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The Next Big Idea

Author: Next Big Idea Club

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The Next Big Idea is a weekly series of in-depth interviews with the world’s leading thinkers. Join our host, Rufus Griscom — along with our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — for conversations that might just change the way you see the world. New episodes every Thursday.

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Do you ever feel like your life has become a film loop of the familiar? Maybe you sympathize with the elegiac poet Logan Roy, who said, "Nothing tastes like it used to, does it? Nothing's the same as it was." What lit you up on Monday barely sparks your interest by the weekend. But don't worry, there's nothing wrong with you. You're just experiencing what scientists call habituation, a fancy word for a phenomenon we all face. And the good news is that there's something you can do about it, methods and tools you can use to disrupt familiar patterns, jostle your needle out of its well-worn groove, and refresh the way you see and connect with the people, places, and things in your life. This process is called dishabituation — or, if you prefer, re-sparkling — and neuroscientist Tali Sharot is on the show today to teach you how to do it. Book: "Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There" Guest: Tali Sharot Host: Michael Kovnat **THE NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB** 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
Lots of things go viral on the internet: dumb memes, cat videos, one-pan meals, and celebrity gossip. Why not kindness? That’s the delightful question Chris Anderson, the head of TED, asks in his new book, “Infectious Generosity: The Ultimate Idea Worth Spreading.” He joins Rufus to talk about what he’s learned running the world’s most famous conference, why we’re hardwired to give back, and the small actions we can all take to be a little more generous. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Chris Anderson *THE NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB* 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
Kara Swisher has been called “pioneering” (the New York Times), “Silicon Valley’s top pundit” (Wired), and “so shrill at this point that only dogs can hear her” (Elon Musk). Thanks to the bad-cop interviews she conducts on her hit podcasts — and, before that, at the can’t-miss tech conferences she co-founded — the world’s most powerful people revere and fear her in equal measure. Now she’s out with a memoir called “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.” It’s a smart, dishy, acerbically funny page-turner about how a young reporter with a cellphone the size of a briefcase became one of the most influential tech critics of the day. Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Kara Swisher *THE NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB* 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
According to Merriam-Webster, the word “conversation” has 36 synonyms, ranging from the alliterative (”confabulation”) to the arcane (”persiflage”). Why the linguistic profusion? Because conversing is a fundamental part — maybe the fundamental part — of being human. We chat with our families, friends, strangers, and co-workers, and we communicate in phone calls, text messages, emails, and, occasionally, postcards. When these tête-à-têtes go well, it is oddly thrilling; we become better versions of ourselves — warmer and wiser, funnier, and consistently insightful. Best of all, a good dialogue is a direct route to connection. “The bond of all companionship,” wrote Oscar Wilde, “whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” But when a conversation goes poorly, when it stays on the surface (”what do you do for a living?”) or devolves into a sputtering mess of misunderstanding (”you’re overreacting!”), we don’t feel the invigorating pulse of connection. What we feel, instead, is the emotional equivalent of a busy signal. So, this hour, we’re asking: how can we have better conversations? And to help answer that question, we’re joined by Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and the bestselling author of “The Power of Habit” and now “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection.” Charles, as you’ll hear, is something of supercommunicator himself, a lithe storyteller who’s as well-versed in evolutionary biology as he is in the latest psychology, and after studying the art and science of communication for the last few years, he’s concluded that anyone can become a great conversationalist. You just have to master a few simple skills. Tune in to find out what they are. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Charles Duhigg Book: “Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection” *THE NEXT BIG IDEA CLUB* 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 curators (Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink) — into the hands of curious people. Like you! Join us today at nextbigideaclub.com
Growing old gets a bad rap, and it's not hard to see why. Your hair thins and your waist thickens. The shot clock ticks down on your career, and you realize, much to your dismay, that your youthful dreams of greatness — patents, prizes, and periodicals with your face on the cover — are unlikely to come true before the buzzer. And what do you see up ahead? A road sign. "Highway Ends. Last Exit: Retirement. One Mile." Retirement. Just a polite word for purposelessness. That's the cynic's view of aging, anyway. But does it have to be that way? Not according to Chip Conley ("Learning to Love Midlife"). He says midlife can be a period of renewal, hope, joy, and connection. If you're open to it. Are you?
Honesty may be the best policy, but that doesn’t make giving honest feedback any easier. That’s why Kim Scott, a veteran of Google and Apple, wrote “Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity.” It’s a life-saving guide for anyone who’s ever had to dole out difficult but important feedback. Which means all of us.
Seventy-two billion dollars. That, according to the Grifter Counter™, is the amount of money that's been swallowed up by crypto and blockchain scams and crashes. It's an enormous sum — but one that may not surprise you if you've kept up with the news. Bitcoin lost more than 60% of its value in 2022. FTX, once the world's third-largest crypto exchange, collapsed, and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, was later found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. And it's not just crypto that has seen dark days. Remember NFTs? They were once touted as a revolutionary new form of digital ownership made possible by the blockchain. Today, however, 95% of them have lost all of their value. That's right. All of it. So it would seem like a suboptimal time to publish a book arguing that "blockchains and the software movement around them — typically called crypto or web3 — provide the only plausible path to sustaining the original vision of the internet as an open platform that incentivizes creativity and entrepreneurship." But that's precisely what Chris Dixon, founder of a16z crypto, has done with "Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet." Chris, who spoke with Rufus in a live taping of this show last week, says that while blockchains have been "maligned and associated with grift, casino culture, and fraud," they are tools that can be used for good. Today on the show, he makes that case.
When Rajiv Shah was in his late 20s and didn’t know what to do with his life, he got a job at a fledgling nonprofit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before he knew it, he was a driving force behind a global vaccination program that immunized 900 million children and saved 16 million lives. At 36, he became the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), managing a $20 billion budget, overseeing a staff of 10,000, and leading the U.S. response to global humanitarian crises. Today, as president of the Rockefeller Foundation, he’s finding innovative solutions to mitigate climate change and end energy poverty. What connects these experiences? At every step, Raj maintained a big bet mentality. What is a big bet? “A concerted effort to fundamentally solve a single, pressing problem in your community or our world. Big bets require setting profound, seemingly unachievable goals and believing they are achievable.” In this episode, he shares his methodology for creating large-scale change and making the world a better place. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Rajiv Shah Book: Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens
A few weeks ago, USA Today ran a story with the headline "It's over: 2023 was Earth's hottest year, experts say." But is it really over? Hannah Ritchie, a data scientist at the University of Oxford, doesn't think so. In her new book, "Not the End of the World," she says that if we zoom out and look at the data, "we can see something truly radical, game-changing and life-giving: humanity is in a truly unique position to build a sustainable world." She's on the show today to tell us why she's urgently optimistic about our planet's future, what smart people get wrong about climate change, and the most effective ways to lower your carbon footprint. Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Hannah Ritchie You can learn more about Our World in Data here, and check out Hannah's newsletter, Sustainability by Numbers. Want to come to our event in New York City on Jan. 31? Buy a ticket here. As a listener of this show, you can get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership. Just use the code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com
Do we have free will? Do we have a choice in what we do? Philosophers and theologians have debated these questions for centuries; Robert Sapolsky answered them when he was 14. Free will, he concluded, simply does not exist. Robert is now in his mid-sixties. He has degrees from Harvard and Rockefeller University; he won a MacArthur “genius” award; and he’s a professor at Stanford, where he holds joint appointments in biology, neurology, and neurosurgery. But despite how much time has passed and how long his CV has grown, he never lost his youthful fascination with free will — or our lack thereof — so he decided to write a book about it. It’s called “Determined,” and in addition to assembling a formidable case against free will, Robert makes the intriguing argument that if we can abandon our illusion of volition, we can build a more humane world. Support the show by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. (Use code PODCAST for 20% off.) We’re hosting a live taping in New York City on January 31st. Come on by! We’d love to meet you. You can learn more here.
Forming a new habit is tough. Sticking with it is even tougher. That’s probably why someone buys a copy of James Clear’s 2018 book “Atomic Habits” every 11 seconds. James breaks down the science of habit formation into simple, actionable steps anyone can take — even you. Today on the show, he talks Rufus through the four laws of behavior change, explains how small improvements compound over time to produce remarkable results, and offers easy tips you can use now to kick bad habits and adopt good ones.
What makes us happy? Researchers at Harvard have been trying to solve that riddle for 85 years. Now, they think they’ve found the answer. Marc Schulz, associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, joins to tell us more.
Do we have alcohol to thank for civilization? The answer, according to Edward Slingerland’s new book, “Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization,” is a resounding yes. Edward, who’s a professor at the University of British Columbia and self-proclaimed “philosophical hedonist,” says that far from being an evolutionary fluke, our taste for alcohol is an evolutionary advantage — one that we’ve relied on for millennia to help us lead more social, creative, and pleasurable lives. (This episode first aired in July 2021.)
Rory Stewart may be the most interesting person you’ve never heard of. He’s an adventurer, writer, politician, and nonprofit leader. He walked across Afghanistan — alone — in the months after 9/11 and wrote a book about the experience that the New York Times called a “flat-out masterpiece”; he then served as a deputy governor in Iraq, held a chair at Harvard, and was elected to British Parliament. Now he’s out with a new memoir called “How Not to Be a Politician.” It’s a funny, candid, and somewhat shocking chronicle of the decade he spent in office. It’s also a book about why our political system feels so broken and what we can do to repair it. Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Rory Stewart • To learn more about GiveDirectly, visit givedirectly.org
We may live in an ever-evolving world, but some things never change. The power of a good story. The miracle of compound interest. The cold, hard fact that money can’t buy happiness. This is the deceptively simple premise of “Same as Ever” by Morgan Housel. If we can master the behaviors that never change, we’ll be ready to handle whatever the future throws at us. On today’s show, Morgan sits down with Rufus to share some of the timeless lessons from his new book as well as enduring wisdom from his last, “The Psychology of Money.” Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Morgan Housel • Support our show by joining the Next Big Idea Club. Visit nextbigideaclub.com to learn more, and use the code PODCAST for a 20% discount
The female body has been neglected in anthropological narratives, minimized in the archeological record, and excluded from modern-day clinical trials. But what if that weren’t the case? How would the scientific story of humanity change if we made women the protagonists? Cat Bohannon first asked herself that question a decade ago, and her surprising answers can now be found in a New York Times bestselling book called “Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.” • Want to support our show? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership at www.nextbigideaclub.com and use code PODCAST for 20% off
This week, journalist and podcaster Jessi Hempel joins us to discuss her recent memoir, “The Family Outing,” which tells the remarkable story of how every member of her immediate family came out: Jessi and her father as gay, her sister as bisexual, her brother as transgender, and her mother as the survivor of a traumatic encounter with a man who may have been a serial killer. It’s a dramatic setup, to be sure, but as the book unfolds, it grows into something else — a powerful and thought-provoking meditation on what it means to live authentically.
A lot of us run away from tough conversations. Anna Sale runs toward them. For nearly a decade, as the host of the podcast “Death, Sex & Money,” she has been having searching conversations about “the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more.” Today, Anna reminds us — with her trademark warmth, curiosity, and candor — how to have those difficult conversations. (This episode originally aired in July 2021.) --- • Looking for a holiday gift for the most curious person in your life? How about a Next Big Idea Club membership! Use the code GIFT75 at www.nextbigideaclub.com for $75 off a gift subscription.
It's no secret that we live in a ferociously competitive world. But what is the drive to always be the best doing to our kids? That's what journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace wanted to know when she set out to write her new book, "Never Enough." The kids, she discovered, are not alright. Teenagers are battling burnout, depression, and anxiety at alarming rates. How did we let this happen, and what can we do to fix it? To answer these vexing but vital questions, we invited Jennifer to chat with Daniel Markovits. He's the author of "The Meritocracy Trap" and a professor at Yale Law School, where he's seen toxic achievement culture up close. In this episode, recorded live at Betaworks in New York City, Jennifer, Daniel, and Rufus discuss why our kids are under such unrelenting pressure, what we can do to give them some relief, and the potential role of new technologies, like AI, in creating positive solutions. --- Host: Rufus Griscom Guests: Jennifer Breheny Wallace & Daniel Markovits • Click here to hear Daniel's previous appearance on the show. • Want the best non-fiction books of the year delivered to your doorstep? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club subscription at nextbigideaclub.com, and use the code PODCAST to get 20% off and a free copy of Adam Grant's new book, "Hidden Potential"!
Failure is inevitable. How we respond to it makes all the difference. Today, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson joins us to discuss the critical distinction between destructive failures and intelligent mistakes that drive innovation.
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Comments (42)

John Bozek

great podcast to get into some of the latest ideas. I've learned lots and been motivated to make some changes in my life because of it...less processed food, conscious quitting, are the most recent episodes that I appreciated and have taken to heart. I'm looking forward to my next listening!

Aug 19th
Reply

Shawn Farrer

What's the big idea? 💡

Oct 9th
Reply (2)

Dani Malawista

Oh great. Now I’ll be up all night thinking about this lol

May 1st
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Philippe Brunet

holy crap, the hosts kids are just brilliant !! wow, so articulate and intelligent, yet they sound so young ! These are going to be great minds !!

Apr 10th
Reply

Pætrïck Lėő Dåvīd

probably the most important single episode in 2021 and that is my educated position.

Dec 30th
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km

Andrew Yang nailed it. Check out 'The War on Normal People'. UBI is a no brainer.

May 29th
Reply

Andrew Huang

37:30 story of power of relationships.

Mar 27th
Reply

dona bean

impossible to consider it took this long before we spoke about things as adults without moralistic disinformation that supports having the largest inmate population in the modem world..... thanks Dr.Hart!!

Mar 8th
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Chris Famulak

mmhmm, mmmhum

Aug 13th
Reply

Teresa Wilkinson

in between the ads great content as others have said waaaaaay too many ads

Aug 12th
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Apoorv Som

loved it!

Jul 4th
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Craig Peters

Sooooo many ads. Thank goodness for the skip 30 seconds button, although it needs 4 or 5 hits at least to get to content again. Finger hovering over the unsubscribe button. I know they need to make money - but this is close to commercial radio obnoxiousness.

Apr 29th
Reply

Helena Tusek

Thank you for this podcast! It brought me joy as well and paved ways for new joyous moments in the future! Thank you both 🙏🙏

Apr 26th
Reply

Nancy McCann

b xero

Apr 19th
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Bruce Hrabak

dumb episode. repackage socialism and communism. gove everyone a grand a month and the market will just magically keep the same prices.....because it has worked so well for housing. 🤢

Feb 6th
Reply

Steven Slater

the fact you have to bring race into this shows your true agenda. lame.

Jan 21st
Reply

Bruce Hrabak

success: episode was horrible but a thought provoking series moody of the time. A elite professor answer to elite issues is send more kids to yale 😝. and if we're force less people tp be elite than more will be middleclass.... come on this episode was a strawman with no straw

Jan 9th
Reply (1)

Tevin Shadd

Commercial breaks were too frequent and jarring, disrupted the flow of the episode . Podcast is amazing though, easily an instant favorite

Nov 26th
Reply

Rajesh Singh

There is noting new in the ideas on this podcast. The name is misleading. Just change it.

Nov 15th
Reply

Rajesh Singh

Everything is bullshit here.

Nov 15th
Reply
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