Where do you place precious brain resources?

The human brain's attention system is the success story of what makes us unique as human beings.

Because attention fuels our ability to think, to feel, and connect, what we pay attention to is our life. For a long time, throughout our evolutionary history, the brain began to suffer from a very big problem which is that there's far more information out in the environment than could be fully processed.

Attention ended up becoming a very useful solution because it allows us to prioritize information, but there are qualities of the human experience that disable attention. Given how powerful attention is, we need to really respect where we place this precious brain resource.

Chapters For Easier Navigation:-

0:00 introduction

1:27 power of attention

2:38 the challenges of attention

4:38 what is meta awareness

Up Next ► How to enter ‘flow state’ on command   • How to enter ‘flow state’ on command ...  

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

About Amishi Jha:

Dr. Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami. She serves as the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California–Davis and postdoctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. Dr. Jha’s work has been featured at NATO, the World Economic Forum, and The Pentagon. She has received coverage in the The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Forbes and more.

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

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™

► Big Think

The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Go Deeper with Big Think

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sabine Hossenfelder discusses the physics of... dead grandmothers? Sabine Hossenfelder investigates life's big questions through the lens of physics, particularly Einstein's theory of special relativity. She highlights the relativity of simultaneity, which states that the notion of "now" is subjective and dependent on the observer. This leads to the block universe concept, where past, present, and future all exist simultaneously, making the past just as real as the present. Hossenfelder also emphasizes that the fundamental laws of nature preserve information rather than destroy it. Although information about a deceased person disperses, it remains an integral part of the universe. This idea of timeless existence, derived from the study of fundamental physics, offers profound spiritual insights that can be difficult to internalize in our everyday lives. As a result, Hossenfelder encourages people to trust the scientific method and accept the profound implications of these discoveries, which may reshape our understanding of life and existence. As a physicist, Hossenfelder trusts the knowledge gained through the scientific method and acknowledges the challenge of integrating these deep insights into our daily experiences. By contemplating these profound concepts, we can potentially expand our understanding of reality and our place within it.

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

Chapters for easier navigation:

0:00 Is your dead grandma still alive?

1:25 Before Einstein... and after-

2:53 Relativity of simultaneity, explained

5:14 Spacetime and the 'block universe'

6:10 Eternal existence: The conservation of quantum information

8:22 "I know it sounds crazy, but..."

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

Listen to this Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™™ Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Get Smarter, Faster....

With Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow The Podcast And Turn On The Notifications!!

Share This Episode If You Found It Valuable

Leave A 5 Star Review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Watch Hazen's next interview ►   • Are non-living things… evolving? Yes,...  

What can minerals tell us about the Earth's evolving colors? According to mineralogist Bob Hazen, they reveal an incredible history.

Thanks to new research, we now know that minerals play immense roles in technology, agriculture, and the very origin of life itself, even down to our planet’s colors. Hazen explains the mineral roadmap of Earth’s transformation – starting as a black basalt-covered planet, evolving into a blue ocean world, transitioning to a red rusted landscape, and finally becoming the green, lively planet we know today.

Hazen elaborates on how minerals have been essential in processes like plate tectonics and biomineralization, exemplifying the co-evolution of the geosphere and life. Using the knowledge that each and every mineral serves as a time capsule, we are able to better understand the 4.5 billion-year history - and potential future - of our Earth.

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

About Robert Hazen:

Robert Hazen is a renowned American mineralogist and geologist, known for his pioneering work in mineral evolution and mineral ecology. He is a Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory and a Professor of Earth Sciences at George Mason University.

Hazen has written over 400 articles and 25 books, contributing research as a profound leader in mineral evolution and mineral ecology. His studies delve into the complex interactions between minerals and life, contributing to our understanding of Earth’s history and the potential for life on other planets. Hazen is also a passionate educator and science communicator.

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

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.

Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup

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

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patrick McNamara, an experimental neuroscientist, argues that the function of religion is not just to quell existential anxiety or stave off the fear of death, but to disrupt current models of the self and to update those models in relation to the world around us. Religious experiences promote imaginative simulation of other possible worlds, giving us space to update those models. One core facet of the spiritual experience is what McNamara calls “de-centering” — a powerful technique that promotes self-transformation and makes us incredibly vulnerable when triggered. When held in the context of a ritual, like many religious practices, we can achieve massive personal growth and transcendence. But de-centering isn’t only effective within the context of religion: Secular people can re-discover or create their own rich traditions to support the de-centering experience. The field of experimental neuroscience is uncovering some fundamental aspects of human nature and experience, simultaneously enhancing our understanding but also deepening the mystery. McNamara’s research sheds light on the potential benefits of religion and ritual, and highlights how much more is still to be learned about how these processes can be harnessed for positive transformation.

Chapters:

0:00 The standard theory of religion

1:25 What is a self model?

2:32 Simulating other possible worlds

3:05 “Decentering”: A self-transformation process

5:12 Fanaticism: When decentering goes wrong

6:23 Ritual decentering

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

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

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

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

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Get Smarter, Faster....

With Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow The Podcast And Turn On The Notifications!!

Share This Episode If You Found It Valuable

Leave A 5 Star Review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Human Genome Project was a major breakthrough in medicine, but according to network scientist Albert-László Barabási, simply having a list of genes is not enough to fully understand how they interact, and crucially, how our bodies work. Barabási believes network science — which studies complex patterns and interactions between our cells — can fill in this gap by creating a biological map from which we could develop new cures, and even predict diseases. He explains that disease genes often have mutations that result in a missing interaction within the sub-cellular network, which then causes problems in the functioning of a cell. Traditional medicinal interventions can lead to unwanted side effects, as they also affect other cellular processes in the network; network medicine has revealed that these complex systems, though robust, are also fragile to attacks, and removing a few major hubs can break the network into tiny pieces. Understanding the structure of the network within our cells can allow for precise interventions that cure the problem without causing other issues. For Barabási, the ideal future of medicine would involve individualized network diagrams being adopted as a standard tool for doctors to show patients where mutations are, how they impact the rest of the cell, and how interventions can stop their effects.

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

Chapters:

0:00 The map of life: Human Genome Project

1:01 What is network medicine?

2:09 The Achilles’ heel

4:20 A new kind of doctor will emerge

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

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

Your top desination for expert-driven educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Get Smarter, Faster....

With Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow The Podcast And Turn On The Notifications!!

Share This Episode If You Found It Valuable

Leave A 5 Star Review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

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

Chapters:

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…

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

Listen To This Next

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Get Smarter, Faster....

With Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow The Podcast And Turn On The Notifications!!

Share This Episode If You Found It Valuable

Leave A 5 Star Review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rituals come as much from religion as they do from the way Earth tilts on its axis and spins around the Sun.

Up Next ► Rituals improve life according to ancient Chinese philosophers, says Michael Puett   • Rituals Improve Life According to Anc...  

Many of humanity's cultural traditions are based upon the movement of our planet around the Sun. The summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes take on special significance.

The reason these special days exist is because our planet tilts at an angle of roughly 23° on its axis. Without this tilt, there would be no seasons.

The religious and philosophical themes of rebirth and resurrection, therefore, are partially the result of our planet's axial tilt.

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

About Sasha Sagan:

Sasha Sagan is a native of Ithaca, New York and a graduate of NYU. She has worked as a television producer, filmmaker, writer, and speaker in the U.S. and abroad. Her essays and interviews on death, history, and ritual through a secular lens have appeared in The Cut, O, the Oprah Magazine, Literary Hub, Atmos and beyond. She is a contributing editor for the British fashion magazine Violet Book. Sasha regularly speaks on ways science can inform our celebrations and how we mark the passage of time, inspired in part by the work of her parents, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

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

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. Whether real or imagined, encounters with supernatural agents have been a consistent aspect of human experience for at least 30,000 years, spanning all cultures. Neuroscientist Patrick McNamara believes this is no coincidence. He argues that these agents fulfill essential roles for individuals and communities, including healing from trauma, discovering purpose, and alleviating anxiety. Supernatural agents are generally considered to be entities with extraordinary powers, including gods, spirits, angels, demons, and ghosts. They are believed to know our thoughts and desires, possess the ability to heal and curse, and establish standards for humans to aspire to. People have reported encounters with these supernatural agents not only in religious contexts but also in non-religious settings, such as deep meditation, dreaming, and psychedelic experiences. How can we make sense of this strange phenomenon? One way is to analyze brain activity: McNamara’s research reveals a similar pattern of brain activity during psychedelic experiences, REM sleep, and religious experiences where subjects encountered supernatural phenomena. These brain activity patterns are distinct from those observed when subjects are exposed to control agents. While debates continue about the reality of supernatural entities, those who have experienced them frequently describe them as authentic beings, not mere hallucinations. McNamara’s research aims to investigate this question further and explore how humans can continue to utilize the supernatural for personal and societal growth.

Chapters for easier navigation:-

0:00 The supernatural experience

1:19 What is a supernatural agent?

3:17 The neuroscience of supernatural believers

4:35 The non-religious brain & psychedelics

5:27 Is the supernatural real?

Listen To This Next:

Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential

The science of super longevity

Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth

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

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

About Big Think | Smarter Faster™ ► Big Think The leading source of expert-driven, educational content. With thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think helps you get smarter, faster by exploring the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century.

Get Smarter, Faster....

With Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers. Follow The Podcast And Turn On The Notifications!!

Share This Episode If You Found It Valuable

Leave A 5 Star Review

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to see through the lies that surround us.

Up Next ► How to catch a liar (assuming we want to)   • How to Catch a Liar (Assuming We Want...  

The world today feels like it's a constant VUCA environment: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. The shifting landscape, the bombarding of information toward us, and always having to work in sort of a 24/7 environment.

This is problematic because we feel like we're all in a collective crisis of attention. So it's very important that we, as citizens of the world, understand what is true and what is false.

A question that should be on our minds these days is: 'What is the role of attention in minimizing truth bias?'

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

About Amishi Jha:

Dr. Amishi Jha is a professor of psychology at the University of Miami. She serves as the Director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative, which she co-founded in 2010. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California–Davis and postdoctoral training at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. Dr. Jha’s work has been featured at NATO, the World Economic Forum, and The Pentagon. She has received coverage in the The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Forbes and more.

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

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Short-term thinkers take shortcuts. Take the longpath instead, explains futurist Ari Wallach.

Long-term planning is tough. With all of the pressures and distractions of daily life, it’s often a hassle to stop and consider whether what we’re doing at any given moment is putting us on track toward our future goals. And if the answer is no, it often takes even more effort to consciously change course and sacrifice immediate gratification for long-term gain.

Long-term thinking is difficult for anyone, but especially for those living paycheck to paycheck. Does that mean “longtermism” is only for the privileged? The answer is no, according to the futurist Ari Wallach, author of "Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs."

Although it might be harder for some people to consider how our current actions will affect the future, it’s a moral question that we all should ask ourselves.

chapters:-

0:00 What is ‘longpath’ thinking?

1:33 Take the pause

2:16 Who is taking shortcuts?

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

About Ari Wallach:

Ari Wallach is an applied futurist and Executive Director of Longpath Labs. He is the author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs by HarperCollins and the creator and host of the forthcoming series on PBS A Brief History of the Future, which is being executive produced by Kathryn Murdoch and Drake. He has been a strategy and foresight advisor to Fortune 100 companies, the US Department of State, the Ford Foundation, the UN Refugee Agency, the RacialEquity 2030 Challenge and Politico’s Long Game Forum. As adjunct associate professor at Columbia University he lectured on innovation, AI, and the future of public policy. Wallach's TED talk on Longpath has been viewed 2.6 million times and translated into 21 languages. Ari was the co-creator of 2008's pro-Obama The Great Schlep with Sarah Silverman. He has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, CNBC, Vox, and more. He lives in the lower Hudson Valley with his wife, three children and wonderdog Ozzie. More at https://www.longpath.org/

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

Go Deeper with Big Think:

►Become a Big Think Member

Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more

►Get Big Think+ for Business

Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices