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The Big Think Interview

Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content — with thousands of videos helping you get smarter, faster. Get actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers & doers. Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields. We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life.

Latest Episodes:

Jim Al-Khalili: Quantum entanglement and the illusion of time, in 79 minutes Mar 13, 2026

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Time feels obvious, but physics tells a stranger story about its existence: Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili explores why our sense of time may be incredibly misleading, including the idea that past, present, and future might all exist at once.

How experimental archaeologists are resurrecting our forgotten past Mar 06, 2026

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We tend to imagine ancient life in broad strokes. But daily existence was built out of small, sensory details. The taste of staple foods, the smell of living spaces, the feel of handmade tools in your hands -- those experiences shaped the people of the past.

Sam Kean examines how recreating those details brings history into sharper focus, rebuilding the foods and practices of the past and what that reveals about human adaptability.

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Alain de Botton: The uncomfortable question you should ask on every first date Feb 27, 2026

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We want to believe that love is guided by instinct, and that following our heart will lead us to our ideal soulmate. Alain de Botton argues that our romantic lives are shaped more by the emotional patterns we learned in childhood than by destiny.

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Jill Tarter: Why SETI might be our most humbling science Feb 20, 2026

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Jill Tarter has spent a lifetime working on a question that resists answers: not whether we believe there is life beyond Earth, but the quest for undeniable proof. Tarter explains why SETI is really about technology, patience, and learning how to tell alien signals from our own.

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The most important piece of technology in your lifetime is this tiny chip Feb 13, 2026

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The story of the chip is a story about geopolitics and scarcity. From $20 billion fabrication plants to machines built by a single Dutch firm, the supply chain behind your devices is both miraculous and astonishingly fragile.

Chris Miller explains why the AI race, U.S.–China tensions, and the future of economic dominance, all rest on this tiny square of silicon.

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The real reasons young men are checking out of society | Richard Reeves: Full Interview Nov 18, 2025

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Richard Reeves argues that this quiet male crisis has been decades in the making, and it’s not the simplistic story most people assume. From collapsing educational outcomes to shrinking roles in the labor market, men are struggling in ways that challenge our cultural narratives about progress.

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Hollywood lied to you about Ancient Rome. Here’s the truth | Mary Beard: Full Interview Nov 13, 2025

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We've inherited the history of Ancient Rome through movies, ruins, and shallow stories. The truth is far messier, says classicist Mary Beard. The hidden side of Roman life that screens rarely capture is chaotic; crowded streets teeming with Romans whose everyday lives were shaped by social hierarchies and familial obligations. Mary Beard unpacks what archaeology, literature, and even shoes tell us about the Romans’ daily lives. From the role of slaves in dressing elites to the rowdy crowds at chariot races, she shows how we’ve underestimated their complexity.

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The Universe in 90 minutes: Time, free will, God, & more | Sean Carroll Dec 19, 2024

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Sean B. Carroll - Full Interview on Our Planet, Humans, and Chance Dec 19, 2024

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6 ways to heal trauma without medication | Bessel van der Kolk | Big Think Nov 14, 2024

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6 ways to heal trauma without medication, from the author of “The Body Keeps the Score,” Bessel van der Kolk.

Conventional psychiatric practices tell us that if we feel bad, take this drug and it will go away. But after years of research with some of the top psychiatric practitioners in the world, we’ve found that drugs simply don’t work that well for many, and our conventional ways of healing trauma need to change.

In recent years, experts in the study of trauma have been experimenting with ‘new age’ healing mechanisms that are making massive waves for trauma patients. Some of these new healing methods include EDMR, yoga, theater and movement, neural feedback, and even psychedelics. Many of these methods have proven to be more effective than conventional pharmaceuticals.

But just like any other health regimen, what works for you might not work for your friend or neighbor. New age trauma therapy is all an experiment, and after enough experimenting, something can eventually work, healing your trauma in a unique and effective way.

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