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Want to be more intelligent? Here’s why you should hit the gym, according to neuroscientist Wendy Suzuki Wendy Suzuki studies exercise's transformative effects on the brain. Drawing inspiration from animal studies, particularly those involving the growth of hippocampal brain cells in rats, she explores the possible connection between increased exercise and brain expansion. Suzuki also looks into the multifaceted relationship between exercise, sleep, cardiovascular function, and brain health.

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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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How did complex systems emerge from chaos? Physicist Sean Carroll explains. How did life on Earth originate? Scientists still aren’t sure, and this remains one of the world’s most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries. One way of approaching the question is to think generally about how complex systems emerge from chaos. Since the 1800s, scientists have known that entropy is always increasing, with everything in our Universe trending toward disorder over time. A more nuanced understanding of entropy is helping today's scientists make progress on the question of the origin of life, as Sean Carroll explains in this Big Think video

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chapters:

0:00 Entropy: The 2nd law of thermodynamics

1:56 The two axes: Chaos & complexity

2:40 How did life emerge?

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About Sean Carroll: Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work.

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The universe is inflating like a cosmic balloon. Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, has a new theory about why.

Many scientists believe cosmic inflation is occurring as a result of the Big Bang, but Cronin has a different idea. Time, he explains, may be expanding alongside space. This suggests that time and life may have a deeper connection to one another.

According to Cronin, life could be seen as the amount of selection happening per unit volume, with selection being what keeps the universe inflated. Where there's interaction, there's selection, and, perhaps, this could explain the expansion.

We don't fully understand what drives the universe's expansion or what time truly is. Testing this idea, even if it's wrong, could lead to ground-breaking discoveries about the nature of time, space, and the forces that shape our universe.

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About Lee Cronin:

Leroy Cronin has one of the largest multidisciplinary, chemistry-based research teams in the world. He has given over 300 international talks and has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers with recent work published in Nature, Science, and PNAS. He and his team are trying to make artificial life forms, find alien life, explore the digitization of chemistry, understand how information can be encoded into chemicals, and construct chemical computers.

He went to the University of York where he completed both a degree and PhD in chemistry and then went on to do postdocs in Edinburgh and Germany before becoming a lecturer at the Universities of Birmingham, and then Glasgow where he has been since 2002, working up the ranks to become the Regius Professor of Chemistry in 2013 at age 39.

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About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

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It just takes one “yes.” Wharton professor Jonah Berger shares his three tips for getting what you want from other

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chapters for better navigation

0:00 intro

0:41 turn actions into identities

2:28 show confidence

4:11 eliminate filler

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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.

About Jonah Berger: Jonah Berger is a Wharton School professor and the internationally bestselling author of Magic Words, Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst. Dr. Berger is a world-renowned expert on natural language processing, change, word of mouth, influence, consumer behavior, and why things catch on. He has published over 80 articles in top-tier academic journals, teaches one of the world’s most popular online courses, and popular outlets like The New York Times and Harvard Business Review often cover his work. Berger has keynoted hundreds of major conferences and events like SXSW and Cannes Lions, advises various early-stage companies, and consults for organizations like Apple, Google, Nike, Amazon, GE, Moderna, and The Gates Foundation.

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Eastern religion meets Western psychology: meet the Harvard professor who’s also a Zen priest as he explains how to relieve suffering using both faith and neuroscience.

Delve into the teachings of Robert Waldinger, a psychiatrist and Zen priest, as he explores the essence of Zen Buddhism.

Waldinger, who directs the long-running Harvard Study of Adult Development, discusses how Zen can help people discover the transformative power of impermanence, mindfulness, and the art of relieving suffering. He shares practical wisdom on cultivating loving-kindness, maintaining a beginner’s mind, and fostering fulfilling relationships.

Whether you’re seeking inner peace or navigating relationships, Waldinger offers practical guidance for a more fulfilling existence

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About Robert Waldinger:

Dr. Robert Waldinger is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, he teaches Harvard medical students and psychiatry residents, and he is on the faculty of the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute. He is also a Zen priest.

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The winners of the remote work boom? Utah, Arizona, and Maine. Here’s what the US’ post-pandemic migration looks like.

In the wake of COVID, rising populations are shifting out of states like New York and California and moving to previously less-popular landscapes. The biggest beneficiaries of the post-pandemic economy have been states in the American South, including Texas and Florida, which has seen the fastest GDP growth of any state since the start of COVID, at more than a 20% increase.

What is driving these shifts in economic geography? Economist Joseph Politano points out that the most obvious factor is the increasing remote work possibilities. Some of the biggest states to lose residents have been dense, urbanized, unaffordable areas, and some of the biggest winners have been less dense, suburban, more affordable areas. People, when given the flexibility to tele-work, choose places that are more spacious suburban states than they did before the pandemic.

California and New York are going to have to reform a lot of their policies around housing, construction, and transportation if they want to compete in this new economy. And if they don't, the exodus to states like Texas and Florida will only continue.

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About Joseph Politano:

Joseph Politano is a Financial Management Analyst at the Bureau of Labor Statistics working to support the Labor Market Information and Occupational Health and Safety surveys that BLS conducts. He writes independently about economics, business, and public policy for a better world at apricitas.substack.com.

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Have we evolved to understand multiple rejections on Bumble, or survive more than one ghosting from Tinder? Christine Emba explores the sociology of modern dating and how to make them more ethical.

Before online dating became ubiquitous, most people met their partners at work, school, or through a shared network of friends. But as apps like Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge have become the default for finding romance, an enormous shift from real life courtship to virtual has occurred.

How has this impacted the dating process? Online connections are often made independent of your normal circles, and lack supervision. This creates a lack of accountability that can encourage unethical behaviors such as harassment, objectification, ghosting, and worse from users.

How can we create a more positive environment on apps and ensure we’re dating with the best of intentions? Author Christine Emba explains.

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This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

Up Next ► Supernatural thinking: Your brain’s anti-anxiety mode   • Supernatural thinking: Your brain’s a...  

Atheism is typically thought of as being binary: You either believe in God or you don’t.

In reality, atheism is a much more complex belief system. Some atheists are spiritual, while others are “angry” at the divine — both of which imply some level of belief in something.

Many atheists engage in teleological thinking, which is the notion that there is a hidden design or meaning to our lives.

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About Clay Routledge:

Dr. Clay Routledge is a leading expert in existential psychology. His work examines how the human need for meaning in life influences and is influenced by different cognitive processes, self-regulation, momentous life experiences, personal and professional goals, creativity, social connections, spirituality and religiosity, entrepreneurship, and prosocial behavior.

Dr. Routledge has published over 100 scholarly papers, co-edited three books on existential psychology, and authored the books Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource and Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World.

His work has been featured by many media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, ABC News, BBC News, CBC News, CNN, NBC Today, MSNBC, Men’s Health, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. As a social commentator, Dr. Routledge has authored articles for a number of outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, USA Today, Scientific American, National Review, Entrepreneur, and Harvard Business Review. He was the lead writer for the TED-Ed animated lesson Why Do We Feel Nostalgia?

Dr. Clay Routledge is the Vice President of Research and the Director of the Human Flourishing Lab at the Archbridge Institute. He is also an editor at Profectus, a periodic web-based magazine focused on civilizational progress and human flourishing.

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About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

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This interview is an episode from The Well, our new publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the John Templeton Foundation.

Up next ► Can God exist in a scientific world?   • Where is the evidence for God? | Bish...  

The classical definition of justice is "to render to each his due."

Along with prudence, fortitude, and temperance, justice is one of the four cardinal virtues that define a good life.

However, if justice is not tempered by mercy, forgiveness, or nonviolence, it becomes a weapon of retribution.

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About Bishop Barron:

Bishop Robert Barron is the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, and the host of CATHOLICISM, a groundbreaking, award winning documentary about the Catholic Faith. He received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America (1982) and a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Institut Catholique de Paris (1992). He has published numerous books, essays, and articles on theology and the spiritual life. He has also appeared on several media outlets including NBC, PBS, FOX News, CNN, and EWTN. His website, WordOnFire.org, has reached over 3.8 million people and his weekly YouTube videos have been viewed over nine million times. His pioneering work in evangelizing through the new media led Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop Emeritus of Chicago, to describe him as “one of the Church’s best messengers.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About The Well

Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

So what do they think?

How is the power of science advancing understanding? How are philosophers and theologians tackling these fascinating questions?

Let’s dive into The Well.

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Political correctness is often seen as a debate between two extremes, but there are nuances in the middle of the spectrum. Is there such a thing as being too PC, and if so, where is that line?

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While philosopher Slavoj Žižek, comedian Lewis Black, and actor Jeff Garlin acknowledge that some topics can be hurtful or even oppressive and should thus be approached with "good taste and self-restraint," they also argue that PC culture has tipped the scales far beyond being balanced. "If we continue to move in that direction," says Black, "then we're going to be living between uptight and stupid and there'll be no in between."

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Simultaneously, others—including Paul F. Tompkins, Jim Gaffigan, and Martin Amis—argue that political correctness aims to change things for the better, especially for groups who have been marginalized and discriminated against, and that not being sexist and racist, for example, is not actually a heavy lift. "The fact of the matter is these people are the people of today and you might be a person of yesterday if you can't adjust and you can't be in tune with what people think is funny anymore," says Tompkins.

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