Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shares five key insights from his brand new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. He reveals how “common knowledge” — the hidden force of knowing what others know — shapes everything from financial bubbles and political revolutions to why we say “Netflix and chill.” Then we revisit our 2021 conversation with Steve about rationality, where he explains why smart people believe dumb things, why we're terrible at assessing risk, and how our species can be both brilliantly rational and spectacularly irrational at the same time.

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Today's AI runs on neural networks, a design originally inspired by the human brain. As these systems grow more sophisticated, they're raising a profound question: Even if they don't work exactly like our brains, could something resembling a "mind" eventually emerge from the machines we're building?

Guests: Gaurav Suri and Jay McClelland

Book: The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines

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We’re used to hearing “the doctor will see you now,” but in the not-so-distant future, that doctor may not be human. That’s because human docs are prone to misdiagnosis, burnout, and bias — making our current healthcare system a leading cause of preventable death.

In Dr. Bot: Why Doctors Can Fail Us―and How AI Could Save Lives, medical researcher and philosopher Charlotte Blease makes the case that artificial intelligence could be the physician we need — more consistent, less prejudiced, and infinitely more resilient than the flesh-and-blood doctors we rely on today.

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It’s rare these days for a book to go viral, but that’s exactly what happened with The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt.

Now in its 75th week on the New York Times’ bestseller list, the book reveals a startling truth: Starting in 2012, teen depression rates suddenly spiked 150% worldwide, perfectly coinciding with the moment smartphones and social media conquered childhood.

But Haidt doesn't just diagnose the crisis. He offers a roadmap out with norms, guidelines, and policy suggestions that parents, schools, and communities are already implementing with remarkable success.

Further Listening:

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What if the best way to win in business is to do the exact opposite of what everyone else is doing? While most CEOs chase growth at all costs, Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, chose a different path. Starting out as a rock climber and adventurer, when he pivoted to business, he built products to last, created a company culture where surfing sometimes mattered more than spreadsheets, and even risked profits to protect the planet. Then, in a move almost unheard of in corporate America, he gave the entire company away. In his new book ⁠Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away,⁠ New York Times journalist David Gelles tells the story of how a reluctant businessman reshaped capitalism—and shows us what it looks like to build a company that puts people and the planet first.

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Arthur C. Brooks is an unlikely happiness guru.

He’s not a psychologist, philosopher, or mystic. He’s an economist and public policy analyst who, for years, ran a prominent think tank.

But rubbing shoulders with heads of state and titans of industry made him miserable. Confronted with the sobering realization that for too long he’d privileged work over connection and status over happiness, he left the c-suite and set about renovating the mission of his life.

Before long, Arthur was teaching at Harvard Business School. But he wasn’t teaching hostile takeovers and leveraged buyouts. He was teaching happiness. From a scientific perspective.

Now, the pursuit of happiness might not seem like your typical business school fare. But Arthur’s got a good line on this. As he writes in his new book, The Happiness Files:

“Your life is the most important management task you will ever undertake. It is, in fact, like a startup, where you are the founder, entrepreneur, and chief executive. And if you treat your life the way a great entrepreneur treats an exciting startup enterprise, your life will be happier, more meaningful, and more successful than it otherwise would be.”

So that’s what today’s show is all about. What does it mean to live your life like it’s a startup?

What you’ll learn:

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Anxiety can be painful and embarrassing, even downright debilitating. But author and podcaster Morra Aarons-Mele says it's also a force that you can use to your advantage. She's here today to teach you how.

Morra's most recent book is ⁠⁠The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower. And be sure to check out her podcast,⁠ The Anxious Achiever.⁠

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What if, thanks to AI, you can now research and write a book two, three, or even four times faster? For authors and AI pioneers Steven Johnson (Editorial Director, NotebookLM and Google Labs) and Ethan Mollick (Wharton professor and creator of One Useful Thing), that's the new reality. In this episode, they crack open their personal toolkits to reveal the prompts and workflows they use to supercharge their creativity.

What you’ll learn:

Further listening:

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✅ Innovative strategies from bestselling authors and industry experts

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Most of us like to think we could spot a con artist. But according to Emmy-winning television producer and investigative podcaster Johnathan Walton, the truth is much scarier: Scammers don’t look like strangers. They look like friends, neighbors, even soulmates. In his new book Anatomy of a Con Artist: The 14 Red Flags to Spot Scammers, Grifters, and Thieves, Walton draws from his own jaw-dropping experience of being conned out of nearly $100,000 by someone he considered family. The good news? He turned that pain into purpose, and he’s here to help the rest of us avoid the same fate.

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On a June night several years ago, Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, lay on an operating table, dying. An undiagnosed aneurysm in his pancreatic artery had ruptured, flooding his abdominal cavity with blood. His odds of survival were between 10 and 20 percent. "I said, 'Doc, you've got to hurry. You're losing me right now. I'm going.'" This near-death experience inspired him to embark on a scientific, philosophical, and profoundly personal exploration of what happens after we die.

Host: Caleb Bissinger

Guest: Sebastian Junger, author of In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife.

🎁 We all know that reading is the best investment we can make in ourselves. But figuring out what to read — well, that's another matter. Which is why we started the Next Big Idea Club. We get the best new books (as chosen by our friends Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink) into the hands of curious people. Like you! Join us today at nextbigideaclub.com and use code PODCAST to take 20% off your order.

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