Today, MIT's Andrew McAfee stops by to share a few key insights from his recent book "The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results."

Happy Friday, friends! To close out the week, here are a few tips on how to have a great day, any day. Guest: Daniel Goleman Book: "Optimal: How to Sustain Personal and Organizational Excellence Every Day" Subscribe to our newsletter Download our app Join our club (and use code DAILY for a special discount)

Today, the true story of the Clotilda, the last slave ship to land on American soil — more than half a century after a federal law banned the importation of captive Africans.

In an alarming new book "Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons," journalist Sarah Scoles explores the current state of the nuclear arms race.

Today, clinical psychologist and mind-body expert Scott Lyons turns the notion of the drama queen on its head.

Want to become the best at what you do? First, says Ron Friedman ("Decoding Greatness"), you must learn how to reverse engineer.

Humans, it turns out, are pretty decent. That's according to Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, whose book "Humankind: A Hopeful History" was praised by our very own Daniel Pink for making a "bold, sweeping argument" — one you'll hear pieces of today — "[that] will make you rethink what you believe about society, democracy, and human nature itself." • Subscribe to Michael's newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (and use code DAILY for a special discount)

Nick Romeo, a writer for The New Yorker, has spent the last several years covering the most compelling economic policies and ideas in Europe and America. He's here today to share what he's learned.

Today, we hear from Rick Hanson, senior fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, about his latest book, "Making Great Relationships: Simple Practices for Solving Conflicts, Building Connection, and Fostering Love."

In "Little Treatments, Big Effects," Harvard-trained psychologist Jessica Schleider explains how you can reboot your mental health in a single therapy session. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (and use code DAILY for a special discount)

Shellye Archambeau was an executive at IBM, Blockbuster's president, and then MetricStream's CEO. She currently serves on the boards of Verizon and Nordstrom. Today, she shares five key insights from her book "Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms."

Today, five lessons, "Learning to Love Midlife," a blueprint for aging gracefully by Chip Conley, CEO of the Modern Elder Academy.

For her first book, Antonia Hylton, a Peabody and Emmy award-winning journalist, unearthed the 93-year-old history of a segregated asylum in Maryland.

Rebecca Boyle stops by to discuss her new book, "Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are."

In "Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments," science journalist Gary Taubes argues that when it comes to treating diabetes, a disease that one in five Americans struggles with, we need to focus on diet—particularly, fewer carbohydrates and more fat — over a reliance on insulin

How did Apple overcome a culture of secrecy? How did Pixar out-innovate Disney? In their new book, "Brave Together," Chris Deaver and Ian Clawson say the answer lies in the power of co-creation, a mindset that fosters genuine collaboration.

Stop trying to be perfect. Try this instead.

False narratives about post-racism and meritocracy have been used to condone egregious economic outcomes. What can we do to fix the system?

Last week, Stanford neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky came on the show to make the case that free will does not exist. Today, Alfred Mele, a professor of philosophy at Florida State University, is here to argue the opposite.

Craig Smith has been a heart surgeon for more than 40 years, and in that time he's saved the lives of ordinary patients and one former President of the United States. Today, he's on the show to reflect on his vocation and what it means to be a servant leader.

Charisma. Some people have it, some people don’t. Or so we’ve been led to believe. But speaker, researcher, and bestselling author Vanessa Van Edwards says that to be charismatic, you just have to harness the power of cues. But wait. What are cues? Tune in to find out. Swing by our event in New York City on Jan. 31. Can't make it in person? Grab a ticket for the livestream here.

Curiosity may not seem like a skill, but it is. You can cultivate it. Scott Shigeoka will teach you how. • Attend our event on Jan. 31 • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

What does it take to open someone's mind? We asked David McRaney for his science-backed tips.

Increasing longevity and the explosion of technology are reshaping the world. What will it mean for your education, career, and life? Wharton professor Mauro Guillén has the answers.

"The art of losing isn't hard to master," Elizabeth Bishop wrote in her poem "One Art." Psychotherapist Gina Moffa agrees. In her new book, "Moving On Doesn't Mean Letting Go," Gina offers an easy-to-follow map through the hinterlands of loss.

With the rise of hybrid work, intergeneration offices, and flexible schedules, it has never been harder to build a successful team. Leaders are bending over backward, searching for solutions that work. But nothing sticks. Today, bestselling author Mike Michalowicz shares his proven formula for building an unstoppable team in any workplace.

To close out the week, let's hear from two philosophers about what it means to be happy, good, and to live with purpose.

Every day, in offices around the world, there are an estimated 200 million one-on-one meetings. In "Glad We Met," Steven Rogelberg asks: are all those 1:1s run as effectively as possible?

Does free will exist? Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky says, "Hell no!" Which sounds scary, we know, but he's here today to explain why a world without free will might not actually be such a bad place.

We don't just want to live for a long time — we want to thrive as we age. Today, science writer and documentarian Jason Prall tells us how we can.

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which has us thinking about the state of our nation — specifically, the state of diversity in our nation. It's a complicated subject, to be sure, so to help us think through it, we're joined by Adia Harvey Wingfield, a professor of sociology at Washington University, whose new book, "Gray Areas," examines why racial inequality persists in the workplace despite today's multi-billion-dollar diversity industry and what actions we can take to create an equitable, multiracial future.

Madeleine Dore went in search of the secret to productivity, only to find that there isn't one. Instead, we're being set up to fail. Today, she's here to encourage us to take productivity off its pedestal.

How innovative are our times really? Not very, according to Thomas Ramge and Rafael Laguna de la Vera. And they've got a point. Technology may have solved some fake problems ("one-click buying!"), but it hasn't done nearly enough to tackle big issues like climate change, cancer, dementia, or hunger. Today, Tomas and Rafael share their vision for a future in which we harness the forces of science and technology to solve real problems.

You may know David Leonhardt from his wildly popular New York Times newsletter, "The Morning." What you may not know is that David is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has spent years trying to understand why the standard of living for many Americans seems to be eroding. His findings are the subject of a new book, "Ours Was the Shining Future," which The Atlantic named one of the best of the year. He joins us today to talk about it.

Today, Dr. Jeremy Nobel unpacks our personal and national experiences of loneliness to discover its roots and to show how we can take steps to find comfort and connection.

Do you have what it takes to be a great leader? Find out by listening to Kirstin Ferguson, who joins us to share five indispensable leadership tips from her new book, "Head & Heart," which Adam Grant calls "a timely, actionable book on the virtues that every great leader needs to learn."

Today, author Maggie Jackson offers a guide to flourishing in times of flux and angst by harnessing the overlooked power of our uncertainty.

Have you ever met an airborne cryptologic linguist? No? Well, today's your lucky day. We're joined by Ian Fritz who has written a new memoir about coming-of-age in a war that is lost.

A structural engineer examines the basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world.

Exercise isn't just our modern obsession: the ancients were keen on it, too. That's according to award-winning journalist Bill Hayes, who joins us today to describe how our fanaticism for working out has evolved.

Change is not the exception, it’s the rule. Today, Brad Stulberg ("Master of Change") tells us how to deal with it.

You can get happier. And getting there will be the adventure of your lifetime. Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks shares a few tips on how to do it from his new book — co-written with the one and only Oprah Winfrey — "Build the Life You Want."

Actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson ("The Office") explores the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world.

Today, Shankar Vedantam, host of "Hidden Brain," walks us through the surprising role of self-deception in human flourishing.

Today, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain — and what we can do about it.

This week, we're looking back at some of our favorite episodes from the last year. Today, we'll hear from award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who's going to transform your relationship with failure.

To close out the week, we called up Mara Glatzel to share her unique approach to identifying, honoring, and advocating for the most tender and true parts of yourself that yearn to be acknowledged.

“It’s the year 2050… and racism has ended.” Could this really be our future?

Today, we're joined by Morgan Housel, author of the mega-bestseller The Psychology of Money, who'll discuss his new book, Same as Ever.

In this episode, the New York Times–bestselling author of Wintering invites us to rediscover the feelings of awe and wonder available to us all.

We are living in a strange world. Felix Salmon calls it “the New Not Normal.” Today, he explores the economic ramifications of the pandemic years, many of which are surprisingly positive.

Can the ancient wisdom of the Stoics help you live a better life today?

Technology is rapidly reshaping our lives. And not always for the better. In this episode, three Stanford professors argue that if we want technology to advance human progress, we need to rein in big tech.

Egyptian-American astrophysicist Sarafina El-Badry Nance shares how she boldly carved out a place in the field of astrophysics, grounding herself in a lifelong love of the stars to face life’s inevitable challenges and embrace the unknown.

Today, physician and New York Times bestselling author Michael Greger shares simple hacks you can use to stay healthy as you age.

Over the past two decades, Rich Horwath has helped more than a quarter million leaders develop their strategic thinking and planning skills. Today, he's here to help you.

Today, journalist and podcaster Liel Leibovitz explores how the Talmud — an ancient work of Jewish ethics, law, and tradition ― might actually be humanity’s first self-help book. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

Today, Wendy Wong, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, stops by to tell us why we need to reboot rights in this data-intensive world.

The fear of playing the fool is a universal psychological phenomenon and an underappreciated driver of human behavior, says Tess Wilkinson-Ryan. She's on the show today to explain how to live with integrity in a sucker's world. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

CW: This episode contains references to suicide. In his 20s, Andy Dunn launched a DTC men’s fashion brand called Bonobos. Business was booming. But Dunn was haunted by a ghost: a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. A collision course was set in motion, threatening to unravel everything he’d built. Today, Andy joins us to talk about his harrowing experience and what it can teach all of us about the mental health stigmas.

Today, Ozan Varol, the acclaimed author of "Think Like a Rocket Scientist" shares five tools you can use to unlock your originality and unleash your unique talents.

Today, to close out the week, we'll hear psychologist Michael Gervais's groundbreaking guide for overcoming what may be the single greatest constrictor of human potential: our fear of people’s opinions.

College isn’t for everyone. Could high-value apprenticeships provide an alternative pathway to economic opportunity?

Today, one of the world’s most creative mathematicians offers a new way to look at math.

"There are little things that we can do daily that lower our risk of dementia and Alzheimer's by anywhere from 30 to 60 percent," says Marc Milstein in today's episode.

In her two decades researching organizations, Michelle King has discovered that people who succeed possess a particularly unique skill: They know how workplaces work.

To cap off the week, we'll hear from Chris Bailey, who offers up a guide to achieving calm, navigating anxiety, and staving off burnout. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

Ian Leslie, a columnist for the New Statesman, is here today to teach us how to transform the heat of conflict, disagreement, and argument into the light of insight, creativity, and connection.

Today, a deep dive into cancel culture, an account of its dangers to all Americans, and the much-needed antidote from the team that brought you "Coddling of the American Mind."

Many of us mistakenly view the arts as mere entertainment. But today Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show us how the arts and aesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities, and mend an aching planet. --- • Get an early start on your holiday shopping by giving the gift of a Next Big Idea Club membership. Use code DAILY at nextbigideaclub.com for a special discount!

We're often told to tough things out. But Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Julia Keller wanted to know: is grit all it's cracked up to be, or is it possible that sometimes quitting is actually a better life strategy? --- • Get an early start on your holiday shopping by giving the gift of a Next Big Idea Club membership. Use code DAILY at nextbigideaclub.com for a special discount!

Do you pause before you speak and think before you act? Do you tune into subtle details and make connections that others miss? Well then you, my friend, might be a sensitive person. And according to today's guest, Andre Sólo, that's a good thing — because if you can learn to embrace your sensitivity, you can leverage it across the most important areas of your life: in friendships and relationships, the workplace, leadership, and parenting.

Today, Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of President Barack Obama’s United States Agency for International Development, shares his audacious strategy for achieving transformational change.

Most of us believe that what we see is what’s really there. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption upside down. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it? That's what Andy Clark argues in today's episode.

Today, Dr. Amy Shah shares a science-based plan designed to help you take charge of your health and your cravings, without feeling deprived.

As an editor at Harper's and GQ, Christopher Cox learned the power of a good deadline. Then he began to wonder: could he leverage that power in other parts of his life?

We're capping off the week with an eye-opening journey through the magical, yet surprisingly little-understood, human emotion that is wonder led by Monica Parker, a consultant whose clients include blue-chip companies such as LinkedIn, Google, Prudential, and LEGO.

We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for us, but the truth, according to New York Times reporter Max Fisher, is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. He joins us today to explain how social media rewired our minds and what we can do to break free.

A surprising vision of how human intelligence will coevolve with digital technology and revolutionize how we think and behave from one of the founders of the MIT Media Lab.

Today, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain — and what we can do about it.

Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to think clearly. Today, Shane Parrish, founder of Farnam Street and host of "The Knowledge Project" podcast, is here to teach you how.

John Kim and Vanessa Bennett are marriage therapists. They are also partners. Today, they tell us how analyzing their own relationship helped them untangle the common barriers many individuals face on the road to a happy, loving, rewarding partnership. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Zoe Chance teaches the most popular class at the Yale School of Management. But you don't have to got to Yale to hear what she has to say, because she's with us today to share a few key insights from her book "Influence Is Your Superpower." • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Has a healthy appreciation for the culture and heritage of minority groups transformed into a counterproductive obsession with group identity in all its forms? The Atlantic's Yascha Mounk thinks so. He joins us today to explain how it happened and why he believes it threatens American democracy. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Today, a top expert on decision-making explains why it’s so hard to make good choices about your health — and what you (and your doctor) can do to make better ones. Subscribe to our newsletter Download our app Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Happy Monday! Today, Bloomberg reporter Zeke Faux is here to tell the story of the greatest financial mania the world has ever seen.

Today, we hear from Jennifer Breheny Wallace, author of the definitive book on the rise of toxic achievement culture that is overtaking our kids' and parents' lives. She offers a new framework for fighting back. • We'll be hosting a live event with Jennifer in New York City on November 1st. Click here to learn more. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code PODCAST gets you 20% off)

Can civility help bridge our political divide?

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan isn’t one to avoid arguments. He relishes them as the lifeblood of democracy and the only surefire way to establish the truth. Arguments help us solve problems, uncover new ideas we might not have considered, and nudge our disagreements toward mutual understanding. A good argument, made in good faith, has intrinsic value ― and can also simply be fun. Whether you are making a presentation at work or debating current political issues with a friend, Mehdi Hasan will teach you how to sharpen your speaking skills to make the winning case. Subscribe to our newsletter Download our app Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

If memory is a simple thing, why does it so often go awry? Why is forgetting so common? How can you be certain about something you remember — and be wrong about it? Why is it so difficult to remember people's names? How can you study hard for an exam but not be able to recall the material on the test? Today, Dr. Andrew Budson and Dr. Elizabeth Kensinger address these questions and more, using their years of experience to guide readers into better memory.

Today, Adam Alter, author of "Anatomy of a Breakthrough," offers up a groundbreaking guide to breaking free from the thoughts, habits, jobs, relationships, and business models that are preventing you from achieving your full potential.

The things we tell ourselves affect how well or poorly our path in life goes. Today, we're going to flip the script on the internal stories you tell yourself so you can live life on your terms. Subscribe to our newsletter Download our app Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Today we dig into the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance.

Today, New York Times bestselling author Cal Newport offers a bold vision for liberating workers from the tyranny of the inbox — and unleashing a new era of productivity.

In this episode, Rina Bliss, a genetics expert and professor challenges our understanding of intelligence, explaining what it truly means to be “smart,” why conventional assessments are misleading, and what everyone can do to optimize their potential.

Change is not the exception, it’s the rule. Today, Brad Stulberg tells us how to deal with it.

We are stuck in “Infinite Browsing Mode” — swiping through endless dating profiles without committing to a single partner, jumping from place to place searching for the next big thing, and refusing to make any decision that might close us off from an even better choice we imagine is just around the corner. This culture of restlessness and indecision, Pete Davis argues, is causing tension in the lives of young people today: We want to keep our options open, and yet we yearn for the purpose, community, and depth that can only come from making deep commitments. Today, he's here to teach us how to make it to the other side. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

As an award-winning science journalist, Melinda Wenner Moyer was regularly asked to investigate and address all kinds of parenting questions: how to potty train, when and whether to get vaccines, and how to help kids sleep through the night. But as Melinda's children grew, she found that one huge area was ignored in the realm of parenting advice: How do we make sure our kids don't grow up to be assholes?

Today: a fascinating exploration into how the brain creates our conscious experiences — potentially revolutionizing neuroscience and the future of technology.

Sportswriter Sally Jenkins has spent 30 years observing, interviewing, and analyzing elite coaches and playmakers, such as Bill Belichick, Peyton Manning, Michael Phelps, and more. In this episode, she shares the principles that lead superstars to success — and how you can apply those principles to your life. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Spend 13 minutes with us today and develop the life-changing ability to excel in spontaneous communication situations—from public speaking to interviewing to networking—with a few essential strategies courtesy of Matt Abrahams, a Stanford lecturer, coach, and host of the popular "Think Fast, Talk Smart" podcast.

Today, licensed therapist and bestselling relationship expert Nedra Glover Tawwab offers clear advice for identifying dysfunctional family patterns and choosing the best path to breaking the cycle and moving forward. --- Subscribe to our newsletter Download our app Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) Send us an email

Many of the problems we face today, from climate change to work anxiety, are the result of short-term thinking. But there is a solution. Futurist Ari Wallach offers a radical new way forward called “longpath,” a mantra and mindset to help us focus on the long view.

Social scientist Dan Ariely explores the behavior of misbelief that leads people to distrust accepted truths and embrace conspiracy theories.

In their groundbreaking book, "Random Acts of Medicine," Anupam Jena and Christopher Worsham reveal the hidden side of medicine and how unexpected — but predictable — events can profoundly affect our health.

Today, in just eight minutes, award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson is going to transform your relationship with failure.

The pursuit of perfection can become a dangerous obsession that leads to burnout and depression — keeping us from achieving our goals. Today, Thomas Curran gives us tips for letting go so we can focus on what matters most. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

Racism, says Heather McGhee in her award-winning book "The Sum of Us," is the common denominator of our most vexing public problems, the core dysfunction of our democracy, and constitutive of the spiritual and moral crises that grip us all. But how did this happen? And is there a way out?

Today, Shankar Vedantam, host of "Hidden Brain," walks us through the surprising role of self-deception in human flourishing.

Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas teach the popular course "Humor: Serious Business" at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where they help some of the world’s most hard-driving, blazer-wearing business minds infuse more humor and levity into their work and lives. In "Humor, Seriously," they draw on findings by behavioral scientists, world-class comedians, and inspiring business leaders to reveal how humor works and—more importantly—how you can use more of it, better.

In 2006, John Warren and John Thompson led Marines into combat in the world’s most dangerous city: Ramadi, Iraq. In "Lead Like a Marine," Warren and Thompson lay out the simple, universal rules that helped them succeed, from valuing grit and potential over pedigree, to condensing large groups into resilient “fireteams,” to cross-training team members so that anyone can step up to the plate in a crisis.

You can get happier. And getting there will be the adventure of your lifetime. Today, Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks shares a few tips on how to do it from his new book — co-written with the one and only Oprah Winfrey — "Build the Life You Want." • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

Tribalism is one of the most complex and ancient evolutionary forces. But in our vast modern world, has this blessing become a curse?

In "High Conflict," bestselling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict—and how they break free. • Subscribe to Michael's newsletter

Today, Paul Bloom takes us on a brisk tour through modern psychology.

What distinguishes the great from the truly exceptional? After five years of writing The Profile, Polina Marinova Pompliano has studied thousands of successful and interesting people in the world and examined how they reason their way through problems, unleash their creativity, and perform under extreme pressure.

Jane Ferguson has covered nearly every war front and humanitarian crisis of our time. Today, she shares career advice inspired by her bestselling memoir, "No Ordinary Assignment."

Actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson explores the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world.

Today, our curator Adam Grant stops by to share the key takeaways from his #1 New York Times bestseller "Think Again." • If you're an Adam Grant fan, you'll love The Next Big Idea Club. Adam, Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink handpick their favorite books, and then we send them to your doorstep. Sign up at nextbigideaclub.com and use code DAILY for a special discount.

Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a leading political and intellectual historian and a certified fitness instructor, explores the complex and far-reaching implications of how our contemporary exercise culture took shape.

Today, Stanford Graduate School of Business faculty member, serial entrepreneur, and investor David Dodson details the five skills every great manager needs to know if they want to get things done.

To write "Beginners," Tom Vanderbilt embarked on a yearlong quest of learning just for the sake of it. Along the way, he interviewed dozens of experts about the psychology and science behind the benefits of becoming an adult beginner. Today, he joins us to explain how anyone can get better at beginning again — and why it's worth it.

In "On Disinformation," Lee McIntyre shows how the war on facts began, and how ordinary citizens can fight back against the scourge of disinformation that is now threatening the very fabric of our society.

In "Imaginable," Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable.

In "Remember," neuroscientist and novelist Lisa Genova delves into how memories are made and how we retrieve them.

The chasm separating managers from leaders is widening as the skills required to be an effective leader grow in number and complexity. But you're ambitious. You want to cross that chasm. And your organization needs you to cross it in order to join its bench of stars who will lead with empathy and humanity and ground the organization's strategies in a meaningful, mission-driven, and purposeful way. Today on the show Adam Bryant will teach you how to make that leap.

Most of us try to avoid feeling sad, but therapist Chelsea Harvey Garner believes the future will be brighter if we learn to enjoy the unenjoyable and support each other when the vibes aren’t so good. Today, she tells us how to do it. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

In his new book, award-winning journalist Jeff Goodell explains how extreme heat will dramatically change the world as we know it.

In "How to Think like a Philosopher," Julian Baggini turns to eminent philosophers, past and present, to find practical solutions for today's most vexing questions.

Jessica Carew Kraft, an urban wife and mom of two, was firmly rooted in the modern world, complete with a high-powered career in tech and the sneaking suspicion that her lifestyle was preventing her and her family from truly thriving. Determined to find a better way, Jessica quit her job and set out to learn about "rewilding" from people who reject the comforts and convenience of civilization by using ancient tools and skills to survive. Along the way, she learned how to turn sticks into fire, stones into axes, and bones into tools for harvesting wild food―and found an entire community walking the path back from our technology-focused, anxiety-ridden way of life to a simpler, more human experience.

The traditional ways of earning a living are outdated, if not outright rigged. That’s why a growing number of enterprising individuals are instead turning to the growing ecosystem of decentralized, fast-moving virtual markets to pursue a host of previously unheard-of ways to pay the bills. Join New York Times bestselling author Chris Guillebeau on a fascinating tour of this brave new world where novelty is currency, and the creators are in control.

Today, Juliet Funt provides strategies you can use to regain control of days, liberate yourself from burnout and busy work, and reclaim creativity and focus—even when there's chaos all around you. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

What can a 19th-century naturalist teach us about reclaiming our attention?

Today, two-time Guinness World Record memory champ Dave Farrow shares practical tips you can use to “rewire” your brain and boost its power.

Our most precious resource isn’t money. It’s time. We are allotted just 24 hours a day, and we live in a culture that keeps us feeling “time poor.” Since we can’t add more hours to the day, how can we experience our lives as richer?

You may have noticed that the kind of focus we all need to get stuff done is harder and harder to come by. But fear not. To help you get back on track, we've called in some of the smartest writers we know to give us their take on the attention crisis and what we can do about it. All this week, we'll be hearing from them. First up is journalist Johann Hari. Johann is the author of three New York Times bestsellers, and he joins us today to share some key insights from his latest, "Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again."

In the final installment of the master class based on her book “Tranquility by Tuesday,” productivity expert Laura Vanderkam says nailing your work-life balance comes down to how you use your Fridays.

Do effortful fun before effortless fun. But what's the difference? Laura explains in today's mini masterclass.

To renew your spirits, Laura says you need to take some time for yourself. --- Download the Next Big Idea app and listen to hundreds of the world's bestselling authors summarize their books in just 12 minutes.

You know what you need? An adventure. That's right. You don't have to wait until your next vacation. You can — and should — make it a habit to do surprising, novel things on the reg. And, yes, we know you're thinking: "How can I fit that in with everything else I have going on?" Don't worry. Laura Vanderkam has a simple solution for making adventures of all sizes part of your routine.

In "Tranquility by Tuesday," time management guru Laura Vanderkam shares tools you can use to finally make time for the activities you love. But before you can do that, you need to get a good night's sleep. Today, Laura explains how.

In the final installment of her interview, Vanessa Patrick ("The Power of Saying No") gives us tips for turning down the pushy people in our lives.

Today: The difference between "pass the salt" and "bake your favorite lasagna" asks.

In this episode, Vanessa Patrick shares a strategy for saying "no" inspired by one of the most famous people in the world, and one of the best at saying "no"—Oprah Winfrey.

Today, Vanessa explains how the super skill of "empowered refusal" can help you say "no" no in a way that is persuasive and does not elicit pushback from others.

Too often, we say "yes" to friends, bosses, and even strangers when what we really want to say is "absolutely not." Why do we do this? Vanessa Patrick, a marketing professor at the University of Houston, has spent years researching this question. The answer she's come up with could change your life.

In the final installment of our week-long exploration into the art and science of decision-making, we hear from acclaimed science journalist Steven Johnson, who provides a step-by-step process for making life-altering decisions. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

Today, you'll how to make smart decisions about two vexing subjects: money and love. • Myra Strober is a labor economist and Professor Emerita at Stanford University, where she founded the Stanford Center for Research on Women (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Research). • Abby Davisson is a social innovation leader and career development expert, who served as president of Gap Foundation and co-founded the company's employee resource group for parents and caregivers.

As a U.S. fighter pilot, Hasard Lee has had to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure. Now he's here to teach you how to do the same.

Today, we're continuing our deep dive into decision-making with a few big ideas from Eric Johnson, director of the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia Business School and author of "The Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters."

Sometimes it seems that all we do in life is make decisions, and yet it’s a surprisingly difficult skill to master. How do you get good at deciding? To answer that question, we’re calling in the pros: Annie Duke, Eric Johnson, Hasard Lee, Abby Davisson, Myra Strober, and Steven Johnson. They’re ex-poker players, business school professors, fighter pilots, and science journalists — and together, they’re going to share a whole bunch of tools you can use to improve your decision-making capabilities. First up is cognitive scientist turned poker player turned decision strategist Annie Duke to share a few key insights from her recent book “Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away.” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

For any trade-off between your current and future self, it's always the you of today who has to make the sacrifice. In his final appearance on the show, UCLA's Hal Hershfield offers a way around that problem.

Today, Hal Hershfield ("Your Future Self") explains how you can make life better tomorrow by making grand plans now to ease your future life.

Does your future self seem kinda blurry? Try writing them a letter.

It may sound strange, but if you can learn to treat your future self like someone you really care about, then you'll be more likely to make satisfying, rewarding, and ethical long-term decisions.

Can vividly imagining your future self help you make better decisions? Hal Hershfield thinks so, and he’s got the research to prove it. Hal — who teaches at UCLA and has been called a “pioneering psychologist” by none other than our curator Adam Grant — is out with a new book called “Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today,” and he is here all week to help Michael, you, and future you achieve success.

In the final installment of his mini-masterclass, Brett Crozier shares advice for being a staunch defender of your personal time.

Today, retired Navy captain Brett Crozier ("Surf When You Can") explains why in order to achieve big success, you've first got to nail the little things. • Sign up for our newsletter to get a behind-the-scenes look at how we make this show • Download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of authors summarize their books • Use code DAILY to get 10% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription at nextbigideaclub.com

Whether you're flying, captaining, or working, always focus on the alligator closest to the canoe.

We are stronger when we work together. Literally.

"Talk to me, Goose." Actually, this week we're saying, "Talk to me, Chopper." That was Brett Crozier's call sign when he served as a fighter pilot (and it's what his wife still calls him when she's irritated). Brett has a new book out called "Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain," which charts his journey from "Top Gun" wannabe to commanding officer of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. He joins Michael this week to share five lessons from his career that can help you improve your life-work balance.

We're wrapping up our collection of summery Book Bites with a few lessons from Smiley Poswolsky's "Friendship in the Age of Loneliness: An Optimist's Guide to Connection." • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley who helped Pixar make “Inside Out,” explores the history and science of awe.

When David Pogue (CBS Sunday Morning) realized that we are already living through the beginnings of climate chaos, he decided to write a book full of action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe that Mother Nature might throw at us. • Download the Next Big Idea app: nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Ice ice baby! Today, journalist and historian Amy Brady shares the astonishing 200-year history of ice in America, from ice rinks to ice cream to modern-day miracles like cryotherapy breast-cancer treatments.

We're trying something different this week. Instead of hearing from one author, you'll hear from five. Together, they'll help you figure out how to have the perfect summer. Up first: comedian and podcaster Jamie Loftus shares a few tasty insights from her New York Times bestseller "Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs." • Use code DAILY to get 10% off your subscription at nextbigideaclub.com

What can the global response to climate change tell us about the health of modern democratic states? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Today, Ben explains why democracy and security are such uneasy bedfellows. • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Why is it so hard to create a sense of national unity and civic responsibility here in the Divided States of America? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Why has the American political system failed to arrest accelerating inequality, and is there anything we can do about it? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

As you may have noticed, modern democracies aren’t doing so hot. In country after country, income inequality soars while solidarity plummets. Resentment simmers while national unity cools. In places like the US and the UK, beacons of liberal democracy, words like “autocracy” and “anarchy” are thrown around with alarming regularity. Meanwhile, our ability to take action on existential threats like AI and climate change is stymied by sniping politicians who are obsessed with point-scoring and eerily disinclined to agree on a shared set of facts. Given all this, it’s not unreasonable to wonder: Are we doomed? This week, on the 247th anniversary of America’s birthday — and the dawn of the modern democratic experiment — we’ll get to the bottom of that unsettling question with Ben Ansell, professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail.”

In her final mini masterclass, Shelby warns you not to be so focused on reaching the finish line that you may miss the epic views along the way. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

When scaling a steep rock wall or surfing gnarly waves, it’s easy to let fear get the better of you, but today, Shelby explains how you can use humor to stay loose. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Before you embark on a wild adventure, you obviously need to do some planning. But don’t go overboard. Give yourself a deadline, and get to work. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

If you have a strong why for pursuing a wild adventure, you’re more likely to find a way to get it done. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Where are you listening to this podcast? In your car? At your desk? Puttering around your house? If Shelby Stanger had her druthers, you’d be listening in the great outdoors — maybe while hiking on a scenic trail, or pedaling down an open road, or sitting astride a surfboard (while wearing waterproof earbuds, of course). Shelby is a journalist and adventurer: as a journalist, her work has appeared in Outside Magazine and on ESPN; as an adventurer, she’s surfed from Canada to Costa Rica and paddled remote stretches of the Amazon River. Her new book, “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life,” is a guide to getting out of your comfort zone and into the wild world.

Data, demographics — these things only take you so far. That's the final lesson Marcus Collins has to share with us. If you really want to get to know someone, he says, you've got to look past what they "do" and try to figure out who they "are." • Use the code DAILY to get 10% off a Next Big Idea Club membership • Learn more about our event in NYC on June 28th by visiting betaworks.com/event/ai-consciousness • Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter

"Meaning," says Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") in today's episode, "is culturally mediated based on how we see the world. Understanding how people make meaning will increase the likelihood of understanding who they are and how they navigate the world."

Today, Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") says that if you want to understand someone, you can learn much more from their tribal communities than their demographics.

Welcome back to our week-long masterclass with marketing magician Marcus Collins. He ran digital strategy for Beyoncé; teaches at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; serves as chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy; and wrote a great book called "For the Culture." Today, he explains why he thinks the brands that'll succeed in the future will make consumers feel like they're part of a community.

This week: Marcus Collins, who teaches marketing at the University of Michigan's business school and serves as the chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, shares five key insights from his book "For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be."

When we work all the time, it doesn’t just take our best hours; it often takes our best energy, too. In his final lesson, Simone Stolzoff (”The Good Enough Job”) implores us to step away from work and engage in active forms of leisure. --- • Our newsletter comes out today — check it out now!

Your job isn't your soulmate. If it's good enough, then maybe that's good enough.

Many of us have internalized the message that there’s one dream job for us and we shouldn’t stop until we find it. So we tweak our resumes and browse LinkedIn in the hopes of finding a role that helps us self-actualize. But first determining what matters and recognizing that we may already have it is a better recipe for happiness.

In today's episode, Simone Stolzoff ("The Good Enough Job") tells Michael that when you think about the role work plays in your life, "it's worth considering that valuing more free time over more money tends to be more fulfilling and lead to higher overall well-being."

Do you live to work or work to live? Journalist Simone Stolzoff tackles that age-old question with renewed energy in his book "The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work." All this week, he'll be chatting with host Michael Kovnat about how work came to play such an outsized role in our lives and what would happen if we stopped chasing the dream gig, gave up the idea of having a calling, and instead tried to find jobs that were simply good enough.

Our time with Tiago Forte may be over, but hopefully your journey to building a second brain has only just begun. In his final lesson, Tiago explains how your second brain can motivate you to take action. • Grab a copy of "Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now! • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/! • Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code DAILY at checkout!

Today, Tiago explains how mastering the art of subtraction can strengthen your creative output.

Today’s lesson: “Before you shut off new sources of information and converge on an end result, take time to diverge. Expand your horizons, expose yourself to diverse influences, and collect anything that resonates with you.” Tiago Forte is the author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.”

Today, Tiago Forte, author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential,” says that if you want to accomplish a big goal, you must first stockpile small building blocks. P.S. Use the code DAILY to get 10% off any Next Big Idea Club membership at nextbigideaclub.com

Do you ever struggle to keep track of all the information swirling around in your head? The idea you had for a new project at work; that stat you read in the paper this morning; the name of your sister’s boyfriend. Productivity expert Tiago Forte says you need a digital system to store all those thought bubbles. He thinks of it as a “second brain.” And this week on the show, he’ll teach you how to build one.

Anticipating regrets can often work to our advantage. It slows our thinking. It taps our cerebral breaks, allowing us time to gather additional information and to reflect before we decide what to do. But it should come with a warning label. --- • Sign up for our newsletter where Michael shares his reflections every Friday (that's today!)

So, what can we do to turn our existing regrets into engines of progress? Science suggests a three-step process.

After analyzing thousands of regrets from people in more than 100 countries, Daniel Pink (”The Power of Regret”) has identified the four core regrets that haunt us most. Today, he explains what they are and how understanding these categories can help you make better decisions in the future.

Regret makes us feel worse, but it can make us do better. Indeed, the way it makes us do better is by making us feel worse.

It’s popular to claim you have no regrets. Popular, but perilous. Because regrets aren’t anything to be ashamed of — on the contrary, they’re an integral part of being human. When you deny their existence, you deny yourself the opportunity to look back on your missteps so you can chart a better path forward. This week on the show: Next Big Idea Club curator Daniel Pink shares five key insights from his latest bestseller, “The Power of Regret.” In these episodes, you’ll learn how to use your regrets to make better decisions, improve your performance at work, and bring more meaning into your life.

Today, meditation expert Sharon Salzberg shares one final insight from her new book "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom."

Today, Sharon Salzberg tells us how practicing loving-kindness meditation can change how we treat others and understand ourselves.

What if instead of demanding that a painful emotion disappear or becoming all consumed by it, you began to relate to your experience with spaciousness infused with kindness?

Society’s prescriptions for freedom, happiness, and abundance may not be your own.

Sharon Salzberg has been meditating since 1971 — “since before it was cool,” she likes to say. That practice has inspired a series of books, most recently “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” which is all about using the power of mindfulness to confront, and ultimately overcome, whatever obstacles stand in your way. Today, she tells Michael how to transcend “contraction.” What’s contraction? You’ll have to listen to this episode… (Want the best books of the year — as chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink — delivered to your doorstep? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club hardback subscription, and use the code DAILY for 10% off.)

All week, Wharton professor Katy Milkman has been giving us research-backed tips for making changes that stick. Now, in the final installment of her mini masterclass, she explains why the most durable habit is a flexible one. --- • Katy Milkman’s book is “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.” Grab a copy today. • A few years back, she spoke with Daniel Pink on our sister podcast, The Next Big Idea. You can listen to that conversation here. • Speaking of Daniel Pink, did you know that every season he teams up with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Susan Cain to pick the two best new books and mail them to your front door? Sign up for a hardcover Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code IMMORTALITY at checkout!

Struggling to achieve a goal? Form a club with people who have your back.

How do you make change fun? By bundling an arduous task (exercising) with an enjoyable one (binge-watching lowbrow TV). --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the season’s two best books of the season as chosen by our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. You’ll also get access to our app, VIP invitations to live events, and other member benefits. To subscribe, go to nextbigideaclub.com and use code IMMORTALITY for 10% off.

New Year’s. Your birthday. The start of a new season. These are days when the slate is wiped clean. Which makes them perfect for establishing new habits, like going to the gym or writing in your diary. Today, Wharton professor Katy Milkman explains how you can use the “fresh start effect” to make changes big and small. --- Have you heard about our book boxes? Every quarter, we’ll send you the season’s two best books of the season, as chosen by our curators: Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink. You’ll also get access to our app, VIP invitations to live events, and other member benefits. To subscribe, go to nextbigideaclub.com and use code IMMORTALITY for 10% off.

How do you get from where you are to where you want to be — from procrastinator to optimizer, couch potato to gym rat, night owl to worm-getting early bird? That's the question Wharton professor Katy Milkman set out to answer in her recent book "How to Change." Actually, she didn't just "set out" to answer it. She did answer it, and she's on the show this week to share science-based strategies you can use to make lasting changes in your life.

Have you figured out how to live the good life? Don't worry if you're still working on it. It's only been a week. And you haven't even heard the final piece of advice from Matt Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, professors at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and authors of the new book "Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most." --- • It's Friday, which means it's pub day for our newsletter! Sign up today so you can go behind the scenes of the show, share your feedback with Michael, and get a sneak peek at upcoming episodes.

You can’t take bits and pieces of different philosophical traditions and put them together into a roadmap to the good life. --- • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to nextbigideaclub.com/app

"What matters most in life?" There's a reason Matt and Ryan, theology professors at Yale and our guests this week, call it the Big Question. It's too big to answer all at once. You have to break it down. Today they're going to teach you how.

Today, we learn why the deepest question — the one that can truly change our lives, ground us, and give us direction — is not “What do I really want?” It’s “What is really worth wanting?” (Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now!)

This week: Matt Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz, professors at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, share key insights from their New York Times bestselling book "Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most."

Even your suboptimal behaviors have a function. Understanding what they are can help you make a change.

You say self-sabotage, your brain says self-protection. In today's master class, Britt Frank explains how your brain tries to keep you safe by shooting you in the foot. --- • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now!

This week we’re getting unstuck. We’re passing Go. We’re collecting $200. We’re finding a way forward. How? By utilizing the neuroscience-based tools psychotherapist Britt Frank shares in her new book, “The Science of Stuck.” Today, she explains why it’s so empowering to realize that mental health is a physical process.

In our brains, there is no such thing as a true “lack of motivation.” But how can we harness this biological fact to get off the couch and get more done?

This week on The Next Big Idea Daily: psychotherapist Britt Frank shares five key insights from her book "The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward." Today, Britt explains why you should treat anxiety like a check engine light. • Download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of audio summaries of the best new books

In the final installment of the master class based on her book “Tranquility by Tuesday,” productivity expert Laura Vanderkam says nailing your work-life balance comes down to how you use your Fridays.

Do effortful fun before effortless fun. But what's the difference? Laura explains in today's mini master class.

To renew your spirits, Laura says you need to take some time for yourself. --- Download the Next Big Idea app and listen to hundreds of the world's bestselling authors summarize their books in just 12 minutes.

You know what you need? An adventure. That's right. You don't have to wait until your next vacation. You can — and should — make it a habit to do surprising, novel things on the reg. And, yes, we know you're thinking: "How can I fit that in with everything else I have going on?" Don't worry. Laura Vanderkam has a simple solution for making adventures of all sizes part of your routine.

In "Tranquility by Tuesday," time management guru Laura Vanderkam shares tools you can use to finally make time for the activities you love. But before you can do that, you need to get a good night's sleep. Today, Laura explains how.

All good things must come to an end. It's our last day with Mónica Guzmán, journalist, political de-polarizer, and author of "I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times." This week, she's been our anti-debate coach, teaching us how to have tough talks about thorny topics that don't end in fisticuffs. In her final chat with Michael, she says that once you've built a bridge that connects you to someone on the other side of the ideological divide, you should do everything you can not to burn it. • Have you heard about The Next Big Idea app? It has hundreds of non-fiction book summaries (written and read by the authors themselves), dozens of e-courses (with folks like Dan Pink and Susan Cain), ad-free episodes of this show, and invitations to live author Q&As. Download it today!

What's the most powerful question you can ask in a politically charged conversation? "How did you come to believe that?"

“The paths we walk to our views are rich and long,” Mónica Guzmán says in today’s episode, “and it is not very likely that one meme or mic drop point is going to change someone else’s mind.” So what will?

“I don’t understand this person!” You know you’ve thought it. About the uncle or neighbor or co-worker whose worldview is diametrically opposed to your own. But what would happen if you checked your bewildered outrage and tried curiosity instead?

This week, award-winning journalist Mónica Guzmán stops by to teach us how to cross the political divide, find common ground, and learn from people whose worldviews radically differ from our own. Mónica's new book is "I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times." (Have you checked out our app? It's loaded up with hundreds of book summaries read by the authors themselves. Download it here!)

Alright, it's time to wrap up Seth Stephens-Davidowitz's five-part master class based on his book "Don't Trust Your Gut: Using Data to Get What You Really Want in Life." Today, Seth explains what the data says about finding happiness. • Our newsletter comes out today. Sign up now! • Download The Next Big Idea app

Success depends less on getting lucky and more on using your luck well. In this episode, the fourth in Seth’s mini master class, he explains how to do it.

You might assume that the wealthiest 1% of Americans are neurosurgeons, corporate attorneys, and hedge fund managers. In reality, they're more likely to own car dealerships or run beverage distribution companies. Today, Seth explains why that is.

Good news for all you parents out there: the data says you can relax. But there’s still one parenting decision that matters. A lot. Want to know what it is? Tune in to today’s episode!

Big data. Baseball managers use it to win pennants. Stockbrokers use it to beat the market. And now you can use it to get what you really want in life. That's according to a new book by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz called Don't Trust Your Gut. When faced with difficult life decisions-like "Who should I marry?" and "How can I avoid screwing up my kids?"-we typically follow our intuition. The problem is that our intuition is often wrong. The smarter move, Seth says, is to comb through millions of data points to find statistically significant answers. But who has time for that, not to mention the technical know-how? Well, Seth does. And this week on the show, he'll share the answers he found, starting with the surprising traits you should look for when searching for your soulmate.

Today, we wrap up our week-long master class with David Myers with a discussion of hindsight bias and how it can help you be less hard on yourself. Our newsletter comes out today! Sign up now.

"Others notice us less than we imagine. This is liberating: A bad hair day hardly matters. Few will notice. Fewer will care. Of those, fewer still will remember."

David says we worry about improbable horrors (like plane crashes) while ignoring greater risks (car smash-ups). Today, he explains how performing statistically sound risk assessments can calm our worried minds.

We all know it's good for us to nurture our relationships with close friends and loved ones. Today, David explains why chatting up strangers is also important.

All week long on The Next Big Idea Daily, Michael will be chatting with social psychologist David Myers about the wonder of human thought and action, and how you can use insights from the latest research in David's field to boost your mood, improve your decision-making, and more. Today, David shares his first big idea, and it's a counterintuitive one. It turns out that “much as when we observe others and infer their sentiments, so hearing ourselves talk clues us in to our own attitudes.” Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with the show. Sign up now!

In our final episode with Adam Gopnik, the award-winning New Yorker writer and author of "The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery" learns how to box, how to dance, and why there’s “no mastery in the absence of another.” Our newsletter comes out today! Sign up now!

Today: Why mastery requires idiosyncrasy. Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

Adam Gopnik's first memory of mastery was watching his mother roll out strudel dough, so in midlife, he asked his mother — a linguistics professor by day, pastry maestro by night — to teach him how to bake.

It's the second day of our week-long master class with Adam Gopnik, New Yorker staff writer and author of "The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery." Today, he explains how learning to drive at the tender age of 55 brought him closer to his father. Have you subscribed to our newsletter yet? It comes out every Friday and features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

A few years ago, Adam Gopnik, a longtime writer for The New Yorker and three-time winner of the National Magazine Award, started thinking about all the things he wasn't good at. He couldn't dance the foxtrot or bake a brioche. Well into his 50s, he still had no idea how to drive a car. To make matters worse, when he looked around, he saw people who could do these things — often with great skill. How, he wondered, did they do it? How do any of us get good at the things we're good at? And how do some of us become next-level masters? To answer those questions, Adam set out to master the skills he lacked, and he has written up the results in a profound little book called "The Real Work: On the Mystery of Mastery." All this week, he'll be sitting down with Michael to talk about how he did it and what he learned. First up: drawing. Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

In the final installment of his mini master class, Jonah shares his formula for telling great stories. The latest edition of our weekly newsletter comes out today. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, details on our next guest, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

Does asking questions make you look smart? (Yes!) Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

It’s what cult leaders, charlatans, and at least one former president have in common. Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to relevant Book Bites, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

Today, Jonah explains how adding one or two letters to the end of a word can propel you to success. Our newsletter comes out every Friday. It features commentary from Michael, links to related content, previews of upcoming seasons, and ways to engage with us. Sign up now!

Almost everything we do involves words. "Words," says Wharton professor Jonah Berger, "are how we persuade, communicate, and connect. They're how executives lead, salespeople sell, and parents parent. Even our private thoughts depend on language." But while we live in a world awash in words, we're strangely indifferent about which ones we use. We focus on the ideas we want to convey, not the best way to articulate them. And that, according to Jonah, is a big mistake because "subtle shifts in the words we use can have a big effect on our impact." This week on the show, he'll teach you how to make those subtle shifts so you can become a better communicator, a better persuader, a better friend, and a more confident, effective person. Jonah's new book is called "Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way."

In the final installment of Jessi’s five-part master class, she explains why setting boundaries is critical if you want to establish healthy relationships. • Jessi Hempel is the author of “The Family Outing: A Memoir.” She also hosts the podcast “Hello Monday.” • Have thoughts about this week’s episodes? Sign up for our LinkedIn newsletter and leave a post a comment! • Don’t forget to download the Next Big Idea app

When it comes to the people closest to you, do you ever regret not showing up? --- • This is day four of our week-long master class with Jessi Hempel, author of "The Family Outing" • Be sure to check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes • And download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of authors summarize their books in 15 minutes or less

What truths emerge when we imagine life as other people experience it? --- • This is day three of our week-long master class with Jessi Hempel, author of "The Family Outing" • Be sure to check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes • And download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of authors summarize their books in 15 minutes or less

First, listen. Then try "Tell me more." --- • This is day two of our week-long master class with Jessi Hempel, author of "The Family Outing." • Be sure to check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes.

This week, Michael sits down with journalist and podcaster Jessi Hempel to discuss her new memoir, "The Family Outing," which tells the remarkable story of how every member of Jessi's immediate family came out — she and her father as gay, her sister as bisexual, her brother as transgender, and her mother as a survivor of a traumatic experience with an alleged serial killer. But "The Family Outing" is more than just a coming-out story: it's a powerful and thought-provoking exploration of what it means to live authentically. In this episode, Jessi and Michael discuss how the subjectivity of memory can be the source of deep empathy.

It’s not enough for us to solve our money and love issues on an individual level. Enter the tempered radical.

Don’t let poor communication ruin your next conversation about money and love. Instead, follow Myra and Abby’s tips. Subscribe to our newsletter if you’d like to ask questions about this episode, give us feedback, or learn more about Money and Love.

In this episode, Myra and Abby share their five-step process for making good decisions. It goes like this: CLARIFY what’s most important to you. COMMUNICATE with those most affected by your decision. Generate a broad range of CHOICES. CHECK IN with friends, family, and trusted resources. And explore your decision’s possible CONSEQUENCES. --- Check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes!

Ready, set … wait a sec. Today, Myra and Abby explain why slowing down is key to making good decisions. --- • Myra Strober is a professor emerita at Stanford University and the founding director of the Stanford Center for Research on Women (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Research). Abby Davisson served as president of Gap Foundation and co-founded the clothing company's employee resource group for parents and caregivers. • Check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes. • And to hear hundreds of authors share the best ideas from their books, download the Next Big Idea app!

Diet Coke and Mentos. Suede and water. Tupac and Biggie. Money and love. What do they all have in common? They don't play well together. Especially that last dueling duo. We've all been taught to make money decisions with our heads and love decisions with our hearts. Mix them up and, well, kaboom. But a new book by Myra Strober and Abby Davisson says that's a bunch of nonsense. In "Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life's Biggest Decisions," they make the case that by acknowledging the inextricable link between finance and romance, we can learn to make better life decisions — decisions that utilize head and heart in a balanced, fulfilling way. --- GUESTS: • Myra Strober is a professor emerita at Stanford University and the founding director of the Stanford Center for Research on Women (now the Clayman Institute for Gender Research) • Abby Davisson served as president of Gap Foundation and co-founded the clothing company's employee resource group for parents and caregivers RESOURCES: • Check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes. • Can't wait for tomorrow's episode? Download the Next Big Idea app and you can listen to all five of this week's episodes right now.

In the final installment of her master class, Gloria strikes an optimistic note. “We are not doomed to have short attention spans,” she says. “We can change our relationship with technology.” What might that new relationship look like? Tune in to find out. --- • Be sure to check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes. • And download the Next Big Idea app. Hundreds of authors are sharing the best ideas from their books!

Before checking the news, imagine what your future self will be doing at 10 p.m. Will you be relaxing reading your favorite book or still working on that deadline? --- Gloria Mark is a professor at UC Irvine and the author of the new book “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity.” Be sure to check out our newsletter where Michael takes listeners behind the scenes of these episodes.

We are as likely to interrupt ourselves as to be interrupted by others. What can we do about it? Gloria has the answer in today’s episode. --- Gloria Mark is a professor at UC Irvine and the author of the new book “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity.” Be sure to check out our newsletter where we take listeners behind the scenes of these episodes.

Today, Gloria explains how you can use rote activities — like solving a puzzle or weeding your garden — to replenish your attentional reservoirs. --- Gloria Mark is a professor at UC Irvine and the author of the new book “Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity.” Be sure to check out our newsletter where Michael takes listeners behind the scenes of these episodes.

Picture this. You sit down to read a book. You know the one — the book all your friends have raved about. So, okay, you read the first sentence. Maybe you make it to the end of the paragraph. But the next thing you know, your hand, as if possessed, reaches for your phone and calls up Twitter or Instagram or the New York Times, and you let the book drop to the floor before you've even finished the first page. Why does that happen? Why does your attention feel less like a steadily trained spotlight and more like a frantically blinking strobe? And will you ever find a way to get your focus back? "Yes!" says author and UC Irvine professor Gloria Mark. And lucky for you, she'll be here all week to explain why your attention wandered off and what you can do to get it back. Gloria's new book is "Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity."

In the final installment of his master class, Greg McKeown shares the three questions he asks to make life easier: 1️⃣ What is a problem that irritates me repeatedly? 2️⃣ What is the total cost of managing that over several years? 3️⃣ What is the next step I can take immediately, for a few minutes, to move towards solving it? Tune in to learn how to apply this at work and in life. --- • Check out Greg’s book “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most” • Sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. • Listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

You need to establish upper and lower bounds. “Okay, but what does that mean?” Listen to find out. --- Greg McKeown is the author of “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.” He’ll be here all week to share key insights from the book. If you can’t wait until tomorrow to hear the next episode, you can get early access by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

What happens when you stop assuming the answer to every problem is to work harder and instead ask, “What if this could be easy?” That’s effortless inversion. Today, Greg explains how you can use it to tackle problems big and small. --- Greg McKeown is the author of “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.” He’ll be here all week to share key insights from the book. If you can’t wait until tomorrow to hear the next episode, you can get early access by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

Forget your never-ending to-do list. Greg says you need a “done for the day” list, a rundown of tasks you can actually accomplish and that will leave you feeling satisfied. --- Greg McKeown is the author of “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most.” He’ll be with us all week to share key insights from the book. If you can’t wait until tomorrow to hear the next episode, you can get early access by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

If you want to accomplish great things, you must work relentlessly, right? Not so, says author and leadership strategist Greg McKeown. In his latest book, "Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most," Greg makes the counterintuitive argument that by working less, you can accomplish more. You just have to learn how to ask the right questions and use the right tools. All this week, he'll show you how.

In our final episode with Marc, he says you’re never too old to forge new relationships. --- • Marc Schulz is the co-author of “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.” • Sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. • Listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

Americans spend 11 hours a day interacting with media. From the age of 40 to the age of 80, that adds up to 18 years of waking life. What would happen if we put down our phones, turned off our TVs, and tried talking to each other? --- • Come back tomorrow for the final installment of our micro master class with Marc Schulz, co-author of “The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness. • Sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. • Listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors by downloading the Next Big Idea app.

Relationships may be good for your well-being, but that doesn't mean they're always easy. In this episode, Marc shares what 85 years of research have revealed about how to overcome relationship challenges. --- Marc Schulz is a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He'll be with us all week, discussing his new book, "The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness." To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

“We tend to think," says Marc Schulz, "that once we establish friendships and intimate relationships, they will take care of themselves. But like muscles, neglected relationships atrophy.” Today, Marc shares the fitness regimen to keep your relationships fit and trim. --- • Marc is a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College and the associate director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He’ll be with us all week to discuss his new book, “The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.” • To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

What makes for a good life? Over the last 85 years, the Harvard Study of Adult Development has attempted to answer that question. This week, one of the study's directors, Marc Schulz, joins us to share the surprising things they've found. --- To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

We are not the sum of our missed opportunities or the unfinished projects we decide to call failures. We are the sum of our starts. --- Today concludes our week-long master class with Becky Blades based on her book “Start More Than You Can Finish,” which is available for purchase here. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

Today, Becky explains how to get more done by embracing a creative process based on iteration. --- Come back tomorrow for the final installment of Becky’s master class. If you’re looking for something to do in the meantime, join us on LinkedIn and download the Next Big Idea app.

So you took Becky's advice. You imagined more, thought less, decided to decide, and acted fast. Now you're ready to get your swag bag. That's what Becky calls the mood-boosting chemicals that flood over us when we start an exciting new project. --- It's day three of our week-long master class with Becky about her new book, "Start More Than You Can Finish." To get a behind-the-scenes look at this show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

You have an idea. Great! Now what? In today’s episode, Becky shares her four-part process for getting started. --- Becky Blades will be here all week sharing tips and tricks from her new book, “Start More Than You Can Finish,” which is available for purchase here. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

Doing is more important than being done. That’s the provocative argument at the heart of a new book by artist and entrepreneur Becky Blades, “Start More Than You Can Finish: A Creative Permission Slip to Unleash Your Best Ideas.” Becky says you’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish when you stop worrying about the finish and just get started. --- Becky will be here all week sharing insights from her book. Tune in tomorrow to learn how to strengthen your "startist" muscles. Oh, and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter on LinkedIn where we share resources, start conversations, and take listeners behind the scenes of this show.

No one likes a know-it-all. Try becoming a learn-it-all instead. --- Today concludes our week-long master class with Daniel Coyle, based on his book “The Culture Playbook,” which is available for purchase here. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

Studies show groups that invest in deep fun are more profitable than those that don’t. But what exactly is deep fun? Daniel Coyle is here with the answer. --- It’s day four of our week-long master class with Dan about his new book, “The Culture Playbook.” To get a behind-the-scenes look at this show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

Does your team, family, or friend group have a cheesy catchphrase? It should. Here’s why. --- Daniel Coyle is on the show all week sharing essential lessons from his latest book, “The Culture Playbook,” which is available for purchase here. To get a behind-the-scenes look at this show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

What are the four most important words a leader can say? Tune in to find out. --- Daniel Coyle is on the show all week sharing essential lessons from his latest book, “The Culture Playbook,” which is available for purchase here. To get a behind-the-scenes look at the show, sign up for our newsletter on LinkedIn. And to listen to hundreds of audio summaries written and read by leading nonfiction authors, download the Next Big Idea app.

If you've ever been part of a team, then you know the scale of your success often depends on the strength of your culture. The mistake many of us make, however, is assuming that strong cultures happen by accident. In reality, says Daniel Coyle, a journalist who has spent years studying the world's most effective groups — from the hitmakers at Pixar to the soldiers on SEAL Team Six — there are concrete steps you can take to foster connection, trust, and a shared sense of purpose. All this week on "The Next Big Idea Daily," Dan will offer up a master class on building great cultures in the office, on Zoom, and around your family's dinner table. Grab a copy of Dan's book "The Culture Playbook" here. And tune in tomorrow to learn how to foster psychological safety at work. Oh, and don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter on LinkedIn, where we're sharing resources, starting conversations, and taking listeners behind the scenes of this show.

Do your mornings ever feel a little uninspired? What if your cup of coffee came with a shot of insight? Or if walking your dog could include a hit of wisdom? Every day on “The Next Big Idea Daily,” you’ll get a quick master class in better, smarter living from thinkers like Adam Grant, Susan Cain, Daniel Pink, Greg McKeown, Kim Scott, and lots of others you may not have heard of but who have ideas that just might make your day a little brighter. Follow “The Next Big Idea Daily” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Listen early and ad-free by downloading the Next Big Idea app. And when you’re ready to go deeper, join our community on LinkedIn, where we’ll be sharing resources, starting conversations, and helping one another live our best lives.