Think Again – a Big Think Podcast
We surprise some of the world's brightest minds with ideas they're not at all prepared to discuss. With host Jason Gots and special guests Neil Gaiman, Alan Alda, Salman Rushdie, Mary-Louise Parker, Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Saul Williams, Henry Rollins, Bill Nye, George Takei, Maria Popova, and many more . . . You've got 10 minutes with Einstein. What do you talk about? Black holes? Time travel? Why not gambling? The Art of War? Contemporary parenting? Some of the best conversations happen when we're pushed outside of our comfort zones. So each week on Think Again, we surprise smart people you've probably heard of with hand-picked gems from Big Think's interview archives on every imaginable subject. The conversation could go anywhere. SINCE 2008, BIG THINK has captured on video the best ideas of the world’s leading thinkers and doers in every field, renowned experts including neurologist Oliver Sacks, physicist Stephen Hawking, behavioral psychologist Daniel Kahneman, authors Margaret Atwood and Marylinne Robinson, entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, painter Chuck Close, and philosopher Daniel Dennett.
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[SPECIAL] Clever Creature with Jason Gots - Epi...
A lost man converses with his gut flora. A song about deserts real and imaginary. Jason and his son discuss the Ice Cream Desert and its denizens.
40 min
2
235. Neil Gaiman (Jason Plays Favorites #7) – a...
The myths of an inhospitable land. Imposter Syndrome. That feeling when one of your characters unexpectedly murders another. Literary mage Neil Gaiman on the dark arts of fiction and everyday life.
57 min
3
234. Robert MacFarlane (Jason Plays Favorites #...
The wonder and the ethics of deep time. The “wood-wide-web”. The claustrophobia of the Anthropocene. In our 200th episode, UNDERLAND author Robert MacFarlane takes us on a journey deep into the Earth and ourselves.
61 min
4
233. Terry Gilliam (Jason Plays Favorites #5) –...
The film becomes the story of the making of the film. From his Monty Python days to now, Don Quixote is a metaphor for Terry Gilliam’s whole career, and for his 30 year project of making a film about a film about the knight of the woeful countenance. We talk about Muppets, time, and basically everything else two humans can talk about.
50 min
5
232. Anaïs Mitchell (Jason Plays Favorites #4) ...
With 14 Tony nominations, HADESTOWN is redefining what a Broadway musical can be. Its creator, songwriter/singer Anaïs Mitchell sits down with Jason Gots to talk about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, making old things new, and leaving her songwriting cave (temporarily) for the theater.
57 min
6
231. Marlon James (Jason Plays Favorites #3) – ...
Man-Booker prizewinning author Marlon James in a freewheeling game of verbal ping-pong on African mythology, ’80’s hip hop, heavy metal, tattoos, and billionaire philanthropy.
53 min
7
230. Eve Ensler (Jason Plays Favorites #2) – no...
For all the women in the world who never got the apology they needed, and all the men who haven’t found the words, and above all for herself, Eve Ensler (THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES) wrote THE APOLOGY. In this searing, unflinching, often surprisingly funny conversation we talk about trauma, compassion, and what it means to apologize for real.
59 min
8
229. David Sedaris (Jason Plays Favorites #1) –...
Walking all over the English countryside picking up trash, the genitalia of the spotted hyena, and many other subjects comical and deadly serious.
61 min
9
228. Sharon Salzberg (meditation and mindfulnes...
In this episode master teacher Sharon Salzberg considers whether it's ok to teach mindfulness to the armed forces, how practitioners of meditation and mindfulness should balance openness with discipline, and so much more.
49 min
10
227. Roz Chast and Patricia Marx (cartoons, wor...
The New Yorker-based writing, cartooning, ukulele-ing team on never exercising or going outside, and so much more.
42 min
11
226. Joseph Goldstein (dharma teacher) – doubt ...
In this first episode of 2020, beloved dharma teacher Joseph Goldstein is back for a conversation about struggle, doubt, and growth on the spiritual path.
54 min
12
225. Jad Abumrad (Radiolab, Dolly Parton's Amer...
To create the podcast series “Dolly Parton’s America”, Jad Abumrad and his producer Shima Oliaee took nine trips into the “Dollyverse”—that complex American multiverse of music and culture that surrounds country singer Dolly Parton. In this episode Jad and host Jason Gots talk about some of the astonishing discoveries he made along the way.
44 min
13
224. Norman Fischer (zen priest, poet) – the on...
“Body, breath, awareness…that’s your life. Every problem you ever have, every joy you ever have, depends on that.” In this week’s episode of Think Again, host Jason Gots talks with acclaimed poet and zen teacher Norman Fischer about the imagination as a tool for living a good life.
59 min
14
223. Karen Armstrong (theologian) – the art of ...
Confucianism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism—the world's scriptural belief systems take many different forms but all tend toward 'kenosis'—self-transcendence for the benefit of others. And all have been used and abused for less spiritual ends. Former nun and renowned theologian Karen Armstrong on the lost art of scripture.
48 min
15
222. Deborah Levy (writer) – it's those thought...
Playwright and novelist Deborah Levy on chaos and order in creative work. Also: marvelous digressions on the caterpillar and the octopus.
41 min
16
221. Yancey Strickler (Kickstarter co-founder) ...
Having helped transform how creative work is financed, Yancey Strickler has moved on from Kickstarter, the company he co-founded toward a kind of values reset that moves us away from a narrow, unsustainable, inhumane obsession with profit at all costs. This week, he and host Jason Gots consider Milton Friedman, inequality, corporate social responsibility, and how bad common sense can change for the better.
58 min
17
220. Elif Shafak (writer) – the cemetery of the...
Following the Booker shortlisting of her novel 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World, Elif Shafak returns to Think Again to talk about forgotten lives, the nature of evil, and what we mean by progress.
56 min
18
219. Reginald Dwayne Betts (poet) – nothing to ...
“I think when you come to grips with what happened, it gives you a chance of doing something different. What’s really dark is when you’re going through something and you have no perspective.” By revisiting—through poetry—his 9 years in prison for a teenage carjacking, Reginald Dwayne Betts finds freedoms most of us have never known.
60 min
19
218. Bill Bryson (writer) – the most extraordin...
Journeys of discovery and wonder in the inner and outer world, with beloved author Bill Bryson.
49 min
20
217. Ibram X. Kendi (author, activist) – Antira...
For too long, we’ve treated racism as a personality trait or a vague systemic menace rather than the result of policies and ideas created deliberately to benefit some groups at the expense of others. As a result, too many anti-racist efforts have collapsed into name-calling sessions, failing to achieve their goals. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Antiracist, sees a better way.
44 min
21
216. Gail Collins (NY Times columnist) – The br...
Though what constitutes “getting old” for women in America has been a moving target throughout US history, it has rarely been a picnic. But our history’s also full of women who have raised hell and pushed back in a hundred different ways against the cultural and literal corsets America keeps trying to stuff them into.
48 min
22
215. Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christop...
A talented young programmer, Christopher Wylie found himself at the center of a complex plot to overturn the cultural order in the United States and Europe—one that most likely tipped the scales on Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election.
46 min
23
214. Liz Plank (journalist) – men, masculinity,...
Progress for women can only go so far while men still struggle with ideals of masculinity that teach violence and emotional disconnect. Liz Plank is trying to change the conversation.
52 min
24
213. Catherine Wilson (philosopher) – the Epicu...
From atomic theory to evolution to utilitarian pragmatism, the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus was way ahead of his time. In the writings of his school, philosopher Catherine Wilson finds answers to many of our most vexing modern problems.
48 min
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212. Downton Abbey film director Michael Engler...
Fears and discoveries in translating an intimate world to the big screen. How experience helps you deal with people yelling at you. Why 21st century audiences love to be transported to Edwardian England, in spite of all the class hierarchy…
56 min