Does free will exist on a sliding scale? Will humans and AI co-evolve? Are aliens already here on earth? These are just a few of the many mind-bending questions Rufus and Sara Walker, author of “Life as No One Knows It,” explore in the second half of their conversation.

1️⃣ If you missed the first half of Sara’s interview, you can find it here

🧪 Want to hear more of our interviews with brilliant scientists? Check out this playlist

🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription or gift when you use the code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

We’ve had many bracing thinkers on this show, but Sara Walker might take the cake. A physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, she's just written "Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life's Emergence," a thrilling exploration of life's origins and the search for it across the cosmos.

🕐 The second part of this conversation will be available on Thursday. If you can’t wait until then, you can hear it right now on The Next Big Idea app

🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

It’s the winter solstice this week, which means we have officially hit the darkest time of the year. But dark doesn’t have to mean bleak. That’s the premise of “How To Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days,” a new book by Stanford-trained social psychologist Kari Leibowitz, who joins us today to share a few warming tips on how to beat the wintertime blues.

📱 Today’s episode comes from our sister podcast, The Next Big Idea Daily. Follow it now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen

You may think you know what strategy is, but Seth Godin is willing to bet you haven’t got a clue. It’s not just setting goals. It’s not just making plans. It’s— Well, you’ll have to tune in to find out.

📕 This Is Strategy by Seth Godin

✉️ Want big idea delivered to your inbox every day? Sign up for our newsletter Book of the Day here

🎙️ If you enjoyed this episode, you may also enjoy our conversation with Tony Fadell, the legendary creator of the iPod and iPhone, about how to build a game-changing product. It's a team favorite.

🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

Today, master woodworker Callum Robinson on craft, history, family, and our relationship with the natural world.

📕 Ingrained: The Making of a Craftsman

🎙️ For more bite-sized big ideas, follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription or gift when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard and MIT, wants you to think twice before putting your faith in Silicon Valley's promises.

🎙️ Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple or Spotify

🎁 Take 20% off a Next Big Idea Club membership or gift when you use PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com

You’re probably used to looking for so-called good jobs and avoiding bad ones, but we might be better off looking for jobs that fit, that are a good match for our talents and personality. This approach would be better for employers and employees alike, according to Andre Martin, author of “Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever.”

🎙️ Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen

🎁 Get 75% off a Next Big Idea express membership when you use code DAILY75 at https://nextbigideaclub.com/gift

When he was 26, Will Guidara took the helm of a middling brasserie in New York City called Eleven Madison Park. A decade later, it was named the best restaurant in the world. How did he pull off this unprecedented transformation? By practicing unreasonable hospitality.

(This episode first aired in Sept. 2023.)

📕 Unreasonable Hospitality

📬 Take 50% off a subscription to our Book of the Day newsletter here

🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 50% off an express membership when you use code PODCAST50 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

For two decades, Ann Wroe has written weekly obituaries for The Economist. Some of her subjects are luminaries (Queen Elizabeth II, Paul Newman). Others are little-knowns (cheesemakers, storm chasers, typewriter repairmen). But all of them, in Ann’s words, “have enhanced the world by their existence.” Her obituaries are celebrations of life, and Ann is a soul-catcher — souls, for her, being the best word for the “unique and essential part of ourselves, our self-conscious and transcendent core.” It’s a job that requires empathy, patience, almost tactile curiosity, and, well, love. It’s a job from which we can all learn a great deal.

📕 Lifescapes: A Biographer’s Search for the Soul

📬 We launched a newsletter! It’s called Book of the Day, and you can get a special discount here

🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 20% off any membership when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Philosophers have long maintained that the Good Life is braided from two strands: pleasure and purpose. But Middlebury’s Lorraine Besser says there’s a third: psychological richness — or, as she calls it, The Interesting. Interesting experiences, she contends, captivate our minds, engage our thoughts and emotions, and often change our perspective. Today, she’ll teach you how to find them.

📕 The Art of the Interesting

📬 Take 50% off a subscription to our Book of the Day newsletter here

🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Get 20% off your order when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift

Do fewer things. Work at a natural pace. Obsess over quality. These are Cal Newport's three principles for achieving your goals without burning out. Today, in a special preview of our first-ever podclass, Cal explains how to harness the power of slow productivity to bring meaning, purpose, and a genuine sense of accomplishment into your life and work.

✉️ To hear the rest of Cal’s podclass, sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter. Get your special discount here

🎁 Looking for the perfect gift for the readers in your life? How about a subscription to the Next Big Idea Club! Take 20% off your order when you use code PODCAST20 at nextbigideaclub.com/gift