The Lives and Labor Behind One Plate of Food
Acclaimed chef and writer Andrew Friedman is here to introduce you to all the people and processes that come together in a single restaurant dish. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
5 Sep 15min
The New Rules of Productivity
What does productivity mean to you? For most of us, it’s about squeezing more output from the same amount of input, getting more done in less time. But that definition is literally killing us, turning people into stress-soaked automatons on the edge of burnout. What if productivity could be more human—and more humane? That’s the promise of the MTR framework, which stands for Move, Think, Rest. In her new book, Move. Think. Rest.: Redefining Productivity & Our Relationship with Time, corporate advisor and strategist Natalie Nixon makes the case for a counterintuitive approach that puts creativity, reflection, and resilience at the center of how we work. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
4 Sep 14min
The Most Dangerous Animal on Earth? The One That Forgot It’s an Animal.
You’ve probably been taught to believe you’re better than other animals. But that story is wrong, and it’s dangerous. NYU primatologist Christine Webb argues that human exceptionalism has blinded us to the intelligence all around us, and it’s fueling today’s biggest crises, from climate change to mass extinction. In her new book, The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters, Christine makes the case that humility —not hubris — may be our species’ best survival strategy. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
3 Sep 14min
What Happens When AI Outsmarts Us?
In his just-released book The Intelligence Explosion: When AI Beats Humans at Everything, James Barrat warns that we could be sleepwalking into a future where machines rapidly outpace human intelligence — a time fast approaching when we’ll no longer be the ones calling the shots. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
2 Sep 12min
How to Turn Anxiety Into Your Superpower
Anxiety can be painful and embarrassing, even downright debilitating. But author and podcaster Morra Aarons-Mele says it's also a force that you can use to your advantage. She's here today to teach you how. Morra's most recent book is The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower. And be sure to check out her podcast, The Anxious Achiever.
1 Sep 10min
Risk Forward
What if setting goals is a waste of time? ——— 📖 Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius ✍️ Victoria Labalme 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
29 Aug 11min
Blame the Babies: How Infants Sparked Human Speech
Why are we so much chattier than other species? Madeleine Beekman has a surprising answer: blame the babies. Madeleine is professor emerita of evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney, and in her new book, The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why, she explains that due to a series of evolutionary accidents, human infants were born so helpless that survival depended on coordinating care. Language, she argues, evolved as a kind of project-management system for baby-rearing. In other words, we didn’t start talking because we were geniuses; we started talking because we were exhausted parents. 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter
27 Aug 13min
