All Ideas
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The Case For the Public Option
The Dean of UPenn’s School of Social Policy argues that universal healthcare is basic human entitlement. Read More
November 8, 2009 | In Health & Medicine, Politics & Policy, Truth & Justice
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But the Chemical Industry Says It's Safe
Bisphenol A—generally known as BPA—is an organic compound used in the manufacture of plastics. It's also what's known as an endocrine disruptor. Because it's chemically similar to our own hormones, it can interfere with our bodies' development and metabolism, potentially with serious consequences. In particular, BPA appears to function as a xenoestrogen—that is, it acts like estrogen on certain parts of the human body. For that reason, some scientists worry that it may affect the brain development of fetuses and infants. It may be one factor behind the increasing incid… Read More
November 7, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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The Impact of Nuclear Weapons on the Relationships Between Allied Nations
As part of its "nuclear sharing" policy aimed at defending against nuclear threats, NATO involves member nations in the storing and delivery of nuclear arms, even if they've got no weapons of their own. Belgium, Germany, and Italy, for example, host a number of U.S. nuclear weapons and means of delivering them should the need arise. In an effort to lessen NATO's reliance on nuclear weapons as means of global power, Germany (with support from the Belgians and the Dutch) is Read More
November 7, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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Why Calls for Unity Often Fail
In a special election Tuesday, Democrat Bill Owens won a seat in upstate New York that the Republicans had controlled since 1872. And if the Republican party had been able to unite behind a single candidate they would likely still control it. While local officials had nominated a relative moderate in Dede Scozzafava, conservatives in the national party—including, most visibly, Sarah Palin—backed the more conservative Doug Hoffman, Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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Snooping for Psychological Insight
Sometimes the best insights into the human mind can be found by poking about in odd places. This week Psychology professor and "Snoop" author Sam Gosling revisited Big Think to discuss the latest directions his inventive research has taken. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Identity, Science & Tech
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US Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Final Day
On the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Barcelona, delegations have begun looking toward Copenhagen where a climate change conference will again take place in one month’s time. Since the Bali conference in 2007, the world has counted on Copenhagen to deliver a legally binding treaty to combat global warming. Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change, Yvo de Boer, acknowledged that though such a treaty is now impossible to achieve, he still expects measurable progress in Copenhagen. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Environment
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Searching for the Self, in NYC and Abroad
What is the most personal work you've ever created? That was among the many questions novelist Paul Auster, known for exploring the paradoxes of identity in the "City of Glass" trilogy, "Moon Palace," and his new "Invisible," answered for Big Think this week. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Thomas Hampson is a large man, with even bigger ideas. He stopped by Big Think to talk about his craft, as well as the current state of classical music. From remembering a childhood of singing and dancing, to his first operatic performance in Hansel and Gretel, Hampson let Big Think in on a few of his important experiences growing up. A champion of the Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Classical musician Thomas Hampson recounts a singing childhood with an operatic debut at age 19. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Identity, Inspiration & Wisdom
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What Keeps Thomas Hampson Up at Night
The opera singer is a night owl who hates to miss a beat. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Identity
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From the mall to the car, music is always in our ears. Opera singer Thomas Hampson discusses the impact that technology has on song. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Science & Tech
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Fortune Favors the Prepared Mind
Here’s what Thomas Hampson, a famous opera singer, would say to an aspiring opera singer. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Inspiration & Wisdom
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The classical musician explains Walt Whitman's begrudging encounter with Italian opera, and the indelible mark this meeting has had on the American song. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture, Inspiration & Wisdom
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Big Think Interview With Thomas Hampson
A conversation with the classical musician and New York Philharmonic's first Artist in Residence. Read More
November 6, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Has the Republican Backlash Begun?
On Tuesday—on the anniversary of President Obama's election—Republicans won significant victories in a handful of off-year elections around the country. In particular, they won both open governor seats. In Virginia, Republican Bob McConnell beat Democrat Creigh Deeds by a whopping seventeen points. In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie beat Democrat Jon Corzine by a smaller, but still comfortable margin. Maine voters, meanwhile, passed Question 1, overturning a state law allowing same-sex couples to marry. All of which prompted Charles Krauthammer to Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Politics & Policy
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Carole King's Crusade To Protect The Rockies
Grammy-award winning singer Carole King has been raising her voice on the radio lately – not in song, this time, but in a plea for the Rocky Mountains. King hails from the mountains of Idaho; at the apex of her career, the Brooklyn native went looking for a place with fewer people and more space, and settled on a county in the center of the Gem State. She’s been active in the fight to preserve American northern wilderness ever since. Back in February of this … Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Environment
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Thirty Years Later, Time To Reopen Our Embassy In Iran
Thirty years after Iranian extremists stormed the U.S. embassy and held 52 Americans hostage in Iran it is well worth asking: Isn’t it high time we serious consider reconstituting some kind of American presence in Tehran? Today the shell of the old embassy compound remains, its walls scribbled with anti-U.S. invective graffiti. It would be symbolically important to reopen its doors. As Obama as said, we do not punish our enemies by not talking to them. The same goes for not having formal diplomatic relations. Read More
November 5, 2009 | In World
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UN Climate Change Conference, Barcelona: Day 3
A day after African delegates walked out of negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference in Barcelona to protest the weakness of developed countries' commitments to reducing CO2 emissions, it is becoming clearer just how insufficient those current commitments are. The problem, as usual, is money. There's not enough of it. Without bold commitments from developed countries, the CO2 reductions required by the science behind climate change are simply not going to occur. Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Environment
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A Novel Twenty Years in the Making
While John Irving has come to stand as the American novelist par excellence, he is not particularly into the novel—in its modern form—nor, for that matter, America. In fact, as he suggested in his new Big Think interview, the most valuable contribution to the storytelling tradition to arise from the country might just be the western movie. Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Arts & Culture
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Drop the Burrito and Start a Company
Gabe Zichermann did not move to New York City for the Mexican food. In fact, he schedules layovers in California simply to satisfy his chronic cravings for Mission Street burritos. The gay entrepreneur is part of Big Think’s series with StartOut, an organization that promotes entrepreneurship in the LGBT community. Zichermann founded rmbrME, a program that allows people to share resumes and business cards by virtually “beaming” them to others. Read More
November 5, 2009 | In Business & Economics, Love, Sex, & Happiness
