Guest Thinkers

The economic crisis is proving useful for those who want to see the European Union make the final and logical leap to becoming a unitary state, with a single currency […]

While satellites and infrastructure crumble, we are also witnessing an explosion in space tourism that is exposing the gap between the Haves and Have-Nots in space.

In the wake of the Dr. King Memorial kerfuffle, I’ve been thinking more and more of how public art is a state of mind as much as a physical thing […]

Interesting fact about Alan Krueger, Obama’s pick to head the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan B. Krueger. His research showed that raising the minimum wage doesn’t destroy minimum wage jobs, […]

What’s the Big Idea? Larry Summers, Eric Schmidt, Skip Gates, Dean Kamen, Rahm Emanuel, Craig Venter and many other thought-leaders and innovators will convene on Nantucket this Fall. Those are […]

Symphonic music has been written off by a generation as cloistered and irrelevant. Can the classically-trained musician ever return to mass appeal?

     As many people as were harmed by Hurricane Irene, many – from the safety of looking back – were also disappointed that the storm didn’t put on a more […]

I just read this great essay by Ari N. Schulman in that indispensable journal THE NEW ATLANTIS with the telling title “GPS and the End of the Road.”  One of Schulman’s […]

Don’t just kill that guy, says Paul Rubens in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. “Kill him a lot.“ It’s a funny line (a great line, really) because it plays with the […]

So, how did you spend your weekend? If you were in an area that was bracing for a hurricane my guess is that you weren’t cuddling up with your significant […]

Twelve hours after Hurricane Irene hit Washington, D.C., it was a bright 85 degree day as I rode by bike down through Georgetown along the Potomac River and to the […]

Maybe the silver lining in the postponement of the King Memorial Dedication ceremony is the time it gives us to appreciate just how dangerous it was to be a civil […]

Cuba. 1527. “All hands labored severely under a heavy fall of water that entire day and until dark on Sunday. By then the rain and the tempest had stepped up […]

“If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said of Federal Reserve […]

What did you do, really, when Irene struck? As you listen to people tell tales that make them sound more threatened, more casual-cool or more heroic than they really were, […]

It’s surely appropriate that I follow up a post on my SUMMER VACATION with one on the two kinds of WORK of the college teacher.  More than one person who read […]

Jean Casella and James Ridgeway report in Mother Jones that New York City has no plans to evacuate an estimated 12,000 inmates and their correctional officers on low-lying Rikers Island […]

Writing in The New Yorker’s Book Bench this week, Macy Halford has curated a selection of “Six Shorts to Read During a Hurricane.” The novels, essays, and poems excerpted include […]

As tens of millions of members of the Baby Boomer generation rapidly near retirement age, America is in need of innovative new solutions that will help it prepare for an […]

As Summer 2011 draws to a close, we at Big Think are taking a look back at the most significant ideas presented on our site by Big Think experts. You, our viewers, voted with your clicks.

A potentially serious hurricane bears down on tens of millions of people in the Northeast. How will they respond? The psychology of risk perception suggests that some might be at risk not just from the weather itself but also from the danger that arises when our fears don’t match the facts.

A 5.8 earthquake hits the East Cost. New Yorkers quake. Californians laugh. Along comes a Category 1—no wait, tropical storm—hurricane. Now, not all New Yorkers are quaking; instead, while some […]

The international summer of troubled and/or troubling public art continues and, I hope, concludes with the unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, which was to officially take […]

Unsure if you should care about the Keystone XL pipeline controversy? In his latest essay for Dissent, my friend Mark Engler neatly encapsulates the issues at stake. It’s not just […]

As events unfold, many are pondering what the fall of Col Qaddafi will mean for the rest of the world. 

In a potentially innovative if not also troubling strategy, Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project has asked their online supporters to donate for one day their Twitter and Facebook accounts to […]

So one of the guys at Panera Bread this morning asked my view on the FLAT TAX or FAIR TAX or whatever. My reponse was that my objection to the […]

This week got me thinking – what are the chances that New York City could experience shaking from > M5 east coast earthquakeand potentially be struck by a Category 2-3 […]

Ryan Blair, CEO and author of Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went From Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur, argues that independent employees are good for business.

No hurricane evacuation order has been issued for New York City, but City officials haven’t ruled out the possibility. Meanwhile, you can plug your address into this useful official City […]