The Big Idea
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The Big Idea
What are the big ideas shaping our world now?
Neueste Episoden
42 EpisodenFighting pandemics
The 2020 pandemic has transformed our world, but it won’t be the last to do so. How should we prepare for the future? Along with one of the world’s le...
The science of addiction
Some people are addicted to drugs, others to alcohol. Addicts often crave a substance, and yet when they inject or consume it, it doesn’t bring them a...
The new normal
Love him or loathe him, we can all agree that Donald Trump is not a ‘normal’ President. Previous presidents would never behave like President Trump. I...
Do cities need rules?
Have you ever thought that your city is too regulated? Or that the city you live in doesn’t do enough to police people who break the rules? In this ep...
The science of sleep
We spend around a third of our lives asleep, but the reason we sleep is still something of a mystery. Could it be the biggest mistake the evolutionary...
The importance of fairness
Ernst Fehr is well named: he’s an economist who writes about fairness. In fact, until his pioneering work, economists had been dismissive about whethe...
How do we spot rogue cops?
David Edmonds speaks to a leading criminologist who says we can do much better in identifying rogue cops before they act. Produced by Robbie Wojciecho...
Understanding emotions: Should we follow our hearts?
Watching a scary movie, you feel scared. But how do our brain and body work together to tell us about our emotions? A brilliant young scientist has be...
Ubernomics
Every time you book a journey from an app like Uber, you’ll be providing the company with data - and making one man in Chicago very happy. He’s an eco...
Why living in the city could make you happier
Why is more than half the world’s population living in cities? Why are some more successful than others? And what is their future post-pandemic? David...
Why do we find things disgusting?
There are some things - cockroaches, poo, wounds - that most of us find disgusting. But is disgust useful? Can our sense of disgust be misused? We ask...
The fragility of choice
Do you know why you believe what you believe? Why you are left or right wing, say, or why you find another person attractive? You probably think you d...
The truth about marriage
When most couples get married they’re optimistic that their union won’t end in divorce. The statistics show this to be hopelessly naive. But we’ll be...
How to topple a dictator
Suppose a country is ruled by a dictator. Suppose many people want to topple the dictator. What’s the best way of doing it – a campaign of violence or...
Why do we laugh?
There are thousands of academic papers about depression. There are, in comparison, virtually none about laughter. We’ve been talking to a leading ex...
The Afterlife
Suppose you knew that after your natural death the human race would die out – perhaps, for some reason, humans had become infertile. How would that al...
Why Are Some Nations Rich?
Some countries, like Norway, are rich. Other countries, like Niger, are poor. Why? Why do some countries succeed whilst others fail? There are various...
How does language work?
Humans are a unique species in many ways, but an important one is that we communicate with sophisticated language, using words and grammar. So how doe...
A Future Without Doctors?
Can you imagine a future without doctors? We’re in the midst of a robotics and Artificial Intelligence revolution. Many jobs humans currently do will...
The Intelligent Tree
Are trees intelligent? We think of humans as intelligent – maybe animals too. But vegetation? Well, one of the world’s leading tree researchers, Suz...
Consciousness: A Strange Theory
Is consciousness everywhere? Human consciousness - our subjective experience - remains a mystery. How is it that we can smell coffee and feel the touc...
The Teenage Brain
Teenagers are an alien species. Well, that’s not exactly the conclusion of Sarah-Jayne Blakemore’s research, but it’s a crude summary. Professor Bla...
How To Stop Murder
How can we reduce murder rates? Homicide is frequent in some countries, rare in others. The countries in which the homicide rate is very high include...
Democracy and Famine
What is the cause of famine? The obvious answer is shortage of food. But, says the Nobel-prize winning economist Amartya Sen that misses a vital poi...
Dimensions of Discrimination
Do black woman face more prejudice than black men or white women? The legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced a new way of thinking about disadvant...
Inequality Makes Us Anxious
Inequality makes people anxious. How? Well, according to Kate Pickett, in unequal societies we become more conscious of our position in society, more...
Are We All Racist?
Are we all racist? Harvard professor Mahzarin Banaji is the architect of what is arguably psychology’s most influential experiment. It’s called the...
The New Distrust
In an era of fake news, are we living through a crisis in trust? Without trust society couldn’t function. We need to know that individuals and organ...
Contact Theory
How do you stop different groups hating each other? Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Palestinians and Jews in the Middle East. Muslim...
Economics and Mosquito Nets
What’s the best way of persuading parents in developing countries to immunize their kids? Do women politicians make a difference to what policies are...
Memory Wars
Many criminal court cases rest on eye-witness accounts of what happened. There’s a problem though. Elizabeth Loftus – one of the world’s most influent...
A World Without Livestock?
What is the biggest cause of climate change? According to biomedical researcher Pat Brown it’s an extremely inefficient technology – aka cows. Maintai...
Outrage and Moral Conscience
Why is there so much outrage on social media? And what does this have to do with our moral conscience? Molly Crockett is a neuroscientist who runs her...
Friends
A great advantage of the internet and social media is that they allow us to keep in touch with all our friends, even when they move away. That means o...
Baby Boffins
Babies know little and learn slowly. Right? Not according to child psychologist Alison Gopnik. She has spent decades investigating the extraordinary t...
Super-Intelligence
One day – and Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom believes it may not be far away – computers could become super-intelligent. At that stage they’ll far...
Social Physics
Professor Sandy Pentland is the modern pioneer of what’s called ‘Social Physics’ - the analysis of human interactions using so called Big Data. Mining...
The Growth Mindset
The Growth Mind Set. Is there such a thing as innate talent? Possibly. We’re not all capable of winning a Nobel physics prize. But according to St...
Epigenetics
Can our experiences be passed down biologically to our children and grandchildren? Quite a thought given for a long time now the orthodoxy has been th...
Future Gazing
We’re used to seeing political pundits on our television screens predicting future events – who will win an election, whether a war or social unrest m...