What is Big Think?

We are Big Idea Hunters…

We live in a time of information abundance, which far too many of us see as information overload. With the sum total of human knowledge, past and present, at our fingertips, we’re faced with a crisis of attention: which ideas should we engage with, and why? Big Think is an evolving roadmap to the best thinking on the planet — the ideas that can help you think flexibly and act decisively in a multivariate world.

A word about Big Ideas and Themes — The architecture of Big Think

Big ideas are lenses for envisioning the future. Every article and video on bigthink.com and on our learning platforms is based on an emerging “big idea” that is significant, widely relevant, and actionable. We’re sifting the noise for the questions and insights that have the power to change all of our lives, for decades to come. For example, reverse-engineering is a big idea in that the concept is increasingly useful across multiple disciplines, from education to nanotechnology.

Themes are the seven broad umbrellas under which we organize the hundreds of big ideas that populate Big Think. They include New World Order, Earth and Beyond, 21st Century Living, Going Mental, Extreme Biology, Power and Influence, and Inventing the Future.

Big Think Features:

12,000+ Expert Videos

Browse videos featuring experts across a wide range of disciplines, from personal health to business leadership to neuroscience.

Watch videos

World Renowned Bloggers

Big Think’s contributors offer expert analysis of the big ideas behind the news.

Go to blogs

Big Think Edge

Big Think’s Edge learning platform for career mentorship and professional development provides engaging and actionable courses delivered by the people who are shaping our future.

Find out more

Transcript

Question: How did you first get involved with Guantanamo cases?

Mahvish Khan: Sure. I got involved while I was still a law student at the University of Miami and I was taking an international law class and just remember feeling outraged that Washington policy makers were debating the legality of these medieval torture techniques which... back in the day it was called Chinese water torture and today in America it’s water boarding, and beyond that the men who had never been charged of anything criminal were being rounded up and arrested and held seemingly indefinitely, and they weren’t afforded the same rights that any alleged rapist or murderer in America receive. And so that was my initial interest and how that was sparked and I ended up Googling the cases that I was studying and found out who the attorneys were that had taken the Guantanamo cases to the Supreme Court, and I got in touch with them and got my foot in the door as an interpreter for a habeas counsel because I speak Pashto, which is a major language in Afghanistan.

Recorded on: 7/17/08