According to President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the reason his nation recovered so swiftly from the financial crisis is because the democratic will of the people was prioritized over the financial interests of the markets.

Word of wisdom from the famed British conductor: "A painter paints his pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence."

"To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed."  

Ridicule, says Frank, was one of his greatest weapons in Congress. The retired Massachusetts congressman shares how humor can help win friends and arguments.

The acclaimed self-help expert recently visited Big Think to discuss his new book and share stories about what wealth and generosity mean to him.

"Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."

Businesswoman and investor Barbara Corcoran shares her tips on amassing social capital by way of branding. This is the first video in a helpful Corcoran playlist focused on guiding small business owners and emerging entrepreneurs.

Joseph Joubert was a French essayist whose collected works were not published until after his death in 1824.

"Discrimination still exists. Some people feel that their own beliefs are being threatened. Some are unhappy about unfamiliar cultures. They all need to be reassured that there is so much to be gained by reaching out to others; that diversity is indeed a strength and not a threat."

Bill Nye the Science Guy addresses the national risks associated with producing a generation fraught with evolution deniers. He also addresses critics who claim evolution doesn't exist and attempts to examine why they can't bring themselves to accept the facts.

Former NBA Commissioner David Stern discusses how diversity forms the foundation of the league's recent growth and success. At one point, Stern was told the NBA was "too black to thrive." Now, it's as popular as ever.

Journalist Eric Schlosser, an executive producer on the film Food Chains, discusses the exploitation of poor workers in the American food system.

"Every system that we build will surprise us with new kinds of flaws until those machines become clever enough to conceal their faults from us." -Cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky  

Biographer Walter Isaacson discusses the contributions of both Alan Turing and Ada Lovelace to modern computer philosophy.

"I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence."

Food writer Michael Pollan explains how the history of barbecue in America is one that includes all kinds of people working together in an integrated effort to produce the best possible meal.

"I believe in democracy, but in real democracy, not a phony democracy in which just powerful people can speak. For me, in a democracy everyone speaks."

"The only way I can pay back for what fate and society have handed me is to try, in minor totally useless ways, to make an angry sound against injustice."

"You don't spend twenty years of your life in the service and not have a warm, nostalgic feeling left in you … It's a small service, and there's a lot of esprit de corps."

"If someone is to consider black and white for their project I guess I would say the heads up that I would offer is that they need to be prepared to fight for it and lobby for that... Connections are not in color or in black and white. They’re invisible but just as real."