Big Think

The strongest arguments for and against the existence of God | Alex O'Connor: Full Interview

Nov 27, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “I think that there are very good arguments to believe that there are some kind of foundational principle of the universe, some necessarily existing being, some first cause.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, How to grow deeply happy | Jonny Thomson ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WShJeNX7W8 Instead of treating belief as a private preference, philosopher Alex O’Connor examines how our moral positions shape institutions, obligations, and the ways we justify our choices. His arguments invite a closer look at why we hold certain principles, and whether those principles survive contact with their real-world consequences. 00:00 The lure of meaning 01:15 The strongest arguments for and against the existence of God 03:38 Hierarchical causes and borrowed causal power 06:33 Sustaining causes and necessity of foundation 10:04 How classical thinkers framed the first cause 14:27 Suffering as the challenge to God 17:42 Between classical theism, deism, and atheism 20:58 Understanding nihilism and the human condition 24:36 Self-justifying motives and meaning 28:00 Meaning in a materialist world 31:41 Ecclesiastes and the first nihilist 36:38 Why stories explain what logic can’t 48:55 Emotion’s grip on belief 54:20 How emotivism shapes ethics 1:05:18 Where morality meets emotion Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/first-cause-argument/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description © Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Alex O'Connor: Alex O’Connor, also known as Cosmic Skeptic, is an English public speaker and content creator recognized for his work on philosophy, ethics, religion, and secularism. He hosts the podcast Within Reason

Why you should see the world like a large language model | Dan Shipper: Full Interview

Nov 21, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “What's really interesting about neural networks is the way that they think or the way that they operate is a lot like human intuition” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Yuval Noah Harari: How to safeguard your mind in the age of junk information ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1OvbwY6GPM What if we could use automation not just as a tool, but as a mirror for our own human behaviors? From the limits of rationalism to the rise of neural networks, Dan Shipper, CEO and co-founder of Every, traces a history of knowledge that spans Socrates, the Enlightenment, and modern machine learning. Shipper explains why “if/then” rules break in messy reality, and how large language models actually see the world through context and pattern. He explores how AI can work with our own creativity and why these tools are unlikely to steal our humanity. Explore more of Dan's work by reading an excerpt of his forthcoming book here: https://every.to/chain-of-thought/where-explanations-end 0:00 Neural networks and human intuition 1:13 The limits of rationalism, from Socrates to neural networks 1:23 Rationalism 2:42 Socrates, the father of Rationalism 5:47 The Age of Enlightenment 7:36 The structure of social sciences 8:51 Defining AI 9:47 The origins of AI 10:39 The General Problem Solver 15:09 Neural networks 18:22 Metaphors for the mind 23:00 Seeing the world like a large language model 30:25 Should we stop looking for general theories? 32:22 Training neural networks 39:32 Will AI steal our humanity? 43:43 AI and rational explanation 47:17 Could LLMs be dangerous? 51:12 Knowledge economies and allocation economies Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/human-intuition-ai/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Dan Shipper: Dan Shipper is the CEO and cofounder of Every, where he explores the frontiers of AI in his column, Chain of Thought, and on his podcast, ‘AI & I.’

How two superpowers built fundamentally different futures | Dan Wang and Kmele Foster

Nov 20, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “China has built essentially one New York City plus a Boston's worth of housing every single year for roughly the last 30 years.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Why 2025 is the single most pivotal year in our lifetime | Peter Leyden ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5k72A30kUc What does it mean to witness a society transform at breakneck speed? Kmele Foster and Dan Wang explore the contrasts between the U.S. and China. Through the lens of immigration, culture, and personal experience, they reveal how policies and national ambition have redefined these two global superpowers. 0:00 China’s rapid progress 7:17 China’s first-tier city wealth boom 11:02 The contrast between China and the U.S. 12:50 American elites as lawyers 17:33 Chinese innovation and competition 21:00 “Made in China” 22:37 American manufacturing challenges 24:56 Autocratic societies and innovation 28:06 One of China’s biggest challenges 31:22 U.S. Tariffs and the trade war 38:06 Law students and the federal government 43:28 The benefit of a lawyerly society 51:37 U.S. and China's futures © Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every major leap in human progress has this in common | Jason Crawford: Full Interview

Nov 19, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “Progress happens when we choose to make it happen. It happens through choice and effort. And ultimately, to make progress happen, we have to believe in it.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, We are living through a slowdown in human progress | Jason Crawford ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6ebqoan4SE Humanity’s progress is neither automatic nor inevitable – from the printing press to the Industrial Revolution, and today’s digital age, every leap in technology has reshaped what’s possible for our civilization. Jason Crawford traces the history and philosophy behind these breakthroughs, revealing the forces that drive innovation and the risks that come with unchecked advancement. 0:00 The philosophy of progress 2:17 The idea of progress throughout history 2:52 Francis Bacon 4:30 The Gutenberg printing press 6:38 The Industrial Revolution 8:47 The end of wars? 9:17 After the world wars of the 20th century 11:58 The idea of progress 14:38 Material progress and the human experience 15:01 The technologies of progress 15:38 Agricultural advancements 16:43 Sources of power 18:36 Energy 19:12 Medicine 20:58 Transportation 26:15 Why does the pace of progress accelerate? 29:03 The future of progress 32:55 Has progress slowed down in the last 50 years? 33:36 The regulatory apparatus 34:12 Organizing scientific research 34:46 Loss of confidence and ambition Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/the-philosophy-of-progress/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jason Crawford: Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. He is also the creator of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, an online learning program for high schoolers; and a part-time adviser and technical consultant to Our World in Data, an Oxford-based non-profit for research and data on global development. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder. From 2013–2018, he was co-founder & CEO of Fieldbook, a hybrid spreadsheet-database. He has also been an engineering manager at Flexport, Amazon, and Groupon, and a co-founder or early employee at other startups. Before that, he was a research engineer at D. E. Shaw Research, working on a new supercomputing architecture for computational biochemistry. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

How big tech is censoring LLMs

Nov 18, 2025

This interview is an episode from ‪@The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪@TempletonFoundation. Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch all of Mchangama's interviews ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_B7bI1QVmJBpGqPZQP1mSFrN1Rfy0CR5 What happens when the technology mediating nearly all our information begins to decide what speech is acceptable? Free speech scholar Jacob Mchangama warns that AI’s growing role in search, email, and word processing means its hidden biases could shape freedom of thought itself. With his team at the Future of Free Speech, Mchangama ran an experiment that tested 268 prompts against popular LLMs and found that the results often reflected inconsistent standards. According to Mchangama, this shows why ownership of AI models matters, since their values, incentives, and pressures ultimately shape public access to information. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/when-ai-self-censors/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description_bigthink ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jacob Mchangama: Jacob Mchangama founded and leads The Future of Free Speech, is a research professor at Vanderbilt, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). A prolific commentator and author on free speech and human rights, he created the podcast “Clear and Present Danger” and wrote the 2022 book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

We are living through a slowdown in human progress | Jason Crawford

Nov 17, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “People got skeptical, fearful, doubtful of the very idea of progress in the 20th century and we allowed that to slow down progress itself.” To learn more about Jason's upcoming book, visit: https://technohumanist.org/ Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Why 2025 is the single most pivotal year in our lifetime | Peter Leyden ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5k72A30kUc Have we begun to lose faith in the future? The idea of ‘progress’ didn’t truly exist throughout the majority of human history. Most ages didn’t see history as an upward curve – they saw history as cyclical, full of ups and downs. This belief only shifted around the 1500s, says Jason Crawford, founder of The Roots of Progress and the author of The Techno-Humanist Manifesto. The idea that progress would automatically continue became widespread, until the first World War shattered the illusion that technology would bring peace and cooperation. Out of this rose a counterculture concern that modernity was a mistake, that progress itself was the problem. But was it? Are we now moving backwards? How can we regain trust in pushing forward? 00:00 Was modernity a mistake? 00:45 The history of progress 02:02 Francis Bacon 03:33 The Industrial Revolution 06:07 A period of optimism 07:25 Technology and world wars 08:29 The cost and risks of progress 11:46 What our future can bring Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/is-progress-inevitable/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jason Crawford: Jason Crawford is the founder of The Roots of Progress, where he writes and speaks about the history of technology and the philosophy of progress. He is also the creator of Progress Studies for Young Scholars, an online learning program for high schoolers; and a part-time adviser and technical consultant to Our World in Data, an Oxford-based non-profit for research and data on global development. Previously, he spent 18 years as a software engineer, engineering manager, and startup founder. From 2013–2018, he was co-founder & CEO of Fieldbook, a hybrid spreadsheet-database. He has also been an engineering manager at Flexport, Amazon, and Groupon, and a co-founder or early employee at other startups. Before that, he was a research engineer at D. E. Shaw Research, working on a new supercomputing architecture for computational biochemistry. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Why the body doesn't keep the score: the real science of trauma in 90 mins I George Bonanno

Nov 14, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “There are at least three very much interrelated misconceptions about trauma right now.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 We may think that trauma leaves irreversible scars, reshaping our brain and emotional regulation permanently. The science, however, shows the opposite, says psychologist George Bonanno. Our biology is much more resilient than we give it credit for. Bonanno dismantles common myths surrounding trauma and PTSD, and shares a practical mindset shift to navigate difficult experiences. 0:00 Rethinking trauma 01:07 The human capacity for resilience 04:33 Potentially traumatic vs. just really hard 09:28 Four pathways after adversity 15:45 How our brains encode trauma and shape our memories 26:20 The resilience paradox 31:27 The flexibility sequence 37:00 Why flexibility matters for healing 50:41 The history of PTSD 1:00:54 The psychology of grief 1:03:31 How the brain processes loss Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/myths-of-trauma/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About George Bonanno Dr. George Bonanno is a professor of psychology, chair of the department of counseling in clinical psychology, and director of the Loss, Trauma, and Emotion Lab at Teachers College Columbia University. He’s the author of The Other Side of Sadness and The End of Trauma.

How evolution works | Sean B. Carroll

Nov 13, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “Chance invents and natural selection propagates that chance invention.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The mind-bending probability of our existence | Sean B. Carroll: Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hOjpxNHgQc Evolution doesn’t create with intent: it begins with error. Random mutations, filtered through time and circumstance, give rise to the astonishing order of the natural world. Evolutionary biologist Sean B Carroll explains how chance and chaos operate as life’s quiet architects. 0:00 Evolution starts with error 0:44 The staircase of evolution 2:30 The speed of adaptation 3:14 The randomness of mutation 4:12 Icefish, antifreeze, and clear blood 6:43 Speciation 8:27 If humans evolved from apes, why are apes still around? 9:20 Our records of evolution 11:26 Evolution and the origin of life Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/error-and-evolution/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sean B. Carroll: Sean B. Carroll is an award-winning scientist, author, educator, and film producer. He is Distinguished University Professor and the Andrew and Mary Balo and NIcholas and Susan Simon Chair of Biology at the University of Maryland, and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He was formerly Head of HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, and led the Department of Science Education from 2010-2023. He is also Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin. An internationally-recognized evolutionary biologist, Carroll's laboratory research has centered on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Carroll has received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences, been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and elected an Associate Member of the European Molecular Biology Organization. His latest book is A Series of Fortunate Events.

How to break the hidden limits of expertise | Atul Gawande for Big Think+

Nov 12, 2025

Become a Big Think member and watch Atul Gawande's full class: https://bigthink.com/my-classes/true-ingredients-of-successful-leadership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “The purpose of a coach is to not be the one to set the goals, but instead to say, "Here are the kinds of goals we can work our way through.”” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The smartest people have mastered these 6 core skills | Michael Watkins for Big Think+ ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32z8Ax1j-Q4 Atul Gawande has spent his career studying how professionals improve, and why most eventually hit a plateau. At this point, even the most skilled experts need a coach to reveal their blind spots, as true expertise hinges on having the humility to keep learning once success arrives. Gawande explores the paradox of mastery: the point at which experience becomes limitation, and the only path forward is to let someone else see what you can’t. 0:00 How professions approach skill improvement 1:10 The Federer Mindset 2:22 Recognizing why coaches matter 3:46 Getting ongoing feedback 6:23 Agree on development goals Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/skill-plateau/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Atul Gawande: Atul Gawande, MD, MPH is a renowned surgeon, author, and public health leader whose work explores how humans design and improve systems for better outcomes in complex environments. He is Professor of the Practice of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and holds the John and Cyndy Fish Chair in Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He also serves as Distinguished Professor in Residence at Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation at Brigham and Women’s and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, which he co-founded and formerly chaired. From January 2022 to January 2025, he served as Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID. Gawande also co-founded Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery and anesthesia safer worldwide. From 2018-2020, he was CEO of Haven, the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase healthcare venture. A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, Gawande is the author of the best-selling books Complications (a National Book Award finalist), Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He is the winner of two National Magazine Awards, AcademyHealth’s Impact Award for highest research impact on healthcare, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Award for writing about science.

The illusion of shared reality | Anil Seth & Jonny Thomson

Nov 10, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “Consciousness is fundamental. It's a fundamental property of the world that we inhabit, a fundamental property of the universe.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, How to grow deeply happy | Jonny Thomson ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WShJeNX7W8 What does it mean to be conscious, and why does it feel like something to be you? Neuroscientist Anil Seth argues that consciousness isn’t a mysterious spark but a deeply biological process, one that depends on prediction, perception, and the body’s constant negotiation with the world. In this conversation with philosopher Jonny Thomson, he explores how our brains don’t passively observe reality, but rather actively construct it. 0:00 Non-human consciousness 1:40 The current state of consciousness science 2:10 What is consciousness? 4:05 The similarity of conscious experiences 5:48 Consciousness in the brain 11:23 Technology for measuring consciousness 16:03 Measuring consciousness levels 20:33 Pragmatic physicalism and functionalism 23:25 Pansychism 28:25 Emergence 32:35 AI and consciousness 36:49 The difference between non-human animals and AI 41:49 Is artificial consciousness possible? 48:12 Consciousness in the body and outside the brain Consciousness in the future and AI 50:27 Audience Q&A 50:41 Could computers could simulate the brain and body? 59:55 Why are you skeptical about asserting the dependency of life to the consciousness? 1:03:31 If consciousness is so clinical, does it undermine free will? Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/science-of-consciousness/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Anil Seth: Anil Seth is a neuroscientist, author, and public speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than 20 years. He is the author of Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. About Jonny Thomson: Jonny Thomson taught philosophy in Oxford for more than a decade before turning to writing full-time. He’s a columnist at Big Think and is the award-winning, bestselling author of three books that have been translated into 22 languages. Jonny is also the founder of Mini Philosophy, a social network of around two million curious, intelligent minds. He's known all over the world for making philosophy accessible, relatable, and fun.

Sean Carroll: Einstein’s most radical thought

Nov 7, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=membership&utm_content=bt-ytdesc-text-bti-carroll-rT7DMb3ZucU “The messy reality of it is that all of these very smart people, including Isaac Newton, were talking to other people.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Watch Sean Carroll's Full Interview with Big Think ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBNJyztai0 Albert Einstein altered the way we think about reality itself, and we often think of him as the most important physicist. But even his breakthroughs were part of a larger, tangled conversation among scientists stretching from Aristotle to Maxwell to Minkowski. Sean Carroll, physicist and philosopher at Johns Hopkins University, traces how the universe emerged not from solitary genius, but from centuries of dialogue, error, and correction. 0:00 Einstein — underrated? 1:00 The network of genius 1:16 Classical mechanics 1:48 Space and time 2:21 Electromagnetism 2:59 The speed of light 4:20 Spacetime 5:38 Special theory of relativity 6:31 Inverse square law of gravity 7:56 General theory of relativity 9:07 Schwarzschild solution 10:12 Quantum field theory 13:22 Quantum mechanics 16:16 Why physics is a conversation Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/sean-carroll-einstein/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sean Carroll: Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work.

Your life’s most important moments are flukes, not fate | Brian Klaas

Nov 6, 2025

“When you start to accept that you have profound influence on the world, but very limited control, you start to see the world differently.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, We control nothing, but we influence everything | Brian Klaas: Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtn2Wxai-ug We like to believe that everything happens for a reason. But what if that belief is a comforting illusion? Political scientist Brian Klaas argues that randomness, not reason, drives much of human life. The stories we tell ourselves about cause and effect aren’t reflections of truth, rather, they’re coping mechanisms to make chaos feel like order. 0:00 The limits of control 0:30 Does everything happen for a reason? 1:58 Science and chaos 2:27 Religion and the scientific revolution 4:23 Making sense of patterns 6:56 “The delusion of individualism” Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/myth-of-fate?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ►Get Big Think+ for Business Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Brian Klaas: Dr. Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London, an affiliate researcher at the University of Oxford, and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is also the author five books, including Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024) and Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021). Klaas writes the popular The Garden of Forking Paths Substack and created the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, which has been downloaded roughly three million times. Klaas is an expert on democracy, authoritarianism, American politics, political violence, elections, and the nature of power. Additionally, his research interests include contingency, chaos theory, evolutionary biology, the philosophy of science and social science, and complex systems. In addition to Fluke and Corruptible, Klaas authored three earlier books: The Despot's Apprentice: Donald Trump's Attack on Democracy (Hurst & Co, 2017); The Despot's Accomplice: How the West is Aiding & Abetting the Decline of Democracy, (Oxford University Press, 2016) and How to Rig an Election (Yale University Press, co-authored with Professor Nic Cheeseman; 2018).

Not all gratitude is created equal. A psychologist explains

Nov 4, 2025

This interview is an episode from ‪@The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪@TempletonFoundation. Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch all of Schnitker’s interviews ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_B7bI1QVmJD3Txt76o1eObfk0ICzrVWD Gratitude connects us, but how we express it might matter more than we think. Baylor professor of psychology and neuroscience Sarah Schnitker explores how practicing gratitude can lead to stronger relationships and greater well-being. Her lab found that gratitude expressed through prayer may offer even more benefits than journaling or speaking it aloud, and that feeling connected to something larger may help combat today’s growing loneliness. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/how-gratitude-changes-you/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description_bigthink ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sarah Schnitker: Dr. Sarah Schnitker, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University and Director of the BRIGHTS Center, researches virtue development in youth. Specializing in patience, self-control, and gratitude, she has 100+ publications, $10M in grants, and mentors doctoral students in science and virtue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

The greatest revolution in the history of medicine | Andrew Steele

Nov 3, 2025

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, scientists have really started to understand the fundamental underlying biology of the aging process. And they broke this down into 12 hallmarks of aging.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Why 2025 is the single most pivotal year in our lifetime | Peter Leyden ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5k72A30kUc We track age by the number of birthdays we’ve had, but scientists are arguing that our cells tell a different, more truthful story. Our biological age reveals how our bodies are actually aging, from our muscle strength to the condition of our DNA. The gap between these two numbers may hold the key to treating aging – which could help save 100,000 lives per day and win us $38 trillion dollars. 00:00 Rethinking longevity 01:27 Understanding aging 02:58 Biological age and epigenetics 04:29 New frontiers in longevity science 08:04 Future possibilities and ethical questions 10:24 The moral debate around living longer Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/aging-science-steele/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Andrew Steele: Dr. Andrew Steele is a scientist, writer and campaigner based in Berlin, author of Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old, and Director and Co-Founder of The Longevity Initiative.

Hollywood lied to you about Ancient Rome. Here’s the truth | Mary Beard: Full Interview

Oct 31, 2025

“Everyone's image of [Ancient Rome] is based on modern movies. In some ways, I think those were rather impressive, but they got some things terribly wrong.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Would you survive a week in Ancient Rome? | Mary Beard: Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxtxmG_H-To We've inherited the history of Ancient Rome through movies, ruins, and shallow stories. The truth is far messier, says classicist Mary Beard. The hidden side of Roman life that screens rarely capture is chaotic; crowded streets teeming with Romans whose everyday lives were shaped by social hierarchies and familial obligations. Mary Beard unpacks what archaeology, literature, and even shoes tell us about the Romans’ daily lives. From the role of slaves in dressing elites to the rowdy crowds at chariot races, she shows how we’ve underestimated their complexity. If you'd like to see Mary Beard discuss these ideas live, go to: https://www.instantclassicspod.com/events 0:00 You’re picturing Ancient Rome all wrong 1:22 Mary Beard: scholar of Ancient Rome 20:41 The Roman triumph: the greatest celebration of all time 40:27 The Romans who shaped the world 41:25 Augustus 45:46 Virgil 47:22 Julius Ceasar 48:42 Cincinnatus 50:53 The Gracchii brothers 53:27 Marcus Tullius Cicero 55:19 Emperor Nero 57:45 Tacitus 1:06:01 Understanding “The Odyssey” Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/myth-truth-ancient-rome/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Mary Beard: Winifred Mary Beard, OBE, FBA, FSA is an English Classical scholar. She is Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and Royal Academy of Arts professor of ancient literature. She is also the classics editor of The Times Literary Supplement, and author of the blog, "A Don's Life," which appears in The Times as a regular column. Her frequent media appearances and sometimes controversial public statements have led to her being described as "Britain's best-known classicist."

How accepting impermanence can end the struggle to “fix” your life | Robert Waldinger

Oct 30, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “The idea is that we move from a place of wanting the world to conform to what we like [towards] not needing other people to be different from who they are.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, 3 powerful mind states: Flow state, good anxiety, and Zen Buddhism ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvHne-U4lcw Most of us feel we have miles to go with self improvement. That we want to become calmer, wiser, more finished. What if this pursuit actually keeps us trapped from that becoming? Zen teacher and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger argues that enlightenment isn’t a destination or a rare mystical state. Rather, it's the ever-shifting recognition of the present moment. This quiet state of noticing, Waldinger says, can be extremely liberating, freeing us from the pressure of becoming. 0:00 Everyday Zen: mindfulness, impermanence, and compassion 0:45 Zen and community 2:52 Awakening 3:28 Impermanence 5:44 The Four Noble Truths 10:14 Having a beginner’s mind 15:22 The concept of enlightenment Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/zen-101/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Youtube Member Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Become a Big Think Web Member Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more. https://bigthink.com/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Robert Waldinger: Robert Waldinger, MD is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, a practicing psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and a Zen teacher and practitioner. For the last two decades, Waldinger has been the director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. This study, conducted over more than 85 years, has analyzed the entire lives of 724 families to determine the activities, behaviors, and dynamics that enhance a person’s life-long well-being. Waldinger has dedicated his career to examining these elements and discovering what brings true fulfillment to human existence. He is the author of several books, including his most recent, The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.

You’ll never escape life's problems. Why that’s actually liberating | Oliver Burkeman for BT+

Oct 29, 2025

Become a Big Think member and watch Oliver Burkeman's full class: http://bigthink.com/my-classes/productivity-for-mortals/ Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Why you’ll never “get on top of everything” | Oliver Burkeman for Big Think+ ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LMaT4rUdG4 Most of us are quietly waiting for our life’s problems to subside. We feel that after “solving” them, everything will be perfect, and we’ll achieve complete happiness. In actuality, learning to live in the problems that come our way can make us happier, and expecting a frictionless life actually causes more strife for us. Journalist Oliver Burkeman reframes challenges as the path to a more meaningful life. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/ftm_episode/the-problem-trap/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Oliver Burkeman: Oliver Burkeman is a bestselling author and journalist. He is best known for Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021), a self-help book on reframing productivity for happiness. He also publishes The Imperfectionist, an email on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.

The investment traps that destroy wealth and how to avoid them with Barry Ritholtz | Full Interview

Oct 24, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “Let me walk you through the biggest traps that you should be aware of that are a danger to your financial wellbeing.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The most powerful way to think about money ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugIuHWc6Nuc You probably think investing is about markets and strategy, but Barry Rithotz argues that it’s actually about biology. Our brains evolved to spot danger, not to manage portfolios, and the instincts that once kept us alive now push us towards panic and greed. That same wiring that told our ancestors to run from predators now tells modern investors to sell at the bottom. 0:00 Why your brain makes you a bad investor 2:28 Using our brains in ways they weren’t built for 3:57 Cognitive biases that derail investing 6:52 Emotional Bias 8:22 Gamestop and speculative bets 10:22 Narrative fallacy 12:01 Overconfidence bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect and 12:44 Confirmation bias 14:56 Conformity bias 16:25 Loss aversion 17:47 Anchoring 18:41 Tribal bias 20:19 Recency bias 23:51 Investing is a loser’s game. Here’s how to win 24:28 “The Loser’s Game” 27:28 2% of stocks are responsible for all returns 30:21 The odds against you picking successful stocks 31:52 Maximizing your ability to compound 32:02 Automate 33:03 Diversification 34:23 Costs 37:48 Rebalancing 39:54 Ignoring forecasts 42:15 Market timing 44:29 How financial media sets investors up for failure 46:06 The attention economy 46:55 What is margin debt? 48:03 How negative media influences our investments 50:30 Denominator blindness 54:07 Key qualities in financial media 56:35 Social media and investing Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/barry-investing-mistakes/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Barry Ritholtz: Barry L. Ritholtz is co-founder, chairman, and chief investment officer of Ritholtz Wealth Management LLC. Launched in 2013, RWM is a financial planning and asset management firm, with over $6.4 billion dollars in assets under management. RWM was named ETF Advisor of the Year, is on the Financial Times Top 300 Advisors in the US, and is the 4th fastest-growing RIA in America. His career history is filled with cutting-edge innovation and influential new ideas: He was one of the earliest traders to embrace behavioral economics, he created one of the first and most popular market blogs; his podcast was groundbreaking and among the earliest in the investment spaces. Named one of the “15 Most Important Economic Journalists” in the United States, he has been called one of the 25 Most Dangerous People in Financial Media. He writes a weekly column for Bloomberg Opinion (2013- 2021) and wrote a twice-monthly column on Personal Finance and Investing for The Washington Post (2011-2016). His latest book, “How Not To Invest: The ideas, numbers, and behaviors that destroy wealth – and how to avoid them” was published on March 18, 2025.

What the absence of aliens on Earth really tells us | David Kipping

Oct 23, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc “Deep down the natural endpoint of this whole goal of looking for planets is to answer the question: are we alone?” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The great quest for extraterrestrial life | David Kipping Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0cvzQiuvI Astronomer David Kipping explores humanity’s oldest question: if the universe is vast and ancient, why haven’t we found anyone else in it? He argues that our longing to discover another Earth often clouds our reasoning, and that the greatest challenge in the search for life isn’t technology, but temptation. 0:00 Are we alone? 1:19 The Drake equation 2:08 The problem with the Rare Earth hypothesis 2:56 What is life? 5:55 The Copernican principle 7:08 The weak anthropic principle 8:57 The Kardashev scale 10:58 Hart’s Fact A 15:49 How often does simple life become complex? 17:45 Using biosignatures and technosignatures to find alien life 21:01 Our past quests for alien life 23:10 The difficulty in proving a negative Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/search-alien-life/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About David Kipping: David Kipping is an Associate Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University and the founding director of the Cool Worlds Laboratory, where he leads groundbreaking research on exoplanets, exomoons, and the search for extraterrestrial life. As a pioneer in the detection of moons around planets outside our solar system, his work has been published in prestigious scientific journals and has significantly advanced our understanding of distant planetary systems. Kipping employs sophisticated statistical methods to analyze data from NASA's Kepler and TESS missions, extracting subtle signals that reveal the properties of these distant worlds. Beyond academia, he created and hosts the popular Cool Worlds YouTube channel, which has attracted over 750,000 subscribers through its accessible explorations of cosmic frontiers and speculative astronomy. After receiving his PhD from University College London and holding positions at Harvard University, Kipping has established himself as a respected researcher who effectively bridges rigorous scientific investigation with compelling public science communication.

The backwards logic of censorship

Oct 21, 2025

This interview is an episode from ‪@The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪@TempletonFoundation. Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch Mchangama's next interview ► Even AI is self-censoring. Here's why that matters. https://youtu.be/Cz-EOCb1pKA Historian and free speech advocate Jacob Mchangama explains how suppressing voices often has the opposite effect. From the crucifixion of Jesus fueling Christianity to Barbra Streisand accidentally amplifying photos of her Malibu mansion, attempts at censorship often strengthen what they aim to silence. Mchangama argues that while free speech can be messy and ugly, it remains essential to preserve its many benefits. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jacob Mchangama: Jacob Mchangama founded and leads The Future of Free Speech, is a research professor at Vanderbilt, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). A prolific commentator and author on free speech and human rights, he created the podcast “Clear and Present Danger” and wrote the 2022 book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

Why 2025 was the single most pivotal year in our lifetime | Peter Leyden

Oct 20, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=membership&utm_content=bt-ytdesc-text-fti-leyden-w5k72A30kUc "We're living in an extraordinary moment in history. We are at a moment here in 2025 where we have world historic game-changing technologies now starting to scale." Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The alarm bells are sounding for young men. Will we listen? | Richard Reeves ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnA98N6CjBg We are living through the collapse of the old world, and the quiet construction of a new one. From artificial intelligence and clean energy to bioengineering and digital governance, the core systems that defined the last century are rapidly being dismantled and replaced. But this isn’t just about technology. According to futurist Peter Leyden, we’re at a historic turning point: One of the rare moments in American and global history when everything gets reimagined at once. 0:00 An extraordinary moment in history 1:05 Wired magazine 2:09 Technology adoption curve 2:53 80 year cycles 3:26 Post-war era 5:08 Gilded age 6:59 Founding era 8:24 The arrival of AI 9:42 The rise of clean energy 10:52 The rise of bioengineering 13:45 The beginning of a shift References: Article: Ziegler, M. S.; Trancik, J. E. Re-Examining Rates of Lithium-Ion Battery Technology Improvement and Cost Decline. Energy Environ. Sci. 2021, 14, 1635–1651. DOI: 10.1039/D0EE02681F URL: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/artic... Dataset: Ziegler, M. S.; Trancik, J. E., 2021, "Data series for lithium-ion battery technologies", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/9FEJ7C, Trancik Lab Dataverse, V1, UNF:6:sVT2vBwWolbQL4BxsTSDUg== [fileUNF] Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/great-inflection-2025/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Peter Leyden: Peter Leyden is a longtime tech expert and thought leader on the future. He came to San Francisco to work with the founders of WIRED magazine at the beginning of the digital revolution and has followed the front edge of technological change every step since—including into the AI revolution today. In addition to being an influential writer and author, Leyden is a keynote speaker who has explained the implications of new technologies and the positive possibilities to come to audiences throughout America and Europe on a monthly basis over the last 25 years. Leyden also founded several startups that pioneered fields transformed by new technologies and currently advises senior leaders in strategic foresight through his company Reinvent Futures. Get more on all of this on his websites: http://peterleyden.com and https://peterleyden.substack.com/

The science of romantic love, explained by an anthropologist | Helen Fisher

Oct 17, 2025

“No matter what their gods were, what they did for a living, what they wore, the songs they sang, everything varies except love, and everybody loves.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The science of sex, love, and attachment | Dr. Helen Fisher: Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORAaaBevtT4 From the beginning of humanity, cultures and societies vary in tradition, religion, art, philosophy, and customs. One constant that remains unchanging? The essential need for love and partnership. Dr. Helen Fisher explains the drive for love from an anthropological perspective, exploring the science of attraction, heartbreak, rejection, and how our dopamine factories send us on lifelong quests to find “the one.” 0:00 The origins of romantic love and attachment 02:53 Love across cultures and time 04:39 The evolutionary roots of love 07:45 Discovering the brain in love 10:00 What the brain reveals about love 12:05 Love and addiction Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/universality-of-love/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Helen Fisher: Helen E. Fisher, Ph.D. biological anthropologist, was a Senior Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, and a Member of the Center For Human Evolutionary Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. She wrote six books on the evolution, biology, and psychology of human sexuality, monogamy, adultery and divorce, gender differences in the brain, the neural chemistry of romantic love and attachment, human biologically-based personality styles, why we fall in love with one person rather than another, hooking up, friends with benefits, living together and other current trends, and the future of relationships — what she called: slow love.

Sean Carroll: Physics will challenge your ideas of free will

Oct 16, 2025

“The universe clicks along in perfect accord with the laws of physics forever.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, Sean Carroll explains why physics is both simple and impossible | Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBNJyztai0 What if the universe is a machine, and every moment in our past, present, and future is already encoded in the positions of its particles? Physicist Sean Carroll explores the unsettling implications of classical mechanics, from Newton’s laws to Laplace’s thought experiment, showing how determinism challenges the very idea of free will. 0:00 Is reality a clockwork machine? 0:57 The determinism of classical mechanics 2:03 The spherical cow and simplified models 2:58 The universe as an equation 6:53 When the clockwork universe meets the human mind Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/sean-carroll-clockwork-universe/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sean Carroll: Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work.

Willpower likely won’t save you from your bad habits. Science explains why

Oct 15, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators. Your brain makes habits stick. The good news? The same science shows how to replace the bad ones. Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Why are bad habits so hard to break? Neuroscientist Carl Hart, PhD, journalist Charles Duhigg, and psychologist Adam Alter, PhD explain how your brain wires habits as cue-routine-reward loops that control nearly half of your daily life. They show why willpower alone rarely works, why technology fuels new forms of addiction, and why habits can only be replaced, not erased. Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/brain-briefs-addictions-and-habits-explained/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ►Get Big Think+ for Business Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Carl Hart, PhD: Dr. Hart is an Associate Professor of Psychology in both the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Columbia University, and Director of the Residential Studies and Methamphetamine Research Laboratories at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. A major focus of Dr. Hart’s research is to understand complex interactions between drugs of abuse and the neurobiology and environmental factors that mediate human behavior and physiology. About Charles Duhigg: Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on bestseller lists and has been translated into 40 languages, and Smarter Faster Better, also a bestseller. Mr. Duhigg writes for The New Yorker magazine and is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School. He has been a frequent contributor to CNBC, This American Life, NPR, The Colbert Report, NewsHour, and Frontline. About Adam Alter, PhD: Adam Alter is an Associate Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, with an affiliated appointment in the New York University Psychology Department.

The psychology of loneliness

Oct 14, 2025

This interview is an episode from ‪@The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @TempletonFoundation. Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch all of Kross’s interviews ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_B7bI1QVmJCicywliIA6EcD5U1ks8HZN Popular media has made loneliness look bad, but is it really? Author and psychologist Ethan Kross explains his study of loneliness, finding that it is actually our response to loneliness – rather than the act of being alone itself – that has negative effects. If we reframe loneliness as an opportunity instead of a threat, it can have surprising benefits for our creativity, well-being, and relationships with ourselves. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/the-science-of-being-alone-vs-loneliness/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description_bigthink ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Ethan Kross: Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top-ranked Psychology Department and its Ross School of Business, he studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions and relationships. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

Men are dying at alarming rates | Richard Reeves

Oct 10, 2025

“It's certainly clear that the issues of boys and men haven't gone away in the last few years. If anything, they're getting even more attention, which is good when it's the right kind of attention.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The real reasons young men are checking out of society | Richard Reeves: Full Interview ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLIEpbLWWao The conversation around masculinity is a political battlefield, devolving into extreme caricaturization: uncritical celebration or outright demonization. Where does the nuance of this discussion live? Richard Reeves argues that this binary leaves out the real story: how changing economies, shifting cultural expectations, and the absence of strong male role models have left many young men without a clear path forward. 0:00 Blaming young men 1:24 Rethinking how we talk about masculinity 2:45 The rise in male deaths from drugs 3:17 The male rate of suicide 4:14 Male representation in different professions 6:10 Men and purpose 6:52 Median annual earnings of men 8:54 Men and the “get rich quick” scheme 10:31 Online gambling addiction 12:15 What does non-toxic masculinity look like? 13:17 Policy for young males 14:46 Male support systems 19:08 GPA distribution amongst boys and girls Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/richard-reeves-masculinity-crisis/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Richard Reeves: Richard V. Reeves is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he directs the Future of the Middle Class Initiative and co-directs the Center on Children and Families. His Brookings research focuses on the middle class, inequality and social mobility. Richard writes for a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, Guardian, National Affairs, The Atlantic, Democracy Journal, and Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Dream Hoarders (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), and John Stuart Mill – Victorian Firebrand (Atlantic Books, 2007), an intellectual biography of the British liberal philosopher and politician. Dream Hoarders was named a Book of the Year by The Economist, a Political Book of the Year by The Observer, and was shortlisted for the Goddard Riverside Stephan Russo Book Prize for Social Justice. In September 2017, Politico magazine named Richard one of the top 50 thinkers in the U.S. for his work on class and inequality. A Brit-American, Richard was director of strategy to the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister from 2010 to 2012. Other previous roles include director of Demos, the London-based political think-tank; social affairs editor of the Observer; principal policy advisor to the Minister for Welfare Reform, and research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research. Richard is also a former European Business Speaker of the Year and has a BA from Oxford University and a PhD from Warwick University.

How fiction reveals truths journalism cannot | Lawrence Wright

Oct 9, 2025

“As a reporter, you can look into the eyes of the people you're talking to and try to evaluate what they're thinking when they say what they say. But you are not really gonna get into their brain. There's only one artistic form that allows you to do that. “ Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, 12 traits emotionally intelligent people share (You can learn them) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr8sLxde1m8 What can fiction reveal that history and journalism leave hidden? Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Lawrence Wright turns to the novel to explore the lives caught in conflict in Israel and Palestine. His book The Human Scale uses narrative to confront the unequal ways lives are valued in this region, asking whether storytelling can expose truths that politics can obscure. 0:00 The Human Scale 1:37 Deriving truth and meaning from fiction 2:26 The uneven weight of human life 4:28 Why narrative can get into the mind of another 6:28 Confronting uncomfortable truths 10:27 The setting of The Human Scale Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/lawrence-wright-truth-fiction/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Lawrence Wright: Lawrence Wright is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist, and screenwriter whose work focuses on politics, religion, and culture. A longtime staff writer for The New Yorker, Wright is best known for The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. Beyond his landmark works on extremism, Wright has explored the complexities of Scientology in Going Clear, the global response to pandemics in The End of October, and the role of Texas as both a cultural crucible and a political bellwether in God Save Texas.

Stop fighting your anxiety and start using it | Jesse Eisenberg for Big Think+

Oct 8, 2025

Become a Big Think member and watch Jesse Eisenberg’s full class: https://bigthink.com/my-classes/leading-through-anxiety-5/leading-through-anxiety-6/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=membership-class&utm_content=bt-ytdesc-text-lesson-eisenberg-h-MHHlZqVaI “The way my mind works is just out of anxiety and catastrophization.” Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, The smartest people have mastered these 6 core skills | Michael Watkins for Big Think+ ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32z8Ax1j-Q4 Anxiety doesn’t vanish with practice. In fact, in actor Jesse Eisenberg’s experience, it can grow even sharper even after repetition. Eisenberg’s stories from stage and film sets reveal what performance anxiety teaches us about how the brain works, and how we can rewire it to work better for us. Rather than treating panic as a flaw, the actor argues it can be redirected into focus and authenticity. 0:00 Performance anxiety 0:32 Recognize catastrophic thinking 3:57 Normalize your panic 6:24 Reframe negative feelings as motivation Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/the-big-think-interview/jesse-eisenberg-anxiety/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jesse Eisenberg: Jesse Eisenberg is an Academy Award nominated actor and an acclaimed playwright and author. Eisenberg’s film credits include Roger Dodger, The Squid and the Whale, Adventureland, Zombieland, The Social Network, Now You See Me, The Double, Night Moves, The End of Tour, American Ultra, Louder Than Bombs, Batman v. Superman, Now You See Me 2, Café Society, Justice League, The Hummingbird Project, The Art of Self Defense, Zombieland: Double Tap, Resistance, Vivarium,Wild Indian, Manodrome, and Sasquatch Sunset which sees him play the urban legend Sasquatch. On the small screen, Eisenberg was recently seen playing the titular character of ‘Toby Fleishman’ in the FX limited series Fleishman Is in Trouble based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s best-selling novel of the same name. Eisenberg made his directorial debut with A24’s When You Finish Saving the World, which premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival to glowing reviews and screened as a part of Critics Week at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The film is based on the Audible Original of the same name, both of which were written by Eisenberg. Eisenberg’s second directorial effort, A Real Pain, recently had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which Eisenberg stars alongside Kieran Culkin, tells the story of two estranged cousins who travel to Poland after their grandmother dies to see where she came from and end up joining a Holocaust tour, won Eisenberg the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for his screenplay The film was bought at the festival by Searchlight Pictures for a release later in the year. Eisenberg has written four plays, including “The Spoils,” which had a box-office record-breaking run-on West End. He also wrote and starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave in his play “The Revisionist,” and “Asuncion.” His play, “Happy Talk” starring Susan Sarandon and Marin Ireland opened April 2019 at the Signature Theater in New York. Born in New York, Eisenberg is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, the author of the collection, Bream Gives Me Hiccups from Grove Press and the Audible Original When You Finish Saving the World, which won “Best Original Work” at the 2021 Audie Awards.

The power of criticism — and the cost of silence

Oct 7, 2025

This interview is an episode from ‪@The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪@TempletonFoundation Subscribe to The Well on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/thewell-youtube Watch Mchangama’s next interview ► True free speech, explained in 6 minutes https://youtu.be/F4HTlRwMdlI America’s real danger isn’t free speech. It’s silence. Founder of The Future of Free Speech Jacob Mchangama argues that free speech is not a threat but society’s strongest safeguard against violence. Suppressing expression creates a pressure cooker that can push people toward violent action when peaceful dissent is denied. While acknowledging its harms — especially in the digital age — Mchangama warns that censorship is far worse. Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/the-power-of-criticism?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description_bigthink ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Jacob Mchangama: Jacob Mchangama founded and leads The Future of Free Speech, is a research professor at Vanderbilt, and a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). A prolific commentator and author on free speech and human rights, he created the podcast “Clear and Present Danger” and wrote the 2022 book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About The Well Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Subscribe to the weekly newsletter ► https://bit.ly/thewellemailsignup ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join The Well on your favorite platforms: ► Facebook: https://bit.ly/thewellFB ► Instagram: https://bit.ly/thewellIG

How trauma stays in the body and how to remove it with Bessel van der Kolk | Full Interview

Oct 3, 2025

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc "One of the largest mitigating factors against getting traumatized is who is there for you at that particular time." Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1 Up next, How the body keeps the score on trauma | Bessel van der Kolk for Big Think+ ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTefkqYQz8g Trauma doesn’t vanish when danger does. According to psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, the body acts as an archive, holding fear, pain, and survival instincts long after the moment passes. Van der Kolk explains why conventional treatments for trauma fall short, and the promising new pathways to healing that science is revealing. 0:00 Chapter 1: Trauma, explained 1:21 PTSD in veterans 2:09 Connecting with others after trauma 4:28 The prevalence of trauma 5:35 What is trauma? 8:19 The greatest protector of trauma 9:37 Trauma in the brain 11:46 Automatic responses 14:56 The brain and our experiences 16:52 Re-experiencing trauma 19:58 Brain development and trauma 27:29 Chapter 2: Shaping childhood trauma 28:27 Reenacting trauma in relationships 31:41 Understanding each other’s trauma 34:59 Long term effects of child abuse 36:34 Chapter 3: How to treat trauma 36:57 “A post-alcoholic culture” 37:27 Zoloft, Prozac, and other PTSD drugs 39:15 The Adverse Childhood Experiences study 40:48 Drug addiction 43:02 Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) 45:48 Unconventional trauma treatments 46:30 The brain-body connection Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/trauma-brain-body-connection/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go Deeper with Big Think: ►Become a Big Think Member Get exclusive content, early, ad-free access to new releases, and more. https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/ ►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack Explore content that enlightens, inspires, and transforms. https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/ ►Get Big Think+ for Business Engage learners like never before with high-impact video microlearning from the biggest thinkers in the world. https://bigthink.com/plus/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Bessel van der Kolk: Bessel van der Kolk MD spends his career studying how children and adults adapt to traumatic experiences and has translated emerging findings from neuroscience and attachment research to develop and study a range of treatments for traumatic stress in children and adults.