The Next Big Idea Daily

Whether you're plotting a job change or just trying to survive another uncertain year at work, the truth is most of us spend 90,000 hours of our lives working. That's too much time to spend feeling stuck, stressed, or unfulfilled. Journalists Lisa Leong and Monique Ross are here to help. Their 2023 book This Working Life: How to Navigate Your Career in Uncertain Times is packed with practical wisdom for building a career that actually brings you joy. We’ll hear from them in just a moment. And in the second half of the show, we’ll tackle one of the most challenging experiences in anyone’s career — losing a job. Jessica Bacal spent years collecting rejection stories from powerful women and gathered them in the 2021 book The Rejection That Changed My Life. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/daily The Next Big Idea Club - use code DAILY for 20% off a membership at nextbigideaclub.com

Some of us may have overindulged during the holidays, and some of us may be trying a Dry January — or at least rethinking our relationship with booze. This is the time of year when we might notice how much alcohol has woven itself into our social lives, our stress management, our celebrations. Charles Knowles is a Professor of Surgery at Queen Mary University of London and Chief Academic Officer at the Cleveland Clinic London, and his new book is called Why We Drink Too Much: The Impact of Alcohol on Our Bodies and Culture. He joins us today to explain why problematic drinking isn't defined by how much we consume, and what we really need to know if we want to change our relationship with alcohol. And then in the second half of the show, we’ll hear from philosophy professor Edward Slingerland, who will share ideas from his 2021 book Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/daily

Maybe you’ve already set some resolutions for 2026 — exercise more, eat better, be more patient. But here’s the problem: We make these promises to improve ourselves as if our selves are solid, fixed entities that just need a little tweaking. But there might be a wiser approach. J. Eric Oliver is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, and his new book is called How To Know Your Self: The Art & Science of Discovering Who You Really Are. He joins us today to explain why seeing yourself as a process rather than a fixed thing might be the most powerful resolution you could make this year — and how that shift opens up possibilities you didn’t know you had. Then, in the second half of the show, we'll hear some big ideas from Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by philosophy professor Kieran Setiya. Sponsored By: Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at shopify.com/daily

An evolutionary perspective reveals how early adversity can sometimes accelerate development. The Nature of Nurture by Jay Belsky The Social Genome by Dalton Conley 📱 Follow The Next Big Idea Daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen 📩 Want more bite-sized insights from the best new nonfiction delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for our Book of the Day newsletter

Now that we’re in early January, a lot of us are thinking about what we want to change this year. But here’s the thing — we often focus on adding new habits when the real question might be, Why do we keep repeating the old ones? Why Do I Keep Doing This? by Kati Morton Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There by Tali Sharot and Cass Sunstein