Biologist Edward O. Wilson tackles the meaning of life and existence. He argues that explaining why we're here, what we are, and where we're going is a task best suited to science, not philosophy. He identifies five major scientific branches that are currently making the most progress.

"Perhaps the subject of my art is like the definition of humor — emotional pain remembered in tranquillity." -Abstract expressionist Grace Hartigan (1922-2008)

With everyone always trying to identify "the next Silicon Valley," Eric Hippeau explains that New York City needs not try to be the next anything. It's already a force in and of itself.

"When people are less focused on self and the problems of the self, there is a kind of alleviation of stress. There’s nothing like reaching out and contributing to the lives of others to give a person a sense of significance and purpose." -Professor Stephen Post, from his Big Think interview.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott recently visited Big Think to discuss his new book Winners Dream and talk about the importance of prioritizing family over business.

Cesar Chavez described his life's work in his "What the Future Holds" speech from 1984: "All my life, I have been driven by one dream, one goal, one vision: to overthrow a farm labor system in this nation that treats farm workers as if they were not important human beings. Farm workers are not agricultural implements; they are not beasts of burden to be used and discarded."

While Sam Harris doesn't necessarily condone their use, his experimentations with psychedelic drugs were indelible in the formation of his worldview and understanding of consciousness. 

With Oscar Taveras on our minds, we remember another ballplayer who was taken much too young young. More than just a Hall of Fame outfielder, Roberto Clemente was a man committed to giving back. He died tragically at the age of 38 when a plane he chartered to deliver aid to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua crashed in the Caribbean Sea. "Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don't, then you are wasting your time on Earth."

"We should write our own history books to prove that we did have a past, and that it was a past that was just as worth writing and learning about as any other. We must do this for the simple reason that a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul." -Seretse Khama, 1st President of Botswana

Venture for America is a non-profit fellowship program that grooms the next generation of American entrepreneurs by placing them in startup apprenticeships.

The CEO of SAP discusses leadership ethics and why never missing a Little League game is good for business.

Biographer Walter Isaacson discusses his new book The Innovators and why Steve Jobs was a prickly teambuilder. 

Henry Rollins dished on the power and limitations of music in his Big Think interview: "Is music a viable force for change?  Can music stop things, start things, change things?  To a certain degree yes, maybe in pop culture, but if a song or an artist could stop a war Bob Dylan and Bob Marley would have."

Sherman Alexie, author of the award-winning novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, on Young Adult fiction: "A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. is the Garden of Eden of literature... One person asked me, ‘Wouldn’t you have rather won the National Book Award for an adult, serious work?’ I thought I’d been condescended to as an Indian — that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing Y.A."

"You see what power is – holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them." -Amy Tan, from her book The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof recently visited Big Think to discuss his new book A Path Appears and talk about the tactics advocates must employ to raise awareness for a good cause.

Civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune on never giving in to discrimination:  "If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves and allow those responsible to salve their conscience by believing that they have our acceptance and concurrence. We should, therefore, protest openly everything... that smacks of discrimination or slander."

"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." -Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

Even an Iron Chef can fall into the trap of letting his kids eat junk food. His secret to selling his kids on nutrition is to present good foods in forms and textures they enjoy.

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."