Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let’s learn from them. Welcome to The Well, a publication by the John Templeton Foundation and Big Think.
Featured Interviews
“We know that when people imbue their goals or relationships with sacred meaning, that they exert more effort and they benefit more from those relationships.”
Jacob Mchangama is a lawyer, human-rights advocate, author, podcast host, and founder and executive director of the think tank Justitia. He has written about free speech and human rights in[…]
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Ethan Kross is one of the world’s leading experts on controlling the conscious mind. An award-winning professor and bestselling author in the University of Michigan’s top ranked psychology department and[…]
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3 min
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Jacob Mchangama is a lawyer, human-rights advocate, author, podcast host, and founder and executive director of the think tank Justitia. He has written about free speech and human rights in[…]
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2 min
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Featured Article
Sikh American scholar and historian Simran Jeet Singh on helping kids imagine — and create — a more empathetic world.
“Empathy doesn’t just fully appear on its own. In large part, it has to be nurtured, and ages 1 to 6 is a prime window. While temperament plays a role, so does a child’s environment, including the people and stories they’re exposed to.”
All Stories
Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek reflects on Einstein’s greatest contribution.
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3 min
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Are you convincing everyone you’re smart, or accidentally alienating them? Here’s how to find out.
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7 min
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Journalist Steven Kotler on digital immortality and the tech that could keep us “alive,” forever.
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3 min
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Physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, complexity, and the origins of life:
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With great genius comes great rigidity. Professor Barabara Oakley on how to stay mentally agile — and get smarter as a result:
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7 min
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Psychologist Daniel Goleman on how to train your brain with just ten minutes a day.
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6 min
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James Suzman lived with a tribe of hunter-gatherers to witness how an ancient culture survives one of the most brutal climates on Earth. His learnings may surprise you.
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8 min
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Is information intrinsic in our universe? NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains.
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8 min
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When one path is blocked, a new one must be paved. How Einstein, Heisenberg and Gödel used constraints to make life-changing discoveries:
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What is perception, really? Philosopher Alva Noë on why perception is a puzzling phenomenon:
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Science writer George Musser on the unsung role of friendship in science’s biggest discoveries.
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We’ve all tried to win an argument by bringing up statistics that support our view. But here’s why that doesn’t work, according to a neuroscientist.
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Kmele talked with a planetary scientist, a physicist, and a futurist, to understand how visionaries across disciplines are thinking about the future of our planet and humankind.
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36 min
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Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, rock icon Steve Albini, and comedian Fred Armisen told Kmele how they make sense of the world — and leave their mark on it.
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32 min
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Consciousness isn’t just a problem for philosophers. On this episode of Dispatches, Kmele sat down with scientists, a mathematician, a spiritual leader, and an entrepreneur, all trying to get to the heart of “the feeling of life itself.”
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44 min
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Are we the stories we tell? Kmele sat down with legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, actor Terry Crews and psychologist Dan McAdams to discuss how humanity makes its meaning.
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The Santa Fe Institute is a cradle of modern research. Our host Kmele meets some of the brilliant minds who work there.
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42 min
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Our host Kmele went inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.
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38 min
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Dispatches host Kmele Foster is on a journey to understand humanity’s role in the cosmos. His first stop? The Atacama Plateau in Northern Chile, home to the darkest deserts and largest telescopes on earth.
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35 min
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Yes, you CAN be a “math person” — as long as you follow these learning techniques.
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