Subscribe to Big Think Books on Substack
Big Ideas. Thoughtful Conversations. One Book at a Time.
Features & Reviews
“Our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death but a good life to the very end.”
Scotty Hendricks is a graduate student and long-time contributor to Big Think. He resides in Chicago.
The great books aren’t just classics — they’re cultural Schelling points that give our minds a place to meet up in the world of ideas.
Daniel Greco is a professor of philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of Idealization in Epistemology: A Modest Modeling Approach (Oxford University Press) and has published widely in[…]
Reading classic books can teach you as much about the present as the past.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
Interviews
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 is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
Kuang discusses the rituals, routines, and words of advice that have helped her write six best-selling novels in one decade.
Tim Brinkhof is a Dutch-born, New York-based journalist reporting on art, history, and literature. He studied early Netherlandish painting and Slavic literature at New York University, worked as an editorial[…]
Natural navigator Tristan Gooley joins us to discuss the philosophy of reading nature’s hidden clues — and how relearning this ancient skill can help us see the world, and ourselves, with greater awareness.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
Wordcraft
The Japanese practice of “tsundoku” bestows joy and lasting benefits to those who make books an important part of their lives.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
A thesaurus isn’t for finding fancy words; it’s a resource to help you keep your rhythm.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
In “Enough Is Enuf,” Gabe Henry traces the history of simplified spelling movements and the lessons they teach us about language.
Kevin Dickinson is a staff writer and columnist at Big Think. His writing focuses on the intersection between education, psychology, business, and science. He holds a master’s in English and[…]
Next Reads
In this excerpt from “Strange Stability,” Benjamin Wilson explores how the concept of “deterrence” went from explaining criminal behavior to becoming a nuclear strategy.
Benjamin Wilson is associate professor of history of science at Harvard University. He earned his PhD in history of science from MIT and received master’s degrees in physics from Yale[…]
In this excerpt from “The Great Math War,” Jason Socrates Bardi explores how Georg Cantor revolutionized mathematics and reshaped how our finite minds conceived of the infinite.
Jason Socrates Bardi is an award-winning journalist in D.C. and the author of The Great Math War: How Three Brilliant Minds Fought for the Foundations of Mathematics. He has published[…]
From white holes to dark stars and multiverses, James Riordon explores the bizarre exhibits of general relativity’s “cryptozoo.”
James Riordon is a science journalist who has written for Science News, Scientific American, New Scientist, Popular Science, The Washington Post, Science, Ad Astra, Physics Today, and Analytical Chemistry. He[…]
