Big Think is the leading source of expert-driven, actionable, educational content -- with thousands of videos, featuring experts ranging from Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, we help you get smarter, faster. Get actionable lessons from the world’s greatest thinkers & doers. Our experts are either disrupting or leading their respective fields. We aim to help you explore the big ideas and core skills that define knowledge in the 21st century, so you can apply them to the questions and challenges in your own life. Other Frequent contributors include Michio Kaku & Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Head to bigthink.com for a multitude of articles just as informative and satisfying as our videos. New articles posted daily on a range of intellectual topics. Join Big Think+ to gain access to an immense library of content. It features insight from many of the most celebrated and intelligent individuals in the world today. - Subscribe for daily videos. - Business inquiries and fan suggestions welcome.
7.6M
854.5M
9.3K
92.4K
Sign up to see all brand mentions
Sign UpSign up to see all sponsors
Sign Up
One day, the Universe will go completely dark. No more stars. No more light. Just a cold, endless equilibrium where energy can no longer be extracted.
This is known as the “Heat Death of the Universe.”
What will the universe’s last flicker of energy be? Dr. Ethan Siegel breaks down two possible final acts of the cosmos:
Corpses of stars spiraling into each other, emitting their last gravitational waves.
Supermassive black holes slowly decay over time until the last one releases one final flash of energy that propagates throughout the Universe at the speed of light.
We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.
Gracie Gold’s battle with mental health nearly ended her career—and her life. This is how she found her way back to herself.
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Watch the full Perception Box series ► https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5uULy4b0kV4iomWS7CzqCdOCwj0lFnLr&si=yCY6Ee7m6bpj7E-y
Gracie Gold, a two-time national champion and Olympic medalist, seemed to embody perfection. But behind the medals and the headlines, her obsession with being flawless led her to a breaking point. After the 2016 World Championships, she spiraled into depression, binge-eating, and a complete loss of identity.
Feeling trapped and out of place, Gold hit rock bottom before seeking help at a treatment facility. There, she finally “met herself,” learning to let go of perfection and accepting “okay” as enough. Now, she’s a mental health advocate and a New York Times bestselling author.
Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/gracie-gold/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Gracie Gold:
Gracie Gold is an American figure skater known for her technical skill, artistry, and resilience. Born in 1995, she rose to prominence by winning the U.S. national title in 2014 and earning a bronze medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in the team event. Gold also claimed silver at the 2016 World Championships, solidifying her status as one of the sport’s top competitors. After facing mental health challenges that led to a hiatus, she made a remarkable comeback, advocating for mental health awareness in athletics.
Plato described two types of love:
1. “Vulgar love” focuses on superficial qualities, such as beauty or desirability, and is often fleeting.
2. “Pure love” is a deeper, more spiritual connection that moves beyond the physical and seeks to appreciate the essence or true nature of a person.
Plato considered vulgar love to be inferior because it is tied to the material world and transitory desires, while pure love aspires to higher, eternal values.
Do you think it is possible for a relationship to balance both “vulgar love” and “pure love?” @philosophyminis explores.
Welcome to The Freethink Interview, a interview series from our sister channel @freethink where we talk to the new generation of builders, leaders and thinkers shaping technological progress. Join us for thought-provoking conversations with some of the world’s most interesting and ambitious technologists.
Subscribe to Freethink on YouTube ► https://freeth.ink/youtube-subscribe
Up Next ► The solar revolution turning sunlight into synthetic fuel | The Freethink Interview: Casey Handmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb3mrsUAaFc
What if the world's most critical technology isn't software, but the tiny pieces of silicon that power it? In an age where chips are everywhere, from smartphones to coffee makers, their manufacturing complexity might surprise you. It's harder to make a modern semiconductor than a nuclear weapon.
Inside Taiwan's cutting-edge fabrication plants, machines worth $350 million each orchestrate an atomic ballet. These marvels of engineering use the flattest mirrors ever made and lasers that create temperatures 40 times hotter than the sun's surface – all to carve transistors smaller than a coronavirus.
From Silicon Valley to Taiwan, from the Netherlands to Japan, making modern chips is a global dance of unprecedented complexity. Each processor requires ultra-purified materials, billion-dollar machines, and a supply chain spanning multiple continents. But this intricate network faces its greatest challenge yet.
As artificial intelligence reshapes our world, the demand for advanced chips is skyrocketing. Tech giants are pouring billions into new semiconductor designs, while startups race to create specialized AI chips that could make artificial intelligence as accessible as a Google search. Join us as we explore how these tiny silicon marvels are shaping humanity's future.
00:00: The Freethink Interview: Chris Miller
00:39: A single factory in Taiwan
02:31: The first transistor
03:31: The first chip
04:50: Moore’s Law
07:40: A global industry
10:01: The most important company in the world
12:08: Why chips are central to US and China
13:45: AI and chips
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About [Speaker Name]:
Bio
AI is getting better at sounding human – but at what cost?
In this clip from our upcoming Mini Philosophy interview, philosopher Jonathan Birch explores the double-edged nature of emotional AI.
On one hand, AI trained on “how to be human” can mimic conversation and empathy making it more appealing to interact with. This has also made human-like AI a very lucrative frontier as people prefer talking to someone (or something) that has a degree of emotional intelligence and warmth.
But on the other hand, we are also creating an AI that can manipulate human empathy. Emotional intelligence has a shadow side — if you know what makes a human tick, you know what tricks a human.
Would you feel more comfortable interacting with AI if it had emotional intelligence, or does that make it more unsettling?
Is an electric vehicle actually better for the environment?
Hannah Ritchie, deputy editor at Our World In Data, says yes.
She explains that while EVs require more energy to manufacture—particularly for their batteries—they quickly recoup this initial carbon cost through cleaner operation. In the UK, for example, the extra emissions from production are typically offset within two years of driving, after which the vehicle consistently emits far less CO₂ than a comparable petrol or diesel car.
"Over the lifetime of the car, you're probably talking about a reduction of 1/2 to 2/3 compared to a petrol or diesel car"
Welcome to The Freethink Interview, a interview series from our sister channel @freethink where we talk to the new generation of builders, leaders and thinkers shaping technological progress. Join us for thought-provoking conversations with some of the world’s most interesting and ambitious technologists.
Subscribe to Freethink on YouTube ► https://freeth.ink/youtube-subscribe
Up next, What’s killing the clean energy revolution? ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFjg1qEsO04
Could solar energy be the key to unlocking a future free from fossil fuels and extreme poverty? Casey Handmer, founder and CEO of Terraform Industries, believes so. His company is pioneering technology that could revolutionize how we produce and consume energy, potentially solving climate change and global energy inequality in one fell swoop.
Terraform Industries is developing machines that create synthetic natural gas from sunlight and air. It sounds like science fiction, but the technology is rooted in simple chemistry and powered by the rapidly advancing field of solar energy.
But Handmer's vision extends beyond just replacing fossil fuels. He sees solar energy as the catalyst for a new era of human progress. By providing cheap, abundant energy to every corner of the globe, we could potentially eliminate extreme poverty within our lifetimes. It's an ambitious goal, but one that Handmer believes we have a responsibility to pursue.
0:00: Introduction
1:20: The future of energy
1:50: Solar vs. nuclear
2:45: Solar deployment
3:23: Solar vs. fossil fuels
4:50: What is a fuel?
6:52: The terraformer
7:49: Industrial Revolution
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No description provided.
Consciousness is everything we know and experience, yet its biggest mystery is why a universe full of non-conscious matter sometimes organizes in a way that produces felt experience. Modern neuroscience suggests our intuitions about consciousness may be wrong—what if it's not just a byproduct of complex brains but something more fundamental, woven into nature itself?
Take Jean-Dominique Bauby, a writer who had locked-in syndrome — fully conscious but unable to move except for blinking his left eyelid. With 200,000 blinks, he wrote his book “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” proving that a rich inner life can exist without any external signs. If consciousness can be completely hidden in a human, could it also exist in other systems that simply can't communicate it?
What happens when an irredeemable person receives love, gratitude, and respect? After decades of drug and alcohol abuse, chef and television personality Andrew Zimmern learned firsthand.
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Watch the full Perception Box series ► https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5uULy4b0kV4iomWS7CzqCdOCwj0lFnLr&si=yCY6Ee7m6bpj7E-y
As a teenager, Andrew Zimmern experienced deep pain when his mother became permanently disabled, and his father enforced a rule to avoid discussing feelings. Without an outlet, that pain grew into resentment and substance abuse. By 14, Zimmern was drinking daily, and his addiction followed him into adulthood, ultimately costing him his career, relationships, and home.
In January 1992, after hitting rock bottom, Zimmern attempted to take his own life. When he woke up, something shifted. For the first time, he asked for help. His friends intervened, sending him to rehab, where he began confronting his emotions and embracing a mindset of learning and giving.
Zimmern rebuilt his life, becoming a celebrated chef, author, and TV personality. Today, he credits that one vulnerable moment with saving his life and inspiring him to live with purpose and gratitude.
Read more from this interview ► https://bigthink.com/videos/andrew-zimmern/
Explore the Perception Box series hub ► https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more. https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business. https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Andrew Zimmern:
Andrew Zimmern is a chef, food writer, and television personality best known for hosting Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. A four-time James Beard Award winner, Zimmern has dedicated his career to exploring global cuisines and advocating for culinary diversity. Beyond television, he is a passionate philanthropist, focusing on hunger relief, food sustainability, and social justice. He founded the Andrew Zimmern Project to support food security initiatives and works with organizations like Second Harvest and Services for the Underserved. Through his work, Zimmern strives to create a more equitable food system and inspire cultural appreciation through cuisine.
Get notified instantly when Big Think mentions your brand, topic, or keyword in their videos.
