The Big Think Interview

Big Think Home
For Business
White banner with bold text stating "THE BIG THINK INTERVIEW" in all capital letters against a light background.
Intimate interviews with the world's biggest thinkers.
Latest episode
The hard part of belonging begins after you’ve found your people
Luke Burgis explains how to keep a solid sense of self inside a community instead of dissolving into a pseudo self that changes with every crowd.

by Luke Burgis

A bald, bearded man in a black button-down shirt gestures with his hand while speaking.
All Episodes (230)
A bald man with a long gray beard and a handlebar mustache wearing a purple t-shirt, gesturing with his hands.
16mins
The Big Think Interview
Cosmology’s oldest question: How the universe will end
Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel explains how new dark energy measurements are upending what physicists thought they knew about how the universe will end.
Ethan Siegel
A man in a black t-shirt gesturing as if holding an object between his hands.
38mins
The Big Think Interview
A philosophy that says God is everything that could ever exist
Philosopher Jack Symes argues that pantheism, the view that God and the universe are one, answers philosophy’s three hardest questions.
Jack Symes
A man in a black t-shirt gesturing with his hands.
The Big Think Interview
The argument that turned an atheist into a pantheist
Philosopher Jack Symes examines the evil god challenge and explains how it moved him from atheism to pantheism.
Jack Symes
A man in a black t-shirt speaking while gesturing with his hands.
23mins
The Big Think Interview
What separates the living from the inert has little to do with its material
Blaise Aguera y Arcas breaks down what distinguishes life from mere matter.
Blaise Agüera y Arcas
A man with a beard wearing a black t-shirt gestures with his hands while speaking.
33mins
The Big Think Interview
Humanity’s oldest mistake about technology and nature
laise Agüera y Arcas, CTO at Google, argues that AGI arrived the moment we stopped training models for narrow tasks and started training them on language.
Blaise Agüera y Arcas
Four people in grayscale are positioned beside a magazine cover titled "Opt-Out Nation" with a rural landscape; text reads "Big Think Live Event" on a red background.
1hr 20mins
Members
The Big Think Interview
Live with Big Think: Inside “The Opt-Out Nation”
Watch our first-ever members-only event — a livestreamed conversation about our summer special issue, The Opt-Out Nation.
A middle-aged man with light hair in a dark blazer gestures with his hands and speaks against a plain, light background.
19mins
The Big Think Interview
The psychology of revenge, in 19 minutes
Psychologist Paul Bloom explains why morality, the thing that makes cooperation and trust possible, is also what drives cruelty, cycles of revenge, and wars where both sides believe they're the moral ones.
Paul Bloom
An older woman with long gray hair gestures with her hands while speaking. She is wearing a dark jacket with pink cuffs and a black top, set against a plain light background.
13mins
The Big Think Interview
Mary Beard: Why no film has ever cracked The Odyssey
Classicist Mary Beard explains why you should read The Odyssey before going to see Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the epic.
Mary Beard
A man wearing glasses and a navy blazer speaks while gesturing with his hands against a plain white background.
9mins
The Big Think Interview
The trick that offloads intrusive thoughts so your brain can actually work
David Epstein, author of Range and Inside the Box, breaks down what's actually happening inside the brain when we multitask, and why "just focusing" is a solution that doesn't hold up to reality.
David Epstein
A man wearing glasses and a dark blazer gestures with his left hand while looking forward against a plain light background.
19mins
The Big Think Interview
The unpopular truth about the myth of the lone genius
David Epstein argues that the myth of the lone genius is a story we tell, but the actual history of innovation is far more interesting.
David Epstein
4mins
The Big Think Interview
Play this card game to solve your team’s biggest problem
The $25 card game that unlocks high-achieving teams.
David Sherwin & Mary Paynter Sherwin
A man with short blond hair and a beard wearing a black blazer over a maroon shirt sits against a plain light background, facing the camera.
21mins
The Big Think Interview
The 6 triggers of aversion and how to defeat each one
In goal setting, Chris Bailey argues the problem isn't discipline; it's the system itself.
Chris Bailey
A middle-aged man with glasses and gray hair, wearing a dark gray shirt, gestures with his right hand while speaking against a plain light background.
25mins
The Big Think Interview
A history of music and human creativity on earth
Musicologist Michael Spitzer walks us through the natural origins of human music and creativity.
Michael Spitzer
A middle-aged man in a dark blazer and blue shirt gestures with his hands while speaking against a plain white background.
16mins
The Big Think Interview
Sean Carroll: The past, present, and future exist simultaneously
Beneath our assumptions lies the most complex, unsolved question in physics: Why does time have any direction at all?
Sean Carroll
A man with curly hair wearing a brown suede jacket and black shirt gestures with his left hand while looking at the camera against a plain white background.
20mins
The Big Think Interview
The real reason you’re always thinking about what other people think
What you actually care about shows up in your calendar and your bank statement, not your intentions.
Mark Manson
A man with wavy brown hair wearing a brown suede jacket over a black shirt sits in front of a plain white background.
17mins
The Big Think Interview
The most important question to ask yourself about your life’s purpose
Modern life has confused comfort and stimulation for genuine fulfillment. Could the Ancient Greek distinction between hedonia and eudaimonia help pull us out of this trap?
Mark Manson
A detailed orange image of the Sun shows its surface texture and sunspots, against a black background.
10mins
The Big Think Interview
The solar revolution turning sunlight into synthetic fuel
“10 years ago, my colleagues and I looked at the prognosis for climate change, and it looked pretty hopeless. There really was no way out. But something happened – something good.”
Casey Handmer
An older woman with long gray hair wearing a dark jacket and shirt sits against a plain, light background, looking slightly toward the camera.
20mins
The Big Think Interview
Rome’s triumph was the ancient world’s most effective piece of propaganda
Mary Beard uncovers the spectacle of the Ancient Roman parade, the Roman Triumph.
Mary Beard
Digital illustration of a human head in profile showing a translucent brain with layered neural pathways, set against a blue gradient background.
25mins
The Big Think Interview
Reboot your mind for flow, unanxiousness, and resilience
“We can use neuroscience and tools from psychology to learn how to take advantage of anxiety.” From Zen Buddhism to flow state, these 3 experts explain how to hack your brain.
Steven Kotler, Wendy Suzuki & Robert Waldinger
A middle-aged man in a navy suit and light blue shirt gestures with his right hand while sitting against a plain light background.
7mins
The Big Think Interview
The hidden reason smart people stop growing
Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec breaks down why the traditional idea of mentorship is not only outdated, but actively getting in the way of your growth.
Robert Herjavec