Yuval Noah Harari is a historian best known for his book Sapiens , which has sold more than 25 million copies and been translated into 65 languages. Adam and Yuval examine the power of stories in shaping humanity’s success, discuss the tension between justice and peace, and reconsider the true purpose of studying history. Yuval’s latest book, Unstoppable Us, Volume 2: Why The World Isn’t Fair , is for young readers and it’s out now. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscri...
Apr 02, 2024•41 min
Growing up, Saul Perlmutter just wanted to know how the world worked. In 2011, he was part of the Nobel Prize-winning team that discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe. Saul and Adam talk about how science and knowledge evolve, what surprising emotions come with discovery, and why the combination of individual humility and collective confidence can solve some of the world’s biggest problems. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/RWAG6 For the full text transcript, visit te...
Apr 01, 2024•32 min
Charan Ranganath is a psychologist and neuroscientist who has spent his career studying memory. His new book, Why We Remember, surveys the latest science on the subject and digs into the links between memory and identity. Charan and Adam discuss surprising evidence on why we remember, what we forget, and how learning new ideas happens. For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-grant-transcripts Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey ! Ho...
Mar 26, 2024•43 min
As a political scientist and founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer helps business leaders, policymakers and the general public make sense of the world. He gives a stirring analysis of the current state of global affairs and explains what makes 2024 so complex. Ian and Adam discuss the cyclical nature of geopolitics, what’s different about today’s crisis of democracy, and what we can do as individuals to cope with it. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts For the full...
Mar 19, 2024•36 min
You may know will.i.am as the seven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, and frontman of The Black Eyed Peas. But his interests beyond music have also taken him down a surprising and creative path — from serving as the director of creative innovation at Intel, to becoming the first artist to stream a song from the surface of Mars, to hosting the first radio show with an AI co-host. Adam asks about will.i.am’s creative process and digs into how he turns his expansive ideas into...
Mar 12, 2024•32 min
Cal Newport knows a thing or two about productivity: when he’s not teaching computer science at Georgetown, he’s writing for The New Yorker , hosting a podcast, or authoring New York Times bestsellers like Deep Work and Digital Minimalism . In his new book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout , Cal proposes that we trade current standards of rapid output for slower, higher-quality, and sustainable ways of working. Adam and Cal dig into the data on productivity, deba...
Mar 05, 2024•41 min
Sarah Edmondson escaped and blew the whistle against NXIVM, the cult masquerading as a “personal and professional development company.” With clarity and a surprising and wry sense of humor, Sarah shares her lessons about the dark sides of charisma. She and Adam discuss what makes groups a little (or a lot) culty, the telltale signs of manipulation, and why our highest loyalty belongs to principles — not people. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts For the full text ...
Feb 27, 2024•28 min
Robin Arzón is the head instructor at Peloton and an ultramarathon runner, but she didn’t plan to make her career based on her athletic prowess. In this conversation with Adam, she talks about how she fell in love with running in adulthood and her radical career pivot from lawyer to renowned exercise instructor. They discuss what hustle culture gets wrong, why motivation may be less important than momentum, and how to create a consistent practice in the gym — and beyond it. Transcripts for ReThi...
Feb 20, 2024•39 min
Denise Hamilton is an inclusion strategist who works with organizations ranging from the UN to the WNBA. She is also the author of Indivisible: How to Forge our Differences into a Stronger Future . Denise and Adam discuss the pain of abandoning old stories, the value of revising long-held beliefs, and how to respond to the backlash against diversity and inclusion. Indivisible is out now. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts For the full text transcript, visit ted.co...
Feb 13, 2024•35 min
Jared Cohen is a history buff with a career that boasts its own remarkable story. From the State Department to founding Jigsaw at Google to leading global affairs and innovation at Goldman Sachs, Jared has worked with the world’s top leaders to tackle humanity’s biggest problems. His work in international problem-solving also translates into a passion for U.S. history. His new book, Life After Power , is a fascinating exploration about what seven American presidents did after leaving the most in...
Feb 06, 2024•35 min
Bob Sutton is an organizational psychologist and bestselling author. In this zesty conversation with Adam, Bob shares insights on how to overcome friction at work. The two also discuss steps for leaders to become better listeners, the surprising advantages of inconvenience, and why it’s better to be a boring leader than an a-hole boss. Bob’s latest book, The Friction Project , is out now. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts For the full text transcript, visit ted.c...
Jan 30, 2024•38 min
You don’t always decide what you feel, but you do own how you react to those feelings. In her bestselling book and TED Talk, Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David examines the skills involved in emotional agility. She and Adam go deep on this topic, discussing the risks of judging and suppressing unwanted emotions — and effective techniques for managing them. They explore why optimism is not essential to well-being and how to overcome pressure to be positive. And they reveal how paying...
Jan 23, 2024•36 min
Emotions are like opinions — everyone has them. Thanks to the pioneering research of today’s guest, we know that it’s possible to transform our feelings by changing how we think and talk about them. Lisa Feldman Barrett is a psychologist and neuroscientist at Northeastern University and Harvard Medical School. In this episode, Lisa and Adam bust myths about how emotions are constructed in the brain and experienced in the body. They discuss the surprising evidence that language doesn’t just descr...
Jan 16, 2024•36 min
Jennifer Garner’s roles — from “13 Going on 30” to “Juno” to “Alias” — often center strong women who know how to achieve great things. In a fun and surprising live conversation, Jennifer chats with Adam about his latest book, “Hidden Potential.” They dive into the most eye-opening findings in Adam’s research and the unexpected factors that build character and long-term success. Plus, the two dream up the ideal school — and discuss what it’s like to be both “Type A” and “Type Z” parents. Transcri...
Jan 09, 2024•52 min
As a clinical psychologist, Becky Kennedy works with parents to raise good kids. She’s best known as Dr. Becky on Instagram, and has been called the "Millennial parenting whisperer" for good reason. Becky and Adam challenge the widespread belief that it’s a parent’s job to make their children happy, talk candidly about the surprisingly difficult task of setting and maintaining boundaries, and dig into the science and practice of helping kids (and adults) deal with the ups and downs of life. Tran...
Jan 02, 2024•42 min
Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winner who transformed our understanding of the biases that cloud our thinking. In this conversation, he and Adam explore when to trust our intuition and when to second-guess it. Danny explains how he finds joy in being wrong, spells out steps to smarter interviewing, and reveals how he—the master decoder of decision-making—makes decisions. Find the transcript for this episode at go.ted.com/RT-Kahneman For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinki...
Dec 26, 2023•36 min
Maurice Ashley is a trailblazing chess grandmaster — the first African-American player to claim that prestigious title. He’s also a chess coaching legend, as spotlighted in Adam's new book, “Hidden Potential.” Adam and Maurice discuss the lessons from losing, the benefits of respecting your opponents, and what drives a winning strategy in chess and life. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts For the full text transcript, visit ted.com/podcasts/rethinking-with-adam-gr...
Dec 19, 2023•39 min
If you think of the arts as entertainment or luxury, Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross might ask you to reconsider. The authors of the New York Times bestseller “Your Brain on Art” argue that engaging with music, craft projects, and museums can transform our lives in unexpected ways. Susan, Ivy, and Adam delve into the fascinating science of neuroaesthetics, and explore how art can unlock creativity, enhance well-being, and enrich communities. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.com/RWA...
Dec 12, 2023•34 min
Elliot Aronson is one of the preeminent psychologists of the 20th century — his mentors were Abraham Maslow and Leon Festinger, and his award-winning psychology textbooks are seminal even for non-psychologists. Adam asks Elliot about his pioneering work on making mistakes and cognitive dissonance, or the discomfort we feel when we realize that our attitudes or actions contradict our values. Then, the two discuss the dangers (and upsides) of rationalizing our beliefs — and strategies for making b...
Dec 05, 2023•45 min
We usually wear our thickest armor at work, and Brené Brown has blazed the trail of teaching us why and how to shed it. In this conversation, Adam and Brené unpack the power of showing vulnerability at work — and explore how much is too much. Learn when and where to set boundaries, find out how to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable, and hear Brené rethink a key assumption that she took for granted in her own work. The transcript for this episode is available at go.ted.com/RT-vulnerabi...
Nov 28, 2023•40 min
Poet and author Maggie Smith isn’t sure where she falls on the spectrum from optimism to pessimism. But her viral poem “Good Bones” and her bestselling books have inspired countless readers with profound insights on the messiness of being human. In this episode, Maggie and Adam discuss strategies for handling complex emotions, sustaining hope while acknowledging reality, and accepting ambiguity in life and art. They explore the value of asking questions that may not have a satisfying answer — or...
Nov 21, 2023•44 min
Rainn Wilson was a late bloomer: he landed the role of Dwight Schrute on “The Office” after over a decade of struggling as an actor. But success didn’t solve all of his problems — and it even created some new ones. In this live conversation for the Authors@Wharton series, Adam asks Rainn about his unlikely journey to stardom and how it led him into exploring the insights that philosophy, psychology, and the world’s great spiritual traditions can offer on modern life’s existential questions. They...
Nov 14, 2023•46 min
Many people are obsessed with optimizing their lives, but this might be a suboptimal way to live. Adam brings together psychologist Barry Schwartz (author of “The Paradox of Choice”) and applied mathematician Coco Krumme (author of “Optimal Illusions”) to discuss the dark side of maximizing everything. The three discuss the unintended consequences of always aiming for the best, debate different strategies for individuals and societies to make better choices, and explore how it’s possible to purs...
Nov 07, 2023•48 min
Before his stories regularly appeared in The New Yorker, before the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and before being named one of the world’s most influential people by TIME, George Saunders was a roofer. And a doorman. And a technical writer. In this episode, George sits down with Adam and shares what he’s learned from his winding path towards becoming a professional author, the secrets of creating work that sticks, and how to receive feedback and elevate our rough drafts. Transcripts for...
Oct 31, 2023•38 min
Malcolm Gladwell hosts a rollicking live discussion about Adam's new book, "Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things," which is out today. They explore why we overemphasize innate talent, how Adam grappled with impostor syndrome as a writer and perfectionism as an athlete, and how to chart a path toward achieving greater things. They also discuss the evidence on affirmative action — and riff on topics ranging from humility to psychoanalysis to whether Lions or Bills fans suffer ...
Oct 24, 2023•45 min
Meetings often drain our joy and sap our focus – and meeting overload kills productivity. So why do we have so many of them, and is a better world possible? Adam investigates the science of improving meetings and explores how workplaces are fighting meeting bloat. Available transcripts for WorkLife can be found at go.ted.com/WLtranscripts This is an episode of the latest season of WorkLife with Adam Grant. For more, find WorkLife with Adam Grant wherever you are listening to this. For the full t...
Sep 26, 2023•32 min
As a therapist, Nedra Glover Tawwab has spent years helping people set boundaries in their personal and professional lives. As the New York Times bestselling author of the books “Drama Free” and “Set Boundaries, Find Peace,” her wisdom often goes viral on Instagram and beyond. Nedra sits down with Adam for an insightful discussion on why people struggle with creating boundaries, how we can deal with saying “no,” and why setting a boundary is the ultimate act of self-respect. Transcripts for ReTh...
Aug 22, 2023•37 min
As the founder and CEO of Khan Academy, Sal is a pioneer in the education technology space. With millions of users and billions of views, he’s been recognized as one of Time’s “100 Most Influential People,” and now he’s at the forefront of using AI to enrich learning. Sal and Adam have an exciting discussion about the role of AI in the classroom, discuss the opportunities and challenges of designing tools that foster true critical thinking, and share their visions for the future of education. Tr...
Aug 15, 2023•39 min
With his sharp observational comedy and dry wit, Jim Gaffigan has been making people laugh for decades. He’s a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer who has earned an Emmy award and multiple Grammy nominations. He opens up about his early career shift from marketing to comedy, the art of crafting jokes that land, and the often exasperatingly funny experience of parenting. Jim’s latest special, “Dark Pale,” is now streaming on Amazon. Transcripts for ReThinking are available at go.ted.co...
Aug 08, 2023•36 min
Chip and Joanna Gaines are best known for their hit reality TV home renovation show “Fixer Upper.” The married couple has delighted audiences by finding charm in unexpected places, and now Chip and Joanna are building their own empire extending from furniture and homewares to a Gaines TV channel. But their greatest achievement has been building a thriving partnership at work and home despite dramatic differences between their personalities. Chip and Joanna talk with Adam about how introverts and...
Aug 01, 2023•35 min
