Big Think bigthink

What is the capacity for belief in humans, and how does it shape our lives and interactions with the world? According to Agustín Fuentes, a professor of anthropology at Princeton University and author of Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being, the human capacity for belief is the most significant trait that sets us apart from other animals. This capacity for belief, which importantly is not limited to religious belief, allows us to take our experiences and turn them into perceptions, ideologies, and lifestyles to which we can fully commit — thereby shaping our reality and the reality of future generations. At its core, Fuentes explains, human belief is rooted in, and contingent on, our evolutionary history. Unlike other mammals, human infants are born with brains that are just 40% of their adult size. This extended childhood allows for constant social and environmental influence, which become the fabric of our being. Beliefs even influence our biological make-up, from our gut microbiome to our hormones.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters:
0:00 Why are humans so complicated?
1:16 Human baby vs. giraffe baby (aka the human brain is an anomaly)
2:18 How belief becomes reality
3:52 The religion question
5:25 When realities collide
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
-------------------------------------------------------------------
About Agustín Fuentes: Agustín Fuentes, a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Earning his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes’ books include Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature (U of California), The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional (Dutton), and Why We Believe: evolution and the human way of being (Yale). Get Smarter Faster, With Daily Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. Our world is filled with an abundance of data. Albert-László Barabási, a network scientist, believes that understanding the underlying structure and relationships of complex systems is crucial. Barabási’s research has challenged the notion of random connections and led to the discovery of a more accurate representation of how these systems are organized. Barabási’s exploration began with the vast internet. Surprisingly, he found that the intricate web of connections did not follow random patterns but instead followed a power load distribution. He named these networks “scale-free networks.” Barabási’s groundbreaking work reveals that new connections in our networks tend to form with already well-connected elements. Scale-free networks exist in various complex systems, such as cellular interactions and social networks. This discovery is an important step toward comprehending the remarkable complexity that arises from countless interactions among the world’s many components.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters:
0:00 Networks: How the world works
1:23 The theory of random graphs
3:15 What is network science?
6:49 Complex systems
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Albert-László Barabási: Albert-László Barabási is a network scientist, fascinated with a wide range of topics, from unveiling the structure of the brain and treating diseases using network medicine to the emergence of success in art and how science really works. His research has helped unveil the hidden order behind various complex systems using the quantitative tools of network science, a research field that he pioneered, and has led to the discovery of scale-free networks, helping explain the emergence of many natural, technological, and social networks. Barabási is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. He is the author of The Formula (Little Brown), Network Science (Cambridge), Bursts (Dutton), and Linked (Penguin). He co-edited Network Medicine (Harvard, 2017) and The Structure and Dynamics of Networks (Princeton, 2005). His books have been translated into over twenty languages. Get Smarter Faster, With Daily Episodes From The Worlds Biggest Thinkers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation. Neuroscientist Patrick McNamara emphasizes the importance of REM sleep, during which we dream, in fueling human creativity and cultural progression. He explains that during REM sleep, our brains cultivate an atmosphere conducive to fostering connections between unrelated concepts, leading to uniquely human, innovative outcomes. A notable feature of REM sleep is its ability to merge disparate ideas to generate inventive solutions to problems. Despite the modern world’s diminished appreciation for dreams, McNamara points out that traditional societies have always respected their transformative abilities. By effectively utilizing REM sleep, we can potentially unlock hidden creative abilities and address significant challenges that humanity confronts. Given the significant value we place on innovation, McNamara’s insights regarding the power of the dream state could revolutionize our strategies toward problem-solving. He posits that by reassessing our engagement with the dream state, we could discover novel solutions to global issues, thereby facilitating cultural evolution.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters:
0:00 “REM sleep is what has made us special.”
1:15 22% of our sleep time is in REM state
2:04 Why did we evolve for REM sleep?
3:17 3 ways to harness REM sleep
4:09 Reverence for the dream state
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
-----------------------------------------------------------------
About Patrick McNamara: Patrick McNamara is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northcentral University. He also holds appointments in the departments of Neurology at the University of Minnesota and Boston University School of Medicine. He is a founding editor of Religion, Brain & Behavior, the flagship journal for the emerging field of neuroscience of religion. McNamara's current research centers on the evolution of the frontal lobes, the evolution of the two mammalian sleep states (REM and NREM), and the evolution of religion in human cultures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Yale professor Morgan Levine shares 3 ways to change your diet to extend your life. Dr. Morgan Levine, author of "True Age," explains how the impact of diet on aging and longevity is determined by three factors: quantity, quality, and timing of food intake. First, caloric restriction, typically a 20% reduction in overall calorie intake, has been linked to increased lifespan in several animal models. However, the positive effects may stem from avoiding overeating rather than restriction per se. Second, a plant-based diet, with less animal products and refined sugars and more fruits, veggies, and whole foods, seems beneficial for aging and longevity. Third, fasting, or limiting eating to specific time windows, might mimic the benefits of caloric restriction by causing 'hormesis', mild stressors that boost resilience to aging-related changes. The optimal diet is likely individual, influenced by factors like genetics and age, and should be monitored through measures of biological age and personal well-being. Future research into aging biomarkers could further our understanding of diet's role in the aging process.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapters:-
0:00 Does diet affect aging?
0:35 #1 Caloric restriction
1:40 #2 What you eat
2:07 #3 When you eat: fasting
2:38 Hormesis: Building biological resilience
3:16 What is the optimal diet for you?
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Morgan Levine: Morgan Levine was previously a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the department of Pathology at Yale University where she ran the Laboratory for Aging in Living Systems. In 2022, she was recruited to join Altos Labs as a Founding Principal Investigator at the San Diego Institute of Science. She currently leads a research group at Altos Labs working at the intersection of bioinformatics, cellular biology, complex systems, and biostatistics with the overall goal of understanding the molecular trajectories aging cells, tissues, and organisms take through time.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty reveals the secret to “good power.” In her book "Good Power," former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty challenges the negative connotations often associated with the concept of power. She argues that power can be a force for good, and that building belief is at the heart of good power. Building belief involves creating an environment in which people voluntarily want to do something, rather than being ordered to do so out of fear. Rometty suggests that co-creating the future with others, rather than dictating it, is a key element of building belief. It is important to make the process personal by showing empathy for those involved and being authentic and honest about the challenges ahead. Rometty draws on her own experiences to illustrate these principles. For example, when IBM acquired PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, she acknowledged the risks involved and showed empathy for the changes employees would have to go through. Ultimately, Rometty believes that building belief and empowering others — rather than attempting to sway them with money — is key to being a successful leader. She urges leaders to focus on building their own power first and then using that power to influence and inspire others toward a common goal. About Ginni Rometty: Ginni Rometty was the ninth chairman, president, and CEO of IBM. Under her leadership, the 100-year-old company reinvented 50% of its portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business, and established leadership in AI and quantum computing. Rometty also drove record results in diversity and inclusion and supported the explosive growth of an innovative high school program to prepare the workforce of the future in more than twenty-eight countries. Through her work with the Business Roundtable, Rometty helped redefine the purpose of the corporation. She has been named Fortune's #1 Most Powerful Woman three years in a row, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and was honored with the designation of Officier in the French Légion d'Honneur. Today Rometty serves on multiple boards and cochairs OneTen, a coalition committed to upskilling, hiring, and promoting one million Black Americans by 2030 into family-sustaining jobs and careers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sexual attitudes are more man-like than ever. Author Louise Perry explains what that means for women. Louise Perry, the author of "The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century," questions the once unambiguously positive view of the sexual revolution. Perry argues that sex-positive feminism justifies abusive and power imbalanced sexual practices and pressures women to imitate masculine roles. She believes that inherent physical and psychological differences between men and women have profound social implications that the current sexual culture doesn't serve. Her book challenges the idea that the sexual revolution was an unqualified success.
About Louise Perry: Louise Perry is a writer and campaigner based in London, UK. She is a columnist at the New Statesman and a features writer for the Daily Mail. Her debut book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, is published by Polity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
chapters:
0:00 The downsides of sexual liberation
1:40 Freeing women to act like men
3:06 “Hook up” culture
3:49 Men and women are different
4:47 Sociosexuality
Listen To This Next:
Adam Grant's #1 phrase to unlock potential
The science of super longevity
Beat anxiety with the most addictive experience on Earth
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more
►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discover Big Think | Smarter Faster™

Your top destination for expert-driven, educational content. Featuring thousands of episodes and insights from renowned figures like Bill Clinton to Bill Nye, Big Think accelerates your learning by delving into the pivotal concepts and essential skills shaping knowledge in the 21st century...

Unlock Knowledge, Faster....

With Insights from the World's Leading Minds

Remember to Follow the Podcast and Enable Notifications

If you found this episode valuable, Share It

Leave a 5-Star Review!!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices