The Next Big Idea

In his mega-bestseller “Four Thousand Weeks,” Oliver Burkeman showed that the shortness 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.” Now, in “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.” ✨ Want to hear Oliver’s advice on how to keep your feet on the ground this election season? Head over to bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

Making art is hard work, as Adam Moss, the revered former editor of New York magazine, reveals in his illuminating new book, "The Work of Art." The book is a collection of interviews with painters, poets, filmmakers, and even sandcastle builders about the demanding, mystical, peculiar process of creating something out of nothing. Adam spoke with our curator Daniel Pink in front of a live audience in New York City earlier this month. 📕 The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing 🗞️ Check out Dan's Washington Post column, "Why Not?"

Earlier this week, Jonathan Haidt joined us to discuss the crisis in youth mental health caused by smartphones and social media. Now he’s back to talk solutions. ✉️ We launched a Substack! Check it out now at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com 🎙️ Enjoy this episode? Check out Rufus's related conversations with Will Storr and Anna Lembke

It’s rare these days for a book to go viral, but that’s exactly what happened with “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt. Now in its seventh month on the New York Times bestseller list, the book shows how the mass adoption of smartphones and social media has led to record rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide among teens. 2️⃣ The second part of Rufus’s interview with Jonathan will be out on Thursday. If you can’t wait to hear it, you can listen to the whole thing right now by subscribing to our Substack: bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

“Life is a game. There’s no way to understand the human world without first understanding this. Everyone alive is playing a game whose hidden rules are built into us and that silently directs our thoughts, beliefs and actions. This game is inside us. It is us. We can’t help but play.” So begins The Status Game by acclaimed science writer Will Storr. He continues: “We play for status, if only subtly, with every social interaction, every contribution we make to work, love or family life and every internet post. We play with how we dress, how we speak and what we believe. … Life is not a journey towards a perfect destination. It’s a game that never ends. And it’s the very worst of us.” Does it have to be? We may not be able to quit the status game, but Will says we can learn to play it better. In this episode, he explains how. (This conversation first aired in October 2022.)

Twenty-five years ago, Malcolm Gladwell was not Malcolm Gladwell. Well, sure, ontologically speaking he was, but he would not have registered on the Celeb-O-Meter the way he does today. So what happened? What changed? What did he do to become a household name? He wrote “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference.” A quarter century later, Malcolm sat down to update the book that made his name — only he realized that he had a lot of new things to say about social contagion. Cut to this week. On Tuesday, he published “Revenge of the Tipping Point,” a sequel in which he explores the “dark side of contagious phenomena.” He got together with Rufus for a wide-ranging conversation about the new book, because wide-ranging conversations are Malcolm Gladwell's specialty. They discussed social media, Medicare fraud, white flight, the Holocaust, and the ways Malcolm has changed over the past few decades. 🎟️ We’re hosting a live taping of this show with Daniel Pink and Adam Moss in New York City on Oct. 10. To learn more and grab tickets, visit nextbigideaclub.com/events

Next week, Malcolm Gladwell will be on the show to discuss his new book "Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering." In anticipation of that conversation, we're revisiting our 2021 interview with Malcolm about "The Bomber Mafia" — the story of a group of pilots who met on a muggy airbase in central Alabama and hatched a plan to revolutionize warfare. 🎟️ We're hosting a live taping on Oct. 10. Daniel Pink will chat with Adam Moss, former editor of New York magazine, about his recent book "The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing." Learn more and grab tickets at nextbigideaclub.com/events

Is AI all bad, or could it be so good that we might one day want to merge with it? This is just one of the questions Rufus poses in part two of his conversation with historian and mega-bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari. 1️⃣ If you missed part one of this conversation, listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 📕 Yuval’s new book, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, is out now 📩 Want the latest insights from the world’s top thinkers delivered to your inbox every morning? Sign up for our new Substack at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com 🎉 We're hosting another live taping on Oct. 10, featuring Daniel Pink in conversation with Adam Moss, former editor of New York magazine and author of "The Work of Art." Learn more at nextbigideaclub.com/events

Yuval Noah Harari published an essay in the New York Times the other day. “Large-scale democracies,” he wrote, “became feasible only after the rise of modern information technologies like the newspaper, the telegraph and the radio. The fact that modern democracy has been built on top of modern information technologies means that any major change in the underlying technology is likely to result in a political upheaval.” Well, we’re witnessing a major change in the underlying technology right now. Artificial intelligence is here, and if its proponents are to be believed, it will fundamentally transform how we consume information and communicate with each other. What this means for the future of democracy — and society as we know it — is the subject of Harari’s new book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: Yuval Noah Harari 🎤 This conversation was recorded in front of a live audience in New York City last week. To learn more about our upcoming events, visit nextbigideaclub.com/events 2️⃣ Part two of this interview will be available on Thursday. If you can’t wait until then, you can listen now by downloading the The Next Big Idea app 📥 We launched a Substack! Subscribe now at bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com

Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2.15 a day, has long been seen as an intractable problem. But what if the solution is simple? What if you could eradicate extreme poverty by just giving people cash? That’s what Rory Stewart believes. He’s the former UK Secretary of State for International Development and now a senior advisor to GiveDirectly, a non-profit that has distributed $800 million — in cash — to 1.6 million people around the world, including right here in the US. Today on the show, Rory charts his evolution from cash transfer skeptic to evangelist, shares what he wishes philanthropists like Bill Gates would do with their billions, and explains why he thinks it’s possible to end extreme poverty in our lifetimes. 🎙️ Check out Rory's previous appearance on this show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 💸 Learn more about GiveDirectly at www.givedirectly.org 🎬 Watch Rory’s new TED Talk, “To End Extreme Poverty, Give Cash — Not Advice” 🎁 Get 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership when you use code PODCAST at nextbigideaclub.com