Forget flashy startups — the real path to wealth is buying the local car wash. Today, former Wall Street investor... more

What drives human motivation? For years, the answer seemed simple: rewards. Dangle the right carrot — a bonus, stock options,... more

Want to write emails people will actually read? Author Jenn Bane is here to show you how. Her new book,... more

Forming a new habit is tough. Sticking with it is even tougher. That’s probably why someone buys a copy of... more

Arthur C. Brooks used to run a prominent think tank where he was paid handsomely to influence public policy. Did... more

Elsa Richardson shares five big ideas from her book "Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut." 📱 Follow the Next Big... more

Does free will exist on a sliding scale? Will humans and AI co-evolve? Are aliens already here on earth? These... more

We’ve had many bracing thinkers on this show, but Sara Walker might take the cake. A physicist and astrobiologist at... more

It’s the winter solstice this week, which means we have officially hit the darkest time of the year. But dark... more

You may think you know what strategy is, but Seth Godin is willing to bet you haven’t got a clue.... more

Today, master woodworker Callum Robinson on craft, history, family, and our relationship with the natural world. 📕 Ingrained: The Making of... more

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, wants you to think twice before putting your faith in Silicon... more

You’re probably used to looking for so-called good jobs and avoiding bad ones, but we might be better off looking... more

When he was 26, Will Guidara took the helm of a middling brasserie in New York City called Eleven Madison... more

For two decades, Ann Wroe has written weekly obituaries for The Economist. Some of her subjects are luminaries (Queen Elizabeth... more

Philosophers have long maintained that the Good Life is braided from two strands: pleasure and purpose. But Middlebury’s Lorraine Besser... more

Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. These are Cal Newport's three principles for achieving your... more

What if everything we think we know about the history of our species is wrong? That’s the provocative question at... more

In his mega-bestseller “Four Thousand Weeks,” Oliver Burkeman showed that the shortness of life “isn’t a reason for unremitting despair,... more

Making art is hard work, as Adam Moss, the revered former editor of New York magazine, reveals in his illuminating... more

Earlier this week, Jonathan Haidt joined us to discuss the crisis in youth mental health caused by smartphones and social... more

It’s rare these days for a book to go viral, but that’s exactly what happened with “The Anxious Generation: How... more

“Life is a game. There’s no way to understand the human world without first understanding this. Everyone alive is playing... more

Twenty-five years ago, Malcolm Gladwell was not Malcolm Gladwell. Well, sure, ontologically speaking he was, but he would not have... more

Next week, Malcolm Gladwell will be on the show to discuss his new book "Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories,... more

Is AI all bad, or could it be so good that we might one day want to merge with it?... more

Yuval Noah Harari published an essay in the New York Times the other day. “Large-scale democracies,” he wrote, “became feasible... more

Extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $2.15 a day, has long been seen as an intractable problem. But... more

In March, when Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars for stealing $8... more

Sturgeon caviar harvested in a lab. Skyscrapers made out of living materials that grow from the ground up. Computers that... more

What are some words you would use to describe a leader? Bold, driven, steadfast. How about … anxious? You may... more

Today, Nate Silver explains why most people should take bigger risks, reveals the big thing everyone misunderstands about Sam Bankman-Fried,... more

You probably know Nate Silver, the founder of FiveThirtyEight, as the statistician with an uncanny knack for predicting election results.... more

Effective altruism — the brand of philanthropy where you try to do the most good for the greatest number of... more

Today, social psychologist Devon Price makes the intriguing and ultimately hopeful case that laziness is a myth, a lie, a... more

Humans have been imbibing for thousands of years. What has drinking contributed to society? What is it doing to our... more

Over 2,000 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher, made a simple yet bold claim. The key to the good life,... more

Back in the 1700s, in a spa town outside of London, Thomas Bayes, a Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician, invented... more

So you want to eat healthy. But how do you actually go about doing that? Today, Casey Means — Stanford-trained... more

Bad news: 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Their bodies struggle to convert food into the energy their cells need.... more

Publisher, scientist, humorist, diplomat — Benjamin Franklin was America's first polymath. Today, with help from Eric Weiner, we revisit Franklin's... more

Where is AI headed, and how quickly will it get there? Should we be early adopters or keep our distance?... more

Today, Adam Grant and Bob Sutton, two legends of organizational psychology, discuss Bob’s new book, “The Friction Project: How Smart... more

Steven Johnson returns! He's with us today to talk about his new book, "The Infernal Machine: A True Story of... more

Could embracing uncertainty be the key to thriving in our age of unpredictability? That's the premise of Maggie Jackson's new... more

AI is coming for education. According to our guest today, Sal Khan, that's a good thing. Sal is the founder of... more

On a June night several years ago, Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of "The Perfect Storm" and co-director of the Oscar-nominated... more

You may think the English language is static, solid, set in its ways. But the language of Shakespeare has changed... more

Erik Larson is probably the most successful popular historian working today. His books, which include “The Devil in the White... more

Scott Galloway is a podcaster, bestselling author, and professor of marketing at NYU. He's irreverent, cocky, brutally honest, and surprisingly... more

"The only things that are important in life," declared the French filmmaker Jean Renoir, "are the things you remember." But... more

What if doing less is the secret to achieving more? That's the counterintuitive argument at the heart of productivity guru... more

Raise your hand if you've ever belittled a stranger online, made a decision based on astrology, or, heaven forbid, fallen... more

In “Psych: The Story of the Human Mind,” Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, lays... more

For a long time, Bianca Bosker was not on speaking terms with art. “Going to galleries and museums,” she says... more

Do you ever feel like your life has become a film loop of the familiar? Maybe you sympathize with the... more

Lots of things go viral on the internet: dumb memes, cat videos, one-pan meals, and celebrity gossip. Why not kindness?... more

Kara Swisher has been called “pioneering” (the New York Times), “Silicon Valley’s top pundit” (Wired), and “so shrill at this... more

According to Merriam-Webster, the word “conversation” has 36 synonyms, ranging from the alliterative (”confabulation”) to the arcane (”persiflage”). Why the... more

Growing old gets a bad rap, and it's not hard to see why. Your hair thins and your waist thickens.... more

Honesty may be the best policy, but that doesn’t make giving honest feedback any easier. That’s why Kim Scott, a... more

Seventy-two billion dollars. That, according to the Grifter Counter™, is the amount of money that's been swallowed up by crypto... more

When Rajiv Shah was in his late 20s and didn’t know what to do with his life, he got a... more

A few weeks ago, USA Today ran a story with the headline "It's over: 2023 was Earth's hottest year, experts... more

Do we have free will? Do we have a choice in what we do? Philosophers and theologians have debated these... more

Forming a new habit is tough. Sticking with it is even tougher. That’s probably why someone buys a copy of... more

What makes us happy? Researchers at Harvard have been trying to solve that riddle for 85 years. Now, they think... more

Do we have alcohol to thank for civilization? The answer, according to Edward Slingerland’s new book, “Drunk: How We Sipped,... more

Rory Stewart may be the most interesting person you’ve never heard of. He’s an adventurer, writer, politician, and nonprofit leader.... more

We may live in an ever-evolving world, but some things never change. The power of a good story. The miracle... more

The female body has been neglected in anthropological narratives, minimized in the archeological record, and excluded from modern-day clinical trials.... more

This week, journalist and podcaster Jessi Hempel joins us to discuss her recent memoir, “The Family Outing,” which tells the... more

A lot of us run away from tough conversations. Anna Sale runs toward them. For nearly a decade, as the... more

It's no secret that we live in a ferociously competitive world. But what is the drive to always be the... more

Failure is inevitable. How we respond to it makes all the difference. Today, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson joins... more

For the past four years, New York Times columnist and acclaimed author David Brooks has been trying to learn the... more

We live in a world that worships talent, a world that cheers natural athletes, exalts child prodigies, and venerates virtuosos.... more

When tech journalist Kashmir Hill got a tip about a mysterious app, Clearview AI, that claimed it could identify anyone... more

Daniel Pink is going through an existential crisis. The culprit? A new book by Stanford professor Brian Lowery. --- If you want... more

Have you ever been brought to tears by a TV commercial? Do you relish rainy days? Are your favorite songs... more

Stuart Russell wrote the book on artificial intelligence. Literally. Today, he sits down with Rufus to discuss the promise —... more

When he was 26, Will Guidara took the helm of a middling brasserie in New York City called Eleven Madison... more

Two years ago, Walter Isaacson, the legendary biographer who has written books about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and... more

We go through at least thirty-six major changes in the course of our adulthoods. And yet adapting to those changes... more

In the 1950s, Shaker Heights, Ohio, became a national model for housing integration. In the 1970s, it was known as... more

Increasing longevity and the explosion of technology are reshaping the world. What will it mean for your education, your career,... more

Ultra-processed food makes up 60 percent of the American diet. Though to call it food is a stretch. Because it... more

In “Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away,” cognitive scientist turned professional poker player turned bestselling author Annie... more

In “Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence,” Dr. Anna Lembke says today’s superabundance of pleasurable stimuli makes... more

Henry David Thoreau was a philosopher, poet, and pencil-maker. He was a great resigner and, above all, a superb writer... more

Research has shown that how you spend your morning can have a significant impact on the rest of your day.... more

The two hottest topics in tech right now are the rise of generative AI and, with Apple’s recent push into... more

Are we all so busy doom-scrolling and binge-watching that we’ve forgotten how to have fun? Real fun. Tingly-all-over, natural-high, I-hope-this-never-ends... more

For decades, urban planners have blanketed our cities with the cheap and convenient car storage known as parking. They've swapped... more

Dr. Peter Attia, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller "Outlive," is back to share cutting-edge tips for improving... more

Peter Attia had a problem. It was 2006. He'd recently graduated from Stanford's medical school and was completing a prestigious... more

David Grann is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the acclaimed author of "The Lost City of Z"... more

A few years ago, Adam Gopnik, a longtime writer for The New Yorker and three-time winner of the National Magazine... more

Pay a visit to your local gym, observe the grimacing patrons as they pound the treadmill or march in place... more

"To be alive is to battle stuckness." So declares NYU professor Adam Alter in his new book, "Anatomy of a... more

Kevin Kelly has made a career out of looking to the future. He helped pioneer online social networking all the... more

You are not autonomous. You are not an island unto yourself. You, my friend, are a social construct. The “self”... more

What if you could live forever? Okay, maybe not forever, but for a long, long time — like to 150.... more

Last month, longtime New Yorker staff writer Michael Specter released a brand new audiobook with our friends at Pushkin. It’s... more

What if we told you that every day, in just a few minutes, you could get a master class in... more

What do your five senses — sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch — have to do with happiness? According to... more

In his expansive new book, "Psych: The Story of the Human Mind," Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at the... more

How did Oxford shirts, cashmere sweaters, and chinos become staples of American fashion? How did a style born on Ivy... more

So "Succession" is back. The Emmy Award-winning series returned to HBO for its fourth and final season last Sunday. The show,... more

RUFUS GRISCOM: Could you share with us your broader mission and how your new book, “Poverty, by America,” supports that... more

Maryanne Wolf is a professor at UCLA and the renowned author of "Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science... more

Last year, Rufus sat down with philosopher David Chalmers to talk about the allure of virtual reality, whether robots will... more

When Kevin Roose, a tech columnist at the New York Times, demoed an AI-powered version of Microsoft's search engine last... more

Life without death, says philosopher Dean Rickles, is like playing tennis without a net. In his new book, “Life Is... more

In this special episode, Susan Rogers, a record producer turned cognitive neuroscientist, and Daniel Levitin, author of “This Is Your... more

Imagine a world where AI is everywhere — where self-driving cars roam the streets and chatbots can do your homework.... more

Doing is more important than being done. That’s the provocative argument at the heart of a new book by artist... more

Siddhartha Mukherjee is an oncologist, professor, researcher, and biotech entrepreneur. He’s also a writer, and a fine one at that.... more

Great news, folks. We just launched a new podcast! It's called The Next Big Idea Daily. Tune in Monday through... more

The Greek philosopher Epicurus made a rather bold claim over two thousand years ago. The key to life, he said,... more