The Next Big Idea Daily

The fear of playing the fool is a universal psychological phenomenon and an underappreciated driver of human behavior, says Tess Wilkinson-Ryan. She's on the show today to explain how to live with integrity in a sucker's world. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

CW: This episode contains references to suicide. In his 20s, Andy Dunn launched a DTC men’s fashion brand called Bonobos. Business was booming. But Dunn was haunted by a ghost: a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. A collision course was set in motion, threatening to unravel everything he’d built. Today, Andy joins us to talk about his harrowing experience and what it can teach all of us about the ment...

Today, Ozan Varol, the acclaimed author of "Think Like a Rocket Scientist" shares five tools you can use to unlock your originality and unleash your unique talents.

Today, to close out the week, we'll hear psychologist Michael Gervais's groundbreaking guide for overcoming what may be the single greatest constrictor of human potential: our fear of people’s opinions.

College isn’t for everyone. Could high-value apprenticeships provide an alternative pathway to economic opportunity?

Today, one of the world’s most creative mathematicians offers a new way to look at math.

"There are little things that we can do daily that lower our risk of dementia and Alzheimer's by anywhere from 30 to 60 percent," says Marc Milstein in today's episode.

In her two decades researching organizations, Michelle King has discovered that people who succeed possess a particularly unique skill: They know how workplaces work.

To cap off the week, we'll hear from Chris Bailey, who offers up a guide to achieving calm, navigating anxiety, and staving off burnout. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 20% off)

Ian Leslie, a columnist for the New Statesman, is here today to teach us how to transform the heat of conflict, disagreement, and argument into the light of insight, creativity, and connection.

Today, a deep dive into cancel culture, an account of its dangers to all Americans, and the much-needed antidote from the team that brought you "Coddling of the American Mind."

Many of us mistakenly view the arts as mere entertainment. But today Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross show us how the arts and aesthetics can help us transform traditional medicine, build healthier communities, and mend an aching planet. --- • Get an early start on your holiday shopping by giving the gift of a Next Big Idea Club membership. Use code DAILY at nextbigideaclub.com for a special discount!

We're often told to tough things out. But Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Julia Keller wanted to know: is grit all it's cracked up to be, or is it possible that sometimes quitting is actually a better life strategy? --- • Get an early start on your holiday shopping by giving the gift of a Next Big Idea Club membership. Use code DAILY at nextbigideaclub.com for a special discount!

Do you pause before you speak and think before you act? Do you tune into subtle details and make connections that others miss? Well then you, my friend, might be a sensitive person. And according to today's guest, Andre Sólo, that's a good thing — because if you can learn to embrace your sensitivity, you can leverage it across the most important areas of your life: in friendships and relationships...

Today, Rajiv Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of President Barack Obama’s United States Agency for International Development, shares his audacious strategy for achieving transformational change.

Most of us believe that what we see is what’s really there. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption upside down. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it? That's what Andy Clark argues in today's episode.

Today, Dr. Amy Shah shares a science-based plan designed to help you take charge of your health and your cravings, without feeling deprived.

As an editor at Harper's and GQ, Christopher Cox learned the power of a good deadline. Then he began to wonder: could he leverage that power in other parts of his life?

We're capping off the week with an eye-opening journey through the magical, yet surprisingly little-understood, human emotion that is wonder led by Monica Parker, a consultant whose clients include blue-chip companies such as LinkedIn, Google, Prudential, and LEGO.

We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for us, but the truth, according to New York Times reporter Max Fisher, is that its reach and impact run far deeper than we have understood. He joins us today to explain how social media rewired our minds and what we can do to break free.

A surprising vision of how human intelligence will coevolve with digital technology and revolutionize how we think and behave from one of the founders of the MIT Media Lab.

Today, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain — and what we can do about it.

Few things will change your trajectory in life or business as much as learning to think clearly. Today, Shane Parrish, founder of Farnam Street and host of "The Knowledge Project" podcast, is here to teach you how.

John Kim and Vanessa Bennett are marriage therapists. They are also partners. Today, they tell us how analyzing their own relationship helped them untangle the common barriers many individuals face on the road to a happy, loving, rewarding partnership. • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)

Zoe Chance teaches the most popular class at the Yale School of Management. But you don't have to got to Yale to hear what she has to say, because she's with us today to share a few key insights from her book "Influence Is Your Superpower." • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off)