Sign up for our daily Substack here! Kevin Kelly has made a career out of looking to the future. He helped pioneer online social networking all the way back in the 1980s, and he co-founded Wired, the magazine devoted to digital technology, when the internet was still an infant. But in his new book, Excellent Advice for Living, he looks backward. It’s a collection of 450 bits of wisdom he wishes he’d known when he was young. Things like “Being enthusiastic is worth 25 IQ points” and “That thing t...
Jul 03, 2025•51 min
Let’s talk about revenge. Not the juicy, action-movie kind with flaming cars and dramatic showdowns, but the kind that quietly simmers in your brain long after someone cuts you off in traffic or sends a snarky email. According to Yale psychiatry lecturer and lawyer James Kimmel, revenge isn’t just an emotion. It’s an addiction. A hit of dopamine here, a rumination there, and suddenly we’re hooked on the fantasy of payback. But what if we could quit cold turkey? In his new book, The Science of R...
Jun 30, 2025•11 min
AI, according to Andy Sack and Adam Brotman, co-founders of Forum3 and co-authors of the new book AI First, isn't just a neat new tool. It's "a tsunami of technology and capabilities." And if you don't start learning how to use it properly, they say, "you are absolutely gonna be left behind." The problem? Most people are using AI wrong. They're treating it like Google search when it should be treated like "an alien synthetic intelligence that can really reason and think and help you." In this ep...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 4 min
Science journalist Melinda Wenner Moyer, shares research-backed strategies for parenting with compassion, curiosity, and resilience from her new book, Hello, Cruel World!: Science-Based Strategies for Raising Terrific Kids in Terrifying Times. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
Jun 23, 2025•14 min
This is one of our favorite conversations from the last year. On the surface, it's an interview we did with Michael Lewis to coincide with the paperback release of Going Infinite, his book about Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX. Michael, who spent months hovering over Sam's shoulder, believes he wasn't some malevolent grifter: he was an awkward kid undone by a “pathological ability to foist risk upon other people without asking their permission." But what we love about this episode is t...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Today, Travis Bradberry, author of The New Emotional Intelligence, argues that understanding and managing your emotions — and the emotions of others — is even more important than IQ when it comes to success at work and in life. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
Jun 16, 2025•13 min
Susan Cain always knew she wanted to be a writer. But her path to becoming one was anything but straightforward. She took a creative writing class in college and came away convinced she wasn’t very talented. So she pivoted: law school, white-shoe firm, eyes set on making partner. Seven years later, a senior partner walked into her office with life-changing news. It wasn’t going to happen. “I burst into tears,” Susan recalls. Three hours later, she quit. Within a week, she enrolled in a creative ...
Jun 12, 2025•45 min
If you want your organization to succeed in the future, you need to take advantage of AI now. Lucky for you, Adam Brotman and Andy Sack have written AI First, a playbook that can help you future-proof your business. 📱 To hear the rest of this week’s Next Big Idea Daily episodes, follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best ne...
Jun 09, 2025•14 min
We think that cynicism protects us from being disappointed by other people. But Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki says the opposite is true. When we expect the worst in people, we create a self-fulfilling prophecy that brings out exactly what we feared. So in his new book, Hope for Cynics, Jamil sets out to prove that hope isn't naive: it's smart. 🎁 Looking for a gift for the graduates in your life? How about a subscription to The Next Big Idea Club? They’ll get the smartest new nonfiction as ch...
Jun 05, 2025•58 min
Psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman broke free from resentment and rumination, shifting into what he calls an empowerment mindset. Are you ready to do the same? • Support our show by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more here
May 29, 2025•46 min
What if everything we've been told about having a successful career is wrong? Rutger Bregman thinks most of us are wasting our working lives and argues we should stop trying to get rich and start trying to solve the world's problems instead.
May 22, 2025•1 hr 21 min
In his new book, The Thinking Machine, Stephen Witt offers a riveting portrait of Jensen Huang, who went from immigrant dishwasher to CEO of the world’s most valuable company. • If you enjoyed this episode, check out our conversation with Walter Isaacson about his biography of Elon Musk
May 15, 2025•1 hr 22 min
Humans are wired to explore. So why are we less adventurous than ever — and what are we losing because of it? Guest: Alex Hutchinson, author of The Explorer’s Gene Further Listening: Looking for more episodes about adventure? Check out our conversations with Colin O’Brady and David Grann
May 08, 2025•53 min
Could AI take over in the next few years? Daniel Kokotajlo thinks so. Here’s why. 💿 Check out this Spotify playlist of our other episodes about AI 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best new nonfiction books — in audio or text — straight from the authors. Sign up today!
May 01, 2025•1 hr 37 min
Remember magazines? Piled high on coffee tables or tucked into seatback pockets. Savored beneath beach umbrellas or skimmed anxiously in dental waiting rooms. Glorious, glossy magazines. Graydon Carter made some of the best. He started with Spy, a sly, sharp-edged monthly that managed to feel both smarter and more mischievous than anything else on the rack. But it was Vanity Fair that became his cathedral. Over his remarkable 25-year tenure as editor, he built the magazine into a financial jugge...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr
You know those families where the kids all grow up to be remarkably successful? New York Times journalist Susan Dominus has spent the last few years getting to know some of them, looking for parenting techniques and life lessons. She's written a book about her findings called The Family Dynamic. "I thought I wrote a book about high-achieving families," she tells us, "but when I look back, it's really a book about families who did believe that the sky's the limit." 📕 Pre-order The Family Dynamic...
Apr 17, 2025•53 min
Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson is probably the most talked-about book in the country right now. And the most hotly debated. It’s a book about how we got here — here being a country without enough housing, a country that has lost its ambitious optimism, a country that has forgotten how to build. The prescription Ezra and Derek offer to cure what ails us is conspicuously pro-growth: more housing, more clean energy, more scientific development and technological innovation. But to pull t...
Apr 10, 2025•1 hr 13 min
We’re often told that success comes down to talent, hard work, and luck. But Adam Grant's research suggests that view is missing something crucial. In today’s installment of Next Big Idea Classics, Adam revisits his 2013 bestseller “Give and Take,” explaining how our interactions with others determine who thrives and who doesn’t. 💿 For Adam’s previous appearances on the show, click here 🎙️ And check out our classic interviews with Daniel Pink, Kim Scott, and James Clear
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 9 min
In 2008, a mysterious figure created Bitcoin — a digital currency without banks or borders that sparked a global financial movement. And then he disappeared without a trace. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Why did he vanish? And why hasn’t he touched his $100 billion fortune? Today on the show, we talk to journalist Ben Wallace about his search for answers. 📕 The Mysterious Mr. Nakamoto 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, ...
Mar 27, 2025•58 min
Can you change who you are? When reporter Olga Khazan decided she was tired of being a “high-strung misanthrope” (her words), she turned to science for answers. What she discovered about personality — and how to change it — might surprise you. Host: Daniel Pink Guest: Olga Khazan Book: Me, But Better This episode was recorded live at Politics and Prose on March 12th.
Mar 20, 2025•51 min
Every day you inhale 2,000 gallons of air. What’s in there? 📕 Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe by Carl Zimmer 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best new nonfiction books — in audio or text — straight from the authors. Sign up today!
Mar 13, 2025•57 min
Turns out it’s not all about the Benjamins. Real success, according to Sahil Bloom, author of “The 5 Types of Wealth,” also requires the freedom to decide how you spend your time, meaningful relationships, a sense of purpose that pulls you forward, and the kind of health that lets you actually enjoy all of the above. 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best new nonfiction books — in audio...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 6 min
In part two of our conversation with Will Storr about his new book A Story Is a Deal, he reveals the five storytelling techniques you can use to captivate any audience. Plus, he helps us craft the story of the Next Big Idea Club. 1️⃣ Listen to Part 1 here 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best new nonfiction books — in audio or text — straight from the authors. Sign up today!
Feb 27, 2025•46 min
Today, we’re sitting down with Will Storr, author of the dazzling new book A Story Is a Deal, to talk about humanity’s greatest invention: story. More than just entertainment, Will argues, story is what we do and who we are. It’s how we make sense of the world, captivate, and persuade. And yet for all its power, storytelling isn’t some elusive magic trick — it’s a skill. One you can learn. Will’s here to show you how. 🎧 Listen to Will’s previous appearance on the podcast here 📩 Want to transfo...
Feb 20, 2025•55 min
When Rajiv Shah was in his late 20s and didn’t know what to do with his life, he got a job at a fledgling nonprofit, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Before he knew it, he was a driving force behind a global vaccination program that immunized 900 million children and saved 16 million lives. At 36, he became the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), managing a $20 billion budget, overseeing a staff of 10,000, and leading the U.S. response to global...
Feb 13, 2025•52 min
In this special audio essay, Rufus reflects on the big ideas from 2024 that altered his worldview. 🎙️ You can find all of the interviews mentioned in this episode in this Spotify playlist 📩 Want to transform your day in just 10 minutes? Subscribe to our Book of the Day newsletter, and you’ll get daily, bite‑sized insights from the best new nonfiction books — in audio or text — straight from the authors. Sign up today!
Feb 06, 2025•37 min
A recent Pew Research survey found that most Americans are more worried than excited about AI. Reid Hoffman, however, isn't one of them. He knows the risks — arms races, runaway superintelligence, the whole humans-being-turned-into paperclips scenario — but he's still convinced that AI is poised to usher in an era of extraordinary human progress. And as you'll hear in this episode, he makes a pretty good case. Reid is the co-founder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI, a partner at the vent...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 1 min
We've got a special treat for you today. We invited Ethan Kross — psychologist, neuroscientist, and author of the bestseller "Chatter" — to give us a sneak peek at his new book, "Shift." It comes out in February, and it's a myth-busting, science-based guide to mastering your emotional life using tools you already possess. 📕 Pre-order Ethan's book here 🎧 Check out Ethan's previous appearance on the show: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 8 min
In our deeply divided nation, there's one thing many of us seem to agree on: winter is the worst. A recent study found that nearly half of Americans would skip winter if they could. Yet not everyone dreads the cold months. Psychologist Kari Leibowitz has spent years studying these winter-lovers, and she's arrived at a surprising truth: people who thrive this time of year aren't just born that way — they've learned to see the season differently. So can you. Guest: Kari Leibowitz, author of "How t...
Jan 16, 2025•1 hr
What drives human motivation? For years, the answer seemed simple: rewards. Dangle the right carrot — a bonus, stock options, "Employee of the Month" certificate — and people will perform. But Daniel Pink's 2009 bestseller "Drive" flipped this idea on its head. Drawing on decades of scientific research, Dan revealed that our deepest motivations come from within: the innate drive for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Now, 15 years after "Drive" revolutionized our understanding of motivation, Dan jo...
Jan 09, 2025•1 hr 12 min
