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Ideas that inspire a life well-lived
Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional?
Life’s biggest questions rarely have simple answers. That is precisely why they continue to occupy the world’s most thoughtful minds. The Well is a place to engage those questions, drawing on insights from science, philosophy, and the humanities.
Created by the John Templeton Foundation in partnership with Big Think, The Well brings together ideas that inspire deeper understanding and a more considered approach to living.
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The Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder.
We’ve been guessing about ancestral history — until now
We used to think human migration was a simple branching tree. Ancient DNA proved it's something far stranger. Harvard Geneticist David Reich explains.
8mins
Human origins once looked like a simple migration story. According to geneticist David Reich, new evidence keeps turning it into a record of contact, disappearance, and surprise.
8mins
The oldest bones in Britain share almost no DNA with anyone alive today. Here’s what that tells us about human history, genetics, and ethnic “homelands."
49mins
What if one of our oldest ideas about ancestry is simply wrong? Harvard geneticist David Reich argues that ancient DNA has exposed the myth of purity and uncovered a far messier history of who we are and where we came from.
4mins
Americans believe they can outthink suffering. Historian Kate Bowler explains how our obsession with self-help, optimization, and positivity became a kind of secular religion.
3mins
The biggest obstacle to discovering life in space? Not distance. Not capability. It’s ambiguity — and it’s built into science. MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager explains.
2mins
Not every hard thing happens for a reason, says Duke historian and writer Kate Bowler. She explains how our need for purpose turns suffering into a performance.
3mins
Thanks to modern tech, Earth is now considered a ‘detectable’ planet. Astrophysicist Sara Seager explains how this idea can lead us to discovering life elsewhere in our universe.
3mins
Toxic positivity isn’t optimism. It’s denial. Historian Kate Bowler explains why our obsession with “good vibes only” is making it harder to cope.
3mins
Military satellite research brought us GPS. Astronomers influenced medical imaging tech. What would be invented after we discover alien life? Professor Sara Seager explains the consequences of such a groundbreaking discovery.
6mins
Happiness collapses the moment hardship arrives. Joy doesn’t. Historian Kate Bowler explains why joy can coexist with pain — and why that makes it a stronger, more fulfilling emotion.
Kelly Corrigan on why humility fuels curiosity — and how to cultivate these qualities in an age of certainty.
John Templeton Foundation
7mins
30 years ago, we didn’t know other stars had planets orbiting them. Now, we may be on the verge of finding Earth’s Twin. Sara Seager explains.
19mins
David S. Goyer explains how paying attention to mystery, and not brushing it aside, became the foundation for the way he builds stories, characters, and worlds.
11mins
Having explored the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest, and the edge of space, Victor Vescovo knows what awe feels like in its most dramatic forms. What surprised him most was how often that same feeling appears in everyday life.
12mins
Ninety million years after our lineages split, humans are beginning to listen to whales in a new way. Marine biologist David Gruber shares the work that has become his life’s pursuit: learning how to hear the planet’s largest mammals.
13mins
Everything ever seen — every star, mountain, and face — makes up less than 5 percent of the universe. Astrophysicist Janna Levin reminds us that the rest — dark matter and dark energy — is invisible, mysterious, and everywhere. We are the luminous exception in a universe of darkness.
10mins
Reflecting on the final moments she spent with her mother, and the weeks afterwards spent cataloging her life in objects and memories, Poet Laureate of the Ordinary Kelly Corrigan shares how important it is to attune, to behold, and to notice — even if it’s difficult or uncomfortable:
Governance scholar and University of Pittsburgh professor Jennifer Brick Murtazashvili, Ph.D. on the forces that decide whether conflicted nations unify or unravel.
John Templeton Foundation
12mins
The hospital where Rainn Wilson’s wife and son nearly died became his own personal holy site. There, he discovered that the sacred can exist in places we least expect it.
During his talk at A Night of Awe and Wonder, he explained how the awe we feel in moments of courage and love is moral beauty — and following it might be the start of our spiritual revolution.
Panpsychist philosopher Philip Goff, PhD on mysticism and the future of faith.
John Templeton Foundation