This map shows a hidden underground circulatory system | Marvin Liyanage @marvinliyanage

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Improve your shrinking attention span | Chris Bailey

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

How some habits set off chain reactions | Charles Duhigg

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more:
https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=membership&utm_content=bt-ytdesc-text-fi-spector-A3_fG1h2a_g
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ►
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Up next, What 85 years of research says is the real key to happiness | Robert Waldinger: Full Interview ►
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CxmzkYPvsg
Buy Tim Spector's most recent book, Ferment: The Life-Changing Power of Microbes, here:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1529932327?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_5RH9KZJV94J4KJAFTK80&bestFormat=true
Could depression, dementia, and poor oral health all have one uniting link? The gut microbiome contains 200 more genes than human cells, and research shows its strong impact on mental illness, brain health, and chronic inflammation.
Professor of epidemiology at King's College London Tim Spector breaks down the science of how gut microbes produce the chemicals that shape your mood, your immune system, and your cognitive health, and why the standard Western diet has been systematically destroying them for 50 years.
0:00 Chapter 1: How the gut microbiome works
7:18 A sick gut = a sick brain
15:20 Why modern life is inflaming you
17:17 Chapter 2: An unhealthy gut leads to an unhealthy brain
20:44 Bad gut health is linked to dementia
25:58 What your teeth reveal about your inflammation levels
29:47 Chapter 3: 8 tips for maintaining a healthy gut ecosystem
33:18 Eat 30 plants a week (here’s how)
41:48 The ultra-processed food trap
46:21 Eat the rainbow, fast overnight
54:47 Chapter 4: Why the internet gets dieting all wrong
58:45 Why fad diets always fail long-term
1:01:02 Organic, salt, fish — what actually matters
1:07:53 Supplements won’t save you
Correction:
33:18 The text card contains a typo. It says "Eat 30 plats a day" when it should say "Eat 30 plants a week"
Read the video transcript ►
https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/tim-spector-gut-microbiome/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
© Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Youtube Member
Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/
►Become a Big Think Web Member
Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more.
https://bigthink.com/membership/
►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack
Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox.
https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/
►Listen to Big Think Interviews on Spotify
Insights from the world's biggest thinkers, now as a podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/7KRYoRD1NdF2aoQcBMyPlb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Tim Spector:
Tim Spector is a Professor of Epidemiology at King’s College London, director of the Twins UK study, scientific co-founder at ZOE, and one of the world’s most-cited scientists. He's also the author of the bestsellers, Spoon-Fed, The Diet Myth, Food for Life, and Ferment.

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

We created this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.
We often ask how to reach enlightenment, as if it’s a destination. A better question may be: how do we practice enlightened behavior in everyday life? And once we begin, how does our reality evolve?
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ►
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Watch the full Perception Box series ►
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5uULy4b0kV4iomWS7CzqCdOCwj0lFnLr&si=yCY6E
e7m6bpj7E-y
What if enlightenment is not a permanent state, but a habit we regularly return to? Andrew Newberg, MD, Robert Waldinger, MD, and Jim Al-Khalili, PhD, explore how moments of awe, unity, and insight can alter the brain and reshape our sense of reality. From neuroscience to Zen practice to the limits of scientific knowledge, they argue that enlightenment may be less about arriving somewhere and more about how we act once we feel connected.
Read more from this interview ►
https://bigthink.com/videos/what-science-reveals-about-the-magic-of-enlightenment/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
Explore the Perception Box series hub ►
https://bigthink.com/perception-box/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Member
Get exclusive access to full interviews, early access to new releases, Big Think merch and more.
https://members.bigthink.com/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

►Get Big Think+ for Business
Guide, inspire and accelerate leaders at all levels of your company with the biggest minds in business.
https://bigthink.com/plus/great-leaders-think-big/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Loneliness is not a glitch it's a motivator | Paul Bloom

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

The simple habit to goal attainment | Chris Bailey

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

We put the entire history of the universe... on a poster

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

The 9-second meditation | Lisa Genova

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more:
https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=yt_desc
Subscribe to Big Think on YouTube ►
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQECJukTDE2i6aCoMnS-Vg?sub_confirmation=1
Up next, The blueprint for becoming an emotionally mature adult, in 68 minutes | Mark Manson: Full Interview ►
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Swxy4tUE3s&vl=en
Buy Charles Duhigg's most recent book, Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection, here:
https://www.amazon.com/Supercommunicators-Unlock-Secret-Language-Connection/dp/0593243919
About 40% of everything you do today is a habit your brain automated, and the neural loop driving it doesn't distinguish between good and bad habits.
Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators, explains why trying to eliminate a bad habit is neurologically futile and why the habit that scares you most irrationally is probably the one change that rewires everything else.
0:00 Part 1: How your brain is running on habits
0:54 Chapter 1: The habit loop
13:05 Chapter 2: Identifying cravings
18:44 Chapter 3: Keystone habits
25:01 Chapter 4: How your beliefs and communities affect habits
32:00 Part 2: What makes conversations work
33:05 Chapter 5: How to become a supercommunicator
42:23 Chapter 6: The “Whats this really about?” conversation
51:51 Chapter 7: The “How do we feel?” conversation
1:07:35 Chapter 8: The “Who are we?” conversation
Read the video transcript ►
https://bigthink.com/series/full-interview/the-habit-loop-duhigg/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=video&utm_campaign=youtube_description
© Freethink Media Inc., All Rights Reserved.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Go Deeper with Big Think:
►Become a Big Think Youtube Member
Get exclusive classes and early, ad-free access to new releases without leaving Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/@bigthink/membership/
►Become a Big Think Web Member
Get the entire Big Think Class library, premium print issues, live events, and more.
https://bigthink.com/membership/
►Subscribe to Big Think on Substack
Get all of your favorite Big Think content delivered to your inbox.
https://bigthinkmedia.substack.com/subscribe/
►Listen to Big Think Interviews on Spotify
Insights from the world's biggest thinkers, now as a podcast
https://open.spotify.com/show/7KRYoRD1NdF2aoQcBMyPlb
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on bestseller lists and has been translated into 40 languages, and Smarter Faster Better, also a bestseller. Mr. Duhigg writes for The New Yorker magazine and is a graduate of Yale University and the Harvard Business School. He has been a frequent contributor to CNBC, This American Life, NPR, The Colbert Report, NewsHour, and Frontline.
He was also, for one terrifying day in 1999, a bike messenger in San Francisco.

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

We made this video in partnership with Unlikely Collaborators.

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Conquering analysis paralysis | Mark Manson @iammarkmanson

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

Why do we sabotage ourselves? | Marvin Liyanage @marvinliyanage

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

How the inner child shapes your reactions | Nicole Lepera

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube

When is editing human DNA okay? | Marvin Liyanage @marvinliyanage
Sources:
1.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.30.728989v1
2.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/science/embryos-gene-editing-crispr.html
3.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01827-8
4.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/12/05/1128755/selling-the-sizzle-of-trait-discrimination/
5.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/05/deaf-people-cochlear-implants

Source: © Big Think, hosted on © YouTube