Culture - Think

In Big Tech, work is religion

March 9, 2022 Culture, Science and Technology

Carolyn Chen discusses her research in Silicon Valley, where she found spiritual practices like mindfulness are used to increase production while affiliations with places of worship outside the office are slipping away.

Positive thinking can bring you down

March 8, 2022 Culture, Mental Health

Psychotherapist Whitney Goodman explains why the messages we’re getting about always being happy are making us depressed and anxious, and what to do about it.

Life as the daughters of immigrants

March 7, 2022 Culture, Literature, Race/Identity

Daphne Palasi Andreades discusses her new novel, where five daughters of immigrants become friends for life but are tested when views on ambition, loyalty and class begin to diverge.

Why strong women scare autocrats

March 3, 2022 Culture, Politics

Zoe Marks discusses the newest wave of patriarchal authoritarianism sweeping the globe, and the reversals of women’s rights that have followed.

The case for talking about race at work

March 1, 2022 Culture, Race/Identity

Y-Vonne Hutchinson joins us to talk about how employees can have frank and honest conversations with management about race and achieve real results.

There IS such a thing as too much pleasure

February 28, 2022 Culture, Health, Mental Health

Dr. Anna Lembke, a medical director of Stanford Addiction Medicine, joins us to discuss the neuroscience of pleasure, why our bodies crave it, and the consequences of overconsumption.

What life is like in an open relationship

February 22, 2022 Culture, Race/Identity

Rachel Krantz discusses navigating her relationship with a partner who preferred non-monogamy and her search for connection inside an open relationship.

Who we build monuments to and why it matters

February 21, 2022 Culture, History, Think

Paul M. Farber of the National Monument Audit joins us to discuss a recent study of 50,000 monuments across the U.S. and what the research shows about who we memorialize and who we leave out.

Humans didn’t evolve to exercise (but we should anyway)

February 21, 2022 Culture, Health, Science and Technology

Daniel E. Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, joins us to talk about why we exercise and how that’s changed, the myths and realities of its benefits, and helpful motivations for getting off the couch.

Regrets… thankfully we’ve had a few

February 18, 2022 Culture, Science and Technology

Author Daniel Pink discusses research drawing on regret that shows how it can be a force for improvement, even providing greater meaning to our lives.

The ugly history of fast fashion

February 17, 2022 Culture, Economics, Environment, Global Issues, History

Sofi Thanhauser of the Pratt Institute discusses her research into linen, cotton, silk, synthetics, and wool, how they shaped civilization and why, today, fashion has become a leading producer of pollution on the planet.

Motherhood: The pressure to be perfect

February 17, 2022 Culture, Literature

Author Jessamine Chan discusses her novel “The School for Good Mothers,” which focuses on a Big Brother-like future in which perfect parenting is judged by the state.