Caleb is joined by Sam Kass, former senior food policy advisor to President Obama and the chef who cooked dinner for the first family most nights. Now a partner at a venture capital firm investing in food and agriculture tech, Sam has a new book out, The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis.

The situation, he says, is bleak. Almonds, artichokes, chocolate, coffee, oysters, rice, wine — all at risk due to climate change. And that’s not even close to the full list. Our food system is both driving the climate crisis and being devastated by it. But Sam argues we can still avert the worst if we start with culture, fix our policies, and deploy the right technology.

(4:00) Cooking for the Obamas

(7:49) How vulnerable is our food supply?

(12:45) Can fixing the food system bring us together?

(24:29) The food policies we need

(27:38) Are we making America healthy again?

(35:42) The technologies that can make a difference

—

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]

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

Dave Blundin has co-founded 23 companies, co-hosts the Moonshots podcast, runs the VC firm Link Ventures, teaches at MIT, and has been building neural networks since the 1980s. His take: “[AI is] under-hyped. It's absolutely going to change the world in the next couple of years more than any change in human history. There's nothing even vaguely comparable to it.”

—

(7:37) “Stop sleeping. Rush to everything you do.”

(15:16) Why he started building neural nets at MIT in the 1980s

(16:19) Should you finish college or start a business?

(20:38) Why best friends are the best co-founders

(25:00) San Francisco is still king, but Boston is AI startup central

(28:06) “The chip shortage is going to be incredibly bad.”

(34:26) The AI energy shortage

(36:32) Are we in an AI bubble?

(55:44) The case for human immortality before 2050

(1:02:00) Advice for first-time founders (and second-time, and 23rd-time)

—

💿 Catch up on our other AI episodes with this Spotify playlist

🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠⁠Book of the Day⁠⁠

✉️ Send us an email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠

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

Angus Fletcher has a PhD in literature from Yale and teaches English at Ohio State. He’s passionate about Shakespeare. He probably owns a tweed jacket. In other words, he’s the last person you’d expect to receive the Army’s fourth-highest civilian honor.

But when he’s not parsing King Lear or dissecting Hamlet, Angus is pioneering research into narrative cognition — our ability to think in stories — and how it can make us smarter. When the Army put his theories to the test, his methods reshaped how soldiers learn to think clearly under pressure and act decisively in volatile environments.

Now, he has distilled this work into a new book called Primal Intelligence. Malcolm Gladwell says it's confirmation that Angus "has never had an uninteresting thought." We think you’ll agree.

— — —

(05:43) What is Primal Intelligence?

(8:24) Computers Think in Probabilities. Humans Think in Possibilities.

(11:08) The Art of Intuition: Spotting Exceptions to Rules

(29:59) Why Storytelling is the Essence of Human Intelligence

(34:13) How to Plan

(35:38) The Role of Emotion in Decision Making

(45:27) How to Use Common Sense to ‘Tune Your Anxiety’

(49:34) What Great Innovators Have in Common

(51:25) The Best Way to Become a Better Communicator

(54:22) Don’t Freak Out About A.I. Do Freak Out the State of Your Intelligence.

— — —

Want to connect?

🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠

✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

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

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.

———

Want to connect?

🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠

✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠

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

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

———

Want to connect?

🔗 Follow Rufus on LinkedIn

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, Book of the Day

✉️ Send us an email: [email protected]

———

Ready to reach 300,000 curious listeners and readers?

Promote your brand, book, or product to an audience passionate about big ideas.

📩 Request our sponsor kit

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

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.

📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠wherever you listen

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

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:

———

Want to connect with us?

🔗 Follow Rufus on LinkedIn

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, Book of the Day

✉️ Send us an email: [email protected]

———

Ready to reach 300,000 curious listeners and readers? Promote your brand, book, or product to an audience passionate about big ideas.

📩 Request our sponsor kit

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

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.

📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, or ⁠wherever you listen⁠

📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? ⁠Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter⁠

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

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:

———

Want to connect with us?

🔗 Follow Rufus on LinkedIn

📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, Book of the Day

✉️ Send us an email: [email protected]

———

Ready to reach 300,000 curious listeners and readers?

Promote your brand, book, or product to an audience passionate about big ideas.

📩 Request our sponsor kit

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

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.⁠

📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen

📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter

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