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Study the science of how we think, feel, and act, with insights that help you better understand yourself and others.

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Three hands, each in different colors and styles, stack on top of each other over a red, chart-patterned cutout against a gray grid background, reflecting the spirit of collaboration seen in current leadership development trends.
Big Think+
Five recommendations that will reshape leadership development in 2026
What 158 L&D leaders told us about the future of leadership development.
Lavinia Mehedintu
A silver space pen with its cap removed appears to write swirling white lines against a blue, starry background.
Business
Why we overcomplicate things
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Eric Markowitz
A collage of eight panels shows a hand pouring coffee from a French press into cups, each panel with a different background color.
Smart Skills
Why your brain needs everyday rituals
Rituals serve psychological functions that go far beyond mere habit or tradition.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff
A petri dish containing smart slime mold with branching vein-like structures, viewed from above against a black background.
The Long Game
How slime and dumb rocks can help us better define “smart”
As we crank up our search for more powerful AI, maybe we should slow down and reimagine the shape and language of intelligence itself.
Eric Markowitz
Book cover for "The Hypocrisy Trap" by Michael Hallsworth, featuring a blue pattern of interlocking hands forming fists, with a subtitle about improving lives by changing criticism and understanding the influence of hypocrites.
Books
The 4 types of hypocrites (that we actually like)
In this excerpt from "The Hypocrisy Trap," Michael Hallsworth explains why accusations of hypocrisy don’t always damage credibility.
Michael Hallsworth
An ostrich with its head buried in a grid-patterned yellow floor against a matching grid-patterned wall.
The Present
The rise of AI denialism
Conversations about an imminent "AI bubble" tend to miss the big picture.
Louis Rosenberg
Silhouettes of two people seated and facing each other with a large smartphone between them, displaying multiple thumbs-up icons amid a swirl of digital psychobabble.
Books
The costs of turning therapy into a pop culture fad
Joe Nucci, author of "Psychobabble," joins us to discuss how the misuse of psychological language risks blurring the lines between everyday problems and clinical diagnoses.
Kevin Dickinson
A woman with long red hair, wearing a puffer jacket, stands outdoors with passion in her gaze—holding binoculars and looking up as a camera hangs from her neck.
Mini Philosophy
3 ways to cultivate a passion
Be weird and esoteric because humans are weird and esoteric.
Jonny Thomson
A man lounges and yawns on a red chaise longue while a woman in a dress, caught in brilliant boredom, yawns at a table in a room with pink curtains and patterned carpet.
Business
The brilliance of boredom
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Eric Markowitz
A person with an illustrated book as a head—pages open, filled with wavy black lines—appears to be brain reading as they stand against a plain light green background.
Mini Philosophy
Can neuroscientists read your mind?
The technology might be much closer than you'd think.
Jonny Thomson
Five books are displayed upright in a row: "Gödel, Escher, Bach," "Man’s Search for Meaning," "Red Mars," "The Road to Reality," and "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
Books
5 books that changed the world for the better
These expert-recommended books reveal how big ideas can shape — and sometimes redefine — human progress.
Jasna Hodžić
Illustration of a yellow space shuttle launching against a starry sky, with abstract blue and orange graph elements in the foreground.
Big Think+
Beyond completion rates: Engagement, impact, and ROI in L&D
One of the many reasons I love my job is that, on any given week, I get to talk with a dozen or so smart, thoughtful L&D leaders to hear […]
Meghan Phillips
A classical painting of a reclining figure draped in red fabric by a pond, with the face pixelated and unrecognizable.
Thinking
From “woke” to “traumatic”: How useful terms become empty buzzwords
When a word comes to mean everything, it means nothing.
Laura Kennedy
A large jagged rock juts out of rough ocean waves, with water crashing against its base under a cloudy sky—standing firm like true leadership amidst the storm.
Business
How to lead from the liminal space where wisdom takes root
In a world of fast answers, leadership shaped by suffering is radical — and transformative.
Patrick Boland
A human skull rests on a closed book beside an inkwell, a quill, a candlestick, and an open book—evoking the timeless allure of books that will change your life on a dimly lit tabletop.
Books
5 books that teach you how to die well — by living better
"Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end."
Scotty Hendricks
Two women at a window; one leans on the sill smiling, perhaps sharing jokes, while the other stands behind, partially concealed, holding a white cloth to her face.
Mini Philosophy
The two types of jokes everyone tells
Is your humor affiliative or adversarial?
Jonny Thomson
A painting of a man with a beard.
The Well
Is the universe conscious? Panpsychism, religion, and the modern search for meaning
Panpsychist philosopher Philip Goff, PhD on mysticism and the future of faith.
Philip Goff & Lee Helland
John Templeton Foundation
Book cover for "The Devil Is a Southpaw" by Brandon Hobson, featuring two black birds flying over large red and blue text that boldly displays the title on a cream background.
Books
“The Devil Is a Southpaw”: A novel by Brandon Hobson
A preview of the latest novel by the National Book Award finalist Brandon Hobson.
Brandon Hobson
A collage titled "The Nightcrawler," featuring a hand planting a seed, a distressed woman holding her head, and repetitive office cubicles in purple tones, explores trust amid cycles of anxiety and routine.
Business
A cure for toxic work
Welcome to The Nightcrawler — a weekly newsletter from Eric Markowitz covering tech, innovation, and long-term thinking.
Eric Markowitz
An older man sits on a chair gesturing with his hands in front of a blue background featuring a black sinusoidal waveform and an arrow.
Big Think+
Josh Bersin: The secrets of crafting enduring organizations
Why the most enduring organizations stop chasing trends and start designing systems that prioritize people over processes.
Josh Browning
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