Do we inhabit a multiverse? Do we have free will? What is love? Is evolution directional? There are no simple answers to life’s biggest questions, and that’s why they’re the questions occupying the world’s brightest minds. Together, let's learn from them. Welcome to The Well, a publication by the John Templeton Foundation and Big Think.
Featured Interviews
“Can I explain how matter became life? Yeah, rocks to dinosaurs is one, yep.
Assembly Theory challenges the notion that life is vastly impossible, because Assembly Theory explains how rocks, step-by-step, by grinding together, undergo selection, and produce complexity, step-by-step-by-step. This is something that we are able to quantify very carefully.”
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, EdD, is an expert on the psychological and neurobiological foundations of social emotion, self-awareness, and culture, and how they impact learning, development, and education.
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Arthur C. Brooks is a professor at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, where he teaches public and nonprofit leadership and management practice. Before joining Harvard in[…]
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Robert Hazen is a renowned American mineralogist and geologist, known for his pioneering work in mineral evolution and mineral ecology.
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Featured Article
If the “self” is not real, then we are slaves to a billiard ball universe, trapped in a nihilistic nightmare in which we cannot change our fate.
“Common wisdom says we have a self and that self is the source of our free will, but...
the subject of the self is riddled with paradoxes. Because the mind has been categorized as something “nonphysical,” its definition alone places the self outside of physical cause-and-effect, and beyond the scope of science. However, as with many philosophical quandaries that involve the proposal of a thesis and the emergence of a counter-thesis (or antithesis, in the words of Hegel), a synthesis often emerges, reconciling seemingly disparate views into a more coherent and sensible perspective.”
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“The physics of the universe doesn't predict the emergence of biology.” Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin explains how inanimate matter becomes evolutionary.
“We have this incredible drive in our culture to enumerate everything, to measure everything.” Should we be doing that with intelligence?
“Not only does Mother Nature not care about your happiness, she knows that we need lots of negative emotions to keep us alive.” Harvard happiness professor on why suffering IS…
“We wouldn’t be able to talk about minerals if it weren’t for the minerals themselves.” Mineralogist Bob Hazen explains how Earth’s rocks can teach us about our planet’s technicolor history.
Traditional definitions of wellbeing focus on the absence of mental illness or disease. But true wellbeing goes beyond that, says this neuroscientist:
The mind-blowing theory that everything is evolving—from minerals to music—explained in 3 minutes by a Carnegie scientist:
Finding meaning isn’t just personally fulfilling — it’s critical to our brain’s development, explains USC neuroscientist.
There’s never been more ways to connect with the people in our lives — so why are we lonelier than ever?
All Stories
“The physics of the universe doesn’t predict the emergence of biology.” Glasgow chemist Lee Cronin explains how inanimate matter becomes evolutionary:
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Testing is an attempt to measure intelligence. But is intelligence really what’s getting measured? A neuroscientist weighs in:
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“Not only does Mother Nature not care about your happiness, she knows that we need lots of negative emotions to keep us alive.” Harvard happiness professor on why suffering IS necessary:
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“We wouldn’t be able to talk about minerals if it weren’t for the minerals themselves.” Mineralogist Bob Hazen explains how Earth’s rocks can teach us about our planet’s technicolor history.
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3 min
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Traditional definitions of wellbeing focus on the absence of mental illness or disease. But true wellbeing goes beyond that, says this neuroscientist.
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3 min
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The mind-blowing theory that everything is evolving—from minerals to music—explained in 3 minutes by a Carnegie scientist.
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3 min
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Finding meaning isn’t just personally fulfilling — it’s critical to our brain’s development, explains USC neuroscientist.
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There’s never been more ways to connect with the people in our lives — so why are we lonelier than ever?
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“Happiness is NOT about feelings.” Harvard happiness expert Arthur Brooks debunks the biggest myths about humanity’s most sought-after state, and explains how to actually get it.
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“I study the mineral kingdom — and its secrets could lead us to alien life.”
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“We could be wrong. But if we are right, it’s profoundly important.” Leading mineralogist Dr. Robert Hazen on the missing law of nature that could explain why life emerges.
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Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek reflects on Einstein’s greatest contribution.
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Are you convincing everyone you’re smart, or accidentally alienating them? Here’s how to find out.
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Journalist Steven Kotler on digital immortality and the tech that could keep us “alive,” forever.
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Physicist Sean Carroll on entropy, complexity, and the origins of life:
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With great genius comes great rigidity. Professor Barabara Oakley on how to stay mentally agile — and get smarter as a result:
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Psychologist Daniel Goleman on how to train your brain with just ten minutes a day.
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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.
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Is information intrinsic in our universe? NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains.
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When one path is blocked, a new one must be paved. How Einstein, Heisenberg and Gödel used constraints to make life-changing discoveries:
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What is perception, really? Philosopher Alva Noë on why perception is a puzzling phenomenon:
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Science writer George Musser on the unsung role of friendship in science’s biggest discoveries.
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We’ve all tried to win an argument by bringing up statistics that support our view. But here’s why that doesn’t work, according to a neuroscientist.
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Kmele talked with a planetary scientist, a physicist, and a futurist, to understand how visionaries across disciplines are thinking about the future of our planet and humankind.
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Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio, rock icon Steve Albini, and comedian Fred Armisen told Kmele how they make sense of the world — and leave their mark on it.
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Consciousness isn’t just a problem for philosophers. On this episode of Dispatches, Kmele sat down with scientists, a mathematician, a spiritual leader, and an entrepreneur, all trying to get to the heart of “the feeling of life itself.”
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Are we the stories we tell? Kmele sat down with legendary conservationist Jane Goodall, actor Terry Crews and psychologist Dan McAdams to discuss how humanity makes its meaning.
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The Santa Fe Institute is a cradle of modern research. Our host Kmele meets some of the brilliant minds who work there.
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Our host Kmele went inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.
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Dispatches host Kmele Foster is on a journey to understand humanity’s role in the cosmos. His first stop? The Atacama Plateau in Northern Chile, home to the darkest deserts and largest telescopes on earth.
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