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Bring your people and ideas to life with Big Think Events
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Latest Videos
A library of interviews with the world’s biggest thinkers.
3mins
Yes, Nell Irvin Painter is a painter. But she didn’t start pursuing an art MFA until she’d already become a distinguished Princeton historian. What prompted the shift in gears?
3mins
The author of “The History of White People” believes racial attitudes are starting to relax in the Obama era. Class differences, though, remain as problematic as ever.
1mins
The concept of race may be a kind of cultural superstition, but in America at least, it’s not going away anytime soon.
6mins
How did Italians, Jews, and other peoples become “white”? And will other, currently “nonwhite” ethnic groups follow suit?
3mins
Ralph Waldo Emerson was a vocal abolitionist, yet also romanticized a “Saxon” racial ideal. How should we make sense of his attitudes—and untangle them from our own?
2mins
Race is a 19th-century concept. In the 18th century, the division of human “varieties” was just as arbitrary—but a little more creative.
3mins
When did the concept of race originate? And was there no such thing as racism before it did? The author of “The History of White People” explains.
26mins
A conversation with the professor of American history at Princeton.
2mins
Humans have not acknowledged the degree to which we are a dangerous species. Life is safer if we recognize the dangers and anticipate them.
2mins
There will be a day when our food will be piped into our houses in some form of algomash that we can then turn into the equivalent of today’s hamburgers […]
5mins
Will raw foodists evolve differently from humans who eat cooked food?
9mins
We have the smallest guts of all primates, and the biggest brains. Blame cooking.
2mins
Creationism is simply part of the package for many religious people in the U.S.
8mins
Having more females in positions of power could reduce aggression in our society.
4mins
The legendary primatologist would produce a few great observations on how to behave and then would just let you run, he says.
6mins
There is evidence that humans are predisposed to behave violently in certain contexts. But the more we’re aware of it, the more we can do about it.
39mins
A conversation with the Harvard primatologist.
8mins
In 2050 there will be about 9 billion people in the world. The vast majority of them will live in urban areas, and will have a significantly higher average age […]
4mins
In wealthy nations across the world, population growth rates have rapidly declined from their peak in 1965. The reasons behind this are varied and rife with complications, as scientists still […]
4mins
The world of comedy hasn’t exactly been kind to scientists, but here are a couple of jokes in which math nerds get the last laugh.