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In this segment from his Floating University lecture, Leon Botstein explores what makes an artist good. “Eventually you can look at your own photograph that you took of your friend […]

Twila Tharp’s choreography is showcased in this medley featuring “River of Dreams/Keeping the Faith/Only the Good Die Young” at the 2003 Tony Awards.

What happens when the complexity and magnitude of the problems facing our civilization “simply exceed our biological capabilities”? Sociobiologist Rebecca Costa argues this has triggered the demise “of every advanced […]

Unlike some other so-called “academic imperialists,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman does not believe that economics can explain everything. Here’s what it can explain.

A new venture aims to foster stability in war-torn regions through an act of creative destruction: acquiring AK-47s and transforming them into rare jewelry, watches and accessories.

Henry envisions his first days in office.

Melton describes an experiment on parabiotic mice that may hold the key to eternal life for human beings.

Peter is the co-founder and President of Big Think, an online multimedia portal committed to developing the growing conversation about where we are and where we are headed. In that […]

For Bruce Finley, the benefits discussion is a major (and often lost) opportunity for companies to reach young workers in a meaningful way, getting them more deeply invested in their […]

MIT Media Lab researcher Deb Roy has applied his study of linguistics and childhood development to a company he founded called BlueFin Labs, which has built a machine to connect […]

“There’s always an opportunity to give money, if that’s an option,” says Mary Ellen Iskenderian. “But giving money is just not sufficient. You’ve got to really make sure that the […]

Penn Jillette rates Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, and the various other candidates for the U.S. Presidency in 2012 from the perspective of an atheist.

There are two areas of great importance in scientific research today, namely the health of our planet, and the health of our bodies. Doug Melton explores the latter, regenerative biology, […]

Doug Melton, Co-Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, on the new frontier in biotechnology: creating human organs.

Over-reliance on foreign aid as opposed to tax revenue, says Sophal Ear, a leading expert on post-crisis economies, leads to corruption.

Ethan Philbrick performs at The Nantucket Project. Ethan grew up on Nantucket and has been playing music voraciously since he was 4 years old. Ethan has played music in a […]

Comedian Maureen Langan entertained the audience at The Nantucket Project, a festival of ideas that took place in October on Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Daniel Altman explains the origins of the European Union and why it’s in so much trouble today.

Activist investor, hedge-fund manager, and Floating University lecturer Bill Ackman explains the importance of investing over the long run.

Coming from an upper middle class family, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita says, he could have afforded to pay some tuition. Instead, he was the beneficiary of the tax dollars of […]

Particle physics. Human self-determination. Evolution. According to Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt, we owe these modern ideas to an ancient Roman poem, rediscovered in 1417.

In this portion of his Floating University lecture, activist investor William Ackman talks about investing in the kind of company that you can own forever. In other words, what is […]

According to physician and former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the major problem with health care in the U.S. is the country spends twice as much on health care as […]

In addition to demotivating talented workers, an opaque and dictatorial leadership style can silence innovation from below, leaving the leader in charge of coming up with all the great ideas.

The Floating University’s first course, Great Big Ideas: An Entire Undergraduate Education While Standing On One Foot, is being used to teach courses at Harvard, Yale, and Bard this fall […]

A new online course that is currently being offered at Harvard, Yale and Bard is threatening to disrupt higher education as we know it. As tuition costs continue to skyrocket, […]

The average student graduates with $23,000 in debt. “That’s a lot of debt for a 22-year-old,” says Michael Ellsberg – and when you combine it with astronomical rates of unemployment […]

To be a successful investor you have to be able to avoid some natural human tendencies to follow the herd. You have to have a stomach to withstand the volatility […]

When will we be able to enter a room and create an imaginary scenario so realistic that it seems as if we are really there? Sooner than you think, says […]