Search
Psychologist: The blueprint for developing a healthy relationship with your emotions
Lisa Damour breaks down why chasing a permanent state of calm backfires, why naming an emotion can shrink it, and why "feeling bad" can sometimes be the clearest sign of mental health rather than its absence.
with
Lisa Damour
Stress is not only not bad, it's actually a sign that we are growing. And if we can embrace it, there's so much to be gained.
When to trust your intuition (and when not to)
How do you tell when intuition is offering you reliable information?
Gravity can’t be an instantaneous force
Newton thought that gravitation would happen instantly, propagating at infinite speeds. Einstein showed otherwise; gravity isn't instant.
by
Ethan Siegel
When to trust your intuition (and when not to)
How do you tell when intuition is offering you reliable information?
The hidden mathematics behind why you find things beautiful
The artistic and the mathematical mind are not so far apart.
FIND US ON SUBSTACK
An honest look inside the “Science: A New Golden Age” report
Scientists are livid over the OSTP director's official report to the President. Will it lead to a new golden age for US science, or end it?
Stop giving advice. Start asking better questions.
When someone asks you a question they genuinely don’t know the answer to, hold on to them for dear life.
The pressures pushing America toward short-term thinking
A conversation with Richard Haass about reorienting the U.S. toward long-term thinking and reinstating global stability into the 22nd century.
What would you like to learn more about? We have thousands of videos from the world’s biggest thinkers to help you dive deeper into any subject.
Pause the busyness of life to reflect on ourselves, our relationships, and the Universe.
with
Jonny Thomson
How the wrong kind of nostalgia can endanger a society
The philosopher Svetlana Boym argues that "nostos" encourages people to reject the world as it is and seek to return to a better time — real or imagined.
2 ways to deradicalize someone (and the 1 that works the best)
People are almost always different to how we imagine them
“Live deliberately”: The origin of America’s first philosophy
How a culture of independence gave rise to a philosophy of self-reliance, solitude, and inner authority.
5 dangerous lies we tell ourselves, according to philosophy
Throwing away the narratives that pull us down and make us unhappy.
Intimate interviews with the world’s biggest thinkers.
Members
1hr 20mins
Live with Big Think: Inside “The Opt-Out Nation”
Watch our first-ever members-only event — a livestreamed conversation about our summer special issue, The Opt-Out Nation.
19mins
The psychology of revenge, in 19 minutes
Psychologist Paul Bloom explains why morality, the thing that makes cooperation and trust possible, is also what drives cruelty, cycles of revenge, and wars where both sides believe they're the moral ones.
13mins
Mary Beard: Why no film has ever cracked The Odyssey
Classicist Mary Beard explains why you should read The Odyssey before going to see Christopher Nolan's adaptation of the epic.
9mins
The trick that offloads intrusive thoughts so your brain can actually work
David Epstein, author of Range and Inside the Box, breaks down what's actually happening inside the brain when we multitask, and why "just focusing" is a solution that doesn't hold up to reality.
“Dirty snowballs” have joined together since the planets formed
We've now found many "conjoined" objects in the asteroid and Kuiper belts, including the first contact trinary, Nysa. What does it all mean?
Ask Ethan: Why are astronauts weightless while still in Earth’s gravity?
On Earth's surface, we accelerate at 1g: 9.8m/s². In orbit, the acceleration is only slightly less. So why, then, are astronauts weightless?
The strongest experimental hint that gravity is quantum in nature
At a fundamental level, nobody knows whether gravity is truly quantum in nature. A novel experiment strongly hints that it is.
Why the world needs all three 30-meter class telescopes
Today, the world's largest operating optical telescope is 10.4 meters in diameter. These 3 facilities will lead astronomy's next generation.
Big ideas. Thoughtful conversations. One book at a time.
Big Think’s 5 favorite nonfiction books of 2026 (so far)
Books to expand your perspective on history, philosophy, space exploration, and more this year.
The surprisingly ancient origins of the “savage peoples” myth
From Viking tales to modern anthropology, the idea of the "savage" has shaped how outsiders viewed Indigenous societies — and justified attempts to dominate them.
The value of time off isn’t better productivity — it’s your humanity
The goal of a sabbatical shouldn't be to make you a better worker when you return. It's an opportunity to be a more fully realized person.
Inside the minds of 5 chilling literary psychopaths
These iconic literary characters shine a light on our enduring fascination with dangerous minds.
Learn business from the world’s biggest thinkers.
The 221-year-old company that reinvented itself — 4 times
This carriage maker didn’t get wiped out by the automobile. Instead, it became one of the most successful car businesses in European history.
Play it again: The causal link between fun and resilience
Fun in business is no laughing matter — it can create a golden strategic advantage and bring serious success in the long term.
The 250-year-old company that survived by refusing to lay people off
What would your company do if it lost all its customers at once?
The 3 stories every leader needs to inspire successful transformations
Directives rarely inspire change. The most effective leaders use stories to make transformation memorable, resonant, and actionable.
Ends with a bang: Why lightning stopped stalking the Strait of Malacca
On a world map of lightning strikes, the world’s busiest sea routes glowed bright — until ships cleaned up their act.
How Earth’s night lights became our most honest economist
A Cold War accident became a reliable tool for using artificial lights at night to map GDP, poverty, urban sprawl, and even illegal fishing.
American literature, charted in one monumental map
From Stephen King’s Maine to Steinbeck’s California, Big Think's “A Literary Map of the United States” charts the stories that changed how we see a nation.
A brief reminder of the folly of war (Korea edition)
Neither a victory nor a defeat, the Korean War lingers in a stalemate that remains unresolved.
Where science meets the human story.
Who pays the cost when Americans opt out of science?
Astrophysicist Adam Frank used to think the consequences of rejecting science would play out on the individual level. He's since changed his mind.
A physicist explains what the Kardashev scale gets wrong
The famous framework ranks civilizations by energy use — but ignores a critical factor that can halt their progress.
Why organisms are more than machines
Sixty years ago, a little-known philosopher challenged how science understands life. His perspective is finding new relevance in the age of artificial intelligence.
Aerial aliens: Why cloudy worlds might make detecting life easier
Astronomer Lisa Kaltenegger spoke with Big Think about how "the colors of life" could leave detectable traces on distant planets.