bigthinkeditor

Have you been watching The Roosevelts on PBS? Big Think Expert Doris Kearns Goodwin discusses Theodore Roosevelt’s “bully pulpit.”

Neuroscientist and author Sam Harris discusses a form of spirituality founded on science and reason.

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”

“In the information age, you don’t teach philosophy as they did after feudalism. You perform it. If Aristotle were alive today he’d have a talk show.” -Timothy Leary

The retired congressman discusses his long history as a supporter of marijuana legalization.

“Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.”  – Maya Angelou, from Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993)  

According to Duolingo founder Luis von Ahn, 800 million poor people around the world are trying to learn English to better themselves and improve their economic conditions. But most language lessons are expensive. His solution: Duolingo, a free app that runs on smartphones and computers.

Consciousness is what it’s like and how it feels to be you. Thus, consciousness exists in a realm of irreducible subjectivity with which science isn’t always comfortable.

Professional skateboarder Chris Cole explains how the sport channels a unique form of creativity that also contributes to the industry’s success as a whole.

“As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.”

The English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) is best known for her early feminist treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792. Two years earlier, Wollstonecraft […]

The above quote is pulled from Virginia Woolf’s (1882-1941) long-form narrative essay A Room of One’s Own, which was first published in 1929. Room is one of the English writer’s many […]

Sir William Beveridge (1879-1963) was a British economist and social reformer best known for his 1942 report titled “Social and Allied Services” (PDF), though often simply referred to as the […]

“I’m often asked by parents what advice can I give them to help get kids interested in science? And I have only one bit of advice. Get out of their […]

“When you have critical mass of women [guiding companies], the companies produce better performance. So you have more innovation, you have better financial management, you have greater success rates by having more women. Why leave them out?” –Vivek […]

In her recent Big Think interview, Perel explains that sexuality and marriage have experienced a radical shift over the past few generations. What was once considered a dutiful bond now serves our more individualistic culture driven by love and desire. Where these two feelings meet and diverge is at the core of eroticism.

Leila Janah, founder and CEO of the non-profit business Samasource, describes the organization’s core concept as a way for technology “to unlock human talent wherever it may happen to reside.” Sometimes […]

Big Data is a big deal. Not only is it a major asset in today’s tech-driven economy, it also has the ability to tell stories about who we are as […]

Big Think and the Kellogg School of Management have launched a new executive training program, Ethics in Action. This unique, expert-driven, program is designed to help corporations address the ethical […]

We’re attending the 2014 Learning and Leadership Development Conference this week, and we hope some of you are, too. This annual conference, hosted by the Human Capital Institute, is a […]

Vivek Wadhwa boasts quite the résumé. He is a fellow at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University, director of research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization […]

Will Rogers (1979-1935) was born in what is now Oklahoma to a prominent Cherokee family. He grew up to be one of the most famous celebrities of his era, apperaring […]

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is most famous for her work as a nurse, particularly during the Crimean War, and noted social reformer. She’s less famously known as a prodigious statistician and […]

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was a prolific science fiction writer and biochemist. During his lifetime, Asimov authored or edited over 500 books and served as president of the American Humanist Association. […]

Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) was the first post-war Chancellor of West Germany, a position he held from 1949-1963. Under his leadership, Germany allied with the NATO nations and saw its economy […]

“It’s worth looking at industries which a lot of people think are impossible or think you can’t succeed at – that’s usually where there’s opportunity.” –Elon Musk, Founder and CEO […]

“Everybody in the space program, everybody who’s a doctor, got interested in science when he or she was seven or eight years old… not when they were 16 or 18. That’s where you spend […]

“Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the […]

The Nantucket Project sees art + commerce as “the new convergence” that defines our world today.

Noted futurist and innovation expert Lisa Bodell knows all about the consequences of static and uninspired business practices. Two years ago she authored an acclaimed book, Kill the Company: End the Status Quo, […]