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Great Question

31 episodes

Big Thinkers join us to ruminate on a great question that they may — or may not — have pondered before.

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All Episodes (31)

A bulletin board with newspaper clippings, maps, and strings. The text "THE HIDDEN TRUTH?" is prominently displayed in the center.

Our information pipelines have shifted. They’re fueling conspiracy theories

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8 min

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People say altruism is selfish. They’re not wrong

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6 min

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How to evaluate social norms as an independent thinker

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5 min

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Series of six images displaying the diffraction patterns of light as it passes through various shaped apertures.

A 7-minute guide to the relationship between quantum mechanics and black holes

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7 min

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A man sitting on a bench in the dark.

How loneliness is killing us, according to a Harvard professor

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6 min

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Robert Waldinger

A man in a suit with white hair and a red tie.

The four types of planetary civilizations, explained by Michio Kaku

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6 min

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A group of sheep in a barn with a green arrow in front of them.

The unexpected impact of AI on animals

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5 min

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A man in a suit is pointing his finger at a yellow background, referencing string theory.

Einstein failed to solve the Universe. Here’s what it would take to succeed. | Michio Kaku

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6 min

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The cover of a dying profession.

More accountants are leaving the field than joining. What’s going on?

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4 min

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Kelly Richmond Pope

A man doing push ups in a gym.

How to grow your brain by moving your body

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4 min

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An image of two people kissing on a blue background.

Neurodivergence is absent in sex education. That’s a problem.

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6 min

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a close up of a person wearing a suit and tie.

Hitler, Churchill, and the real trolley problem

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6 min

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a birthday cake with the number 100 on it.

How to eat if you want to age slowly

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5 min

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Game theory can explain humanity’s biggest problem

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4 min

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Is marriage dying?

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6 min

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The mind-blowing virality of music

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5 min

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Michael Spitzer

Ask a physicist: Do humans have souls?

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5 min

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Sabine Hossenfelder

The physics of entropy and the origin of life

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6 min

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Should you bring a kid into this world?

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4 min

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What psychedelics can’t explain

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4 min

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Matthew W. Johnson

Debate world champion explains how to argue

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5 min

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1 in 3 people cheat. Here’s what to do if you’re the 1.

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5 min

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Michael Slepian

Columbia professor: “Drug use is your birthright”

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4 min

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Can we build a Metaverse that’s GOOD?

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4 min

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Celebrity CEOs are amazing. Until they backfire.

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dao leadership

DAOs: The end of bosses?

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2 min

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truth bias

Strengthen your internal lie detector

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3 min

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Experiencing flow state

How ‘flow state’ can heal trauma

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Is there an afterlife

Is there an afterlife? Here’s what he saw while he was ‘dead’

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Dr. Bruce Greyson

study tips

4 ways to hack your memory

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4 min

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Related

A man with short, grayish hair, wearing a dark blazer and black shirt, stares directly at the camera against a black background.

Sam Harris: Your mind is all you have. Is yours working?

“I think we need a truly open-ended conversation with 8 billion strangers, and what makes that hard to do increasingly is a level of political fragmentation and extremism and partisanship born of our engagement with these new technologies.”

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10 min

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Red ink disperses in water with the words "Menopause Chaos" overlaid in bold white font.

The science of menopause in 13 minutes

What can you do to support your health during menopause? “If exercise were a drug, that would be the one thing that we would be giving to everybody.”

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13 min

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Close-up of a multicolored, reflective surface depicting two human-like eyes with iridescent hues surrounding them.

Yuval Noah Harari: An AI scenario you should not ignore

“What happens if you incorporate an AI? It’s now a legal person, and it can make decisions by itself. So you start having legal persons in the U.S., which are not human, and in many ways are more intelligent than us.”

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11 min

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Yuval Noah Harari

Fragmented image of the U.S. flag with white stars on a blue background and red and beige stripes, resembling weathered paint on a wall.

The one temptation to resist post-election: Good vs. evil

“Most of us aren’t sure what to think about everything, but we don’t really see that modeled anywhere, right? You’re supposed to know for sure, and there’s very little intellectual humility on social media or on TV.”

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4 min

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A person sits pensively with name tags around them reading "Hello, I'm a... writer? bookstore owner? father?.

Ryan Holiday on the art of perception and self-reflection

How the successful marketer used ancient philosophy to overcome modern obstacles and change his mindset.

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5 min

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