Big Think

Pressure bursts pipes. Keeping a secret can do the same to your mind, explains Michael Slepian. Holding secrets can negatively impact your well-being. But how, exactly? For decades, psychological research suggested that people experience significant stress while hiding secrets from others during social interactions. But this explanation often doesn’t feel right to people, notes Michael Slepian, an associate professor at Columbia Business School who has spent years studying the nature of secrets. Surveys suggest that it’s actually pretty rare for people to find themselves in social situations where they have to actively conceal a secret they’ve never told anyone about. So, how are secrets harming us? In other words, the average experience of concealing a secret turns out to be an easy one. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Michael Slepian: Michael Slepian is the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Associate Professor of Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. He previously was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. From Tufts University. He is an elected fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, has received the Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science, and received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did complex systems emerge from chaos? Physicist Sean Carroll explains. How did life on Earth originate? Scientists still aren’t sure, and this remains one of the world’s most fascinating and mind-boggling mysteries. One way of approaching the question is to think generally about how complex systems emerge from chaos. Since the 1800s, scientists have known that entropy is always increasing, with everything in our Universe trending toward disorder over time. A more nuanced understanding of entropy is helping today's scientists make progress on the question of the origin of life, as Sean Carroll explains in this Big Think video. Chapters for easier navigation: 0:00 Entropy: The 2nd law of thermodynamics 1:56 The two axes: Chaos & complexity 2:40 How did life emerge? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sean Carroll: Dr. Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy — in effect, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy — at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Most of his career has been spent doing research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. These days, his focus has shifted to more foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics (origin of probability, emergence of space and time) and statistical mechanics (entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity), bringing a more philosophical dimension to his work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"There will always be too much to do. You're never going to feel completely ready. You're never going to be able to feel confident about what's coming in the future."Many of us wake up each morning with something Oliver Burkeman calls “productivity debt.” The bestselling author and journalist explains this term as “a sense that you've got to work really hard during the day to pay off this debt of getting things done. Otherwise, you won't quite feel like you're an adequate and acceptable human being.”It's becoming very obvious that this ever-accelerating treadmill of productivity isn't going to lead to a final, perfect destination. There will always be more to do. You're never going to feel completely ready. You're never going to be able to feel confident about what's coming in the future. If you set out on some big project of scheduling your time very, very, very strictly, not only will you probably fail and get very stressed, but even if you succeed, you'll fail in a way because there'll be some lack of spontaneity to that path, a sense of having to carry out these instructions that you've given yourself that is at odds with what we really value from being alive. And so that's why we need a way of understanding and thinking about work and productivity that does not treat getting on top of everything as the goal, explains Burkeman. Here, he lays out four guiding principles to lead a better, more fulfilling life.In this episode, we explore the trap of perfectionism and the endless pursuit of productivity. The discussion challenges the idea that getting on top of everything will bring peace, revealing instead that true relief comes from accepting life's inherent limitations. Strategies like the 3-4 hour deep work rule, keeping a "done" list, and embracing spontaneity help shift the focus from control to meaningful progress. By letting go of the pressure to maximize every moment, we can create space for what truly matters.About Oliver Burkeman:Oliver Burkeman is a bestselling author and journalist. He is best known for Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (2021), a self-help book on reframing productivity for happiness. He also publishes The Imperfectionist, an email on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment.

This interview is an episode from ‪‪@The-Well‬, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪‪@JohnTempletonFoundation‬. Gratitude connects us, but how we express it might matter more than we think. Baylor professor of psychology and neuroscience Sarah Schnitker explores how practicing gratitude can lead to stronger relationships and greater well-being. Her lab found that gratitude expressed through prayer may offer even more benefits than journaling or speaking it aloud, and that feeling connected to something larger may help combat today’s growing loneliness. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Sarah Schnitker: Dr. Sarah Schnitker, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Baylor University and Director of the BRIGHTS Center, researches virtue development in youth. Specializing in patience, self-control, and gratitude, she has 100+ publications, $10M in grants, and mentors doctoral students in science and virtue. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Over the last 10 or 15 years, scientists have really started to understand the fundamental underlying biology of the aging process. And they broke this down into 12 hallmarks of aging.” We track age by the number of birthdays we’ve had, but scientists are arguing that our cells tell a different, more truthful story. Our biological age reveals how our bodies are actually aging, from our muscle strength to the condition of our DNA. The gap between these two numbers may hold the key to treating aging – which could help save 100,000 lives per day and win us $38 trillion dollars. 00:00 Rethinking longevity 01:27 Understanding aging 02:58 Biological age and epigenetics 04:29 New frontiers in longevity science 08:04 Future possibilities and ethical questions 10:24 The moral debate around living longer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About Andrew Steele: Dr. Andrew Steele is a scientist, writer and campaigner based in Berlin, author of Ageless: The new science of getting older without getting old, and Director and Co-Founder of The Longevity Initiative. ---------------------- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices