The Next Big Idea
Next Big Idea Club
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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.
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Best Of: The Power of Thinking Outside Your Brain 08.06.2026 1時間 12分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 our heads. By offloading our memories onto our phones, making decisions based on our bodily sensations, using tactile tools to solve abstract problems, drawing inspiration from our surroundings, and arguing with our friends, we can access intelligence that exists beyond the confines of our craniums. In this episode, Annie explains how to do it. This episode first aired in June 2021. Sponsored By: Fora — Build and scale your own travel business by becoming a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/idea Northwest Registered Agent — Helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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Want to Be Happier? Try Talking to Strangers. 04.06.2026 1時間 16分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 Rufus about his new book, A Little More Social, which draws on the dozens of studies he's run with thousands of participants to show that talking to strangers, cringe as it may feel, can enliven your days, lengthen your life, and maybe even heal our politics. If you enjoyed this episode, check out our conversations with Charles Duhigg, Leslie John, David Brooks, Marc Schulz, Anna Sale, and John Colapinto. 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). 🔗 Sponsored By: Fora — Build and scale your own travel business by becoming a Fora Advisor today at foratravel.com/idea Northwest Registered Agent — Helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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Best Of: Gretchen Rubin’s Guide to Getting Out of Your Head and Into the World 01.06.2026 54分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 foratravel.com/idea Northwest Registered Agent — Learn more at northwestregisteredagent.com/nbifree Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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The Case for Speechmaking in the Age of Doomscrolling 28.05.2026 1時間 6分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 House, crafting some of the defining oratory of the era. His new book is a 250-year tour through 15 speeches that built the country, challenged it, and raised its sights. He tells us how FDR changed the course of WWII from behind the lectern, how MLK ad-libbed one of the most famous lines in American history, and what Obama's 2008 speech about race can teach today's politicians about storytelling. And he makes the case that America needs great oratory now more than it has in a long time. 💬 LINES WE LOVED: “Try to imagine American identity without speeches. It's hard to do. It's almost like secular scripture. Think about the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's second inaugural, the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech or those Kennedy speeches — or, if you're a Republican, the speeches that Reagan gave. I would argue that one of the reasons our politics is so fractured and we can't talk to each other or persuade each other of anything is because we're not doing that anymore.” “Obama used to say to me, ‘Remember that everything we do is just we're trying to tell the best story we can about America and what it can be.’ Not only is every speech a story, but every speech is a chapter in a larger story we're trying to tell.” 🔗 LINKS + SPONSORS: If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like our conversations with Erik Larson, Walter Isaacson, Eric Weiner, and Jill Lepore. Granola ➡️ If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni ➡️ Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince ➡️ Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify ➡️ Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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Best Of: Stop Chasing More. Start Embracing Your Limits. 25.05.2026 1時間 19分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 us; and the more daily life loses … its resonance, its capacity to touch, move and absorb us.” This episode first aired on October 31, 2024, but it wasn’t Oliver’s first appearance on the show. Back in 2022, he sat down with our curator Malcolm Gladwell. You can find that conversation here. 💬 LINES WE LOVED: “Turning towards the limited situation in which we find ourselves is ultimately freeing, energizing, and conducive to meaningful productivity.” “Getting on top of all your to-dos is impossible because there's always a bigger space of things that we could do than things that we're going to be able to do.” “Everything is either a good time or a good story.” 🔗 SPONSORED BY: The Next Big Idea Club ➡️ Join today and we’ll send you a copy of David Epstein’s latest bestseller, Inside the Box. Use code PODCAST to save 20% at nextbigideaclub.com Incogni ➡️ Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince ➡️ Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify ➡️ Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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When Will AI Empty Your Dishwasher? (with Nicholas Thompson) 21.05.2026 54分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 we’ll send you a copy of David Epstein’s new book, Inside the Box, and an invitation to a members-only Q&A with David on May 26. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com/ 🔗 SPONSORED BY: Granola ➡️ If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni ➡️ Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince ➡️ Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify ➡️ Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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Best Of: An Epicurean Guide to the Good Life 18.05.2026 1時間 11分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 true? To answer these questions, we turned to Emily Austin, professor of philosophy at Wake Forest University and author of the delightful book Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life. (This episode first aired in January 2023.) Sponsored By: Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni — Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince — Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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What if Uncertainty Isn’t Such a Bad Thing? 14.05.2026 55分You can run from uncertainty, but you can’t hide. The thing to do, says Simone Stolzoff, to develop comfort with ambiguity and build tolerance for the unknown. His new book is How to Not Know: The Value of Uncertainty in a World that Demands Answers. Granola ➡️ If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni ➡️ Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince ➡️ Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify ➡️ Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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You Can Grow Your Brain. Here’s How. 11.05.2026 1時間 20分In the last 20 years, there has been a dramatic change in our understanding of neuroplasticity — the brain’s capacity to grow new neurons. In the last five years, we’ve learned that your hippocampus, the part of your brain responsible for learning and memory, can get bigger at any age. Majid Fotuhi, who teaches at Johns Hopkins, has been at the forefront of a new body of research demonstrating that lifestyle changes — tweaks to the way you exercise and eat, adjustments to your sleep and mindset — can improve your brain health no matter how old you are. They can even reverse early-stage Alzheimer’s. His new book is The Invincible Brain, and the message is clear: with the right lifestyle and mindset changes, you can grow a bigger brain. 🔗 LINKS AND MENTIONS: Check out our playlist of health-related episode on Spotify The Next Big Idea Club — Save 20% on any membership when you use code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni — Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince — Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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Turning Constraints Into Breakthroughs with David Epstein 07.05.2026 1時間 26分Is freedom overrated? In his new book, Inside the Box, David Epstein argues that constraints, limits and obstacles are what stimulate creativity, innovation, collaboration and personal contentment. 📦 Get David’s new book delivered straight to your door by joining the Next Big Idea Club! Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com (use code PODCAST for 20% off). 🔗 SPONSORED BY: Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni — Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince — Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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You're in the Hospitality Business (Whether You Know It or Not) 04.05.2026 1時間 3分For the last three years, Will Guidara has been on the road talking about unreasonable hospitality. He's met financiers and prison wardens, educators and athletes, Fortune 500 executives and small business owners. They kept asking the same question: "I get how this works in a restaurant, but how do I apply it in my business?" So Will wrote them an answer. It's called Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide. 🔗 SPONSORED BY: Granola — If meetings are eating up your day, Granola is a no-brainer. You can try it totally free for three months. Just head to granola.ai/idea Incogni — Protect your personal information online and get an exclusive 60% off an annual plan at incogni.com/nbi Quince — Refresh your spring wardrobe and get free shipping and 365-day returns at quince.com/nbi Shopify — Launch your business for just $1/month. Start selling today at shopify.com/nbi
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We're Still Thinking About This Conversation with Will Guidara 30.04.2026 1時間 2分In September 2023, Will Guidara told us the story of how he used two words to turn a middling brasserie into the best restaurant in the world. Those two words? Unreasonable hospitality. We're running that episode again today because, well, it's one of our all-time favorites. And because Will is coming back on the show on Monday to discuss his brand-new book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Field Guide. Consider this the appetizer. Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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Here’s Our Favorite Book of the Season 27.04.2026 40分Every few months, we pick one book with the power to change how you see the world. Then we build an experience around it: author conversations, reading guides, key insights, and a community of people who love talking about ideas. In this episode, we reveal our latest pick. And stick around for a sneak peek of Rufus's conversation with the author. 📚 READY FOR MORE? Join the Next Big Idea Club at nextbigideaclub.com and use code PODCAST to save 20% on your membership The entire interview is available now in the Next Big Idea app 🔗 SPONSORED BY: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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“Beliefs Are Tools, Not Truths” 23.04.2026 1時間 21分What's standing between you and your goals? Focus? Discipline? Motivation? Nir Eyal points the finger somewhere else. Your beliefs. In his new book, Beyond Belief, he shows you how to trade them in for better ones — and finally get unstuck. 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. Check out Nir’s previous appearance on the show here. The best way to support the show is by becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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The History and Future of Apple 20.04.2026 1時間 21分In celebration of Apple's 50th birthday, we're probing the company's past and peering into its future with David Pogue — former New York Times tech columnist, current CBS Sunday Morning correspondent, and author of the recent New York Times bestseller Apple: The First 50 Years. We begin by looking backward, exploring the improbable story of the hippie pranksters who built the world's first trillion-dollar company. But we're not just here for the history. We also look ahead, asking: What cool new tech are they cooking up in Cupertino? Why has Apple been so slow on AI, and does the company have a plan to catch up? And who's the frontrunner to succeed Tim Cook? 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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Best Of: Tony Fadell’s Guide to Building Products, Startups and Careers 16.04.2026 1時間 1分Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Thermostat. In his book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making, he shares everything he’s learned about building great companies and game-changing products. (This episode first aired in September 2022.) 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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Demis Hassabis Wants to Build AGI. Should We Trust Him? 13.04.2026 1時間 13分When journalist Sebastian Mallaby approached Demis Hassabis, Google's AI chief and a man with a lifelong mission to build superintelligence, about writing his biography, he made the following pitch: "If you're going to disrupt people from head to toe, you owe them an explanation of why you're doing it. What motivates you? Why do something this dangerous?" Today, Sebastian tells us what answers he found. Sebastian's new book, The Infinity Machine, is out now. Pick up a copy from Amazon, Audible, or Bookshop.org. 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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Patrick Radden Keefe on a Double Life, a Gilded City and a Mysterious Death 09.04.2026 58分In 2023, Patrick Radden Keefe met a man who told him, "I might have a story for you." When you're Patrick — New Yorker staff writer, author of "some of the most memorable nonfiction books of the last decade" (that's the New York Times talking) — this is a hazard of the trade. But he heard the guy out. The guy said he knew a family whose 19-year-old son had died in mysterious circumstances. "He went off the balcony of a luxury apartment building overlooking the Thames." When the boy's parents started looking into it, they made an astonishing discovery: Their son — a nice, upper-middle-class Londoner — had been running around the city posing as the son of a Russian oligarch. "This guy said only about that much," Patrick tells us in today's episode, "and I knew if the family would talk to me, this was my next thing." His new book is London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth. 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay 06.04.2026 48分It’s a big, bad, scary, lonely world out there. Lucky for us, Jenny Lawson — aka the Bloggess — has collected more than a hundred tricks and tools that have helped her keep going, and she shares them in her heartwarming and hilarious new book, How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay. The Next Big Idea is now on YouTube! You can find our episodes here. If you enjoyed this conversation, check out Arthur’s previous appearances on the show here and 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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Best Of: The New Science of Improving Your Memory 02.04.2026 1時間 11分The French filmmaker Jean Renoir said, "The only things that are important in life are the things you remember." But what do you remember and why? That's the subject of Why We Remember: Unlocking Memory's Power to Hold on to What Matters by pioneering neuroscientist Charan Ranganath. He explains why you still know the lyrics to the song you loved in eighth grade but can't remember the name of your kid's eighth-grade teacher, how memory shapes your identity, and what you can do right now to improve your recall. (This episode first aired in April 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 becoming a Next Big Idea Club member. Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com, and use code PODCAST for a super secret discount (spoiler: it’s 20% off). Sponsored By: Fabric — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family at meetfabric.com/nbi Factor — Head to factormeals.com/idea50off and use code idea50off to get 50% off your first box Granola — Get three months free at granola.ai/idea Shopify — Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/nbi
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