor of Neural Science and Psychology in the Center for Neural Science at New York University. She received her undergraduate degree in Physiology and Human Anatomy at the University of California, Berkeley in 1987, studying with Prof. Marion C. Diamond, a leader in the field of brain plasticity. She went on to earn her Ph.D. In Neuroscience from U.C. San Diego in 1993 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health before accepting her faculty position at New York University in 1998. Dr. Suzuki is author of the book Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better.

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    25 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.…

Best of Big Think

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
    13 min
  3. Number 3: Stop fighting your anxiety and start using it | Jesse Eisenberg for Big Think+
    16 min

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