Scientists map massive layer of life just beneath our feet
Until recently, nobody had visualized the fungal "Wood Wide Web."
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How to debate, from a two-time world champion
Two-time debate champion Bo Seo breaks down why arguments fail, four bad-faith personas that hijack conversations, and a four-question framework for picking worthy fights.
with
Bo Seo
It is in your best interest to understand the opposition's argument as they would understand it.
The “hidden laziness” holding you back, according to a Tibetan Buddhist master
Tibetan Buddhism identifies three very different ways of wasting your life.
5 ways to become more “high agency” in the age of AI
The ability to see your options clearly and act on them has never been more valuable.
Joanna Stern spent a year testing the AI future. Here’s what she learned.
Tech journalist Joanna Stern spent a year using as many AI products as she could. It changed more than her workflow.
by
Tim Brinkhof
The “hidden laziness” holding you back, according to a Tibetan Buddhist master
Tibetan Buddhism identifies three very different ways of wasting your life.
Beyond the Odyssey: A beginner’s guide to Greek mythology
Classicist Natalie Haynes joins us to discuss the trials and joys of learning about ancient Greece and its myths.
FIND US ON SUBSTACK
This 3-step method to simplify your life starts with your obituary
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei joins us to discuss why living a more meaningful life requires confronting what matters and removing what doesn’t.
The psychological trap that distorts how you see difficult people
Once you decide what kind of person someone is, every interaction becomes supporting evidence. Here’s how to interrupt the cycle.
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
John Gray on why “progress” in politics is an illusion
In technology, we make cumulative advances that withstand time. Not so in politics and ethics, argues philosopher John Gray.
How to make difficult decisions, according to philosophy
When the road runs out, you've got to make your own way.
The hidden mathematics behind why you find things beautiful
The artistic and the mathematical mind are not so far apart.
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.
Ask Ethan: How did atoms come to be?
From a primordial soup of particles, atoms eventually emerged. What happened to make it so, and could things have worked out any other way?
Do gravitational waves show evidence of wave-particle duality?
All matter particles can act as waves, and massless light waves show particle-like behavior. Can gravitational waves also be particle-like?
The information paradox at the heart of every black hole
The matter that creates black holes won't be what comes out when they evaporate. Will the black hole information paradox ever be solved?
One blip isn’t enough to declare “dark matter has been detected”
In 1982, an experiment showed unprecedented evidence for exotic matter: magnetic monopoles. But without reproducibility, it didn't hold up.
Big ideas. Thoughtful conversations. One book at a time.
Misery is an emotional feature, not a glitch in the system
Why do anger, regret, and shame linger? Because evolution optimized our emotions to keep us alive, not to make us happy.
The 19th-century veterinarian who nearly cracked one of medicine’s oldest mysteries
The Great Epizootic of 1872 gave James Law the evidence he needed to challenge centuries of thinking surrounding the origins of disease.
The test pilot who made airplanes safer (by teaching us how to break them better)
Jimmy Doolittle pushed aircraft to their limits and, in the process, helped turn flight testing from daredevilry into a discipline.
This powerful belief can help you accomplish more
Decades of research show that self-efficacy can be strengthened with a few surprisingly simple strategies.
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.
NASA image shows Earth’s lumpiness — exaggerated 10,000 times
The Earth is neither flat nor round. Actually, it's somewhere between a potato and a billiard ball.
Every single crewed mission to space — on one definitive map
Big Think’s latest poster is a detailed look at humanity’s loftiest enterprise so far: making it off-planet.
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.
Where science meets the human story.
A study claimed UFOs orbited Earth in the 1950s. Then scientists checked the math.
In 2025, two cleverly designed studies claimed to find evidence of strange objects orbiting Earth — years before humanity had put anything in space.
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.
