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PODCAST

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

The Next Big Idea is a weekly series of in-depth interviews with the world’s leading thinkers. Join hosts Rufus Griscom and Caleb Bissinger — along with our curators, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink — for conversations that might just change the way you see the world. New episodes every Monday and Thursday. For ad inquiries, please reach out to: Network+NBI@yapmedia.com

society & culture social sciences

All Episodes

78:24

Sorry, Skeptics — AI Is Not a Bubble

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/23

First, a few numbers. This year Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta will spend more than $700 billion building AI infrastructure. There are 1,500 data centers in development across the country. AI-linked stocks make up at least 40% of the S&P 500. These are the kinds of numbers that make some economists jumpy. If this whole AI thing doesn't pan out, they warn, we're headed for the mother of all crashes. But Azeem Azhar is not one of those economists. He and his team recently spent months turning

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49:17

Why Creating Beats Consuming | Mark Pincus (Part 2)

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/20

Most people think success comes from having an original idea. Mark Pincus thinks that's one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. After building one of the most successful gaming companies in history, he believes the best products rarely begin as completely new ideas. Instead, they start with a deep understanding of what already works, a relentless focus on making it better, and just enough novelty to make people care. In part two of our conversation, Mark shares his "Proven, Better, New"

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62:06

Living at the Speed of Play

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/16

Podcasting is lousy with guests who peddle advice about starting businesses, building careers, and living full lives. Few of these gurus have actually accomplished anything. Fewer still have advice that comes anywhere close to revelatory. Mark Pincus is the rare exception. The founder of 10 companies, Mark is best known for Zynga, the gaming juggernaut behind FarmVille and Words With Friends. At its peak, Zynga was valued at more than $12 billion and accounted for 20% of Facebook’s page views. It

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104:05

How to Be a Super Ager

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/13

For years, cardiologist Eric Topol hunted for the rarest people in America: those over 80 who had never been sick. When he finally found 1,400 of them, he made a shocking discovery. It wasn't their genes. These "super agers" were often the last ones standing in families where everyone else died decades earlier. So what separates people who live into their 80s or 90s feeling great from those who battle chronic disease? In his new book, Super Agers, Eric reveals what the science actually shows, shares

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58:24

What If Saving the Planet Could Be Fun?

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/09

Despite decades of urgency and alarm, progress on climate change has felt frustratingly slow. What if we've been going about it all wrong? Elizabeth Dunn and Jiaying "JZ" Zhao think there's a missing ingredient in the conversation: joy. In their new book, Leave the Lights On, Liz and JZ draw on psychology, behavioral science, and sustainability research to argue that the most effective climate solutions aren't rooted in guilt, fear, or self-denial. They're rooted in easy choices that also make your

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57:42

How to Live a Long and Useful Life

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/06

Publisher, scientist, humorist, diplomat — Benjamin Franklin was America's first polymath. Today, with help from Eric Weiner, we revisit Franklin's life, searching for tips about how to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. This episode first aired in July 2024. 🎥 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📱Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our ⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠, or send us an email at ⁠⁠podcast@nextbigideaclub.com⁠⁠. 🎁 The best way to support the show is by

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68:30

As America Turns 250, Are You in the Mood to Celebrate?

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/07/02

"We’re entering our 250th birthday, and we’re not quite in the mood for a birthday party. We’ve been tearing ourselves apart." That's what Walter Isaacson told Rufus when they sat down last year. But, he says, it doesn't have to be that way. "Let's use this birthday party as a chance to try to heal some of the divides." Walter's latest book is The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. That sentence? “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their

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34:01

THE GOD TEST (Part 2): Can Humanity Pass the Cosmic...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/29

On Thursday, Rufus and Robert Wright (The God Test) talked about AI as a new stage in the evolution of intelligence — and about the very human traits already showing up in our machines: empathy, deception, power-seeking, seduction. Today, they ask the harder question: what happens when these machines become the object of a geopolitical arms race? 🔗 SPONSORED BY: Fora ➡️ Build and scale your own travel business by becoming a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/idea Northwest Registered Agent ➡️

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59:47

THE GOD TEST (Part 1): Are You Ready for...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/25

Does the logic of human destiny now lead to artificial intelligence? Are we creating a higher form of intelligence in our own image? And, if so, what kind of image is that? These are the questions celebrated author Robert Wright asks in his new book, The God Test, which was published this week. Bob argues that we should not be surprised to see signs of deception, power-seeking, flattery, and autonomy in AI systems. These are not alien traits; they are behaviors that show up again and again in

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56:56

You Have 72 Free Hours a Week. How Do You Want to...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/22

Most of us swear we have no free time. But the week is 168 hours long. Subtract a 40-hour job and eight hours of sleep a night, and you're left with 72 hours. So where do they go? Today, Laura Vanderkam, author of the new book Big Time, shares her system for reclaiming her free time, including her method for knocking out "someday" projects in small daily bites. 🎬 The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠. 📱 Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠, subscribe to our

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74:44

Are You Playing Someone Else’s Game?

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/18

GPAs. Citations. Step counts. Likes. We love a good metric, don't we? It tells you exactly where you stand, no arguing. Mention a 4.0 to a high schooler and they'll know exactly what you mean. Tell a fellow Fitbit-wearer you just hit 10,000 and they'll nod approvingly. But that clarity has a price. To make a metric that clean, that portable, you have to sand off all the nuance, all the context, everything that made the thing worth measuring in the first place. And philosopher C. Thi Nguyen thinks

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43:22

This World Cup Is Messy. Watch It Anyway.

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/15

The World Cup kicked off over the weekend, and so far the mood is meh. Fans are fuming over sell-your-kidney ticket prices, frightened by reports that ICE may target matches, tailgates, and sports bars, and generally feeling down on this quadrennial celebration.We wanted to know: Is there any joy left in this thing? So we called up Simon Kuper. He's a columnist at the Financial Times, "one of the best sportswriters in the English language today" (The New Yorker), and author of the Next Big Idea

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66:27

The Case for AI Optimism with Peter Diamandis and...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/11

Nearly half of all Americans believe AI is bad for humanity. Peter Diamandis is not one of them. On his podcast, Moonshots, and in his new book, We Are as Gods, co-written with the inimitable Steven Kotler, he makes the case that artificial intelligence is already ushering in a world of abundance — think radical life extension, 10 billion humanoid robots, and agents that do your job while you're sipping a latte. He knows it may not be all sunshine and hydroponic roses, but he believes our future is

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72:49

Best Of: The Power of Thinking Outside Your Brain

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/08

Modern life has not been easy on our brains. Average IQ scores rose steadily throughout the last century. Now they appear to be leveling off. The problem, according to neuroscientists, may be that we have reached our neurobiological limits. Our brains simply can’t work any harder. Luckily, science writer Annie Murphy Paul has a solution. In her book The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, she draws on a wealth of scientific research to show that we’re smarter when we get out of

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76:40

Want to Be Happier? Try Talking to Strangers.

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/04

Nicholas Epley is a mind reader. But he doesn’t have ESP or practice hypnosis. He's not telepathic or clairvoyant. Sure, you could ask him to read your fortune, but you'd be better off with a Magic 8 Ball. When we say Nick is a mind reader, what we mean is he studies mind reading at the University of Chicago — studies, as he puts it, "how we make inferences about each other's thoughts and beliefs and attitudes, and mostly how we screw that up." Today, he makes small talk — and big talk — with

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54:32

Best Of: Gretchen Rubin’s Guide to Getting Out of...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/06/01

What do your five senses — sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch — have to do with happiness? According to Gretchen Rubin, a great deal. The world around us, she says, has the potential to dazzle, to entertain, to trigger a state of rapture. If only we pay attention. Today on the show, she shares the tools she's developed to delight in the physical world. She spoke to Rufus in April 2023 about her book Life in Five Senses.Sponsored By: Fora — Become a Fora Advisor today at

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66:34

The Case for Speechmaking in the Age of Doomscrolling

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/05/28

America's a funny place. It's not a country with a fixed geographic or religious identity. We don't have a common story of divine creation. "What we have," writes Ben Rhodes in his new book, ⁠All We Say⁠, "are words." The words of the founding documents, yes — but also "the words of speeches spoken by Americans who call us to be that better version of ourselves." Ben has spent more time with great American speeches than just about anyone. For eight years, he was a speechwriter in the Obama White

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79:29

Best Of: Stop Chasing More. Start Embracing Your Limits.

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/05/25

In his mega-bestseller Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman showed that the finitude of life “isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief.” In his follow-up book, Meditations for Mortals, he invites us to embrace what he calls “imperfectionism.” Accept your limitations, your finitude, your lack of control — because “the more we try to render the world controllable,” he warns, “the more it eludes

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54:05

When Will AI Empty Your Dishwasher? (with Nicholas...

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/05/21

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and host of "The Most Interesting Thing in AI," joins Rufus and Caleb to explain why the machines may master our minds long before they master our muscles — and what that gap tells us about where AI is headed. Along the way: why human podcasters still beat AI ones, how Nick learned to stop worrying and love open source, and where he'd point an infinite AI budget.🎧 Check out Nick’s previous appearance on the show here. 📦 Join the Next Big Idea Club and

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71:32

Best Of: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life

The Next Big Idea ·

2026/05/18

The Greek philosopher Epicurus made a rather bold claim over two thousand years ago. The key to life, he said, is simple: pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Around this maxim he developed a school of philosophy, Epicureanism, which promised its adherents that if they took care of their basic needs, surrounded themselves with trustworthy friends, and developed a basic understanding of science, they would be happy. But is it really that simple? Can the advice of someone born 2,363 years ago still hold

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