The Next Big Idea

• COMMON KNOWLEDGE: Steven Pinker on Awkward Dates, Cancel Culture and the Necessity of Norms

  As promised, today we’re bringing you a full-length interview with Steven Pinker about his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. What is common knowledge? For Steve, it is not conventional wisdom. Instead, it’s when everyone knows something and everyone knows that and everyone knows it. That may sound loopy, but the implications of common knowledge — how it’s produced, sustained, and manipulated — are profound. “It's common knowledge,” Steve tells Rufus, “that makes humans human. Humans are not solitary. What makes humans humans is that we coordinate in groups — from couples to nations to, in some cases, the entire world — and I think common knowledge is the underpinning, the cement, the foundation of that ability to coordinate.” (8:00) Why “coffee” doesn’t just mean coffee (14:40) What blushes and laughter unintentionally reveal (30:39) The real reason brands spend millions on Super Bowl ads (35:00) How common knowledge explains cancel culture (48:43) What happens to society when norms collapse? — 📚 Want a signed copy of Brené Brown’s new book, access to our WhatsApp community, invitations to virtual Q&As with top authors, and seats at live events in NYC? Become a Next Big Idea Club member today at nextbigideaclub.com. And use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription. — Want to connect? 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• A Food Crisis Is Brewing. Are We Ready?

  Caleb is joined by Sam Kass, former senior food policy advisor to President Obama and the chef who cooked dinner for the first family most nights. Now a partner at a venture capital firm investing in food and agriculture tech, Sam has a new book out, The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis. The situation, he says, is bleak. Almonds, artichokes, chocolate, coffee, oysters, rice, wine — all at risk due to climate change. And that’s not even close to the full list. Our food system is both driving the climate crisis and being devastated by it. But Sam argues we can still avert the worst if we start with culture, fix our policies, and deploy the right technology. (4:00) Cooking for the Obamas (7:49) How vulnerable is our food supply? (12:45) Can fixing the food system bring us together? (24:29) The food policies we need (27:38) Are we making America healthy again? (35:42) The technologies that can make a difference — Thoughts? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• The Future Is Going to Be Great

  Dave Blundin has co-founded 23 companies, co-hosts the Moonshots podcast, runs the VC firm Link Ventures, teaches at MIT, and has been building neural networks since the 1980s. His take: “[AI is] under-hyped. It's absolutely going to change the world in the next couple of years more than any change in human history. There's nothing even vaguely comparable to it.” — (7:37) “Stop sleeping. Rush to everything you do.” (15:16) Why he started building neural nets at MIT in the 1980s (16:19) Should you finish college or start a business? (20:38) Why best friends are the best co-founders (25:00) San Francisco is still king, but Boston is AI startup central (28:06) “The chip shortage is going to be incredibly bad.” (34:26) The AI energy shortage (36:32) Are we in an AI bubble? (55:44) The case for human immortality before 2050 (1:02:00) Advice for first-time founders (and second-time, and 23rd-time) — 💿 Catch up on our other AI episodes with this Spotify playlist 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠⁠Book of the Day⁠⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• PRIMAL INTELLIGENCE: You’re Smarter Than You Realize

  Angus Fletcher has a PhD in literature from Yale and teaches English at Ohio State. He’s passionate about Shakespeare. He probably owns a tweed jacket. In other words, he’s the last person you’d expect to receive the Army’s fourth-highest civilian honor. But when he’s not parsing King Lear or dissecting Hamlet, Angus is pioneering research into narrative cognition — our ability to think in stories — and how it can make us smarter. When the Army put his theories to the test, his methods reshaped how soldiers learn to think clearly under pressure and act decisively in volatile environments. Now, he has distilled this work into a new book called Primal Intelligence. Malcolm Gladwell says it's confirmation that Angus "has never had an uninteresting thought." We think you’ll agree. — — — (05:43) What is Primal Intelligence? (8:24) Computers Think in Probabilities. Humans Think in Possibilities. (11:08) The Art of Intuition: Spotting Exceptions to Rules (29:59) Why Storytelling is the Essence of Human Intelligence (34:13) How to Plan (35:38) The Role of Emotion in Decision Making (45:27) How to Use Common Sense to ‘Tune Your Anxiety’ (49:34) What Great Innovators Have in Common (51:25) The Best Way to Become a Better Communicator (54:22) Don’t Freak Out About A.I. Do Freak Out the State of Your Intelligence. — — — Want to connect? 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• STEVEN PINKER: How Common Knowledge and Rationality Make the World Go Round

  Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shares five key insights from his brand new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows. He reveals how “common knowledge” — the hidden force of knowing what others know — shapes everything from financial bubbles and political revolutions to why we say “Netflix and chill.” Then we revisit our 2021 conversation with Steve about rationality, where he explains why smart people believe dumb things, why we're terrible at assessing risk, and how our species can be both brilliantly rational and spectacularly irrational at the same time. ——— Want to connect? 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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