The Next Big Idea

• Andrew Ross Sorkin: What the Crash of 1929 Says About Today

  Andrew Ross Sorkin’s new book, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation, is an eye-opening account of the forces that led to the worst financial crisis in history and the lessons that disaster can teach us about today’s economy. (7:09) Life before the crash (8:58) How Americans developed a taste for leverage (17:10) What happened on Black Thursday (20:05) Why so few people saw the crash coming (26:23) Could the crash have been averted? (37:13) Andrew’s fascination with money (39:22) What if financial bubbles are a feature, not a bug? (41:35) Could we be headed for another 1929? (45:00) The dangers of leverage (53:16) How the blockchain will revolutionzie finance Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• Atlantic CEO Nick Thompson on What Running Can Teach Us

  Nick Thompson is the CEO of The Atlantic. But he moonlights as a damn good runner. At 44, he ran a marathon in 2 hours and 29 minutes, making him one of the fastest marathoners his age on the planet. He later set an American age group record in the 50K. He has run in blazing heat with ice tucked into his hat and in frigid cold with Vaseline dabbed on his nose. He's run up sunny mountain trails and down dark city streets. He has run, and run, and run some more. His relationship with the sport is the subject of his new memoir, The Running Ground. It's a book about the fragile boundary between love and obsession, between progress and suffering. And it's about the way we all run in loops: away from the past and then back toward it. (4:35) Nick reads from The Running Ground (8:00) On his father: "Not a simple guy" (16:34) How the sport finds you (30:00) A personal best, then a cancer diagnosis (40:56) The four states of running bliss (and how to reach them) (46:29) How Nick got faster in his forties (49:14) The big takeaway (50:33) Want to start running? Do this. (53:14) Is running actually good for you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• COMMON KNOWLEDGE: Steven Pinker on Awkward Dates, Cancel Culture and the Necessity of Norms

  As promised, today we’re bringing you a full-length interview with Steven Pinker about his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows . . .: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life. What is common knowledge? For Steve, it is not conventional wisdom. Instead, it’s when everyone knows something and everyone knows that and everyone knows it. That may sound loopy, but the implications of common knowledge — how it’s produced, sustained, and manipulated — are profound. “It's common knowledge,” Steve tells Rufus, “that makes humans human. Humans are not solitary. What makes humans humans is that we coordinate in groups — from couples to nations to, in some cases, the entire world — and I think common knowledge is the underpinning, the cement, the foundation of that ability to coordinate.” (8:00) Why “coffee” doesn’t just mean coffee (14:40) What blushes and laughter unintentionally reveal (30:39) The real reason brands spend millions on Super Bowl ads (35:00) How common knowledge explains cancel culture (48:43) What happens to society when norms collapse? — 📚 Want a signed copy of Brené Brown’s new book, access to our WhatsApp community, invitations to virtual Q&As with top authors, and seats at live events in NYC? Become a Next Big Idea Club member today at nextbigideaclub.com. And use code PODCAST to get 20% off your subscription. — Want to connect? 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠LinkedIn⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠Book of the Day⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• A Food Crisis Is Brewing. Are We Ready?

  Caleb is joined by Sam Kass, former senior food policy advisor to President Obama and the chef who cooked dinner for the first family most nights. Now a partner at a venture capital firm investing in food and agriculture tech, Sam has a new book out, The Last Supper: How to Overcome the Coming Food Crisis. The situation, he says, is bleak. Almonds, artichokes, chocolate, coffee, oysters, rice, wine — all at risk due to climate change. And that’s not even close to the full list. Our food system is both driving the climate crisis and being devastated by it. But Sam argues we can still avert the worst if we start with culture, fix our policies, and deploy the right technology. (4:00) Cooking for the Obamas (7:49) How vulnerable is our food supply? (12:45) Can fixing the food system bring us together? (24:29) The food policies we need (27:38) Are we making America healthy again? (35:42) The technologies that can make a difference — Thoughts? Email us at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• The Future Is Going to Be Great

  Dave Blundin has co-founded 23 companies, co-hosts the Moonshots podcast, runs the VC firm Link Ventures, teaches at MIT, and has been building neural networks since the 1980s. His take: “[AI is] under-hyped. It's absolutely going to change the world in the next couple of years more than any change in human history. There's nothing even vaguely comparable to it.” — (7:37) “Stop sleeping. Rush to everything you do.” (15:16) Why he started building neural nets at MIT in the 1980s (16:19) Should you finish college or start a business? (20:38) Why best friends are the best co-founders (25:00) San Francisco is still king, but Boston is AI startup central (28:06) “The chip shortage is going to be incredibly bad.” (34:26) The AI energy shortage (36:32) Are we in an AI bubble? (55:44) The case for human immortality before 2050 (1:02:00) Advice for first-time founders (and second-time, and 23rd-time) — 💿 Catch up on our other AI episodes with this Spotify playlist 🔗 Follow Rufus on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ 📖 Subscribe to our daily newsletter, ⁠⁠Book of the Day⁠⁠ ✉️ Send us an email: ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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