The Next Big Idea Daily

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American history is kinkier than you think. 📕 Fierce Desires by Rebecca L. Davis 📩 Check out our daily Substack and our weekly LinkedIn newsletter

Eliot Stein, journalist and editor at BBC Travel, has traveled the globe in search of remarkable people who are preserving some of our most extraordinary cultural rites. Today, he shares their stories. 📕 Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Want to write emails people will actually read? Author Jenn Bane is here to show you how. Her new book, which she co-wrote with Melissa Harris, is “Everybody Needs an Editor: The Essential Guide to Clear and Effective Writing.” 📩 Check out our daily Substack and our weekly LinkedIn newsletter

A storage unit fire destroyed everything Helen Chandler-Wilde owned and forced her to re-evaluate her relationship with material things.

Patrick Hutchison quit his office job and moved to a cabin in the woods. Here's what he learned.

Why does living in the so-called Information Age only seem to make life more confusing? Amanda Montell has some surprising answers.

Jim VandeHei co-founded two highly influential news outlets, Politico and Axios. But as he explains in today's episode, his path to success was far from straightforward.

Adam Alter, author of "Anatomy of a Breakthrough," offers up a groundbreaking guide to breaking free from the thoughts, habits, jobs, relationships, and business models that are preventing you from achieving your full potential.

In the early days of the Covid lockdown, many of us took up new hobbies, like playing guitar or baking bread. But Peggy Orenstein went a little further. A lifelong knitter, Peggy decided to try making a sweater from scratch. She taught herself to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, and other skills. The surprising life lessons she learned are the subject of her new book, "Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater."

Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of President Barack Obama’s United States Agency for International Development, shares a dynamic new model for creating large-scale change.

Charles Duhigg, the bestselling author of "Power of Habit," is on the show today to explain what marital spats, NASA interviews, and gun rights debates can teach us about effective communication. His new book is "Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection."

Katherine May, the New York Times–bestselling author of Wintering, invites us to rediscover the feelings of awe and wonder available to us all. ✉️ Sign up for our newsletter, Book of the Day

Elsa Richardson shares five big ideas from her book "Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut." ✉️ Check out our newsletter, Book of the Day 🎁 Need a last-minute gift for the readers in your life? You can get 30% off a Next Big Idea Club gift membership when you use code HOLIDAY30 at nextbigideaclub.com

Nothing predicts happiness better than a good marriage, says University of Virginia sociologist Brad Wilcox.

Brandon Keim shares a few big ideas from his new book "Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World."

If you've ever wondered, "When will it feel like I've done enough?" this episode is for you. 📩 Check out our daily Substack and our weekly LinkedIn newsletter

Three innovators offer a road-tested framework for career development that helps anyone make real progress on their path when they switch jobs.

It’s the winter solstice this week, which means we have officially hit the darkest time of the year. But dark doesn’t have to mean bleak. That’s the premise of “How To Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days,” a new book by Stanford-trained social psychologist Kari Leibowitz, who joins us today to share a few warming tips on how to beat the wintertime blues.

Chase Jarvis shares five big ideas from Never Play It Safe. 🎁 Take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership when you use the code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com

When Jimmie James set out to become the first person to play all of America’s 100 greatest golf courses in a single year, he came face to face with the gulf between his impoverished childhood in the Jim Crow South and the successful executive he became.

What if the seven deadly sins aren't moral failings? What if, instead, they're biological functions that humans need to survive? 📕 Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human by Guy Leschziner 🎁 Take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership for yourself or as a gift when you use code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com

Today, key insights from Alison Fragale's "Likeable Badass: How Women Get the Success They Deserve," a book that our curator Daniel Pink says "shatters the conventional wisdom about power, status, and the path to professional success." *** 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

Today, master woodworker Callum Robinson on craft, history, family, and our relationship with the natural world. 📕 Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription or gift when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

We all deserve great sex, according to relationship therapist Dr. Emily Jamea. And she joins us today to share the latest science on how to achieve it. 🎁 Take 20% off any Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

A lot has been written about the downsides of tribalism, but could the forces that separate people also help build stronger teams and communities?

What if modern wellness culture is standing in the way of true well-being? 🎁 Take 75% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership (for yourself or as a gift) when you use code DAILY75 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

A $10 billion marvel of human ingenuity is rewriting the cosmic narrative right before our eyes. *** 🎁 Take 75% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership for yourself or as a gift when you use code DAILY75 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

You’re probably used to looking for so-called good jobs and avoiding bad ones, but we might be better off looking for jobs that fit, that are a good match for our talents and personality. This approach would be better for employers and employees alike, according to Andre Martin, author of “Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever.” 🎙️ Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 🎁 Get 75% off a Next Big Idea express membership when you use code DAILY75 at https://nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Google searches for "uncertainty" are at a five-year high, so it seems like the right time to revisit "Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure" by Maggie Jackson. One thing we are certain of? This is a great book. And don't just take our word for it. Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink named it one of the eight best books published last year. 🎁 Here's a Black Friday deal for you: take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership when you use code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! To celebrate, we’re bringing back Ian Leslie, a columnist for the New Statesman, who’s going to teach us how to transform the heat of conflict, disagreement, and argument into the light of insight, creativity, and connection. 🎁 Give the gift of big ideas! Take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership when you use the code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

James Beard Award-winner Rowan Jacobsen on the surprising history and magical properties of chocolate. 🎁 Save 50% on a Next Big Idea Club express membership when you use code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

What can the father of Western philosophy teach us about how to live today? A great deal, according to Donald J. Robertson, author of the new book "How to Think Like Socrates: Ancient Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Modern World." 🎁 Take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership when you use code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

A psychologist’s guide to finding your most fulfilling job yet. 📕 Job Therapy: Finding Work That Works for You by Tessa West 🎁 Use code DAILY50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift to take 50% off a Next Big Idea Club express membership

Allison Raskin's new book is "I Do (I Think): Conversations About Modern Marriage."

Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a public policy professor at USC, has spent years studying small-town America. What she's learned may surprise you. 📕 The Overlooked Americans 📬 Check out our daily Substack and our weekly LinkedIn newsletter

Andrew Leigh, a former professor of economics and current member of Australia's parliament, shares key insights from his timely new book How Economics Explains the World: A Short History of Humanity.

In "A Brief History of the Female Body," Dr. Deena Emera draws on her vast expertise as a biologist, her experience as a mother, and her love of teaching to look far into our evolutionary past, illuminating how and why the female form has transformed over millions of years and its effects on women's health.

Most entrepreneurs start a business seeking freedom but end up in a prison of hundred-hour workweeks isolated from their loved ones. Today: a guide for how to do entrepreneurship differently — letting go of the hustle and embracing a family-first mindset instead.

Today, we're joined by Greg Epstein, Harvard and MIT's humanist chaplain, who shares a few key insights from his new book Tech Agnostic.

Award-winning journalist Jeremy Kahn shares his advice for staying on the right side of the AI revolution.

A blueprint for a better future that offers a unified theory of human behavior, culture, and society. 📖 A Theory of Everyone by Michael Muthukrishna

As an assistant professor, practicing psychiatrist, university wellness leader, and regular media expert, Jessi Gold was used to constant busyness. But when mental exhaustion led her to commit an unthinkable error during a patient session, she was forced to reevaluate everything that the medical system taught her. 📖 How Do You Feel?: One Doctor's Search for Humanity in Medicine

Jamila Souffrant offers a step-by-step guide to achieving wealth and happiness.

Happiness and meaning are usually seen as the two keys to the good life. But there's a third. Lorraine Besser is here to tell us more. 📩 Check out our daily Substack and our weekly LinkedIn newsletter

Can we find a way to mend the personal bonds that are fraying for so many of us? 📕 Good Reasonable People: The Psychology Behind America's Dangerous Divide by Keith Payne

Value judgments, cultural relativism, and other conversation killers.

It's the most stressful day of the year! To help us stay calm, we're bringing in renowned psychologist Wendy Suzuki to share a few tips from her book "Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion." 🎙️ Check out Wendy's interview on our sister podcast, The Next Big Idea, here

Women in this country lag behind men according to most economic measures. Why this is and how to change it is the subject of the recent book "Fair Shake: Women and the Fight to Build a Just Economy" by Naomi Cahn, June Carbone, and Nancy Levit.

We live in conversations like fish live in water. Here's how to become a better swimmer — er, talker. 📕 The Art of Conscious Conversations: Transforming How We Talk, Listen, and Interact by Chuck Wisner