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Ideas that inspire a life well-lived
Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional?
Life’s biggest questions rarely have simple answers. That is precisely why they continue to occupy the world’s most thoughtful minds. The Well is a place to engage those questions, drawing on insights from science, philosophy, and the humanities.
Created by the John Templeton Foundation in partnership with Big Think, The Well brings together ideas that inspire deeper understanding and a more considered approach to living.
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The Templeton Foundation supports interdisciplinary research and catalyzes conversations that inspire awe and wonder.
Why Einstein called awe the fundamental emotion
If you’ve gotten goosebumps when hearing a story about a stranger’s selfless heroism, or you’ve felt your chest swell at a concert, when the audience’s voice and the musician’s instruments align, you have felt awe. And, according to professor Dacher Keltner, who has spent his life studying it, it’s one of humankind’s most unifying traits:
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“I study the mineral kingdom — and its secrets could lead us to alien life.”
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“We could be wrong. But if we are right, it’s profoundly important.” Leading mineralogist Dr. Robert Hazen on the missing law of nature that could explain why life emerges.
John Templeton Foundation
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Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek reflects on Einstein’s greatest contribution.
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Are you convincing everyone you’re smart, or accidentally alienating them? Here’s how to find out.
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Journalist Steven Kotler on digital immortality and the tech that could keep us “alive,” forever.
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Physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, complexity, and the origins of life:
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With great genius comes great rigidity. Professor Barabara Oakley on how to stay mentally agile — and get smarter as a result:
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Psychologist Daniel Goleman on how to train your brain with just ten minutes a day.
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James Suzman lived with a tribe of hunter-gatherers to witness how an ancient culture survives one of the most brutal climates on Earth. His learnings may surprise you.
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Is information intrinsic in our universe? NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains.
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When one path is blocked, a new one must be paved. How Einstein, Heisenberg and Gödel used constraints to make life-changing discoveries:
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What is perception, really? Philosopher Alva Noë on why perception is a puzzling phenomenon:
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Science writer George Musser on the unsung role of friendship in science’s biggest discoveries.
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We’ve all tried to win an argument by bringing up statistics that support our view. But here’s why that doesn’t work, according to a neuroscientist.
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Kmele talked with a planetary scientist, a physicist, and a futurist, to understand how visionaries across disciplines are thinking about the future of our planet and humankind.
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Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, rock icon Steve Albini, and comedian Fred Armisen told Kmele how they make sense of the world — and leave their mark on it.
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Consciousness isn’t just a problem for philosophers. On this episode of Dispatches, Kmele sat down with scientists, a mathematician, a spiritual leader, and an entrepreneur, all trying to get to the heart of “the feeling of life itself.”
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Are we the stories we tell? Kmele sat down with legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, actor Terry Crews and psychologist Dan McAdams to discuss how humanity makes its meaning.
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The Santa Fe Institute is a cradle of modern research. Our host Kmele meets some of the brilliant minds who work there.
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Our host Kmele went inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.