Podcasts by Think Again – a Big Think Podcast
We surprise some of the world's brightest minds with ideas they're not at all prepared to discuss. With host Jason Gots and special guests Neil Gaiman, Alan Alda, Salman Rushdie, Mary-Louise Parker, Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Saul Williams, Henry Rollins, Bill Nye, George Takei, Maria Popova, and many more . . .
You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel?
Further podcasts by Big Think / Panoply
Podcast on the topic Bücher
All episodes
[SPECIAL] Clever Creature with Jason Gots - Episode 1: DESERT from 2020-05-13T09:00
NOTE: This is a special guest episode of Jason's new podcast Clever Creature. Please subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts! The Moleskine is open, the page is s...
Listen234. Robert MacFarlane (Jason Plays Favorites #7) – deep time rising from 2020-03-14T10:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] I...
Listen233. Terry Gilliam (Jason Plays Favorites #5) – the impossible dream from 2020-03-07T11:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] -...
Listen232. Anaïs Mitchell (Jason Plays Favorites #4) – sometimes the god speaks through you from 2020-02-29T11:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] -...
Listen231. Marlon James (Jason Plays Favorites #3) – don't get too comfortable from 2020-02-22T11:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] -...
Listen230. Eve Ensler (Jason Plays Favorites #2) – no way out but through from 2020-02-15T11:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] -...
Listen229. David Sedaris (Jason Plays Favorites #1) – Sir David of the Spotless Roadways from 2020-02-08T11:00
[From February through March 22, 2020 (his last day hosting Think Again) Jason will be revisiting favorite past episodes. Jason's new show, starting May 12th, is Clever Creature with Jason Gots.] ...
Listen228. Sharon Salzberg (meditation and mindfulness teacher) – on balance from 2020-02-01T11:00
Since 1976, Sharon Salzberg has been sharing ancient meditation and mindfulness practices in a voice the contemporary West can understand. Her warm, funny, down-to-earth books, dharma talks, and gu...
Listen227. Roz Chast and Patricia Marx (cartoons, words, ukuleles) – The Beatles stole everything from us from 2020-01-25T11:00
Thelma and Louise, Ponch and John, Pancho and Lefty, Quixote and Sancho Panza, Marx and Engels, Marx and Chast…history and literature are full of magical buddy stories. Every now and then, for reas...
Listen226. Joseph Goldstein (dharma teacher) – doubt comes masquerading as wisdom from 2020-01-18T11:00
Freedom. Everyone wants it, but knowing where to look for it is another matter. And to make matters worse, the world is full of things that feel like freedom but might just get us more tangled up i...
Listen225. Jad Abumrad (Radiolab, Dolly Parton's America) – American Multiverse from 2019-12-21T11:00
If you’d told me a couple months ago that a podcast about Dolly Parton could move me deeply and raise all kinds of questions that go straight to the wounded heart of America today, I guess I would ...
Listen224. Norman Fischer (zen priest, poet) – the only way out of the catastrophe we’re in from 2019-12-14T11:00
The other day on social media a friend asked what the heck is up with this Mr. Rogers revival. Why does everyone suddenly love this guy so much? Moments before, I had been listening to a new podcas...
Listen223. Karen Armstrong (theologian) – the art of getting outside of yourself from 2019-12-07T05:00
I’ve spent more of my life than most people I know immersed by choice in what my guest today would call “scripture”. I was never much of a Roman Catholic, in spite of being dragged weekly to church...
Listen222. Deborah Levy (writer) – it's those thoughts that are slightly awkward that need an airing from 2019-11-30T11:00
While reading Deborah Levy’s novel THE MAN WHO SAW EVERYTHING and her recent “working autobiography” THE COST OF LIVING I often found myself pausing and kind of sinking into a passage I’d just read...
Listen221. Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter co-founder) – you, me, us: now and in the future from 2019-11-23T11:00
The phrase “common sense” can be misleading. The way we use it in casual conversation, it means something like “that which is obvious to any sensible person, of course”. It’s like what philosopher ...
Listen220. Elif Shafak (writer) – the cemetery of the companionless from 2019-11-16T11:00
“Maybe the opposite of goodness is not evil. Maybe the opposite of goodness is, in fact, numbness.” There are so many questions we never ask. So many assumptions we make every second of every day ...
Listen219. Reginald Dwayne Betts (poet) – nothing to resurrect after prison from 2019-11-09T11:00
Some experiences change you so completely that you’re left with a choice: either spend your life running from them or spend your life turning them over in memory, trying to find new ways in, throug...
Listen218. Bill Bryson (writer) – the most extraordinary machine from 2019-11-02T10:00
Do you have a body? I do, but I was mostly unaware of this fact until somewhere in my mid-30s, when my life strategy of living like a bourbon-loving brain-in-a-vat became increasingly untenable. Si...
Listen217. Ibram X. Kendi (author, activist) – Antiracism 101 from 2019-10-26T10:00
I grew up in the almost entirely white suburbs of 1980’s Bethesda, Maryland thinking of myself and my world as 100% not racist. It’s hard to notice what’s missing: for example pretty much any black...
Listen216. Gail Collins (NY Times columnist) – The brief social media life of Glam-ma from 2019-10-19T10:00
In 1972, the year I was born, there was apparently a famous TV ad for Geritol. My guest today describes it thus: “…a husband spoke to the camera while his wife draped herself over his shoulder, smi...
Listen215. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie: the cognitive segregation of America from 2019-10-12T10:00
I don’t even know where to begin with this one. You’ve probably heard of Cambridge Analytica. Maybe you know they’re a company that did some nefarious things involving facebook and the 2016 US pres...
Listen214. Liz Plank (journalist) – men, masculinity, and the unfinished conversation from 2019-10-05T10:00
In the past half century or so feminism has had its hands plenty full dealing with the abuse and inequality women suffer at the hands of horribly behaved men and the systems they build. Too full to...
Listen213. Catherine Wilson (philosopher) – the Epicurean cure for what ails ya from 2019-09-28T10:00
If the word ‘epicurean’ brings to mind a porcine man in a toga reclining on a velvet couch and dropping fat juicy grapes into his open mouth, one by one, you are not alone. But this caricature, pro...
Listen212. Downton Abbey film director Michael Engler – the best idea in the room from 2019-09-21T10:00
Like too many of us, I hated history classes throughout my school career, and only realized as an adult that there are few things more interesting to ponder than the ways people lived and thought i...
Listen211. Etgar Keret (writer) – a tunnel dug under the prison floor from 2019-09-14T10:00
“A conversation is like a tunnel dug under the prison floor that you—patiently and painstakingly—scoop out with a spoon. It has one purpose: to get you away from where you are right now.” That is ...
Listen210. one night in Istanbul, with chef Musa Da?deviren from 2019-09-07T10:00
There’s a pattern that happens with any new thing. First it’s scary, then you settle in to a rhythm, then you hit your stride, then you get too attached to things being the way they are. For a whil...
Listen209. a mixtape for 2019 from 2019-08-31T10:00
When I was a teenager and music was still on cassettes, a mixtape was an act of love. The selection and sequence of songs were a kind of message to the listener that left plenty of space for their ...
Listen208. Antonio Damasio (biologist) – this incredibly rich machinery from 2019-08-24T10:00
Quick question. Answer without thinking too hard. Ready? Where is your mind? What is your mind? Ok, Raise your hand if you thought of your brain.If you did, you’re in good company. For centuries, ...
Listen207. Lisa Brennan-Jobs (writer) – on growing up without, with, and in spite of her dad from 2019-08-10T10:00
The first computer I ever had was the first Apple Macintosh, back in the mid 80’s. I can still remember the sense of friendly reassurance from that smiling little icon that popped up on the screen ...
Listen206. Jenny Odell (artist) – attention as an act of resistance from 2019-08-03T10:00
When I think of my childhood home in Bethesda, Maryland, depending on what kind of mood I’m in, I think either of the mall or of the woods. Although there were some fun moments looking at the inapp...
Listen205. Jeffrey Israel (religious studies scholar, old friend) – Private hate, public love, and everything in between from 2019-07-27T10:00
A Rabbi, a Priest, and an Imam walk into a bar. No, wait. Imams don’t drink. Most rabbis don’t drink much either, come to think of it. Priests drink—at least in the movies—but mostly not in bars . ...
Listen204. The Butler Sisters (filmmakers) – identity, intolerance, and change in the American heartland from 2019-07-20T10:00
In spite of all the weird ways the word has been abused since the 2016 elections, I think of myself as a liberal. As a basic value, I try to be open-minded. And like many liberals, I live in a big,...
Listen203. Elif Shafak (novelist) – The story no one hears from 2019-07-13T10:00
After four years and just over 200 conversations for this podcast, I’m feeling the need for a new kind of politics. One that would champion uncertainty, fragility, emotional vulnerability against t...
Listen202. Tracy Edwards, MBE (British sailor) – If you don't like the way the world looks, change it from 2019-07-06T04:00
What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done? The thing everyone said was impossible, that you knew you had to do anyway, and that you doubted a thousand times while it was underway that you’d be abl...
Listen201. Chris Moukarbel (WIG and GAGA FIVE FOOT TWO filmmaker) – The closest thing to actual magic from 2019-06-29T10:00
When I was in middle school in the suburbs of Maryland, a man—let’s call him Robert—started doing some occasional gardening and housecleaning for my parents. By high school, Robert was our full-tim...
Listen200. Robert MacFarlane (writer) – deep time rising from 2019-06-22T10:00
I’m underground as I write this, one day before taping the conversation you’re about to hear, speeding through New York City subway tunnels that aren’t all that ancient but whose darkness, and rats...
Listen199. Lama Rod Owens (RADICAL DHARMA co-author, Buddhist teacher) – the price of the ticket to freedom from 2019-06-15T10:00
Like Mick Jagger, the Indian prince we know as The Buddha taught that we can’t get no satisfaction from this world, though we try and we try, and we try, and we try . . . Buddha means “awakened on...
Listen198. Barbara Tversky (cognitive psychologist) – World makes mind from 2019-06-08T10:00
You’re a body in the world. From the moment you’re born, from that very first gasp of air, you’re taking in sensations, trying to get a handle on things and the relationships between them. There’s ...
Listen197. Eve Ensler (author, activist) – No way out but through from 2019-06-01T10:00
Note: I feel I should let listeners know that this episode of Think Again is about surviving and thriving in the face of unspeakable trauma and sexual violence. And in order to get to the thriving,...
Listen196. Susan Hockfield (MIT president emerita, neuroscientist) – Extraordinary machines from 2019-05-25T10:00
“Are we in the best of times? Or the end of times? One of the oddities of the current era is that extreme pessimism about the world coexists with extreme optimism — and both have a plausible case t...
Listen195. Adam Gopnik (essayist) – the rhinoceros of liberalism vs. the unicorns of everything else from 2019-05-18T04:00
If I had to choose one word to capture this moment in American (and maybe world) history, “patience” wouldn’t be it. From every direction, everything demands our urgent attention. Everything is a ...
Listen194. Jared Diamond (Historian) – Look inward, Nation from 2019-05-11T10:00
Imagine yourself a German citizen the day after the end of World War II. Much of your city is bombed to ruins. A good part of the population is dead. The Nazi ideology that has dominated your natio...
Listen193. Anaïs Mitchell (HADESTOWN creator, songwriter/singer) – sometimes the god speaks through you from 2019-05-04T10:00
Among other things, music can be medicine. Like a vaccine, it sometimes works by giving your body a little taste of the disease. Other times, of course, you just wanna dance, and James Brown might ...
Listen192. Delphine Minoui (journalist) – Land of paradoxes: the inner and outer Iran from 2019-04-27T10:00
I remember visiting New York when I was 18 and thinking about coming here for college. How badly I wanted to be “from” New York. How cool, how real, how substantial that would be. What does it mea...
Listen191. Simon Critchley (philosopher) – the philosophy of tragedy&the tragedy of philosophy from 2019-04-20T10:00
Well into her 90’s, my grandma Selma and I had this running conversation about the state of the world. She’d escaped Polish pogroms as a 5 year old, lived through the loss of half her relatives in ...
Listen190. Terry Gilliam (filmmaker) - The impossible dream from 2019-04-13T10:00
Faith in anything is its own special form of madness. It’s a challenge to entropy, and entropy takes no challenge lightly. If there’s any better metaphor for this struggle than trying to make a bi...
Listen189. Ross Kauffman (Oscar-winning filmmaker) – Tigers and the humans who love them from 2019-04-06T10:00
I was thinking this morning that It’s funny how “humane” is the only word we have for that idea, since so much that’s inhumane has been created by us humans. When we talk about the humane treatment...
Listen188. Frans de Waal (primatologist) – You're such a social animal from 2019-03-30T10:00
When I was a kid, there used to be a TV commercial for this series of animal videos you could order that were basically nothing but killing and sex. The tagline was “Find out why we call them . . ....
Listen187. Aml Ameen (actor) - how the world teaches you who you are from 2019-03-23T10:00
They say Confucius said “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” I did the research. Confucius probably didn’t say that. But whoever said it was right—revenge bites back. Victor...
Listen186. Josh Clark (podcaster) - It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine from 2019-03-16T10:00
I like to think. If I didn’t, this would be the wrong job for me. But I realize that as open-minded as I like to consider myself, I’ve taken a thick, black sharpie to certain areas of the philosoph...
Listen185. Martin Hägglund (philosopher) – What happens to freedom when time is money from 2019-03-09T11:00
What gets a wolf or a pigeon up in the morning? No offense to wolves or to pigeons, but it’s probably not the desire to make the world a better place. As far as we know, humans are unique in the fr...
Listen184. Mitchell S. Jackson (writer) – Notes from the other America from 2019-03-02T11:00
We’re all living inside concentric circles of private and public, inner and outer. From the time we’re small we start to understand that these circles aren’t always friendly to one another. There’s...
Listen183. Will Hunt (explorer) – into the Earth: the mysteries and meanings of underground spaces from 2019-02-23T11:00
The first time I attempted to play Minecraft with my then-seven-year-old son, we immediately dug ourselves into a pit deep in the Earth and could not get out. In spite of the crappy 8-bit graphics,...
Listen182. Ha Jin (writer) – the wild and tragic life of China's greatest poet, Li Bai from 2019-02-16T11:00
Let’s start with a very old poem : On the bank of Caishi River is Li Bai’s graveSurrounded by wild grass that stretches to clouds. How sad that the bones buried deep in hereUsed to have writings ...
Listen181. Marlon James (writer) – don’t get too comfortable from 2019-02-09T11:00
At this point, it’s very rare to read something and find myself thinking: This is something new. This is unlike anything I’ve ever read before. It doesn’t have to be written in hieroglyphs or be so...
Listen180. Benjamin Dreyer (copy chief of Random House) – Really actually truly great English from 2019-02-02T11:00
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who don’t give a damn about grammar, style, or syntax, and those who write aggrieved letters to publishing houses about split infinitives. My gu...
Listen179. Edith Hall (classicist) – from Aristotle to Oprah and back again: how to live your best life from 2019-01-26T11:00
We’ve been talking a lot lately on this show about happiness. What it is, where we can get more of it, why it does not yet seem to be available on the Internet. Author Ruth Whippman presented some ...
Listen178. Douglas Rushkoff (freelance intellectual) – It's not the technology's fault from 2019-01-19T11:00
For me, the very best Onion article of 2018 was this one about Jeff Bezos revealing Amazon’s new headquarters to be the entire Earth, as an Amazon-branded glass sphere clicked into place, encasing ...
Listen177. Joseph Goldstein (Buddhist teacher) – Lighten Up: mindfulness, enlightenment, and everyday life from 2019-01-12T11:00
Love, money, health, great sex, peace of mind—however you define it, happiness in this world is impermanent and unreliable. But we’re all invested in the illusion that we’re just one career move or...
Listen176. Area 51 and the epistemology of the unexplained - Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell (filmmaker) from 2018-12-22T11:00
Between subjective experience and the things most people can accept as objective facts, there yawns a cavernous gulf. Imagine you’re on a stage in front of 50,000 strangers trying to explain what i...
Listen175. Helen Riess (psychiatrist) – Empathy in the brain and the world from 2018-12-15T11:00
Empathy is the basic stuff of human connection. It’s how we hear and are heard by one another. It’s how we deal with one another as people rather than objects. But with massive, relentless trouble ...
Listen174. Ruth Whippman (writer) – A mindful, productive, super-positive nation of nervous wrecks from 2018-12-08T11:00
In the years before the election of the impossible president rent forever the very fabric of being, the band Radiohead was busy channeling something many of us were feeling but nobody was really ta...
Listen173. Wesley Yang (writer) - The Souls of Yellow Folk from 2018-12-01T11:00
Such and such “doesn’t suffer fools gladly”. That phrase has always bugged me a bit. It’s like someone has just squeezed a pillow infused with an admiration-scented vapor that then hangs in the air...
Listen172. A trans family in the holy land from 2018-11-24T11:00
Everybody is always in a state of transition. All the time, your cells are dying and replacing themselves. Your mind, your emotions, your goals, your sense of self—all of these are shifting from ye...
Listen171. Michelle Thaller (NASA astronomer) on ?the multiple dimensions of space and human sexuality from 2018-11-17T11:00
This morning on the way to the school bus, my almost 11 year old son was explaining to me that if you shrunk an elephant down to the size of a mouse, it would shiver, then die, because of its slow ...
Listen170. Lynsey Addario (photojournalist) – on art, love, and war from 2018-11-10T11:00
Think about all the images you see in a day. The advertisements. The photos and videos as you search the web or scroll through social media, if you do that. Now think back a century and a half or s...
Listen169. Ben Marcus' reality is only slightly askew from our own from 2018-11-03T10:00
A "grow light" for humans that cooks a guy's face. A pharmaceutical mist that puts you in the right mood for mourning the victims of terrorism. The year of All Hell Breaks Loose. The Year of the Se...
Listen168. Michael Palin (writer and comic) – So long as there was laughter, I was safe from 2018-10-27T10:00
I recently spent several hours on a transatlantic flight zooming in and out of the interactive map of the Earth on my seat's personal entertainment unit. Exploring tiny islands in the polar North…i...
Listen167. Gary Shteyngart (writer) - Reality catches up to dystopian fiction from 2018-10-20T10:00
Gary Shteyngart's new novel Lake Success is the evil doppelgänger of the Simon and Garfunkel song 'America'. In what is surely destined to become one of those legendary novel openings, right up the...
Listen166. Manoush Zomorodi (journalist) — How blockchain might save journalism. Maybe. from 2018-10-13T10:00
Why would two intelligent women running a hugely successful podcast at one of the most respected studios in the audio world, quit to start a small journalism company built on blockchain, a technolo...
Listen165. Man Booker prize winners Olga Tokarczuk (author) and Jennifer Croft (translator) — As fact and fiction blur, America’s finally ready for Olga Tokarczuk from 2018-10-06T10:00
Does it ever strike you as odd that we manage to inhabit two completely different realities at once? On one level, we have common sense and reason that orient us in the world. We make narrative sen...
Listen164. Jill Lepore (Historian) – Why America keeps going to pieces from 2018-09-29T10:00
As Alexander Hamilton put it, the American Experiment puts to the test the question “of whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice...
Listen163. Four Letter You – Merve Emre (scholar and critic) from 2018-09-22T10:00
Did you ever see the 1951 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland? Where the caterpillar, voiced by actor Richard Haydn, sits laconically on his giant toadstool, wreathed in hookah smoke, peers at Al...
Listen162. Emily Nemens (Editor, The Paris Review) — The Literary Industrial Complex from 2018-09-15T10:00
I have a confession to make: Literary magazines have always kind of intimidated me. Give me an 800 page, impenetrable work of literature any day. Like Captain Ahab, I’ll pursue it relentlessly unto...
Listen161. Congo: This Seemingly Impossible Knot – Daniel McCabe (documentary filmmaker) from 2018-08-18T10:00
THIS IS CONGO, a new documentary film, attempts to wrap its mind around the incomprehensible realities of the Democratic Republic of Congo, almost 60 years after it was founded. At one point, comme...
Listen160. Bassem Youssef (political satirist) – Now I Have to Answer for This? from 2018-08-11T10:00
My grandmother used to tell a story about coming to America from Poland. How she sang God Bless America to cheer up all the grownups on the ship. She was 5 or 6 years old, traveling alone with her ...
Listen159. Change is Made by the Ones Who Stay – Paula Eiselt (documentary filmmaker) from 2018-08-04T10:00
When I started college at New York University in 1990, nobody lived in Brooklyn. Brooklyn was the dark side of the moon. At least that’s how we NYU students thought about it. Lots of people lived i...
Listen158. Parker Posey (actor) – I See a Dachshund In You from 2018-07-28T10:00
The impulse to make art is with us from childhood. It’s the desire to play. To say “hey! Look what I made!” It’s the wild fun of making a big mess that’s nobody else’s but your own—and not having ...
Listen157. The Spiders From Mars – Jason Heller (Hugo Award-winning writer) from 2018-07-21T10:00
The other day I was at a kid’s birthday party and a fellow dad was joking that “When we were kids, it was all ‘bang-bang-bang!’ and now it’s all ‘pew-pew-pew!’”He was talking about video games and ...
Listen156. While You Live, Shine – Christopher C. King (Grammy-winning music producer) from 2018-07-14T10:00
While you live, shine. Have no mourning at all.Life exists a short while And time demands its fee.– From a 2000 year old tombstone in (then) Greek-speaking Asia Minor I’d like to do a little free...
Listen155. Lauren Groff (writer) – We Should Die of That Roar from 2018-07-07T10:00
The places we live in shape us. I don’t care who you are how indomitable your will…your spirit is in dialogue with the place you live. For example, I live in New York City, a place I wrapped around...
Listen154. Jonathan Safran Foer (writer) – One Thing We Can All Agree Upon from 2018-06-30T10:00
What is food? It’s nourishment. It’s comfort. It’s culture. It’s art. For millions of people, it’s not something you waste much time thinking about. You eat what you’ve always eaten. What everyone ...
Listen153. Guns: The Genie and the Bottle – Priya Satia (Historian) from 2018-06-23T10:00
When you think of the industrial revolution what comes to mind? Steam engines probably. Lone genius inventors. Factories and coal mines, perhaps. And depending on your professional interests and po...
Listen152. Where You Gonna Run To? Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo (documentary filmmakers) from 2018-06-16T10:00
Imagine you’re a father or a mother of three kids. Your city is in the middle of a civil war. At any time a rocket might burst through your wall. Soldiers might round your family up, or kill them i...
Listen151. Jessica Abel (cartoonist, creative coach) – Practical Magic from 2018-06-09T10:00
On an earlier episode of this show the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk said something that I’ve never forgotten. He said that writing programs shouldn’t teach about plots or characters or how to stru...
Listen150. David Sedaris (humorist) – Sir David of the Spotless Roadways from 2018-06-02T10:00
Life is full of horrible things. I dare you to deny it. Things like death, sickness, and alcoholism. And did I mention death, which lies in wait for us all? But if you talk about these things at di...
Listen149. Yanis Varoufakis (former finance minister of Greece) – Happiness, Inc. from 2018-05-26T10:00
As the Wu-Tang Clan once put it: “Cash moves everything around me... Get the money. Dollar dollar bill, y’all.” I grew up not wanting to believe this. All the stuff that seemed worth having was har...
Listen148. Jonathan Lethem (writer) – Batman's Greatest Enemy from 2018-05-19T10:00
There’s a famous line from a Bob Dylan song that goes “she’s got everything she needs...she’s an artist...she don’t look back.” As a person who loves art—music and literature especially—I’ve alway...
Listen147. Ronan Farrow (investigative journalist) — A Failure to Communicate from 2018-05-12T10:00
In Hollywood movies diplomats always get a bad rap. I’m picturing Claude Rains as “Mr. Dryden” in Lawrence of Arabia looking, as Clyde Rains always does, somewhat reptilian as he hunches over a map...
Listen146. Think Again LIVE with Kristen Radtke (graphic novelist) – The Fascination of What's Difficult from 2018-05-05T10:00
This episode is really something different. It’s a live show we did on April 21st in Green Bay Wisconsin, as part of Untitled Town Book and Author Festival, now in its second year. I’d never been t...
Listen145. Michael Gazzaniga (neuroscientist) – The Impossible Problem from 2018-04-28T10:00
Je pense donc je suis. (I think, therefore I am.) Huh?Who is this I? How do I know that it is thinking?What does it even mean to say that I am—that I exist, if it's this mysterious, untrustworthy ...
Listen144. Antonio Damasio (neuroscientist&philosopher) – Where is My Mind? from 2018-04-21T10:00
Why can’t we all just get along? And conversely, why do we sometimes get along so well, building cathedrals, inventing Democracy, symphonies, and stuff that that? According to my guest today, the ...
Listen143. The Way Brothers (documentary filmmakers) – City On a Hill from 2018-04-14T10:00
In New York City, where we all live in little boxes on top of one another, “Ignore thy neighbor” is a reasonable coping strategy. Live and let live, right? To each her own. But what’s the tipping ...
Listen142. Meg Wolitzer (writer) – Messages From Another Planet from 2018-04-07T10:00
Ambition and loyalty. What we want versus what we already have and should be grateful for. When there’s conflict here, in some ways it's a tension between loyalty to others and loyalty to ourselves...
Listen141. Tara Westover (writer, historian) – Nothing Final Can Be Known from 2018-03-31T10:00
What does your education mean to you? What would you be willing to sacrifice for it? For me and my sister, growing up, it was a given that you’d get “well-educated.” You’d get good grades, go to a...
Listen140. Martin Amis (writer) – The Spooky Art from 2018-03-24T10:00
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Listen139. Neil Gaiman (writer) – And Then it Gets Darker from 2018-03-17T10:00
Adult life, with all its schedules and responsibilities, can turn into a kind of library of locked boxes. The ones we open every day sit on a shelf at eye level, their keys clipped to a carabiner a...
Listen138. Steven Pinker (Cognitive Scientist) – The Defeat of Defeatism from 2018-03-10T11:00
I admit it. I confess. I’ve got a touch of what my guest today calls “progressophobia”. Ever since Charles Dickens got hold of me back in middle school, and William Blake after that, I’ve been a li...
Listen137. Amy Chua (author, attorney) – U.S.&Them from 2018-03-03T11:00
I don’t know about you, but for me, middle school was horrible. I arrived at an all-male school in a still very homophobic era as a small, nervous, Michael Jackson fanatic. Don’t worry - I’m going ...
Listen136. Michio Kaku (physicist) – Timid Monkeys on Mars from 2018-02-24T11:00
Back in the old days, if your species was faced with an existential threat, you were stuck hoping for some advantageous mutation. Maybe an extra fin or a slightly more sophisticated eyeball. Outwit...
Listen135. Niall Ferguson (historian) – The Ghost of Future Past from 2018-02-17T11:00
Every time he sees a triangle these days, my 10-year-old son points and says “Gasp! the illuminati!” This is a meme he and all his friends absorbed from YouTube. It’s interesting that several ce...
Listen134. Jacob Sager Weinstein (children's author) – Imaginary Histories, Possible Futures from 2018-02-10T11:00
Once upon a time, there was a rabbit. No...Not a rabbit. Lewis Carroll already did that… How about an Amazonian river dolphin. Ok. once upon a time there was an Amazonian river dolphin who wondered...
Listen133. Jeremy Bailenson (VR expert) – Through the Looking Glass from 2018-02-03T11:00
How do you know that you’re really where you are right now? I mean, where are you getting this sense of place from? A bunch of data from at least some of your five senses enters your brain where it...
Listen132. Karl Ove Knausgaard (writer) – The Way I Should Be in the World from 2018-01-27T11:00
Wherever you are right now, take a look around you. Let your eyes rest on the first thing that catches your attention. For me, while writing this, it’s a bowl in Big Think’s offices. Highly polishe...
Listen131. Daniel Alarcón (writer) – There's No Such Thing as Glamor, Really from 2018-01-20T11:00
A listener commented the other day on Twitter that on two completely different recent episodes of this show – one about technology and the other one about jellyfish, the same idea came up: that sto...
Listen130. Mark Epstein, MD (Buddhist psychiatrist) – I, Me, Mine from 2018-01-13T11:00
All through the day… I, me mine, I me mine, I me mine… That George Harrison song on the Beatles’ last album pretty much sums it up. They recorded it in 1970, and 47 years later, our egos seem to b...
Listen129. Fatih Akin (film director) – This Blood-Drenched Earth from 2017-12-16T11:00
All of us—you, me, everybody—we’re living our lives subject to often invisible forces beyond our control. Culture, politics, economics, history, even the weather. They all have the power to shape o...
Listen128. Noël Wells (actor/director) – Out of Context from 2017-12-09T11:00
100,000 or so years of human history and young adulthood is still getting weirder. Jason Gots: My guest today is actor and filmmaker Noël Wells. She’s been a cast member of Saturday Night Live. S...
Listen127. Manoush Zomorodi (journalist) – The Upside of Downtime from 2017-12-02T11:00
When was the last time you were bored? I mean really, well and truly, staring at the patterns in the wallpaper bored? Statistics suggest that you’re probably listening to this show on a smartphone...
Listen126. Maya Jasanoff (Historian) – Civilization and Its Discontents from 2017-11-25T11:00
Jason Gots: I want to read you a quote: “For reasons which can certainly use close psychological inquiry the West seems to suffer deep anxieties about the precariousness of its civilization and to ...
Listen125. Reza Aslan (author) – Deus Ex Hominem from 2017-11-18T11:00
Jason Gots: As far back as we’re able to peer into human history, way past the written or pictoral record, into the gravesites of our most ancient ancestors, there’s evidence of what you might call...
Listen124. Juli Berwald (writer) – Our Jellyfish Overlords from 2017-11-11T11:00
Jason Gots: What happens in your brain when I say the word “Jellyfish”? If you’re not a marine biologist, and if going to the beach almost anywhere in the world is a part of your life, the word p...
Listen123. (Henry) Rollins, Redux: Monogamy+Genius+Violence from 2017-11-04T10:00
Jason Gots: Let’s cast our minds back to June 2015, before Donald Trump as president seemed even a remote possibility. We had just launched Think Again, and for our second episode (and not much mor...
Listen122. David Eagleman (neuroscientist) – Your Creative Brain from 2017-10-28T10:00
Jason Gots: It’s 150,000 years ago. You’re a Homo sapiens, hanging out in a really cozy clearing protected from behind by a cliff wall. It’s a great spot. Temperate, isolated, pretty safe. Lots of ...
Listen121. Van Jones (social entrepreneur) – Blind Spots&Sore Spots from 2017-10-21T10:00
Jason Gots: I want to tell you a story. It’s November 5, 2016, a few days before Election Day. I’m staring at Facebook, promising myself I’m going to delete the app once and for all from my phone, ...
Listen120. Nancy Koehn (Historian) – Holdin' on for a Hero from 2017-10-14T10:00
What do Rachel Carson, Frederick Douglass, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ernest Shackleton, and Abraham Lincoln have in common, aside from being historical figures you’ve probably heard of? That’s the quest...
Listen119. Aaron Mahnke (of 'Lore') – The Hunger for Mystery from 2017-10-07T10:00
For thousands of years, all over the world, tales of monsters and the undead have populated the "whitespace" beyond the borders of our understanding. As the enormous popularity of the podcast 'Lore...
Listen118. Stephen Greenblatt (humanities scholar) – Irresistible Fictions from 2017-09-30T10:00
An ancient, one-and-a-half-page-story that just won't let us go. Humanities scholar Stephen Greenblatt and host Jason Gots discuss how Adam and Eve have shaped and been shaped by Western art, cultu...
Listen117. Kurt Andersen (writer) – The Sleep of Reason from 2017-09-23T10:00
Orthodox kookiness: the true American exceptionalism? Writer Kurt Andersen and host Jason Gots discuss America's 500 year old tendency toward passionate belief in the preposterous in this, Big Thin...
Listen116. Claire Messud (writer) – All These Falls From Grace from 2017-09-16T10:00
Author Claire Messud and host Jason Gots talk about childhood, growing up, and how cultures contain the things that scare them most. Also, how to give and receive good criticism on creative writing...
Listen115. Salman Rushdie (writer) – A Permeable Frontier from 2017-09-09T10:00
In this episode, the first one with a repeat guest since the show was launched (Henry Rollins was one taping split into two episodes) author Salman Rushdie and host Jason Gots discuss New York City...
Listen114. 2017 Mixtape #2 – Words, Values, Self, Other from 2017-09-02T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen113. 2017 Mixtape #1 – Mind, Body, Authenticity, Artifice from 2017-08-26T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen112. Richard Dawkins (biologist) – Red in Tooth and Claw from 2017-08-19T10:00
In this episode, which Dawkins described as “one of the best interviews I have ever had,” the eminent ethologist and host Jason Gots talk about whether pescatarianism makes any sense, where moralit...
Listen111. Ari Shaffir (Comic) – The Golden Age of Trolling from 2017-08-12T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen110. Peter Frankopan (historian) – You Can't Stop the Clock from 2017-08-05T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen109. Sheelah Kolhatkar (Writer, Former Hedge Fund Analyst) – The Most Dangerous Game from 2017-07-29T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen108. Jeff Garlin (Comedian) – K.I.S.S. from 2017-07-22T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen107. Neal Stephenson&Nicole Galland (Authors) – The Garden of Forking Paths from 2017-07-15T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen106. Alan Alda (Actor) – The Spirit of the Staircase from 2017-07-08T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen105. Jennifer Doudna (Geneticist) - Intelligent Redesign? from 2017-07-01T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen104. Timothy Spall (Actor) – That Double Want from 2017-06-24T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen103. Liza Jessie Peterson (Playwright, Arts-Educator) – The Sleeping Giant from 2017-06-17T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen102. Paul Theroux (Writer) – Saintly&Scowling from 2017-06-10T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen101. Ariel Levy (Writer) – Big Things That Are Not Talked About from 2017-06-03T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen100. Neil deGrasse Tyson (Astrophysicist) – The Only "-ist" I Am from 2017-05-27T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. Since 2015, the Think Again podcast has been taking us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Got...
Listen99. Mary Gaitskill (Writer) – Their Animal Being from 2017-05-20T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen98. Lawrence Krauss (Physicist) – Lux Ex Machina from 2017-05-13T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen97. Dean Buonomano (Neuroscientist) – This is Your Brain on Time from 2017-05-06T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen96. Sarah W. Goldhagen (Architecture Critic) – Souls&Spaces from 2017-04-29T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen95. Kory Stamper (Lexicographer) – Lair of the Level 10 Word Mage from 2017-04-23T01:34
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen94. Joyce Carol Oates (Writer) – Oh, That's Socialism from 2017-04-15T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen93. Adam Alter (Social Psychologist) – Ping! from 2017-04-08T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen92. Elif Batuman (Writer) – The Worst Appetizer in America from 2017-04-01T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen91. Daniel Dennett (Philosopher) – Thinking About Thinking About Thinking from 2017-03-25T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen90. Scott Aukerman (Comedy Writer) – The Buttons You Push from 2017-03-18T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen89. George Saunders (Author) – Self-Googling In Hell from 2017-03-11T11:00
“If I died right now, I’d still be self-Googling in hell.” – George Saunders, in this episode. George Saunders' new book - his first novel, after many acclaimed collections of short stories includ...
Listen88. Gish Jen (Author) – The Self in the World from 2017-03-04T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen87. Yuval Noah Harari (Historian) – Time's Up from 2017-02-25T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen86. Ayelet Waldman (Author) – Yourself, Only Better from 2017-02-18T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen85. Ben Goertzel (A.I. Inventor) – The State of the Art of Artificial General Intelligence from 2017-02-11T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen84. Nato Thompson (Artistic Director) – The Friendly Face from 2017-02-03T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen83. Matt Taibbi (Journalist) – Bread and Circus from 2017-01-28T11:47
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen82. Bernard-Henri Lévy (Philosopher) – The Mirror of Our Better Selves from 2017-01-21T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen81. Isy Suttie (Comedian) – There's Something a Bit Smug about the Sea from 2017-01-14T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen80. Amani Al-Khatahtbeh (founder: MuslimGirl) – Who Tells Your Story? from 2017-01-07T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen79. Paul Bloom (Psychologist) – Cold-Blooded Kindness from 2016-12-31T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen78. Peter Godfrey-Smith (Philosopher) – Alien Intelligence from 2016-12-24T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen77. Anne Rice (Author) – In the Blood from 2016-12-17T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen76. Tim Ferriss (Author, Podcaster) – Productively Frivolous from 2016-12-10T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen75. David Salle (Artist) – The Enemy of Art from 2016-12-03T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen74. Jace Clayton AKA DJ/Rupture - Sonic Veils and Revelations from 2016-11-26T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen73. T.C. Boyle (Author) - Lost on Purpose from 2016-11-19T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen72. Slavoj Žižek (Philosopher) - Against Tolerance from 2016-11-12T11:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen71. Jelani Cobb (Historian) - Shiny New Skin, Same Old Snake from 2016-11-05T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen70. Margaret Atwood (Author) - The Good, The Bad, and The Stupid from 2016-10-29T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen69. Jodi Picoult (Author) - Popular Fictions/Not Yours to Tell from 2016-10-22T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen68. William Shatner (Actor, Author) – Yes, I Am Trying to Win This Podcast from 2016-10-15T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen67. James Gleick (Science Writer) - Everything All at Once from 2016-10-08T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen66. Alton Brown (Chef, Author) - Easy-Bake Oven/Hard Knock Life from 2016-10-01T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen65. Ian McEwan (Novelist) - A King of Infinite Space from 2016-09-24T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen64. Mixtape #4 – The Writers' Room from 2016-09-17T10:00
In this episode: Big Think launched in 2008 as a "YouTube for intellectuals." Since then, it has produced over 10,000 short-form video interviews with many of the most influential and creative thi...
Listen63. Eric Kandel (Nobel Laureate neuroscientist) - The Eye of the Beholder from 2016-09-10T10:00
Since 2008, Big Think has been sharing big ideas from creative and curious minds. The Think Again podcast takes us out of our comfort zone, surprising our guests and Jason Gots, your host, with une...
Listen62. Mixtape #3 – a Soupçon of Ornithology from 2016-09-03T10:00
Big Think launched in 2008 as a "YouTube for intellectuals." Since then, it has produced over 10,000 short-form video interviews with many of the most influential and creative thinkers of our time....
Listen61. Alison Gopnik (Developmental Psychologist) – Artificial Intelligence/Natural Stupidity from 2016-08-27T10:00
Alison Gopnik is an internationally recognized expert in children’s learning and development. A professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at UC Berkeley, and the author of many ...
Listen60. Teju Cole (Writer) – The World is Not a Settled Gift from 2016-08-20T10:00
Nigerian-born writer, photographer, and art historian Teju Cole is the author of the novel Open City and the novella Every Day is for the Theif. He’s also the photography critic of the New York Tim...
Listen59. Jacqueline Woodson (Writer) – Bored Kid Dreaming/Apologies Long Overdue from 2016-08-13T10:00
Jacqueline Woodson, the Newberry, Caldecott, and National-Book Award winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming, If You Come Softly and many other works of poetry and literature for children and young a...
Listen58. Mixtape #2 – Staring at the Sea from 2016-08-06T10:00
Big Think launched in 2008 as a "YouTube for intellectuals." Since then, it has produced over 10,000 short-form video interviews with many of the most influential and creative thinkers of our time....
Listen57. Mixtape #1 - Lies/Monsters/Friendship/Religion/Space Aliens from 2016-07-30T10:00
Big Think launched in 2008 as a "YouTube for intellectuals." Since then, it has produced over 10,000 short-form video interviews with many of the most influential and creative thinkers of our time....
Listen56. Jonathon Keats (Experimental Philosopher) – The Trickster/Castles in the Sky from 2016-07-23T11:40:27
"Experimental philosopher" and science writer Jonathon Keats, who famously created pornography for plants and sold real estate in the alternate dimensions proposed by string theory, believes that w...
Listen55. Mary Roach (Science Writer) – To Nietszche His Own from 2016-07-16T10:00
Sex toy book parties! Penis transplants! Decomposition labs! These are just a few of the places the intrepid, New York Times bestselling author Mary Roach takes us in hilarious, curiosity-driven bo...
Listen54. LIVE! Sarah Jones (actor/playwright) – from 2016-07-09T10:00
Sarah Jones is a Tony and Obie award-winning playwright and performer. She's unlike any other artist in her uncanny ability to create, become, and instantly switch between characters, convincingly...
Listen53. Sean Wilentz (Historian) – The Culture Strikes Back from 2016-07-02T10:00
The stakes are extraordinarily high in this election. We’re at a crossroads. I think the current politics are a continuation of the fight we’ve been having since the ‘60s.The expansion of an Africa...
Listen52. Jim Gaffigan (Comedian) – You're Attacking My Grandpa? from 2016-06-25T10:00
“It’s funny or it’s not funny. In the end, people are not coming to my show because I’m not cursing” – Jim GaffiganJim Gaffigan is a Grammy nominated stand-up comedian and the New York Times best-...
Listen51. Krista Tippett (Author, Host, "On Being") – We Are Made by What Would Break Us from 2016-06-18T10:00
"That is one of the most mysterious things about human existence: that we are made by what would break us, repeatedly. That life is hard, and the only guarantee we have is that even at our moments ...
Listen50. Ethan Hawke (Actor, Author) – The High, Hard Road/Ghosts of the Apache Wars from 2016-06-11T10:00
“Whenever we start seeing people as other, we just get lost. There were so many decent cowboys trying to do the right thing. And so many decent First Nation people trying to do the right thing. And...
Listen49. Geoff Dyer (Author) – Ordinary Epiphanies from 2016-06-04T10:00
Novelist and essayist Geoff Dyer is one of the English language's most mordant and poetic observers of art, travel, and human behavior. He's the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award fo...
Listen48. Mary-Louise Parker (Actress, Author): Virtual Empathy?/Lessons Relearned from 2016-05-28T10:00
Death, Bob Marley, parenthood, gratitude, and what to do in the face of incalculable suffering. These are just a few of the topics raised in this episode's vulnerable, searching discussion with Ton...
Listen47. Kate Tempest (rapper/poet/novelist): Lost and Found in South London from 2016-05-21T10:00
"When you’re writing a novel, it’s agony. It’s complete agony. It’s a horrible thing to put yourself through. All of the instinctive kind of rushes of creativity, the energized outpourings, anybody...
Listen46. Chris Gethard (Comedian) – a Blessing in Disguise from 2016-05-14T10:00
I’m starting to feel that what people in the future will actually want is something that feels small. That feels like not everyone has access to it. You’ll see more people making a modest living an...
Listen45. James McBride (Author) – Fear Sells Many a Car/James Brown is a Noun from 2016-05-07T04:00
“Fear is just a monster motivator. It sells many a car and harnesses many a vote.” – James McBride, in this episode. Fear, says National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ja...
Listen44. Douglas Rushkoff (Media Theorist) – Hack the $ystem from 2016-04-30T10:00
"The problem with our time is that we look at people for their utility value.", says Douglas Rushkoff, author of Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. Since the late Middle Ages, Rushkoff argues, mone...
Listen43. Michael Puett (Harvard Chinese Philosophy Scholar) – Freedom Through Ritual from 2016-04-23T10:00
Michael Puett teaches one of three most popular undergraduate courses at Harvard, on ancient Chinese philosophy and ethics: Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Moism, and more. What keeps students comi...
Listen42. Joshua Cohen (Novelist) – Scrupulously Messy, by Which I Mean Human from 2016-04-16T10:00
In this week's episode Joshua Cohen, author of the "great American internet novel" Book of Numbers, says that if a cliché sticks around long enough it can become a prayer. In conversation with host...
Listen41. Sarah Kay (Poet) – Kids See Right Through That from 2016-04-09T10:00
"Authenticity is something that cannot be fabricated." – Sarah Kay On this week's episode, poet Sarah Kay, whose 2011 TED talk "If I Should Have a Daughter" has been viewed over 9 million times, s...
Listen40. Nikhil Goyal (Education Activist) – Mind in a Box from 2016-04-02T10:00
Put 8 year old Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders together in a progressive 2nd grade classroom. What would happen? Since the dawn of compulsory schooling America has been experimen...
Listen39. Maria Popova (Writer, Editor of Brain Pickings) – The Absurdity of Not Writing Poems from 2016-03-26T10:00
"I’m always pulled toward anything that helps me figure out how to live a meaningful and substantive life." – Maria Popova What does real friendship look like? How can something written a thousand ...
Listen38. Amanda Palmer (Musician, Author) – Privacy Is Weird from 2016-03-19T10:00
"As human beings we all have this flaw, which is to think that there’s a right way of doing things. And it’s just bullshit." – Amanda Palmer on Think Again Artist Amanda Palmer is a practitioner o...
Listen37. Cory Booker (US Senator) – Cynicism: a Refuge for Cowards from 2016-03-12T11:00
“We all have so much power that we don’t use. And I think it’s because of cynicism, which is a toxic spiritual state. Cynicism is a refuge for cowards.” –– Cory Booker Why do so many of us choose ...
Listen36. Yann Martel (Author) – The Vacuum of Space Leaves Me Cold from 2016-03-05T11:00
Yann Martel, author of the Man Booker award-winning novel Life of Pi and The High Mountains of Portugal, is not a big fan of outer space. Nor of science in general. “Science," he says on this week...
Listen35. A.O. Scott (Film Critic) – The Right to Be Wrong from 2016-02-27T11:00
A.O. Scott: The fantasy that I would use to comfort myself [as a child, about death] was…that I’d become other people. I would still be me, but I would inhabit different bodies…and eventually I wou...
Listen34. Paul F. Tompkins (Comedian) – A Tiny, Cosmic Threat from 2016-02-20T11:00
Shockingly well-dressed comedian Paul F. Tompkins, host of Spontaneanation and the television show No, You Shut Up! joins host Jason Gots for improvised singing and conversation on subjects ranging...
Listen33. Marc Goodman (Cybersecurity Expert) – Dark Web/Nigerian Princes from 2016-02-13T11:00
All technology is in effect “dual use.” You can use it for good, or you can use it for ill. – Marc Goodman At what point does government's incompetence at policing sex predators and other internet ...
Listen32. James Doty, MD (Neurosurgeon) – Compassion and The Prison State from 2016-02-06T11:00
“Justice without the opportunity for redemption is torture.” -- James Doty In this week's episode neurosurgeon James Doty, founder of the Stanford University Center for Compassion and Altruism Rese...
Listen31. Michael Shermer (Author, Friendly Skeptic) – A Dirty Job/We Want to Believe from 2016-01-23T11:00
“We skeptics need evidence. And then, we’ll believe!” -- Michael Shermer In this week's episode, Michael Shermer, author of Skeptic and The Moral Arc, and Think Again host Jason Gots discuss (among...
Listen30. Howard Gardner (Psychologist) – Porn/Art/Good Work from 2016-01-16T11:00
At the risk of alienating your southern listeners, the American South is by far the most religious, and on every measure of turpitude it gets very good scores. -- Howard Gardner In this week's epis...
Listen29. Sir David Hare (Playwright/Screenwriter) – Kleptocracy/A Thin Skin from 2016-01-09T11:00
I’ve written hit plays. I know what a hit feels like. It doesn’t significantly change your life. You still have to start again and try and write the next one. – David Hare In this week's episode, c...
Listen28. Daniel Levitin (Musician&Neuroscientist) – Rats/Risks/Rewards from 2015-12-26T11:00
"Now newness is coming at us continuously. And the brain hasn’t evolved to deal with that onslaught of newness. There has to be some sculpting of the input. Otherwise it just becomes random noise."...
Listen27. Alva Noë (Philosopher) – The Upside of Boredom from 2015-12-19T11:00
"Art, by letting us get bored, reveals something to us about what we’ve been doing to avoid boredom.” – Alva Noë Why are we so afraid to slow down and think? Is it possible, in any sense, to separa...
Listen26. Ian Edwards (Comedian) – Sex/Guns/Honesty is Honesty from 2015-12-12T11:00
“How would you control yourself if you knew you were one of the only five people to have guns? You would be an asshole!” –– Ian Edwards Are you "man enough" for non-monogamy? Could citizen gun owne...
Listen25. Sam Harris (Neuroscientist) – Uncomfortable Conversations from 2015-12-05T13:48
What are the limits of tolerance? Can people with fundamentally different world views coexist peacefully? Is faith incompatible with reason? In the wake of the recent Paris attacks, these questions...
Listen24. Maira Kalman (Artist) – Scared of Math/Psycho Killer from 2015-11-28T11:30
"My goal is always to be laughing. Do you lose the laughter once you become too good at something?” - Maira Kalman Think Again is a spontaneous, brainy variety show – The world's brightest minds gr...
Listen23. Orhan Pamuk (Nobel Novelist) – Write to Live/No Logic In War from 2015-11-21T11:00
"There is no central logic in war. Victor Hugo wrote about street fights in Paris. In one street people are killing each other. In the next street people are enjoying their coffee. They’re not even...
Listen22. Wendell Pierce (Actor, 'The Wire') – Godot Ain't Coming from 2015-11-14T11:00
Smart people. Surprise topics. Deep fun. This week, actor and New Orleans native son Wendell Pierce ('The Wire', 'Treme'), author of the new book "The Wind in the Reeds," about his work at the loca...
Listen21. Saul Williams (Poet, Musician, Actor) – An Army of Poets/the 10,000 Things from 2015-11-07T11:00
Send in the poets. Send in the seducers. Vulnerable people, not invulnerable drones who can mistake a wedding party for a terrorist cell. When those mistakes are made, that is how ISIS is born. – S...
Listen20. Jesse Ventura (Wrestler, Governor) – Off the Grid/Life on Mars from 2015-10-30T18:49
How to tell conspiracy and crazy apart. How six months a year "off the grid" in Mexico changes your perspective on everything. The "water bear", a possible alien life form among us. This week on Bi...
Listen19. Ruth Reichl (Food Critic) – Identity Crisis/The Cooking Cure from 2015-10-24T10:00
When you lose everything, what do you reach for first? This week on Big Think's podcast, food critic Ruth Reichl, author of My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life talks with host Jason Got...
Listen18. Junot Díaz (Pulitzer-Winning Novelist) – Double Lives/Hidden Culture from 2015-10-17T10:00
Is everybody leading a double life? Why are great comic books STILL NOT part of the "literary canon"? Would having a gay president actually change anything in America? This week on Big Think's podc...
Listen17. Norman Lear (TV Legend) – An Authentic Horse's Ass/The Capacity to Choose from 2015-10-10T10:00
We surprise the world's sharpest minds with unexpected topics. This week, legendary TV producer Norman Lear, author ofEven THIS I Get to Experience joins host Jason Gots to discuss Mars colonies, i...
Listen16. Jane McGonigal (Game Designer) – Game On!/Death to "Gamification" from 2015-10-03T10:00
Fantasy can save your life but how much is too much? This week on Big Think's podcast we discuss three surprise ideas with game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal, author of the new book Super...
Listen15. Salman Rushdie (Novelist) – Happiness/Monsters from 2015-09-26T10:00
“For most of the time, writing any book, it's not going well."–– Salman Rushdie on Think Again This week on Big Think's popular podcast, we're joined by the brilliant and occasionally notorious Sal...
Listen14. Freakonomics' Stephen Dubner – Free $#!+/Hidden Costs from 2015-09-19T10:00
Are Pirate Bay (illegal, free) and Spotify (legit, really cheap) undermining artists' incentive to create? This week on Big Think's podcast, we're joined by Freakonomics' Stephen Dubner.An intervie...
Listen13. "Reply All" Hosts PJ&Alex – Future Crime/Personal Yoda/Bonus Track from 2015-09-12T10:00
Can we escape our own irrationality? Is weaponized DNA something we should be worrying about? Does the future look like "Mad Max"? This week on Big Think's podcast, we're joined by the astounding A...
Listen12. George Takei (Actor + Activist) – Ego/Focus/Xenophobia from 2015-09-05T10:00
Is attention an endangered species? How do you collaborate with someone who hates you? Is xenophobia a natural side effect of religion? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, ho...
Listen11. Tina Roth Eisenberg (AKA @swissmiss) – Culture Theory/Color Theory from 2015-08-29T10:00
How do colors affect us psychologically? Will a less hierarchical, more collaborative society lead inevitably to robot wars? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, host Jason Go...
Listen10. Mark Epstein (Buddhist Psychotherapist) – Nature/Nurture/Neither from 2015-08-22T10:00
Will nanobots someday deposit Shakespeare directly into our brains? If we paid politicians tons of money would they do a better job? Does epigenetics solve the nature/nurture debate? In this week's...
Listen9. Henry Rollins (Artist), pt. II – American Trauma/The Word "Genius" from 2015-08-15T10:00
Can anything cure what ails America? What's a "genius", exactly? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, we air part two of our conversation with legendary hardcore musician and ...
Listen8. Maria Konnikova (Author) – Mindset/Creativity/Suburban B-Boyz from 2015-08-08T11:39
Can "positive thinking" keep you physically and mentally young? Do schools kill creativity? Should white boys ever rap or breakdance? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, host...
Listen7. Baratunde Thurston (Comedian, Cultural Critic) – Stupidity Scaled/Robot Rights/Brand You from 2015-08-01T10:52
At what point do sex robots become sex slaves? How are bandwidth and storage capacity changing our lives? Can you have a "personal brand" and "be yourself" at the same time? In this week's episode ...
Listen6. Brian Greene (Theoretical Physicist) – Student for Sale from 2015-07-24T10:00
Can anyone afford college anymore? Would it help if we sold stock in students? Would Young Einstein have been a popular commodity? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, host Ja...
Listen5. Clint Smith (Poet, Educator) – Genetics/Racism/Harvard from 2015-07-18T10:50
Will our brainpower soon be exponentially enhanced by technology? Or will the world turn into a Terminator movie? Can genetics overcome its early history of racism? In this week's episode of Big Th...
Listen4. Bill Nye (Science Guy) – Geek Chic/TMI/Future Money from 2015-07-11T04:01
Was Einstein a fashion genius? Why is Malcolm Gladwell unimpressed by search engines? What will money look like in 500 years? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, host Jason G...
Listen3. Wendy Suzuki (Neuroscientist) – Brain Health/Consumerism/Women In Science from 2015-07-04T12:01
Is the modern world designed to kill you? Do Fitbit and meditation apps make us healthier and happier? Are women changing science for the better? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again p...
Listen2. Henry Rollins (Artist) – Monogamy/Sexual Opportunism from 2015-06-27T09:37
Is monogamy ridiculous? Does this change with age? What do we really want out of love and sex? In this week's episode of Big Think's Think Again podcast, we're joined by legendary hardcore musician...
ListenEpisode Zero – Think Again - Curiouser and Curiouser . . . from 2015-06-04T15:22
You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting?Some of the best conversations happen when we find ou...
ListenEpisode Zero – Think Again - Curiouser and Curiouser . . . from 2015-06-04T15:22
You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting?Some of the best conversations happen when we find ou...
ListenEpisode Zero – Think Again - Curiouser and Curiouser . . . from 2015-06-04T15:22
You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting?Some of the best conversations happen when we find ou...
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