Videos by Big Think | Films For Action

20 min

Your Attention Span Is Ruining Your Life | Richard Cytowic

20 min · Your brain isn’t broken, but it may seem like that because of how the screen age overwhelms your biology.

7 min

Learn These 3 Triggers To Navigate Conflict Like an Expert

7 min · “What did you win? You won awkward silence. You won their contempt. You won the first to apologize. When you win an argument, you will lose their confidence, you will lose their respect...

7 min

Your Reality Narrows After Trauma — Here’s How To Expand It

7 min · What if the way you see the world is shaped by trauma you haven’t fully processed?

6 min

Is It Too Late for Us to Slow Climate Warming? | Hannah Ritchie, PhD

6 min · “I think the key point is that doesn't mean game over. That doesn't mean we're flipped into a world, and to a point of no return.”

8 min

I Went to Space and Discovered an Enormous Lie | Ron Garan

8 min · What astronaut Ron Garan saw in space changed his life forever – here’s what it taught him.

13 min

What the News Won't Tell You about Climate Change | Hannah Ritchie, PhD

13 min · "You can find examples of really big environmental problems that we've already solved.” Climate change is solvable, argues Hannah Ritchie.

6 min

Try Psychedelics, Access Transcendence | James Fadiman

6 min · Expert James Fadiman explains how psychedelics have the power to expand consciousness, enhance creativity, and deepen our connections to the world.

16 min

Male Inequality, Explained by an Expert | Richard Reeves

16 min · Modern males are struggling. Author Richard Reeves outlines the three major issues boys and men face and shares possible solutions.

9 min

The Friendship Recession | Richard Reeves

9 min · Why friendships are becoming rarer in America, explained by author Richard Reeves.

9 min

Anthropologist Debunks Darwin’s Most Abused Idea | James Suzman

9 min · 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.

7 min

How to Optimize Your Gut and Brain Bacteria | Dave Asprey

7 min · The importance of the microbiome has really come to the fore in the last five years. Viome, a company that analyzed the feces of 100,000 people, has discovered 10,000 new types of gut...

8 min

What is Trauma? The Author of “The Body Keeps the Score” Explains

8 min · In Part 1, Bessel van der Kolk talks about trauma. In Part 2, he talks about 6 ways to heal trauma without medication.

5 min

Social Media Addiction - How It Changes Your Brain | Luke Burgis

5 min · By definition, mimetic desire means that we're adopting another person's desire as our own, usually without even realizing that we're doing it. Social media has given us millions of...

10 min

The 10 Tactics of Fascism | Jason Stanley

10 min · "Never Again?" How fascism hijacks democracies over and over.

9 min

6 Ways to Heal Trauma without Medication, from the Author of “The Body Keeps the Score, ” Bessel van der Kolk

9 min · Conventional psychiatric practices tell us that if we feel bad, take this drug and it will go away. But after years of research with some of the top psychiatric practitioners in the...

4 min

'Universal Basic Income is a Brilliant Idea'. Here's Why. | Yanis Varoufakis

4 min · The welfare state is an ineffective and expensive system that hurts and targets the poor more than it helps. Universal basic income is a better alternative that could work. The question...

6 min

How Psychedelics Work: Fire the Conductor, Let the Orchestra Play | Michael Pollan

6 min · Michael Pollen explains the ego's "location" in the brain: It would be the default mode network, where much of your self-critical mind chatter happens. Taking psychedelics down-regulates...

7 min

How to Defeat Moral Grandstanders (and Stay Classy while Doing It) | Brandon Warmke

7 min · These effective strategies can minimize harmful moral grandstanding – in yourself and in others.

4 min

Climate Denial Isn’t Stopping Climate Action. Here’s What Is. | David Wallace-Wells

4 min · Climate change denial draws headlines. But is it actually an obstacle to climate action?

6 min

3 Great Untruths to Stop Telling Kids—and Ourselves | Jonathan Haidt

6 min · Jonathan Haidt explains three areas where we need to update our understanding of the world.

5 min

How Overparenting Backfired on Americans | Jonathan Haidt

5 min · Being raised indoors might the reason young Americans struggle in the adult world. - American childhood is going, going… gone, says Professor Jonathan Haidt. - In the mid-'90s there was...

7 min

Trump’s Not the Problem. He’s a Symbol of 4 Bigger Issues. - Ian Bremmer

7 min · Ian Bremmer: The problem is not Trump. Trump is a symptom. If the problem were Trump it wouldn’t be happening in other places around the world. We actually see all sorts of countries...

10 min

Jeremy Rifkin on the Fall of Capitalism and the Internet of Things

10 min · Economic theorist and author Jeremy Rifkin explains his concept of The Internet of Things. Rifkin's latest book is The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the...

12 min

Capitalism 2.0 Will Include a Healthy Dose of Socialism - Eric Weinstein

12 min · Eric Weinstein: I get asked a lot about the state of capitalism and I think that for those members of society of a certain age we think of capitalism as being locked in an ideological...

7 min

Right-Wing Politics has a New Secret Weapon. Can the Left Harness It? - Jeremy Heimans

7 min · The election of Donald J. Trump surprised many, most of all the Democrats. Jeremy Heimans, a political activist and the Founder of the online media company Purpose, explains it simply...

9 min

Why Controlling the Masses Through Media No Longer Works - Jordan Greenhall

9 min · When television took over from print and radio as the dominant media in the second half of the 20th century, a hierarchy evolved in which the privileged few with TV camera access spoke...

9 min

Is the Trump Presidency a Religious Cult? - Reza Aslan

9 min · Are fundamentalist Christians a dangerous religious cult? Possibly. The controversial author and religious scholar Reza Aslan posits that President Donald Trump has much of his...

12 min

Slavoj Žižek: Political Correctness is a More Dangerous Form of Totalitarianism

12 min · Slavoj Žižek doesn't buy into political correctness. In fact, it frightens him. The famed philosopher and social critic describes political correctness as a tacit form of...

16 min

Exposing Liberal Hypocrisy and Conservative Close-Mindedness - Van Jones

16 min · The amount of political disagreement in the nation is matched only by righteous indignation. But in order to disagree without disrespecting each other, we need to look hard at our own...

6 min

What the Best Science Really Says about Depression

6 min · For almost the past 100 years, mental health professionals have told us that that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. However, there's a much more realistic theory...

4 min

Break Anxiety and Addiction by Examining Your Patterns

4 min · Who are you? Good question. Harvard professor Michael Puett explores the idea of the "self", and how what you believe to be your true nature may actually just be patterns you've fallen...

7 min

Alan Alda on the Importance of Clear Communication

7 min · Communication is more than a string of words that gets across static information. The language we use to converse does more than give facts—it can actually offer understanding. Take it...

3 min

How Comedy Can Disarm Bullies

3 min · As long as you're funny, it can get you out of almost anything - even getting mugged, as co-founder of Between Two Ferns Scott Aukerman recounts. Unfortunately, not everyone out there is...

12 min

Blockchain Tech Can Redistribute Power and Erase Borders

12 min · Imagine a world where governments compete for your citizenships. Bitcoin and Blockchain expert Toni Lane Casserly explains how this technology could anoint people over institutions.

4 min

Heaven and Hell are Misunderstood Social Constructs

4 min · A lot of us are banking on heaven for ourselves and hell for certain others, but spiritual teacher Rob Bell urges us to think about those concepts as states of consciousness, and rethink...

6 min

Historical Context of Sanctioned Violence Against Black and Brown Bodies

6 min · Writer and Poet Clint Smith on the moment black lives began to officially matter, and the long history of pre-smartphone police brutality and state-sanctioned racism that preceded it.

3 min

1 Absurd Figure About Apples That Captures the Global Food Crisis

3 min · Legendary food critic, author, and restaurant owner Ruth Reichl paints a fascinating portrait of our food crisis and explodes food myths that many of us take for granted.

2 min

Jesse Ventura: How About a Maximum Wage?

2 min · How much income is too much? The former Minnesota governor rallies for the living wage and against the greed at the core of income inequality.

5 min

Bill Nye: Can We Stop Telling Women What to Do With Their Bodies?

5 min · The Science Guy argues that most anti-abortion legislation is derived from outdated beliefs that predate smart science by fifty centuries.

5 min

Saul Williams on Pop Culture: "We're All Donald Trump's F---ing Apprentice"

5 min · Saul Williams, the "poet laureate of hip-hop," is troubled by society's rising reverence for ignorance and prestige. This is a stark departure from pop culture and music from the past...

2 min

A Simple Mind Trick Will Help You Think More Rationally

2 min · Emotions can cloud our rational decision-making. By adopting the perspective of an outside advisor, psychologist Dan Ariely says we can inject some rationality into our cognitive...

2 min

There Are No Shortcuts, You Find Your Path By Walking It

2 min · Tavis Smiley dictates a letter to a young American with inspiration from his late friend, Maya Angelou. No matter how much you seek the answers to life from external sources, the truth...

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