dash

People are having less sex than ever. 3 experts explain the keys to maintaining a passionate relationship. We live in a paradoxical era where despite the sexual revolution, people are having less sex. Misconceptions about desire lie at the heart of this paradox. Desire is often thought of as a “sparky” force that strikes people spontaneously, such as when they catch a glimpse of someone attractive. But that’s only one kind of desire, as sex educator Emily Nagoski told Big Think. Another type is responsive desire, which is what you feel as a reaction to sexual stimuli, like touch, physical closeness, or sexual contact. Building a strong relationship requires fostering desire in some form, and being willing to communicate with your partner about how to best make that happen. Those conversations might be awkward at first, but, as these Big Think experts explain, they can be immensely rewarding.

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

Chapters:

0:00 What’s wrong with sex?

0:31 Erotic desire vs. intimacy

1:40 Marriage does not have to kill sex

2:49 Strong sexual connection: Why some people have it

5:00 What ruins sexual connection?

5:56 More sex vs. better sex

6:29 The #1 reason couples seek sex therapy

8:19 How often, how hard, how long, how many?

9:08 Talking to your partner about sex

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

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. In today’s world, people are more open than ever to discuss their emotions, largely due to the growth in self-help literature and efforts to destigmatize therapy. However, this openness has also resulted in certain misconceptions about emotions, which neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett aims to clarify. Contrary to the notion that emotions are inherently fixed in our brains from birth, Barrett contends that they are primarily based on past experiences and the brain’s predictions of future events. This means that emotions aren’t merely reactions thrust upon us, but something we actively participate in creating. Barrett further posits that we can alter our brain’s predictive patterns by diversifying our experiences such as learning new things, watching films, or engaging in activities like acting that deviate from our routine. By doing this, we can shape the architecture of our future selves.

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

Chapters:

0:00 Two myths about emotion

1:24 How your brain creates emotion / How emotions are made

4:36 Depression: A metabolic illness?

5:52 Changing your brain’s predictions

7:45 You have more control than you think

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 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. Get Smarter Faster, With Daily Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers.

-------

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

Chances are, we’re not alone in the universe. But if that’s true — why can’t we seem to find our neighbors? This question is known as the Fermi paradox, and it continues to go unsolved. However, some theories could offer potential solutions. Physicist Brian Cox explains the paradox and walks us through our best guesses as to the reason for our quasi-isolation.

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

Chapters:

0:00 Who is Enrico Fermi?

0:22 What is the Fermi Paradox?

1:29 Rare Earth Hypothesis

2:41 Extinguished Civilizations

3:51 Technological Singularity

4:34 Vast Distances

5:14 Cosmic Quarantine

7:31 The Great Filter

9:51 The Great Silence

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

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

About Brian Cox: Brian Cox obtained a first class honors degree in physics from the University of Manchester in 1995 and in 1998 a Ph.D. in High Energy Particle Physics at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg. Brian is now Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester, The Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Brian is widely recognized as the foremost communicator for all things scientific, having presented a number of highly acclaimed science programs for the BBC watched by billions internationally including ‘Adventures in Space and Time’ (2021), ‘Universe’ (2021), ‘The Planets’ (2018), ‘Forces of Nature’ (2016), ‘Human Universe’ (2014), ‘Wonders of Life’ (2012), ‘Wonders of the Universe’ (2011) and ‘Wonders of the Solar System’ (2010). As an author, Brian has also sold over a million books worldwide including ‘Black Holes’, ‘Universal: A Guide to the Cosmos’, ‘Quantum Universe’ and ‘Why Does E=mc2?’ with co-author Professor Jeffrey Forshaw. He also wrote the series of books to accompany his popular television and radio programs

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

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

-----------

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!

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

Neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor explains the 4 key ”characters” of the brain, and how understanding each can expand your perception of yourself, and the world, forever.

At age 37, neuroanatomist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke that would take her eight years to fully recover from. This is how it changed her understanding of the brain.

In this interview, Dr. Jill draws a map of the human brain, explaining how it is comprised of four distinct modules, each serving a unique role in function and personality. This combination of cognitive and emotional components gives rise to the multidimensional characters within each of us.

Are you looking to be more rational, more creative, more forgiving, or perhaps less rigid in your thinking? Dr. Jill suggests that by becoming aware of the four modules of our brains, we can consciously choose to engage specific parts. This awareness allows us to harness the true power of our brains and shape who we want to become, ultimately fostering less anxiety, more inner peace, and a vastly more purposeful life.

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

----------

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 Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor:

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroscientist. In 1996 she experienced a severe hemorrhage (AVM) in the left hemisphere of her brain causing her to lose the ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life. Her memoir, My Stroke of Insight, documenting her experience with stroke and eight-year recovery, spent 63 weeks on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list and is still routinely the #1 book in the category Stroke in the Amazon marketplace.

Dr. Jill is a dynamic teacher and public speaker who loves educating all age groups, academic levels, as well as corporations and not-for-profit organizations about the beauty of our human brain. She focuses on how we can activate the power of our neuroplasticity to not only recover from neurological trauma, but how we can purposely choose to live a more flexible, resilient, and satisfying life.

In 2008 Dr. Jill gave the first TED talk that ever went viral on the Internet, which now has well over 27.5 million views. Also in 2008, Dr. Jill was chosen as one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” and was the premiere guest on Oprah Winfrey’s “Soul Series” webcast. Her new book, Whole Brain Living – the Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life is a #1 release on Amazon in categories ranging from Neuroscience to Nervous System Diseases and Stroke.

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

The world’s biggest thinkers on the topics you’re most curious about. Welcome to Big Think.

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

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

Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!

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