History & Society

History & Society

Trace how culture, power, and ideas shape societies across time.

Orange spherical cell with elongated extensions against a black background.
Some go gently into the night. Others die less prettily in freak accidents or deadly invasions, or after a showy display.
The open book reveals a black and white photo of a smiling person on the left page, capturing a moment of joy. On the right page, vibrant flames burst forth in a colorful painting, igniting the canvas with instinctive energy.
From tribal hunts to Stonehenge and into the modern day, the peer instinct helps humans coordinate their efforts and learning.
Collage with a smiling woman, a couple, a person lying down, another couple, and a decorative key with a flower on a textured background.
"I am free. It's a lot of effort to be free from the prison that is in your mind, and the key is in your pocket." – Edith Eva Eger
A plant with leaves and roots resembling a dandelion has four glowing light bulbs in place of flowers, creating innovation clusters against a black background.
Studying why innovation clusters form can shed light on how to better promote research and growth.
Two men in suits sit at a table looking stressed; one leans back with his head tilted upwards, and the other covers his face with his hand. The scene hints at the consequences of relying on the McNamara fallacy. A blurred glass pitcher is visible in the foreground.
Don't make the mistake of blindly following quantitative metrics — whether you're helping clients or looking for lunch.
A person with glasses and a black blazer is looking directly at the camera against a black background.
1hr 15mins
“Why is it that the quality of our information did not improve over thousands of years? Why is it that very sophisticated societies have been as susceptible as stone age tribes to mass delusion and the rise of destructive ideologies?”
Map showing tidal ranges in northern Europe. Notable locations include Severn Estuary, Mont Saint Michel Bay, and Gibraltar. Depths indicated in meters and feet.
Great tidal ranges are relatively rare on a global scale — and can be very deadly to the unsuspecting foreshore walker.
An older man with gray hair is sitting in a white chair, smiling. Dressed in a black outfit, he is framed against a large screen filled with abstract shapes and letters that evoke an AI manifesto.
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
The fabric of spacetime is four-dimensional, with three for space and only one for time. But wow, time sure is different from space!
An image of a cluster of galaxies, meaning science.
An in-depth interview with astronomer Kelsey Johnson, whose new book, Into the Unknown, explores what remains unknown about the Universe.
"We are not our grandparents. It’s time to start thinking differently," journalist Annie Jacobsen told Big Think.
flame nebula infrared spitzer
The Universe changes remarkably over time, with some entities surviving and others simply decaying away. Is this cosmic evolution at work?
Silhouettes of three people in red stand on a podium made of white cubes, evoking the spirit of ranked choice voting, with blue circles against a dark grid background.
The electoral reform also known as instant-runoff voting promises bridge-building and broad appeal instead of culture war and gridlock.
A globe is encircled by golden barbed wire against a gray background, evocative of autocracy and symbolizing restriction or confinement with a sense of luxury.
Modern autocracies operate "not like a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies," says journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.
An older man with glasses writes on paper, superimposed on a graph with a wavy purple line on a black grid background, evoking the Hemingway effect.
To maintain momentum and flow, the great novelist Ernest Hemingway didn’t burn himself out — but learned when to put his work down.
Map of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order, showing key locations such as the World Headquarters and Library, with details on independence, language, religion, government, and currency.
The Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order would be just one quarter the size of Vatican City.
A glowing, abstract representation of a brain, with intricate patterns and lights reminiscent of the innovative spirit behind the Nobel Prize in Physics 2024, set against a dark backdrop.
Artificial intelligence is much more than image generation and smart-sounding chatbots; it's also a Nobel-worthy endeavor rooted in physics!
A grayscale photo of a man is on the left page of an open book, while the right page features an illustration of a white dove with red accents on a yellow background, symbolizing freedom.
Historian Timothy Snyder talks with Big Think about how true liberty requires both negative and positive freedoms.