The Next Big Idea

Arthur C. Brooks used to run a prominent think tank where he was paid handsomely to influence public policy. Did all that success make him happy? Nope. So Arthur quit his job and set out to transform his life. Now he’s written a book about what he learned along the way, the #1 New York Times bestseller “From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life.” 💿 Want to listen back to our favorite episodes of 2024? Check out this playlist

Does free will exist on a sliding scale? Will humans and AI co-evolve? Are aliens already here on earth? These are just a few of the many mind-bending questions Rufus and Sara Walker, author of “Life as No One Knows It,” explore in the second half of their conversation. 1️⃣ If you missed the first half of Sara’s interview, you can find it here 🧪 Want to hear more of our interviews with brilliant scientists? Check out this playlist 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription or gift when you use the code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

We’ve had many bracing thinkers on this show, but Sara Walker might take the cake. A physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, she's just written "Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence," a thrilling exploration of life's origins and the search for it across the cosmos. 🕐 The second part of this conversation will be available on Thursday. If you can’t wait until then, you can hear it right now on The Next Big Idea app 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

You may think you know what strategy is, but Seth Godin is willing to bet you haven’t got a clue. It’s not just setting goals. It’s not just making plans. It’s— Well, you’ll have to tune in to find out. 📕 This Is Strategy by Seth Godin ✉️ Want big idea delivered to your inbox every day? Sign up for our newsletter Book of the Day here 🎙️ If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy our conversation with Tony Fadell, the legendary creator of the iPod and iPhone, about how to build a game-changing product. It's a team favorite. 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, wants you to think twice before putting your faith in Silicon Valley's promises. 🎙️ Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple or Spotify 🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

When he was 26, Will Guidara took the helm of a middling brasserie in New York City called Eleven Madison Park. A decade later, it was named the best restaurant in the world. How did he pull off this unprecedented transformation? By practicing unreasonable hospitality. (This episode first aired in Sept. 2023.) 📕 Unreasonable Hospitality 📬 Take 50% off a subscription to our Book of the Day newsletter here 🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 50% off an express membership when you use code PODCAST50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

For two decades, Ann Wroe has written weekly obituaries for The Economist. Some of her subjects are luminaries (Queen Elizabeth II, Paul Newman). Others are little-knowns (cheesemakers, storm chasers, typewriter repairmen). But all of them, in Ann’s words, “have enhanced the world by their existence.” Her obituaries are celebrations of life, and Ann is a soul-catcher — souls, for her, being the best word for the “unique and essential part of ourselves, our self-conscious and transcendent core.” It’s a job that requires empathy, patience, almost tactile curiosity, and, well, love. It’s a job from which we can all learn a great deal. 📕 Lifescapes: A Biographer’s Search for the Soul 📬 We launched a newsletter! It’s called Book of the Day, and you can get a special discount here 🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 20% off any membership when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Philosophers have long maintained that the Good Life is braided from two strands: pleasure and purpose. But Middlebury’s Lorraine Besser says there’s a third: psychological richness — or, as she calls it, The Interesting. Interesting experiences, she contends, captivate our minds, engage our thoughts and emotions, and often change our perspective. Today, she’ll teach you how to find them. 📕 The Art of the Interesting 📬 Take 50% off a subscription to our Book of the Day newsletter here 🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 20% off your order when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. These are Cal Newport's three principles for achieving your goals without burning out. Today, in a special preview of our first-ever podclass, Cal explains how to harness the power of slow productivity to bring meaning, purpose, and a genuine sense of accomplishment into your life and work. ✉️ To hear the rest of Cal’s podclass, sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter. Get your special discount here 🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Take 20% off your order when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

What if everything we think we know about the history of our species is wrong? That’s the provocative question at the heart of a new book by today’s guest, David Wengrow. Hailed as fascinating, brilliant, and potentially revolutionary, “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” debuted at no. 2 on the New York Times bestseller list. Drawing on the latest research in archeology and anthropology, it suggests that the lives of our ancient ancestors were not nasty, brutish, and short. On the contrary, they were playful, collaborative, and improvisational — and there's a lot they can teach us about how to improve the world as we know it. (This episode first aired in 2021.) ✉️ Sign up for our daily newsletter, Book of the Day

In his mega-bestseller “Four Thousand Weeks,” Oliver Burkeman showed that the shortness of life “isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief.” Now, in “Meditations for Mortals,” he invites us to embrace what he calls “imperfectionism.” Accept your limitations, your finitude, your lack of control — because “the more we try to render the world controllable,” he warns, “the more it eludes us; and the more daily life loses … its resonance, its capacity to touch, move and absorb us.” ✨ Want to hear Oliver’s advice on how to keep your feet on the ground this election season? Head over to bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

Making art is hard work, as Adam Moss, the revered former editor of New York magazine, reveals in his illuminating new book, "The Work of Art." The book is a collection of interviews with painters, poets, filmmakers, and even sandcastle builders about the demanding, mystical, peculiar process of creating something out of nothing. Adam spoke with our curator Daniel Pink in front of a live audience in New York City earlier this month. 📕 The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing 🗞️ Check out Dan's Washington Post column, "Why Not?"

Earlier this week, Jonathan Haidt joined us to discuss the crisis in youth mental health caused by smartphones and social media. Now he’s back to talk solutions. ✉️ We launched a Substack! Check it out now at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com 🎙️ Enjoy this episode? Check out Rufus's related conversations with Will Storr and Anna Lembke

It’s rare these days for a book to go viral, but that’s exactly what happened with “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt. Now in its seventh month on the New York Times bestseller list, the book shows how the mass adoption of smartphones and social media has led to record rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide among teens. 2️⃣ The second part of Rufus’s interview with Jonathan will be out on Thursday. If you can’t wait to hear it, you can listen to the whole thing right now by subscribing to our Substack: bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

“Life is a game. There’s no way to understand the human world without first understanding this. Everyone alive is playing a game whose hidden rules are built into us and that silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions. This game is inside us. It is us. We can’t help but play.” So begins The Status Game by acclaimed science writer Will Storr. He continues: “We play for status, if only subtly, with every social interaction, every contribution we make to work, love or family life and every internet post. We play with how we dress, how we speak and what we believe. … Life is not a journey towards a perfect destination. It’s a game that never ends. And it’s the very worst of us.” Does it have to be? We may not be able to quit the status game, but Will says we can learn to play it better. In this episode, he explains how. (This conversation first aired in October 2022.)

Twenty-five years ago, Malcolm Gladwell was not Malcolm Gladwell. Well, sure, ontologically speaking he was, but he would not have registered on the Celeb-O-Meter the way he does today. So what happened? What changed? What did he do to become a household name? He wrote “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.” A quarter century later, Malcolm sat down to update the book that made his name — only he realized that he had a lot of new things to say about social contagion. Cut to this week. On Tuesday, he published “Revenge of the Tipping Point,” a sequel in which he explores the “dark side of contagious phenomena.” He got together with Rufus for a wide-ranging conversation about the new book, because wide-ranging conversations are Malcolm Gladwell's specialty. They discussed social media, Medicare fraud, white flight, the Holocaust, and the ways Malcolm has changed over the past few decades. 🎟️ We’re hosting a live taping of this show with Daniel Pink and Adam Moss in New York City on Oct. 10. To learn more and grab tickets, visit nextbigideaclub.com/events

Next week, Malcolm Gladwell will be on the show to discuss his new book "Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering." In anticipation of that conversation, we're revisiting our 2021 interview with Malcolm about "The Bomber Mafia" — the story of a group of pilots who met on a muggy airbase in central Alabama and hatched a plan to revolutionize warfare. 🎟️ We're hosting a live taping on Oct. 10. Daniel Pink will chat with Adam Moss, former editor of New York magazine, about his recent book "The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing." Learn more and grab tickets at nextbigideaclub.com/events

Is AI all bad, or could it be so good that we might one day want to merge with it? This is just one of the questions Rufus poses in part two of his conversation with historian and mega-bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari. 1️⃣ If you missed part one of this conversation, listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 📕 Yuval’s new book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, is out now 📩 Want the latest insights from the world’s top thinkers delivered to your inbox every morning? Sign up for our new Substack at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com 🎉 We're hosting another live taping on Oct. 10, featuring Daniel Pink in conversation with Adam Moss, former editor of New York magazine and author of "The Work of Art." Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com/events

Yuval Noah Harari published an essay in the New York Times the other day. “Large-scale democracies,” he wrote, “became feasible only after the rise of modern information technologies like the newspaper, the telegraph and the radio. The fact that modern democracy has been built on top of modern information technologies means that any major change in the underlying technology is likely to result in a political upheaval.” Well, we’re witnessing a major change in the underlying technology right now. Artificial intelligence is here, and if its proponents are to be believed, it will fundamentally transform how we consume information and communicate with each other. What this means for the future of democracy — and society as we know it — is the subject of Harari’s new book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Yuval Noah Harari 🎤 This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience in New York City last week. To learn more about our upcoming events, visit nextbigideaclub.com/events 2️⃣ Part two of this interview will be available on Thursday. If you can’t wait until then, you can listen now by downloading the The Next Big Idea app 📥 We launched a Substack! Subscribe now at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2.15 a day, has long been seen as an intractable problem. But what if the solution is simple? What if you could eradicate extreme poverty by just giving people cash? That’s what Rory Stewart believes. He’s the former UK Secretary of State for International Development and now a senior advisor to GiveDirectly, a non-profit that has distributed $800 million — in cash — to 1.6 million people around the world, including right here in the US. Today on the show, Rory charts his evolution from cash transfer skeptic to evangelist, shares what he wishes philanthropists like Bill Gates would do with their billions, and explains why he thinks it’s possible to end extreme poverty in our lifetimes. 🎙️ Check out Rory's previous appearance on this show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 💸 Learn more about GiveDirectly at www.givedirectly.org 🎬 Watch Rory’s new TED Talk, “To End Extreme Poverty, Give Cash — Not Advice” 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com

In March, when Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for stealing $8 billion from customers, many people saw it as just punishment for a two-faced poser who had spouted a lot of rot about altruism just to mask the rank odor of his relentless greed. Michael Lewis, the famed author of Moneyball and The Big Short, was not one of those people. Through his eyes, Sam didn’t look like a con man. He looked like an awkward but well-meaning kid who meant what he said about wanting to save the world and was undone not by avarice but by his “pathological ability to foist risk upon other people without asking their permission.” Michael is in a unique position to draw these conclusions. He spent the months leading up to and immediately following Sam’s downfall hovering over his shoulder, watching him operate, learning how he thought. Michael wrote a book about it, Going Infinite, published last fall, right as the crypto wunderkind-turned-pariah began his trial. Now that it’s out in paperback and the dust has settled, we invited Michael onto the show to talk about why he was drawn to Sam in the first place, what he thinks of the critics who say he was too soft on him, and how we should reconcile our primal desire for simple narratives with the complexity of real life. 🎟️ Join us for a live taping of this show on Sept. 11 with Yuval Noah Harari. More details at https://nextbigideaclub.com/events 🏛️ Check out “The Canary,” Michael’s installment in the Washington Post’s new series “Who is government?” 🎁 Get 25% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription when you use the code PODCAST at https://nextbigideaclub.com/

Sturgeon caviar harvested in a lab. Skyscrapers made out of living materials that grow from the ground up. Computers that run on DNA. These might sound like science fiction fantasies, but our guest today, Jamie Metzl, says they are real — they’re in development right now. How these and other biotechnologies will transform our lives, work, and the world is the subject of Jamie’s new book “Superconvergence.” 🎟️ We’re hosting a live taping of this show in New York City on Sept. 11, featuring Yuval Noah Harari. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/events/ 💿 Did you enjoy this episode? Check out Rufus’s conversations with Azeem Azhar and Amanda Little

What are some words you would use to describe a leader? Bold, driven, steadfast. How about … anxious? You may not equate leadership with anxiety, but Morra Aarons-Mele — a writer, podcaster, and self-proclaimed anxious achiever — says that’s a mistake. Because anxiety is not a professional defect or character flaw. It’s not something to be ashamed of or something you have to hide. Instead, in Morra’s view, it’s an asset, a resource, a motivator that can bring out your best work. The hard part is figuring out how to master it so that it helps rather than hinders. If you’ve ever struggled with anxiety, that may sound like a tall order, maybe even impossible, but in this episode, Morra, with help from a pen, a banana, and reams of cutting-edge research, will teach you how to do it. 🎙️ Check out Morra's podcast, The Anxious Achiever 📕 Grab a copy of her book here 📩 Subscribe to Rufus's newsletter 🎁 Use code PODCAST to get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club book box subscription at https://nextbigideaclub.com/

Today, Nate Silver explains why most people should take bigger risks, reveals the big thing everyone misunderstands about Sam Bankman-Fried, and makes the case that there’s anywhere from a 2 to 20 percent chance that AI will take over the world. 🎙️ This is the second episode in our two-part series with Nate Silver. To hear Part 1, click here

You probably know Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, as the statistician with an uncanny knack for predicting election results. What you may not know is that Nate has never been comfortable inside the Beltway. Before his election models made him famous, he made his living playing poker, and it's in that world that he feels most at home. Recently, Nate has been reflecting on his poker-playing pals, and he realized many of them are part of a broader community of analytically-minded, ultra-competitive, not-afraid-to-bet-the-house individuals that he now calls "the River." Members of the River are everywhere. They're tech titans, Masters of the Universe — increasingly, it feels like they run the world. How the River rose to power and what that means for the rest of us is the subject of Nate's sprawling new book, "On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything.” 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use the code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com

Effective altruism — the brand of philanthropy where you try to do the most good for the greatest number of people with the resources you have — has gotten a bad rap lately due to its association with Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced crypto wunderkind who was once hailed as the movement's poster child. But is the bad press fair? Today, we explore that question by revisiting our conversation with Will MacAskill, Oxford professor of philosophy, leading figure in the movement, and author of "What We Owe the Future." (This episode first aired in October 2022.) 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use code PODCAST at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ 📩 Sign up for Rufus's weekly newsletter here

Today, social psychologist Devon Price makes the intriguing and ultimately hopeful case that laziness is a myth, a lie, a pernicious trap with no other purpose than to make us feel lousy for not doing more. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Devon Price (This episode first aired in October 2021.) 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription when you use code PODCAST at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ 📩 We recently launched a daily Substack! Sign up today at https://bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com/

Humans have been imbibing for thousands of years. What has drinking contributed to society? What is it doing to our health? Guests: Edward Slingerland (”Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization”) and Susan Dominus (”Is That Drink Worth It to You?”) 🎙️ Check out Edward’s previous appearance on the show here 📱 Download the Next Big Idea Club app and use code PODCAST to get 20% off: https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Over 2,000 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, made a simple yet bold claim. The key to the good life, he said, is to pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Is it really that easy? To answer that question, we turn to Emily Austin, a professor of philosophy at Wake Forest and author of “Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life.” (This episode first aired in January 2023.)

Back in the 1700s, in a spa town outside of London, Thomas Bayes, a Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician, invented a formula that lets you figure out how likely something is to happen based on what you already know. It changed the world. Today, pollsters use it to forecast election results and bookies to predict Super Bowl scores. For neuroscientists, it explains how our brains work; for computer scientists, it's the principle behind artificial intelligence. In this episode, we explore the modern-day applications of this game-changing theorem with the help of Tom Chivers, author of the new book "Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World." 🎙️ Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com

So you want to eat healthy. But how do you actually go about doing that? Today, Casey Means — Stanford-trained physician, founder of Levels, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller “Good Energy” — shares the science-backed dietary guide you need. 💿 Ready for more interviews that will supercharge your health? Check out our Spotify playlist 📱 Listeners of this show get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Bad news: 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Their bodies struggle to convert food into the energy their cells need. And this fuel shortage underlies all sorts of conditions, from diabetes and cancer to insomnia and erectile dysfunction. Good news: Simple changes to how we eat and exercise can dramatically improve our metabolic health. This is the thesis of “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health” by Casey Means. A Stanford-trained physician, Casey grew disillusioned with conventional healthcare when she realized that many doctors are great at prescribing pills and performing surgeries but hopeless when it comes to addressing root causes. This led her to leave traditional medicine and focus on combating metabolic dysfunction, which she believes is at the heart of America’s health crisis. Today on the show, she tells Rufus about her journey, explains why she thinks the medical system fails patients, and shares the simple biomarkers that you should check to see if you’re at risk for a deadly disease. 📱 This is part one of our interview with Casey. Part two will be available here on Thursday. But if you can't wait that long, you can listen right now on the Next Big Idea app: https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Publisher, scientist, humorist, diplomat — Benjamin Franklin was America's first polymath. Today, with help from Eric Weiner, we revisit Franklin's life, searching for tips about how to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. 📱 If you love the show, the best way to let us know is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ and use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription

Where is AI headed, and how quickly will it get there? Should we be early adopters or keep our distance? Will it make our lives better or put us out of work? We can’t think of a better person to answer these questions than Bill Gates. He’s played a leading role in every major tech development over the last half-century, and he’s got a pretty good track record when it comes to forecasting the future. Back in 1980, he predicted that one day there’d be a computer on every desk; today on the show, he says there will soon be an AI agent in every ear. Rufus and Bill are joined by Andy Sack and Adam Brotman, co-authors of an exciting new book called “AI First.” Together, they consider AI’s impact on healthcare, education, productivity, and business. They dig into the technology’s risks. And they explore its potential to cure diseases, enhance creativity, and usher in a world of abundance. 📕 To learn more about Andy and Adam’s AI lab, Forum3, visit https://www.forum3.com. And for exclusive insights from their book, “AI First,” head to https://www.forum3.com/book 🎁 If you love the show, the best way to let us know is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ and use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription

Today, Adam Grant and Bob Sutton, two legends of organizational psychology, discuss Bob’s new book, “The Friction Project: How Smart Leaders Make the Right Things Easier and the Wrong Things Harder.” 🎙️ This interview first appeared on Adam’s podcast, “ReThinking.” Follow it now on Apple Podcast or Spotify. 📱 If you love the show, the best way to let us know is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ and use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription.

Steven Johnson returns! He's with us today to talk about his new book, "The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective," and his new day job helping Google develop AI tools for writers. 🔊 You can listen to Steven's previous appearances on this show here, here, here and here 🎧 To purchase a copy of Steven's Next Big Idea Original audiobook, "Immortality: A User's Guide," head here: https://nextbigideaclub.supportingcast.fm/immortality-a-users-guide 📩 Be sure to check out his Substack, too: https://adjacentpossible.substack.com/ 📱 If you love the show, the best way to support us is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at https://nextbigideaclub.com/ and use promo code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription

Could embracing uncertainty be the key to thriving in our age of unpredictability? That's the premise of Maggie Jackson's new book, "Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure," which was chosen by our curators — Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — as one of the year's best works of nonfiction. Maggie sat down with our co-founder Panio Gianopoulos to discuss how mastering the art of being unsure can fuel leadership, deepen relationships, and inspire creativity. Host: Panio Gianopoulos Guest: Maggie Jackson *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

AI is coming for education. According to our guest today, Sal Khan, that's a good thing. Sal is the founder of Khan Academy, which has provided free education to more than 140 million learners, and the author of "Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing)."

On a June night several years ago, Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of "The Perfect Storm" and co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary "Restrepo," lay on an operating table, dying. An undiagnosed aneurysm in his pancreatic artery had ruptured, flooding his abdominal cavity with blood. His odds of survival were between 10 and 20 percent. "I said, 'Doc, you got to hurry. You're losing me right now. I'm going.'" This near-death experience inspired him to embark on a scientific, philosophical, and profoundly personal exploration of what happens after we die. His new book is "In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife." Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Sebastian Junger *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

You may think the English language is static, solid, set in its ways. But the language of Shakespeare has changed quite a bit since the Bard's day. Some rules have been bent, others broken. Old words have faded into obscurity, while new slang has burst onto the scene. (Goodbye, crapulous. Hello, awesomesauce!) When faced with this linguistic upheaval, you have two choices, according to today's guest, Anne Curzan, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan and author of "Says Who?: A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words." You can turn into a grammando who ruthlessly corrects grammatical faux pas, staunchly defends "correct" usage, and rails against neologisms. Or you can embrace your inner wordie by becoming a linguistic gourmand who not only savors fresh vocabulary but celebrates lexical innovation as a reminder that our language is evolving, becoming more expansive, more inclusive, and perhaps more playful. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Anne Curzan 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

Erik Larson is probably the most successful popular historian working today. His books, which include “The Devil in the White City” and “The Splendid and the Vile,” have sold a staggering 12 million copies. His latest, “The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War,” debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list this week. It’s a gripping account of the five months between Abraham Lincoln’s election and the outbreak of the Civil War — a 163-year-old chapter in our history that Erik says is alarmingly relevant. Host: Caleb Bissinger Guest: Erik Larson ABOUT 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 is easier said than done. That's 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 And use promo code PODCAST for a special discount.

Scott Galloway is a podcaster, bestselling author, and professor of marketing at NYU. He's irreverent, cocky, brutally honest, and surprisingly humble. He's also wildly successful — and he doesn't care who knows it. In fact, he thinks more rich people should talk about their success. That's why he wrote his new book, "The Algebra of Wealth." "It's almost like a letter to myself when I was younger," he tells Rufus in today's episode, which was recorded live in New York City, "the mistakes I made, some of the things I did right, some of the things I did wrong." Tune in to learn how to build your savings muscle, why you should avoid stock picking, Scott's favorite ETF, whether it's better to be an entrepreneur or a company man, and more.

"The only things that are important in life," declared the French filmmaker Jean Renoir, "are the things you remember." But what do we remember and why? That's the subject of a new book, "Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters," by pioneering neuroscientist Charan Ranganath. He joins us today to explain why you still know the lyrics to the song you loved in eighth grade but can't remember the name of your kid's eighth-grade teacher, how memory shapes your identity, and what you can do right now to improve your recall. 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

What if doing less is the secret to achieving more? That's the counterintuitive argument at the heart of productivity guru Cal Newport's new book, "Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout." Cal says that if we can learn to do fewer things, work at a natural pace, and obsess over quality, we can free ourselves from the clutches of pointless busyness and find more meaningful ways to work ... and live. *Live Event Alert* We are hosting a live taping of this show in New York City on Monday, April 22. Rufus will be sitting down with Scott Galloway — NYU business professor, podcast provocateur, and author of "The Algebra of Wealth" — to discuss ways you can optimize your life for wealth and success. Listeners of this show get 50% off entry with the code PODCAST. Buy your tickets today at nextbigideaclub.com/events *Help Us Pick Our Next Guest* We recently compiled a list of must-read new books coming out in June. Take a look here and let us know which titles you think we should feature on the show.

Raise your hand if you've ever belittled a stranger online, made a decision based on astrology, or, heaven forbid, fallen for a conspiracy theory. No? Well, then, consider yourself lucky. And if your hand is raised, don't feel bad, because it turns out in our Information Age the cognitive biases that kept us alive a few millennia ago now make us susceptible to bouts of extreme irrationality. How this happened, and what we can do about it, is the subject of a brand new book by linguist Amanda Montell called "The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality."

In “Psych: The Story of the Human Mind,” Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, lays out, in his words, “basically everything I know about the mind.” And when he says “everything,” he means it. Where does consciousness come from? Does IQ matter? What makes us happy? Was Sigmund Freud a madman? The answers to these questions (and more) are all in Paul’s book — and in this episode. An edited version of Rufus’s interview with Paul first aired in April 2023. Today, we’re bringing you their entire conversation. Check out Paul's newsletter here 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

For a long time, Bianca Bosker was not on speaking terms with art. “Going to galleries and museums,” she says on today’s show, “reliably made me feel like I was at least two tattoos and a master’s degree away from figuring out what was going on.” What did art snobs know that she didn’t? Determined to find out, Bianca disowned her normal life and ventured into the underbelly of the art world. She worked at a gallery, as an artist’s assistant, and even as a museum guard. She read the latest research to understand why scientists believe art is as “necessary as food or sex.” And in the end, she learned how to look, really look, at art — a skill she’s now going to share with you. Book: "Get the Picture: A Mind-Bending Journey Among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to See" Guest: Bianca Bosker Host: Caleb Bissinger *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

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