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How America Lost Touch with Reality: Christian Utopias, Anti-Elitism, and the Media Circus | Kurt Andersen Sep 16, 2024

Show notes

How America Got Divorced from Reality: Christian Utopias, Anti-Elitism, Media Circus

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Since a boat of religious fanatics with buckles on their hats hit the shores near Plymouth Rock and claimed that this was their utopia, America has always been a little bit crazy. It's this kind of wide-eyed "anything can happen if you believe" mentality that, at its best, can produce incredible art. But at its worst, it can be cruel and conspiratorial. We live in a country where people refuse to believe vaccination can help you and where a White House is spinning "alternative — but Kurt Andersen is here to say that this is nothing now. At the time of the Civil War, society had become split by two sides that refused to listen to each other. Back then, the political and social divide is stoked by a hyperbolic partisan media where anyone could publish whatever they wanted in a pamphlet without fact-checking. Sound familiar? It definitely should. Kurt's latest book is appropriately titled Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire.

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KURT ANDERSEN:

Kurt Andersen, host of Studio 360 on NPR, is a journalist and the author of the novels Hey Day, Turn of the Century, The Real Thing, and his latest non-fiction book Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History. He has written and produced prime-time network television programs and pilots for NBC and ABC, and co-authored Loose Lips, an off-Broadway theatrical revue that had long runs in New York and Los Angeles. He is a regular columnist for New York Magazine, and contributes frequently to Vanity Fair. He is also a founder of Very Short List.

Andersen began his career in journalism at NBC's Today program and at Time, where he was an award-winning writer on politics and criminal justice and for eight years the magazine's architecture and design critic. Returning to Time in 1993 as editor-at-large, he wrote a weekly column on culture. And from 1996 through 1999 he was a staff writer and columnist for The New Yorker. He was a co-founder of Inside.com, editorial director of Colors magazine, and editor-in-chief of both New York and Spy magazines, the latter of which he also co-founded.

From 2004 through 2008 he wrote a column called "The Imperial City" for New York (one of which is included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2008). In 2008 Forbes. com named him one of The 25 Most Influential Liberals in the U.S. Media. Anderson graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College, and is a member of the boards of trustees of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the Pratt Institute, and is currently Visionary in Residence at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He lives with his family in New York City.

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How to DEBUNK DECEPTIVE EMOTIONS | Kristen Lindquist - BIGTHINK Sep 16, 2024

Show notes

Your emotions do not reflect an irrefutable truth. Psychologist Kristen Lindquist explains how important that is for connecting across cultures.

When it comes to obtaining an objective understanding of the world around us, emotions may not be as reliable as we think, explains Kristen Lindquist, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Lindquist explores the concept of "affective realism," a term that describes how our feelings shape our reality, both of which are influenced by cultural nuances. She unravels the connections between emotions, culture, and the brain, challenging the notion that our emotional experiences always mirror objective truths.

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About Kristen Lindquist:

Kristen Lindquist, PhD. is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research seeks to understand the psychological and neural basis of emotions, moods, and feelings. Her on-going work uses tools from social cognition, physiology, neuroscience, and big data methods to examine how emotions emerge from the confluence of the body, brain, and culture.

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The CEO playbook: 3 critical tips from 1,000 INTERVIEWS | Adam Bryant for BIGTHINK+ Sep 15, 2024

Show notes

Adam Bryant interviewed over 1,000 CEO’s. These are the 3 critical skills to running a company.

Adam Bryant was a journalist at the New York Times for nearly 18 years. In that time, he interviewed over 1,000 CEOs and found that each one had three key skills that keep their companies, their employees, and themselves, afloat.

According to Bryant, being a CEO isn’t all private jets and big checks. Since the pandemic, leadership has become even more challenging, as society has turned to companies for direction, support, and even solutions to global issues. Still, founders have found a way to thrive, thanks to these common characteristics

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Chapters for easier navigation

0:00 Intro

1:07 the actual truth about being a CEO

Critical Skills For CEO'S ↓

3:29 simplify complexity

4:00 being fully accountable

4:21 listening to stakeholders

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About Adam Bryant:

Adam Bryant joined The ExCo Group, a senior leadership development and executive mentoring firm, as managing director in 2017 after a 30-year career in journalism, including 18 years at The New York Times. In addition to his many roles there as a reporter and editor, he created the weekly "Corner Office" column, and interviewed 525 CEOs and other leaders over a decade. He has written four books based on the themes that emerged from Corner Office and from his four current interview series on LinkedIn with board directors, CEOs, CHROs and prominent Black leaders. His latest book, "The Leap to Leader: How Ambitious Managers Make the Jump to Leadership,” was published in July 2023 by Harvard Business Review Press. Adam is the senior adviser to the Reuben Mark Initiative for Organizational Character and Leadership at Columbia University...

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How to stop your secrets from hurting your MENTAL HEALTH | Michael Slepian - BIGTHINK Sep 15, 2024

Show notes

Columbia professor Michael Slepian collected thousands of secrets. They all had 3 things in common.

How many secrets are you holding right now? If the answer is around 13, you're about average, according to research on the nature of secrets.

Secrets aren't all bad. Some are rather trivial. But sometimes, keeping secrets can weigh us down and cause psychological distress.

Michael Slepian, an associate professor at Columbia Business School, has spent years studying the nature of secrets, why we hold them, and which kinds of secrets people tend to deem the most serious.

As Slepian explains in this Big Think video, his research has revealed that secrets can generally be sorted into three domains. Gaining a better understanding of your secrets can help you improve your well-being.

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About Michael Slepian:

Michael Slepian is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He previously was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. from Tufts University. He is an elected fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, has received the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

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Is Science Coming to an End? | Sabine Hossenfelder - BIGTHINK Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

Is science close to explaining everything about our universe? Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder reacts. In his 1996 book "The End of Science", John Horgan argued that scientists were close to answering nearly all of the big questions about our Universe. Was he right? The theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder doesn't think so. As she points out, the Standard Model of physics, which describes the behavior of particles and their interactions, is still incomplete as it does not include gravity. What's more, the measurement problem in quantum mechanics remains unsolved, and understanding this could lead to significant technological advancements. Ultimately, Hossenfelder is optimistic that progress will be made in the next two decades, given the current technological advancements in quantum technologies and quantum computing

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Chapters:-

0:00 The end of science

1:33 The ‘Theory of everything’

3:11 The measurement crisis

4:29 Our quantum future

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About Sabine Hossenfelder: Sabine Hossenfelder is a physicist, author, and creator of "Science Without the Gobbledygook". She currently works at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy in Germany.

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“Drug use is your BIRTHRIGHT” | Dr. Carl Hart - BIGTHINK Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

Columbia Professor Carl Hart breaks taboos surrounding drug use in America.

The U.S. was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

So, why does the government prohibit Americans from altering their state of consciousness with drugs it has deemed illegal? After all, drug prohibition has not only proven ineffective and unjust in many cases, but it also impinges on one’s right to live life as they see fit. It restricts liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Given these inconsistencies between principle and policy, what role should the U.S. government play, if any, in regulating mind-altering substances as we move forward into the 21st century?

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About Dr. Carl Hart:

Dr. Hart is an Associate Professor of Psychology in both the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Columbia University, and Director of the Residential Studies and Methamphetamine Research Laboratories at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. A major focus of Dr. Hart’s research is to understand complex interactions between drugs of abuse and the neurobiology and environmental factors that mediate human behavior and physiology. He is the author or co-author of dozens of peer-reviewed scientific articles in the area of neuropsychopharmacology, co-author of the textbook, Drugs, Society, and Human Behavior, and a member of a NIH review group. Dr. Hart was recently elected to Fellow status by the American Psychological Association (Division 28) for his outstanding contribution to the field of psychology, specifically psychopharmacology and substance abuse.

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Understand these 4 key concepts for a happier life | Arthur Brooks Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

How does one become truly happy? Arthur Brooks, author and Harvard professor, explains.

Throughout his career, Brooks has pinpointed the essence of real happiness. His key insight? Happiness is not just a feeling, it’s a state of mind.

In this interview, Brooks shares three primary elements of well-being, and explains how each one – enjoyment, satisfaction, and meaning – contributes to your own happiness factor. Enjoyment, he explains, involves more than mere pleasure—it’s about shared experiences and lasting memories. Satisfaction arises from overcoming challenges, and meaning comes from understanding life’s coherence, significance, and purpose.

Brooks further breaks down the pursuits that genuinely contribute to happiness: faith, family, friendship, and meaningful work. He stresses that happiness is not a final destination but a continuous direction. By focusing on these core aspects, we can build a fulfilling and happier life.

This interview is an episode from ‪‪@The-Well‬, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪‪@JohnTempletonFoundation‬.

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About Arthur Brooks:

Arthur C. Brooks is a professor at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, where he teaches public and nonprofit leadership and management practice. Before joining Harvard in July 2019, he spent ten years as the president of the American Enterprise Institute, a well-known public policy think tank in Washington, DC.

Brooks has written 11 books, including the bestsellers "Love Your Enemies" (2019), "The Conservative Heart" (2015), and "The Road to Freedom" (2012). He writes a column for The Atlantic, hosts the podcast "The Art of Happiness with Arthur Brooks," and is featured in the 2019 documentary "The Pursuit." He also serves on the board of the Legatum Institute, a think tank in London.

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Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds.

Together, let's learn from them.

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Improve your critical inquiry skills in just 6 minutes | Alex Edmans for Big Think+ Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

“People will claim that something is rigorous because it's by an authority figure or it's written in a book. But anyone can write a book.”

We often think the solution to misinformation is fact checking. But just checking facts is not enough. Even if a fact is 100% accurate, it could still be misleading – it could be a large-scale correlation when there’s no causation.

The solution to misinformation is not obtaining a PhD in statistics, London Business School professor Alex Edmans and author of “May Contain Lies” argues. We often already possess the discerning skills to distinguish truth within ourselves.

Misinformation is so prevalent today because we suffer from confirmation bias, or the idea that we have a certain view of the world and we will latch onto any piece of evidence that supports our viewpoint. When we inject skepticism into our thought process, we can overcome these biases.

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About Alex Edmans:

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School. Alex graduated from Oxford University and then worked for Morgan Stanley in investment banking (London) and fixed income sales and trading (New York). After a PhD in Finance from MIT Sloan as a Fulbright Scholar, he joined Wharton in 2007 and was tenured in 2013 shortly before moving to LBS.

Alex’s research interests are in corporate finance, responsible business and behavioural finance. He is a Director of the American Finance Association; Vice President of the Western Finance Association; Fellow, Director, and Chair of the Ethics Committee of the Financial Management Association; Fellow of the British Academy; and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. From 2017-2022 he was Managing Editor of the Review of Finance, the leading academic finance journal in Europe.

Alex has spoken at the World Economic Forum in Davos, testified in the UK Parliament, presented to the World Bank Board of Directors as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, and given the TED talk What to Trust in a Post-Truth World and the TEDx talks The Pie-Growing Mindset and The Social Responsibility of Business with a combined 2.8 million views. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review and World Economic Forum and been interviewed by Bloomberg, BBC, CNBC, CNN, ESPN, Fox, ITV, NPR, Reuters, Sky News, and Sky Sports.

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"Will Civilization Collapse? | Kevin Kelly Explains - BIG THINK" Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

WIRED founder Kevin Kelly explains why progress often looks like dystopia to the untrained eye.

Imagine that tomorrow, the world magically got 1% better. Nobody would notice. But if the world got 1% better every year, the "compounding" effect would be very noticeable — in the same way that compounding grows a bank account.

When technology solves a problem, it creates new problems. The solution is not less technology but better technology.

Kevin Kelly of WIRED magazine calls this incremental progress toward a better world "protopia." Protopia is a direction, not a destiny.

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This video is part of The Progress Issue, a Big Think and Freethink special collaboration.

In this inaugural special issue we set out to explore progress — how it happens, how we nurture it and how we stifle it, and what changes are required in how we approach our most serious problems to ensure greater and more equitable progress for all.

It’s time for a return to optimism.

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About Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at WIRED magazine. He co-founded WIRED in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. He is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. Other books by Kelly include 1) Out of Control, the 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems, 2) The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels, 3) What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and 4) Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia. He is currently co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, which is building a clock in a mountain that will tick for 10,000 years

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Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach | Bo Seo - BIGTHINK Sep 12, 2024

Show notes

Train for any argument with Harvard’s former debate coach, Bo Seo. Bo Seo, an author and two-time world debate champion, believes our public conversations are in crisis. To Seo, our arguing skills have collectively atrophied over recent decades, resulting in bad arguments that have caused many people to lose faith in the idea that productive disagreements are even possible. That's why Seo suggests a framework called RISA — which stands for "Real, Important, Specific, and Aligned" — to help people pick their fights more wisely and to give conversations the best possible chance of success. RISA helps individuals find a better way to disagree. Seo believes that by making a contract with the other party and reminding them of the rules, conversations can be productive, and disagreements can lead to progress

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Chapters for easier navigation:-

0:00 Why you’re losing your arguments

1:11 The making of a world champion

2:17 Intelligence vs wisdom

3:04 The RISA framework

4:29 Applying the RISA framework

6:23 Picking a good fight

7:46 Weak vs. strong arguments

9:21 Side-switch exercises

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