Stay ConnectedThe Next Big Idea is a weekly series of in-depth interviews with the world’s leading thinkers. Join hosts Rufus Griscom and Caleb Bissinger — along with our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — for conversations that might just change the way you see the world. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
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A lot of us run away from tough conversations. Anna Sale runs toward them. For nearly a decade, as the host of the podcast “Death, Sex & Money,” she has been having searching conversations about “the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more.” Today, Anna reminds us — with her trademark warmth, curiosity, and candor — how to have those difficult conversations.
(This episode originally aired in July 2021.)
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• Looking for a holiday gift for the most curious person in your life? How about a Next Big Idea Club membership! Use the code GIFT75 at www.nextbigideaclub.com for $75 off a gift subscription.
It's no secret that we live in a ferociously competitive world. But what is the drive to always be the best doing to our kids? That's what journalist Jennifer Breheny Wallace wanted to know when she set out to write her new book, "Never Enough." The kids, she discovered, are not alright. Teenagers are battling burnout, depression, and anxiety at alarming rates.
How did we let this happen, and what can we do to fix it?
To answer these vexing but vital questions, we invited Jennifer to chat with Daniel Markovits. He's the author of "The Meritocracy Trap" and a professor at Yale Law School, where he's seen toxic achievement culture up close. In this episode, recorded live at Betaworks in New York City, Jennifer, Daniel, and Rufus discuss why our kids are under such unrelenting pressure, what we can do to give them some relief, and the potential role of new technologies, like AI, in creating positive solutions.
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Host: Rufus Griscom
Guests: Jennifer Breheny Wallace & Daniel Markovits
• Click here to hear Daniel's previous appearance on the show.
• Want the best non-fiction books of the year delivered to your doorstep? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club subscription at nextbigideaclub.com, and use the code PODCAST to get 20% off and a free copy of Adam Grant's new book, "Hidden Potential"!
Failure is inevitable. How we respond to it makes all the difference. Today, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson joins us to discuss the critical distinction between destructive failures and intelligent mistakes that drive innovation.
For the past four years, New York Times columnist and acclaimed author David Brooks has been trying to learn the skills that go into seeing others, understanding others, making other people feel respected, valued, and safe. Such social skills may sound trifling, but mastering them, David believes, could help us all make better decisions, enhance our creativity, and maybe even repair our nation’s fraying social fabric.
• David's new book is How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
• Learn more about Weave: The Social Fabric Project at weavers.org
• Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 20% off when you use the code PODCAST
We live in a world that worships talent, a world that cheers natural athletes, exalts child prodigies, and venerates virtuosos. But admiring people who are blessed with innate abilities can lead us to underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. As Adam Grant explains in his new book, “Hidden Potential,” growth is not about the genius you possess — it’s about the character you develop. Adam joins us today to talk about developing the character skills, motivational tools, and learning systems that can help ordinary people achieve extraordinary things.
• Want 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership? Sign up today at nextbigideaclub.com and use the code PODCAST
When tech journalist Kashmir Hill got a tip about a mysterious app, Clearview AI, that claimed it could identify anyone based on just one photo, she was skeptical. But when she found out the app was for real, she quickly realized it could lead to a dystopian future where privacy is a thing of the past.
Guest: Kashmir Hill
Book: "Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It"
Host: Panio Gianopoulos
Daniel Pink is going through an existential crisis. The culprit? A new book by Stanford professor Brian Lowery.
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If you want to attend our November 1st event with Daniel Markovits and Jennifer Breheny Wallace, head to our Eventbrite page.
And if you want early invitations to upcoming events, sign up for one of our new Next Big Idea Club memberships.
Have you ever been brought to tears by a TV commercial? Do you relish rainy days? Are your favorite songs sad ones? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you, dear listener, know the power of the bittersweet. It’s a feeling, an emotion, a way of being that Susan Cain explored in her #1 New York Times bestseller “Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole.” She spoke with Rufus about the book in April 2022, and it remains one of our favorite conversations — certainly one of the most moving — so today we’re sharing it again. We hope it gives you goosebumps.
Stuart Russell wrote the book on artificial intelligence. Literally. Today, he sits down with Rufus to discuss the promise — and potential peril — of the technology he's been studying for the past 40 years.
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Book: “Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control”
Host: Rufus Griscom
Guest: Stuart Russell
When he was 26, Will Guidara took the helm of a middling brasserie in New York City called Eleven Madison Park. A decade later, it was named the best restaurant in the world. How did he pull off this unprecedented transformation? By practicing unreasonable hospitality.
Host: Caleb Bissinger
Guest: Will Guidara
Book: "Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect"
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