Episodes

  • Best Of: David Brooks on the Art of Seeing Others Deeply

    Best Of: David Brooks on the Art of Seeing Others Deeply
    Nov 27 2025
    New York Times columnist and acclaimed author David Brooks has been trying to learn the skills that go into seeing others, understanding others, making other people feel respected, valued, and safe. Such social skills may sound trifling, but mastering them, David believes, could help us all make better decisions, enhance our creativity, and maybe even repair our nation’s fraying social fabric. This episode first aired in November 2023. Host: Rufus Griscom Guest: David Brooks Book: How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen • Learn more about Weave: The Social Fabric Project at weavers.org • Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 20% off when you use the code PODCAST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 5 mins
  • STRONG GROUND: Brené Brown on the Daring Leadership the World Needs Now

    STRONG GROUND: Brené Brown on the Daring Leadership the World Needs Now
    Nov 25 2025
    In this conversation, recorded live on Zoom with members of the Next Big Idea Club community, Brené and Rufus talk about what drives her, how Texas has shaped her, the leadership skills that matter most, and work-life balance. Plus, our curator Adam Grant makes a surprise cameo. Brené’s new book is Strong Ground. 🎁 Join the Next Big Idea Club today and we'll send you a signed copy of Walter Isaacson's new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. You'll also get ad-free versions of this show, invitations to member-only Q&As, and the six best books of the year delivered to your door. Sign up at nextbigideaclub.com and use code PODCAST for 20% off. 🎥 Watch video episodes on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NextBigIdeaClub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    55 mins
  • Brené Brown on courageous leadership (from ReThinking with Adam Grant)

    Brené Brown on courageous leadership (from ReThinking with Adam Grant)
    Nov 20 2025
    Brené Brown is a researcher, storyteller, and author who hosts the podcast Dare to Lead and has given some of the most popular TED Talks of all time. In this episode, recorded live at an Authors@Wharton event, Brené and our curator Adam Grant talk about her new book, Strong Ground. They discuss how to identify your core values, what courageous leadership looks like, and whether vulnerability has become more popular. They also address the problems with “executive presence,” compare notes on how to have hard conversations and set boundaries, debate the merits of the “tush push,” and reflect on what Brené learned from working with FBI hostage negotiators. This conversation first appeared on ReThinking with Adam Grant. It’s one of our favorite podcasts. Follow it now wherever you listen. --- 🎁 Join the Next Big Idea Club today and we'll send you a signed copy of Walter Isaacson's new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. You'll also get ad-free versions of this show, invitations to member-only Q&As, and the six best books of the year delivered to your door. Sign up at nextbigideaclub.com and use code PODCAST for 20% off. 🎥 Watch video episodes on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@NextBigIdeaClub Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    46 mins
  • Walter Isaacson on The Greatest Sentence Ever Written

    Walter Isaacson on The Greatest Sentence Ever Written
    Nov 18 2025
    What is the greatest sentence ever written? According to Walter Isaacson — former editor of Time, ex-CEO of CNN, and the acclaimed biographer of Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, and Jennifer Doudna — it’s this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Yes, it’s eloquent, but more than that, it gave the United States a mission statement, one that we are still striving — fitfully, imperfectly — to meet. Walter’s new book, The Greatest Sentence Ever Written, unpacks that mission statement: how it came to be written, what it meant to the founders, and why it matters today. We're pleased to announce that we've chosen it as our latest selection for the Next Big Idea Club. That means current members will receive a copy in the mail any day now, along with a digital reading guide, the opportunity to discuss the book with fellow members in our WhatsApp community, and an exclusive invitation to a live Q&A with Walter in December. If you're not already a member, sign up today at nextbigideaclub.com. And if you use the code PODCAST at checkout, we’ll take 20% off your order and send you a signed copy of the book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 12 mins
  • Best Of: Decoding Elon Musk

    Best Of: Decoding Elon Musk
    Nov 13 2025
    When Walter Isaacson, the legendary biographer of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, and Leonardo da Vinci, started shadowing Elon Musk, he found himself following "a guy who was one of the most popular people on the planet, and ended up with a guy who's the most controversial." Today on the show, Isaacson unpacks the transformation. (This episode first aired in September 2023.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Andrew Ross Sorkin: What the Crash of 1929 Says About Today

    Andrew Ross Sorkin: What the Crash of 1929 Says About Today
    Nov 6 2025
    Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, is an eye-opening account of the forces that led to the worst financial crisis in history and the lessons that disaster can teach us about today’s economy. (7:09) Life before the crash (8:58) How Americans developed a taste for leverage (17:10) What happened on Black Thursday (20:05) Why so few people saw the crash coming (26:23) Could the crash have been averted? (37:13) Andrew’s fascination with money (39:22) What if financial bubbles are a feature, not a bug? (41:35) Could we be headed for another 1929? (45:00) The dangers of leverage (53:16) How the blockchain will revolutionzie finance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 9 mins
  • Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson on What Running Can Teach Us

    Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson on What Running Can Teach Us
    Oct 30 2025
    Nick Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic. But he moonlights as a damn good runner. At 44, he ran a marathon in 2 hours and 29 minutes, making him one of the fastest marathoners his age on the planet. He later set an American age group record in the 50K. He has run in blazing heat with ice tucked into his hat and in frigid cold with Vaseline dabbed on his nose. He's run up sunny mountain trails and down dark city streets. He has run, and run, and run some more. His relationship with the sport is the subject of his new memoir, The Running Ground. It's a book about the fragile boundary between love and obsession, between progress and suffering. And it's about the way we all run in loops: away from the past and then back toward it. (4:35) Nick reads from The Running Ground (8:00) On his father: "Not a simple guy" (16:34) How the sport finds you (30:00) A personal best, then a cancer diagnosis (40:56) The four states of running bliss (and how to reach them) (46:29) How Nick got faster in his forties (49:14) The big takeaway (50:33) Want to start running? Do this. (53:14) Is running actually good for you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • COMMON KNOWLEDGE: Steven Pinker on Awkward Dates, Cancel Culture and the Necessity of Norms

    COMMON KNOWLEDGE: Steven Pinker on Awkward Dates, Cancel Culture and the Necessity of Norms
    Oct 23 2025
    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: ⁠podcast@nextbigideaclub.com⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 1 min