The Next Big Idea Daily

When scaling a steep rock wall or surfing gnarly waves, it’s easy to let fear get the better of you, but today, Shelby explains how you can use humor to stay loose. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Before you embark on a wild adventure, you obviously need to do some planning. But don’t go overboard. Give yourself a deadline, and get to work. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

If you have a strong why for pursuing a wild adventure, you’re more likely to find a way to get it done. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Where are you listening to this podcast? In your car? At your desk? Puttering around your house? If Shelby Stanger had her druthers, you’d be listening in the great outdoors — maybe while hiking on a scenic trail, or pedaling down an open road, or sitting astride a surfboard (while wearing waterproof earbuds, of course). Shelby is a journalist and adventurer: as a journalist, her work has appeared in Outside Magazine and on ESPN; as an adventurer, she’s surfed from Canada to Costa Rica and paddled remote stretches of the Amazon River. Her new book, “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life,” is a guide to getting out of your comfort zone and into the wild world.

Data, demographics — these things only take you so far. That's the final lesson Marcus Collins has to share with us. If you really want to get to know someone, he says, you've got to look past what they "do" and try to figure out who they "are." • Use the code DAILY to get 10% off a Next Big Idea Club membership • Learn more about our event in NYC on June 28th by visiting betaworks.com/event/ai-consciousness • Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter

"Meaning," says Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") in today's episode, "is culturally mediated based on how we see the world. Understanding how people make meaning will increase the likelihood of understanding who they are and how they navigate the world."

Today, Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") says that if you want to understand someone, you can learn much more from their tribal communities than their demographics.

Welcome back to our week-long masterclass with marketing magician Marcus Collins. He ran digital strategy for Beyoncé; teaches at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; serves as chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy; and wrote a great book called "For the Culture." Today, he explains why he thinks the brands that'll succeed in the future will make consumers feel like they're part of a community.

This week: Marcus Collins, who teaches marketing at the University of Michigan's business school and serves as the chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, shares five key insights from his book "For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be."

When we work all the time, it doesn’t just take our best hours; it often takes our best energy, too. In his final lesson, Simone Stolzoff (”The Good Enough Job”) implores us to step away from work and engage in active forms of leisure. --- • Our newsletter comes out today — check it out now!

Your job isn't your soulmate. If it's good enough, then maybe that's good enough.

Many of us have internalized the message that there’s one dream job for us and we shouldn’t stop until we find it. So we tweak our resumes and browse LinkedIn in the hopes of finding a role that helps us self-actualize. But first determining what matters and recognizing that we may already have it is a better recipe for happiness.

In today's episode, Simone Stolzoff ("The Good Enough Job") tells Michael that when you think about the role work plays in your life, "it's worth considering that valuing more free time over more money tends to be more fulfilling and lead to higher overall well-being."

Do you live to work or work to live? Journalist Simone Stolzoff tackles that age-old question with renewed energy in his book "The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work." All this week, he'll be chatting with host Michael Kovnat about how work came to play such an outsized role in our lives and what would happen if we stopped chasing the dream gig, gave up the idea of having a calling, and instead tried to find jobs that were simply good enough.

Our time with Tiago Forte may be over, but hopefully your journey to building a second brain has only just begun. In his final lesson, Tiago explains how your second brain can motivate you to take action. • Grab a copy of "Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now! • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/! • Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code DAILY at checkout!

Today, Tiago explains how mastering the art of subtraction can strengthen your creative output.

Today’s lesson: “Before you shut off new sources of information and converge on an end result, take time to diverge. Expand your horizons, expose yourself to diverse influences, and collect anything that resonates with you.” Tiago Forte is the author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.”

Today, Tiago Forte, author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential,” says that if you want to accomplish a big goal, you must first stockpile small building blocks. P.S. Use the code DAILY to get 10% off any Next Big Idea Club membership at nextbigideaclub.com

Do you ever struggle to keep track of all the information swirling around in your head? The idea you had for a new project at work; that stat you read in the paper this morning; the name of your sister’s boyfriend. Productivity expert Tiago Forte says you need a digital system to store all those thought bubbles. He thinks of it as a “second brain.” And this week on the show, he’ll teach you how to build one.

Anticipating regrets can often work to our advantage. It slows our thinking. It taps our cerebral breaks, allowing us time to gather additional information and to reflect before we decide what to do. But it should come with a warning label. --- • Sign up for our newsletter where Michael shares his reflections every Friday (that's today!)

So, what can we do to turn our existing regrets into engines of progress? Science suggests a three-step process.

After analyzing thousands of regrets from people in more than 100 countries, Daniel Pink (”The Power of Regret”) has identified the four core regrets that haunt us most. Today, he explains what they are and how understanding these categories can help you make better decisions in the future.

Regret makes us feel worse, but it can make us do better. Indeed, the way it makes us do better is by making us feel worse.

It’s popular to claim you have no regrets. Popular, but perilous. Because regrets aren’t anything to be ashamed of — on the contrary, they’re an integral part of being human. When you deny their existence, you deny yourself the opportunity to look back on your missteps so you can chart a better path forward. This week on the show: Next Big Idea Club curator Daniel Pink shares five key insights from his latest bestseller, “The Power of Regret.” In these episodes, you’ll learn how to use your regrets to make better decisions, improve your performance at work, and bring more meaning into your life.

Today, meditation expert Sharon Salzberg shares one final insight from her new book "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom."

Today, Sharon Salzberg tells us how practicing loving-kindness meditation can change how we treat others and understand ourselves.

What if instead of demanding that a painful emotion disappear or becoming all consumed by it, you began to relate to your experience with spaciousness infused with kindness?

Society’s prescriptions for freedom, happiness, and abundance may not be your own.

Sharon Salzberg has been meditating since 1971 — “since before it was cool,” she likes to say. That practice has inspired a series of books, most recently “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” which is all about using the power of mindfulness to confront, and ultimately overcome, whatever obstacles stand in your way. Today, she tells Michael how to transcend “contraction.” What’s contraction? You’ll have to listen to this episode… (Want the best books of the year — as chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink — delivered to your doorstep? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club hardback subscription, and use the code DAILY for 10% off.)

All week, Wharton professor Katy Milkman has been giving us research-backed tips for making changes that stick. Now, in the final installment of her mini masterclass, she explains why the most durable habit is a flexible one. --- • Katy Milkman’s book is “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.” Grab a copy today. • A few years back, she spoke with Daniel Pink on our sister podcast, The Next Big Idea. You can listen to that conversation here. • Speaking of Daniel Pink, did you know that every season he teams up with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Susan Cain to pick the two best new books and mail them to your front door? Sign up for a hardcover Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code IMMORTALITY at checkout!

Struggling to achieve a goal? Form a club with people who have your back.

How do you make change fun? By bundling an arduous task (exercising) with an enjoyable one (binge-watching lowbrow TV). --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the season’s two best books of the season as chosen by our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. You’ll also get access to our app, VIP invitations to live events, and other member benefits. To subscribe, go to nextbigideaclub.com and use code IMMORTALITY for 10% off.

New Year’s. Your birthday. The start of a new season. These are days when the slate is wiped clean. Which makes them perfect for establishing new habits, like going to the gym or writing in your diary. Today, Wharton professor Katy Milkman explains how you can use the “fresh start effect” to make changes big and small. --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the season’s two best books of the season, as chosen by our curators: Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. You’ll also get access to our app, VIP invitations to live events, and other member benefits. To subscribe, go to nextbigideaclub.com and use code IMMORTALITY for 10% off.

How do you get from where you are to where you want to be — from procrastinator to optimizer, couch potato to gym rat, night owl to worm-getting early bird? That's the question Wharton professor Katy Milkman set out to answer in her recent book "How to Change." Actually, she didn't just "set out" to answer it. She did answer it, and she's on the show this week to share science-based strategies you can use to make lasting changes in your life.

Have you figured out how to live the good life? Don't worry if you're still working on it. It's only been a week. And you haven't even heard the final piece of advice from Matt Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, professors at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and authors of the new book "Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most." --- • It's Friday, which means it's pub day for our newsletter! Sign up today so you can go behind the scenes of the show, share your feedback with Michael, and get a sneak peek at upcoming episodes.

You can’t take bits and pieces of different philosophical traditions and put them together into a roadmap to the good life. --- • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to nextbigideaclub.com/app

"What matters most in life?" There's a reason Matt and Ryan, theology professors at Yale and our guests this week, call it the Big Question. It's too big to answer all at once. You have to break it down. Today they're going to teach you how.

Today, we learn why the deepest question — the one that can truly change our lives, ground us, and give us direction — is not “What do I really want?” It’s “What is really worth wanting?” (Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now!)

This week: Matt Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, professors at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, share key insights from their New York Times bestselling book "Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most."

Even your suboptimal behaviors have a function. Understanding what they are can help you make a change.

You say self-sabotage, your brain says self-protection. In today's master class, Britt Frank explains how your brain tries to keep you safe by shooting you in the foot. --- • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now!

This week we’re getting unstuck. We’re passing Go. We’re collecting $200. We’re finding a way forward. How? By utilizing the neuroscience-based tools psychotherapist Britt Frank shares in her new book, “The Science of Stuck.” Today, she explains why it’s so empowering to realize that mental health is a physical process.

In our brains, there is no such thing as a true “lack of motivation.” But how can we harness this biological fact to get off the couch and get more done?

This week on The Next Big Idea Daily: psychotherapist Britt Frank shares five key insights from her book "The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward." Today, Britt explains why you should treat anxiety like a check engine light. • Download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of audio summaries of the best new books

In the final installment of the master class based on her book “Tranquility by Tuesday,” productivity expert Laura Vanderkam says nailing your work-life balance comes down to how you use your Fridays.

Do effortful fun before effortless fun. But what's the difference? Laura explains in today's mini master class.

To renew your spirits, Laura says you need to take some time for yourself. --- Download the Next Big Idea app and listen to hundreds of the world's bestselling authors summarize their books in just 12 minutes.

You know what you need? An adventure. That's right. You don't have to wait until your next vacation. You can — and should — make it a habit to do surprising, novel things on the reg. And, yes, we know you're thinking: "How can I fit that in with everything else I have going on?" Don't worry. Laura Vanderkam has a simple solution for making adventures of all sizes part of your routine.

In "Tranquility by Tuesday," time management guru Laura Vanderkam shares tools you can use to finally make time for the activities you love. But before you can do that, you need to get a good night's sleep. Today, Laura explains how.

All good things must come to an end. It's our last day with Mónica Guzmán, journalist, political de-polarizer, and author of "I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times." This week, she's been our anti-debate coach, teaching us how to have tough talks about thorny topics that don't end in fisticuffs. In her final chat with Michael, she says that once you've built a bridge that connects you to someone on the other side of the ideological divide, you should do everything you can not to burn it. • Have you heard about The Next Big Idea app? It has hundreds of non-fiction book summaries (written and read by the authors themselves), dozens of e-courses (with folks like Dan Pink and Susan Cain), ad-free episodes of this show, and invitations to live author Q&As. Download it today!