Can vividly imagining your future self help you make better decisions? Hal Hershfield thinks so, and he’s got the research to prove it. Hal — who teaches at UCLA and has been called a “pioneering psychologist” by none other than our curator Adam Grant — is out with a new book called “Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today,” and he is here all week to help Michael, you, and future you achieve success.

In the final installment of his mini-masterclass, Brett Crozier shares advice for being a staunch defender of your personal time.

Today, retired Navy captain Brett Crozier ("Surf When You Can") explains why in order to achieve big success, you've first got to nail the little things. • Sign up for our newsletter to get a behind-the-scenes look at how we make this show • Download the Next Big Idea app to hear hundreds of authors summarize their books • Use code DAILY to get 10% off a Next Big Idea Club subscription at nextbigideaclub.com

Whether you're flying, captaining, or working, always focus on the alligator closest to the canoe.

We are stronger when we work together. Literally.

"Talk to me, Goose." Actually, this week we're saying, "Talk to me, Chopper." That was Brett Crozier's call sign when he served as a fighter pilot (and it's what his wife still calls him when she's irritated). Brett has a new book out called "Surf When You Can: Lessons in Life, Loyalty, and Leadership from a Maverick Navy Captain," which charts his journey from "Top Gun" wannabe to commanding officer of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. He joins Michael this week to share five lessons from his career that can help you improve your life-work balance.

We're wrapping up our collection of summery Book Bites with a few lessons from Smiley Poswolsky's "Friendship in the Age of Loneliness: An Optimist's Guide to Connection." • Subscribe to our newsletter • Download our app • Join our club (code DAILY gets you 10% off) • Send us an email

Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley who helped Pixar make “Inside Out,” explores the history and science of awe.

When David Pogue (CBS Sunday Morning) realized that we are already living through the beginnings of climate chaos, he decided to write a book full of action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe that Mother Nature might throw at us. • Download the Next Big Idea app: nextbigideaclub.com/app/

Ice ice baby! Today, journalist and historian Amy Brady shares the astonishing 200-year history of ice in America, from ice rinks to ice cream to modern-day miracles like cryotherapy breast-cancer treatments.

We're trying something different this week. Instead of hearing from one author, you'll hear from five. Together, they'll help you figure out how to have the perfect summer. Up first: comedian and podcaster Jamie Loftus shares a few tasty insights from her New York Times bestseller "Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs." • Use code DAILY to get 10% off your subscription at nextbigideaclub.com

What can the global response to climate change tell us about the health of modern democratic states? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Today, Ben explains why democracy and security are such uneasy bedfellows. • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Why is it so hard to create a sense of national unity and civic responsibility here in the Divided States of America? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Why has the American political system failed to arrest accelerating inequality, and is there anything we can do about it? • Ben Ansell is professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

As you may have noticed, modern democracies aren’t doing so hot. In country after country, income inequality soars while solidarity plummets. Resentment simmers while national unity cools. In places like the US and the UK, beacons of liberal democracy, words like “autocracy” and “anarchy” are thrown around with alarming regularity. Meanwhile, our ability to take action on existential threats like AI and climate change is stymied by sniping politicians who are obsessed with point-scoring and eerily disinclined to agree on a shared set of facts. Given all this, it’s not unreasonable to wonder: Are we doomed? This week, on the 247th anniversary of America’s birthday — and the dawn of the modern democratic experiment — we’ll get to the bottom of that unsettling question with Ben Ansell, professor of comparative democratic institutions at Oxford and author of “Why Politics Fail.”

In her final mini masterclass, Shelby warns you not to be so focused on reaching the finish line that you may miss the epic views along the way. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

When scaling a steep rock wall or surfing gnarly waves, it’s easy to let fear get the better of you, but today, Shelby explains how you can use humor to stay loose. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Before you embark on a wild adventure, you obviously need to do some planning. But don’t go overboard. Give yourself a deadline, and get to work. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

If you have a strong why for pursuing a wild adventure, you’re more likely to find a way to get it done. • Shelby Stanger is the host of REI’s “Wild Ideas Worth Living” podcast and the author of “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life” • Want to go behind the scenes of this show? Sign up for our newsletter • To hear more interviews, audio e-courses, and hundreds of author-read book summaries, download the Next Big Idea app

Where are you listening to this podcast? In your car? At your desk? Puttering around your house? If Shelby Stanger had her druthers, you’d be listening in the great outdoors — maybe while hiking on a scenic trail, or pedaling down an open road, or sitting astride a surfboard (while wearing waterproof earbuds, of course). Shelby is a journalist and adventurer: as a journalist, her work has appeared in Outside Magazine and on ESPN; as an adventurer, she’s surfed from Canada to Costa Rica and paddled remote stretches of the Amazon River. Her new book, “Will to Wild: Adventures Great and Small to Change Your Life,” is a guide to getting out of your comfort zone and into the wild world.

Data, demographics — these things only take you so far. That's the final lesson Marcus Collins has to share with us. If you really want to get to know someone, he says, you've got to look past what they "do" and try to figure out who they "are." • Use the code DAILY to get 10% off a Next Big Idea Club membership • Learn more about our event in NYC on June 28th by visiting betaworks.com/event/ai-consciousness • Subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter

"Meaning," says Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") in today's episode, "is culturally mediated based on how we see the world. Understanding how people make meaning will increase the likelihood of understanding who they are and how they navigate the world."

Today, Marcus Collins ("For the Culture") says that if you want to understand someone, you can learn much more from their tribal communities than their demographics.

Welcome back to our week-long masterclass with marketing magician Marcus Collins. He ran digital strategy for Beyoncé; teaches at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; serves as chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy; and wrote a great book called "For the Culture." Today, he explains why he thinks the brands that'll succeed in the future will make consumers feel like they're part of a community.

This week: Marcus Collins, who teaches marketing at the University of Michigan's business school and serves as the chief strategy officer at Wieden+Kennedy, shares five key insights from his book "For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want to Be."

When we work all the time, it doesn’t just take our best hours; it often takes our best energy, too. In his final lesson, Simone Stolzoff (”The Good Enough Job”) implores us to step away from work and engage in active forms of leisure. --- • Our newsletter comes out today — check it out now!

Your job isn't your soulmate. If it's good enough, then maybe that's good enough.

Many of us have internalized the message that there’s one dream job for us and we shouldn’t stop until we find it. So we tweak our resumes and browse LinkedIn in the hopes of finding a role that helps us self-actualize. But first determining what matters and recognizing that we may already have it is a better recipe for happiness.

In today's episode, Simone Stolzoff ("The Good Enough Job") tells Michael that when you think about the role work plays in your life, "it's worth considering that valuing more free time over more money tends to be more fulfilling and lead to higher overall well-being."

Do you live to work or work to live? Journalist Simone Stolzoff tackles that age-old question with renewed energy in his book "The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work." All this week, he'll be chatting with host Michael Kovnat about how work came to play such an outsized role in our lives and what would happen if we stopped chasing the dream gig, gave up the idea of having a calling, and instead tried to find jobs that were simply good enough.

Our time with Tiago Forte may be over, but hopefully your journey to building a second brain has only just begun. In his final lesson, Tiago explains how your second brain can motivate you to take action. • Grab a copy of "Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential" • Have you checked out our newsletter? Every Friday, Michael looks back on the week's episodes and shares his key takeaways. Sign up now! • Have you downloaded our app? It’s loaded up with hundreds of book summaries written and read by the world’s leading authors. Check it out by going to https://nextbigideaclub.com/app/! • Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code DAILY at checkout!

Today, Tiago explains how mastering the art of subtraction can strengthen your creative output.

Today’s lesson: “Before you shut off new sources of information and converge on an end result, take time to diverge. Expand your horizons, expose yourself to diverse influences, and collect anything that resonates with you.” Tiago Forte is the author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential.”

Today, Tiago Forte, author of “Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential,” says that if you want to accomplish a big goal, you must first stockpile small building blocks. P.S. Use the code DAILY to get 10% off any Next Big Idea Club membership at nextbigideaclub.com

Do you ever struggle to keep track of all the information swirling around in your head? The idea you had for a new project at work; that stat you read in the paper this morning; the name of your sister’s boyfriend. Productivity expert Tiago Forte says you need a digital system to store all those thought bubbles. He thinks of it as a “second brain.” And this week on the show, he’ll teach you how to build one.

Anticipating regrets can often work to our advantage. It slows our thinking. It taps our cerebral breaks, allowing us time to gather additional information and to reflect before we decide what to do. But it should come with a warning label. --- • Sign up for our newsletter where Michael shares his reflections every Friday (that's today!)

So, what can we do to turn our existing regrets into engines of progress? Science suggests a three-step process.

After analyzing thousands of regrets from people in more than 100 countries, Daniel Pink (”The Power of Regret”) has identified the four core regrets that haunt us most. Today, he explains what they are and how understanding these categories can help you make better decisions in the future.

Regret makes us feel worse, but it can make us do better. Indeed, the way it makes us do better is by making us feel worse.

It’s popular to claim you have no regrets. Popular, but perilous. Because regrets aren’t anything to be ashamed of — on the contrary, they’re an integral part of being human. When you deny their existence, you deny yourself the opportunity to look back on your missteps so you can chart a better path forward. This week on the show: Next Big Idea Club curator Daniel Pink shares five key insights from his latest bestseller, “The Power of Regret.” In these episodes, you’ll learn how to use your regrets to make better decisions, improve your performance at work, and bring more meaning into your life.

Today, meditation expert Sharon Salzberg shares one final insight from her new book "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom."

Today, Sharon Salzberg tells us how practicing loving-kindness meditation can change how we treat others and understand ourselves.

What if instead of demanding that a painful emotion disappear or becoming all consumed by it, you began to relate to your experience with spaciousness infused with kindness?

Society’s prescriptions for freedom, happiness, and abundance may not be your own.

Sharon Salzberg has been meditating since 1971 — “since before it was cool,” she likes to say. That practice has inspired a series of books, most recently “Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom,” which is all about using the power of mindfulness to confront, and ultimately overcome, whatever obstacles stand in your way. Today, she tells Michael how to transcend “contraction.” What’s contraction? You’ll have to listen to this episode… (Want the best books of the year — as chosen by Malcolm Gladwell, Susan Cain, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink — delivered to your doorstep? Sign up for a Next Big Idea Club hardback subscription, and use the code DAILY for 10% off.)

All week, Wharton professor Katy Milkman has been giving us research-backed tips for making changes that stick. Now, in the final installment of her mini masterclass, she explains why the most durable habit is a flexible one. --- • Katy Milkman’s book is “How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be.” Grab a copy today. • A few years back, she spoke with Daniel Pink on our sister podcast, The Next Big Idea. You can listen to that conversation here. • Speaking of Daniel Pink, did you know that every season he teams up with Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Susan Cain to pick the two best new books and mail them to your front door? Sign up for a hardcover Next Big Idea Club membership today and get 10% off when you use the code IMMORTALITY at checkout!

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