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Big Think Today, Big Think is proud to present our ten most watched videos of 2009. Enjoy!
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From a groundbreaking journalist's remembrance of the alcohol-and-cigarette-fueled newsroom of The New York Times to Ricky Gervais's description of becoming an atheist—"I do wish there was a God, but..."—Big Think's interviews offer unique insights into the lives of our... distinguished guests. ...
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New research suggests that triggering humans’ disgust instinct can
alter their moral reasoning about everything from homosexuality to war. Today's guest, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom, explains.
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Paul Bloom:There's a big debate in the field over how we make our moral judgments. And a lot of scientific debates are fairly abstract and don't connect to public policy, but this matters. Because ...
Big Think Today, Feministing.com's Jessica Valenti wonders whether Lady Gaga, with her unabashed performances of female sexuality and continued assault on misogyny in music, might be ushering in a new era in feminism.
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Jessica Valenti: Oh, that's great! I've been thinking a lot about Lady Gaga and what she means for feminism. I think -- I find her completely fascinating, and I really like what she has to say. And she's ...
Big Think What makes greatness? As the great comedian Stephen Fry explains today, Oscar Wilde's ability to make one leave the dinner table feeling 'taller, smarter, and more clever' is about the best index into character history provides.
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Stephen Fry: Probably in terms of writing and linguistic awareness there were a combination, firstly of W’s, P.G. Woodhouse, Oscar Wilde and Evelyn Waugh, the British novelist. That’s a male Evelyn by the way. ...
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Today, John Allison argues that every economy since at least the Roman Empire has needed to base its currency on something tangible, like gold, in order for the system to work. So, should America bring back the gold standard?
The third installment of Big Think's weekly series What Went Wrong?
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John Allison: Well, if I were in charge, I would go to a private banking system in a monetary standard based on market criteria, which would probably be a gold standard. Not because there’s anything ...
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The digital revolution has made filmmaking technologies available to
the masses. But in today's interview, Ken Burns says that the idea that this makes us all artists
is “bullshit.”
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Ken Burns:In the 35 years that I have been sort of professionally making films the technological change has been enormous. We have resisted it as much as possible. We didn’t move to digital editing for 10 or 15 years after most of my colleagues had done so. ...
Big Think Today, at 2:00 EST, we invite you watch a live interview between the prominent economist and author, Richard Florida, and Big Think's President Peter Hopkins, on how the 'creative class' is affecting the way businesses think:
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Welcome to the HP Input | Output Ezine. A place where like minds and opposing minds can come together and share ideas about the changing world.
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What's the real problem with the bailout? According to Peter Thiel, it perpetuates the harmful illusion that we live in a finance-based economy when our future is actually dependent on technological innovation.
Part of our weekly economics series, "What Went Wrong?"
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Peter Thiel: I believe that we've been living in a – we live in a technological society, but we constantly act as though it is a financial society. Everything is going to be of critical importance ...
Big Think All societies, says Karen Armstrong, have a profound and shared sense of compassion; so why are war, brutality, and injustice so prevelant in our world? Today, she explains her plan to put the Golden Rule back into international politics.
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Karen Armstrong:Look, the Golden Rule lies at the heart of every religious and of every ethical system of morality, it what makes us look at one another. The religions have all adopted it independently, ...
Big Think The architect of the public option defends his healthcare solution against criticisms and counterproposals, including the co-op model.
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Jacob Hacker:I think the insurance companies’ saying that they are worried about the public health insurance option is one of the better arguments for having one. The fact that they think that ...
Big Think Today, MIT's Leonard Guarente explains the biology of the aging process and why dieting, though sometimes helpful, can often generate so much stress it reduces lifespan.
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Dr. Leonard P. Guarente is an American biologist and director of MIT's Glenn Laboratory for the Science of Aging, where he is also a Novartis Professor of Biology. He is best known for his research on longevity and specifically for uncovering the gene in yeast that governs the organism's life span....
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Are the challenges and changes of the new economy proving particularly trying for men? Reihan Salam explains the dislocation of modern males from the workplace, and its potentially dramatic effect on societies around the world.
Part of this week's series on "The Problem With Men"
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Will the challenges and changes of the twenty-first century prove particularly trying for males? For both cultural and biological reasons, some of the most quintessential features of masculinity may be growing destructive in the globalized economy.
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Drug addiction is a disease that springs from a complex chemical process in the brain that impedes personal choice--so why does America criminalize it?
As the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains, this practice may be as ineffective as throwing people in jail for having Parkinson's disease.
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Nora D. Volkow, M.D., became Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health in May 2003. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction. ...
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Today, behavioral economist Dan Ariely explains how we can end the frustrating tradition of fooling ourselves into buying senseless things.
It's part of our new series-just in time for Black Friday-on "The Science of Savings," which highlights the latest research into why we spend too much, save too little, and what we can do about it.
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With Black Friday just around the corner, we've organized an original series that highlights the latest research into why Americans spend too much and save too little, and what we can do about it. The ...
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Turns out, humans may actually be less skilled at fooling others on facebook than they are in real life--the psychologist Sam Gosling explains.
Giveaway: We also have his new book, Snoop, signed and ready to be given away to one of our fans this week, so stay tuned.
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Sam Gosling:We've begun to look much more into virtual spaces now, the idea being that people have much more control over those, to try and understand what people are doing in that context. Are they ...
