One in particular lay there dormant for weeks. Then we gave it a second look. Now, months later, it’s one of my favorite projects I’ve worked on at Big Think. It’s a print issue we’re calling “The Opt-Out Nation,” a reference to the U.S., which is approaching the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

That nice round number wasn’t the sole reason we chose this theme. The Trump administration is, for better or worse, advancing what Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently called “a rupture in the world order,” as the U.S. opts out of longstanding post-World War II alliances and rewires relationships between nations across the globe.

So, on the geopolitical front, we’ll be speaking with Richard N. Haass, President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, about the end of an era, the beginning of another, and the question of whether the U.S. has a coherent vision of the future. We’ll also be recording a special interview with podcast legend Dan Carlin, creator of the Hardcore History series, about America’s long history of opting out.

But don’t expect a magazine like Foreign Affairs. We set out to bring you stories about Americans opting out of all sorts of things, each of which touches on a bigger story playing out across the country — from a comedy writer’s reckoning with the directive to “find your true passion,” to an astronomer’s take on why Americans are opting out of a scientific worldview, to a journalist’s dispatches from a literal opt-out community in the Arizona desert where building codes are optional, houses are strange, and residents have taken the country’s housing debate to its logical extreme. Much more to come about this print issue, which publishes in June.

In the meantime, our Spring 2026 issue, The Roots of Resilience, is shipping out to members soon!

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After months of commissioning articles, creating custom artwork, and squinting into the blue light of our screens to copy-edit “Antartica” to “Antarctica,” we have finally wrapped edits on our second print issue, The Roots of Resilience. It’s set to arrive in Big Think members’ mailboxes in a few weeks.

It has everything I love in a premium magazine: longform narrative journalism, brilliant essays, and stunning artwork on every page. We’re very proud of it, and I can’t wait to ship it out.

In case you missed it: Big Think now publishes a themed magazine every month — all available free online. Four times a year, we also produce a print edition* with exclusive content and artwork you won’t find anywhere else.

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Want it delivered to your door? Become a member on our website (or upgrade on Substack) today.

Now that our latest issue is off to the presses, we’re starting on our next one — a magazine all about opting out. More to come over the following weeks!

Until then, here’s a quick look at the introduction to The Roots of Resilience and some stories you’ll find throughout the magazine.

*Shipping to US only at the moment

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Stubbing your toe to ghastly shades of purple is no catastrophe, but doing so recently did remind me, after I stopped cursing, of Benjamin Franklin. Life, he said, guarantees nothing but death and taxes. Add stubbed toes to the list. Before the IRS or the Grim Reaper knocks, life is guaranteed to bruise you, whether it’s suddenly finding yourself firing off job applications or making a phone call you never thought you’d have to make.

Everything gets stress-tested sooner or later. Not just people — systems, institutions, industries, whole ways of organizing the world. Companies that seemed permanent quietly shutter. Supply chains snap. Democracies wobble. The question isn’t whether the test is coming, but what stands afterward, and why?

That’s what brought this issue together. We’ve spent months looking at resilience not as a buzzword or a self-help prescription, but as a property — one that shows up, or doesn’t, at every scale, from a person’s daily habits to the design of global systems. What makes something bend without breaking? What recovers where others collapse?

Inside, you’ll find stories that explore the roots of resilience through all of these lenses. We challenge the popular story that resilience is about toughness, showing instead how it depends on design, maintenance, and relationships that hold under pressure. We travel to the Sierra Nevada with climber Tommy Caldwell to see whether resilience is something you’re born with or something forged over time. And we look at resilience in creatures that have already mastered it, from rats thriving in our shadows to fungi that may one day sustain life beyond Earth. We hope you enjoy.

Stephen Johnson
Executive Editor at Big Think

WHAT’S INSIDE

1. The Resilience Myth by Eric Markowitz

2. How Rats Conquered Earth by Jason Bittel

3. Outliving the Winter by Jonny Thomson

4. The World We Avoided by Frank Jacobs

5. Born Unbreakable or Made That Way? by Namir Khaliq // Tommy Caldwell

6. Mycelium Moonshot by Douglas Fox

7. Fragile by Design by Jasna Hodžić

8. Nurturing Resilience by Stephen Johnson

9. Space Traffic Control by Ethan Siegel

10. The Longevity of Lies by Mike Rothschild

11. When Resilience Backfires by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

12. Surviving the Narrative by Henry Eliot

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Stephen Johnson is the Executive Editor at Big Think

Already have a website membership? Please be sure to update your account profile with your mailing address to ensure that you get your copy!

We started that day. A few months later, our team wrapped Big Think’s very first print magazine, The Consciousness Issue. It was a ton of work, but we loved making it and got such a good response from readers that we decided to turn the experiment into a quarterly affair. This year, we’re publishing four print magazines, and the next one — on the theme of resilience — ships to members in about a month. I can’t wait for you to flip through it.

Really, we’re making an issue every month — it’s just that most are digital-only. Our first came in January: The Pursuit of Mastery, which featured stories on the insane risks of elite adventurers, a 150-year-old business that flips the ethos of modern work on its head, and the hard-won transformation of one of America’s most beloved character actors.

February’s issue was Biology’s New Era, which brought you stories on a relatively new theory of how life began, why organisms are more than machines, and how reading books regulates your nervous system, and much, much more.

After our March print issue on resilience, we’re releasing an issue in April on the world’s energy transition, featuring articles on everything from China’s grip on global energy supply chains to what it will take to raise humanity’s rank on the Kardashev Scale.

Read more

Hey Big Thinkers,

A hundred years ago, an injury as small as a scraped knee could be deadly — but then scientists figured out how to manufacture antibiotics at scale, sending death rates from bacterial infections plummeting.

The age of antibiotics was a turning point in biology, and the field is now on the brink of another major shift, one powered by breakthroughs like CRISPR, synthetic DNA, and AI — and it promises to transform not just human health, but agriculture, energy, and even Earth itself.

This week, Big Think published “Biology’s New Era,” a theme issue exploring this moment and the scientists, writers, and philosophers whose work brought us to it. Below, you’ll find a taste of what’s in the issue, including an exploration of humanity’s athletic limits, the latest efforts to deter bioweapons, and the sci-fi genre shaping how we see aliens — and ourselves.

We hope you enjoy the issue, which was made possible with support from Biohub, an organization that — like Big Think — believes technology can help us build a healthier future. You can read more about how Biohub is using AI to unlock the mysteries of biology in this article.

Read on,
Kristin

THE BIG HEART

Athletes keep breaking records — and they may never stop

By Alex Hutchinson

A post-mortem exam of Secretariat revealed that the champion racehorse’s heart was about 2.5 times heavier than the average thoroughbred’s — just one of several physical anomalies that contributed to his success on the track. Decades later, Secretariat’s records still stand, suggesting he was as good as horses get. In this piece, science journalist Alex Hutchinson explores whether humans will ever hit our own ceiling in athletic performance — or whether the power of the human brain will keep us breaking records forever.

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THE BIG THREAT

How to deter a biothreat in the age of gene synthesis

By Jen Kirby

Big Think chose “Biology’s New Era” as its theme for February because we wanted to highlight a profound shift happening right now: Armed with CRISPR, synthetic DNA, and other new tools, scientists are poised to solve some of the biggest problems in health, agriculture, energy, and more. But these same tools can cause problems by making it easier for bad actors to create and deploy bioweapons. In this reported feature, journalist Jen Kirby talks to biosecurity experts to find out what can be done to ensure we preserve the promise of modern biotech while minimizing its risks.

LEARN MORE

Presented by Biohub

Entering the age of programmable biology

Transforming biological matter into programmable matter capable of sensing, reporting, and treating disease within our bodies — only where and when it’s needed. Meet the scientists behind the new era
of AI-powered biology.

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THE BIG HOAX

Snouters, dinosauroids, and other animals that never were

By Thomas Moynihan

In 1957, a respected German publisher released the first-ever book about rhinogrades, an order of mammals characterized by their remarkable noses. An escaped POW had stumbled upon the creatures while stranded in the South Pacific in the 1940s, and the book’s author, Harald Stümpke, catalogued in meticulous scientific detail the more than 100 species subsequently identified. But here’s the thing: Stümpke doesn’t exist, and neither do rhinogrades — both were the invention of German zoologist Gerolf Steiner. As historian Thomas Moynihan writes in this essay, the hoax was eventually revealed, launching a new subgenre of science fiction with surprising implications for our hunt for extraterrestrial life.

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More Articles

• How reading books regulates your nervous system

• Why organisms are more than machines

• Metabolism, not cells or genetics, may have begun life on Earth

Kristin Houser is the managing editor at Big Think.

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Mini Philosophy | Starts With A Bang | Big Think Books | Big Think Business

Big Thinkers,

Last Saturday, the American climber Alex Honnold successfully scaled the 1,667-foot Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan with no ropes or safety nets.

I’m not sure why. I’m not being a smartass: The feat was wildly impressive and made for great TV. But to those of us who prefer the interiors of skyscrapers over the exteriors, it’s not immediately obvious what compels people like Honnold to risk everything, all for what turned out to be an “embarrassing” payday, as he told The New York Times.

Perhaps it’s pride, prestige, or an adrenaline addiction. Or maybe the reason is as simple as the one that British climber George Mallory offered in 1923 when a reporter asked him why he wanted to climb Mount Everest: “Because it’s there.”

We are drawn to mastery, whether it’s perfecting our own craft or watching other people push the limits of human potential.

Our latest special issue brings you a collection of stories about all things mastery. Inside, we explore the science behind the “quiet eye” of elite athletes, the systems that create star performers, actor Ethan Suplee’s quest to master himself, and much more. You can catch the full issue here.

Read on,
Stephen

THE BIG SECOND ACT

From self-erasure to self-mastery: Ethan Suplee’s second act

By Mike Wehner

You’d probably recognize actor Ethan Suplee as the chubby bully on Boy Meets World, lovable Louie in Remember the Titans, and the aptly named “Tuna” (Johnny Depp’s sidekick) in Blow. But you probably wouldn’t recognize Suplee if you saw him today in the gym. Once weighing in at 550 pounds, Suplee is now down to about 250, and he’s documented his efforts to master his food addiction in his new career as a fitness influencer. Big Think recently caught up with Suplee to discuss his Hollywood career, his second act, and why eating a piece of banana bread is not the end of the world.

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THE BIG GAZE

How training your gaze could help you master sports — and your own attention

By Ross Pomeroy

When thinking about what makes an athlete great, you might imagine Gretzky’s flick of the wrist, Serena Williams’ snap of the shoulder, or Messi’s blinding footwork. But the precision of these movements may be downstream from something far quieter: the movements of the eyes. In this piece, Ross Pomeroy looks at the science behind “quiet eye training,” a sustained gaze that helps the brain execute precise actions under pressure.

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Magazines, memberships, and meaning.

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THE BIG RETHINK

The systems that build star performers

By Rachel Barr

Excellence rarely follows a straight line. Many top performers begin as late bloomers, developing through trial, failure, and cross-domain exploration. As neuroscientist Rachel Barr details in this interview with author David Epstein, the systems that produce stars often aren’t optimized for speed or certainty, but for adaptability over time.

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More Articles

• The last masters: The international effort to preserve an ancient craft

• How a Japanese philosophy helped me improve my life

• Mastering the edge: How success raises the stakes for elite adventurers

Stephen Johnson is the executive editor at Big Think.

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Mini Philosophy | Starts With A Bang | Big Think Books | Big Think Business

There’s an old bit of advice that says you should never be the smartest person in the room — if you are, you probably won’t learn much. I have zero problem saying this is easy for me at Big Think. I work with some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and I have the luxury of being able to bug them with questions (and article assignments!) whenever I’m curious about something, like:

Would alien space travel really be limited by the speed of light? I can ask astrophysicist Ethan Siegel, Big Think’s Starts With A Bang columnist, and he’ll get to the bottom of it.

Or what does a philosopher make of one of the most revolting thought experiments I’ve ever heard? I can speak with Jonny Thomson, our Mini Philosophy columnist.

Or what’s happening in your brain when you hit a wall in a creative project? I can reach out to neuroscientist Rachel Barr, who explained why our best ideas often come after our worst.

It’s not their raw intelligence that makes working with Big Think’s writers and editors so satisfying. It’s how their work feels so refreshing compared to the barrage of stories on my feed every day — the hot takes, tribal politics, and headlines crafted to conjure maximum outrage.

Big Think doesn’t bog you down in all that. We aim to be curious, open, and thoughtful, bringing you fresh perspectives on the biggest ideas shaping our world, whether in science, philosophy, business, technology, or culture. And we strive to do it in a way that’s smart, deep, and never pretentious.

Big Think is aiming even higher in 2026. We’re planning ambitious longform reporting, quarterly print issues, live events, new columns, and more of the in-depth interviews you’ve come to expect from us.

We can’t do this right if we’re beholden to the whims of advertisers and algorithms. We want to report to you, the reader. So we’re launching a membership program — one that not only unlocks a paywall but welcomes you into a home for people who value deep ideas over outrage and partisan hackery.

SEE MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS

Here’s a peek at what you’ll get:

Print magazines: We’ll mail you four print magazines per year, each centered on a theme (such as consciousness, which was the theme of our first print issue in Summer 2025). Think of each issue as a collectible that features longform reporting, op-eds, interviews with the world’s leading experts, and stunning artwork.

Classes taught by the world’s biggest thinkers: You’ll get access to our Big Think Class library, where you can learn directly from more than 100 global experts in psychology, AI, leadership, philosophy, and more. Check out a few example classes where the first lesson is free:

Ad-free reading and viewing: Nobody likes ads, especially when you’re trying to immerse yourself in a longform video or article. Becoming a member lets us continue producing great stuff while you enjoy it in the way it was meant to be viewed.

Early access to Big Think Interviews: Our members will get full access to new episodes of our flagship interview show before anyone else.

Invitations and perks for live events: Big Think has put on a handful of incredible in-person events over the past few years, and we intend to do many more. Our members will get early access to all events, exclusive invites to our salons and event recordings, and on-site perks like free drinks and priority seating.

And much more: We’re already thinking about new ways to grow the Big Think community and enable members to get involved, such as allowing commenting on articles, livestreaming expert-led conversations, and facilitating interactions with our writers and world-class experts.

Big Think was built on the belief that ideas matter. The world is complex, and easy answers are rare — but with curiosity, open minds, and honest conversation, it becomes navigable.

If you value our work — if it challenges you and expands your worldview — consider becoming a member. In a fractured and unpredictable media landscape, this is how we want to stay independent and ambitious: By establishing a direct line to you.

Want to help shape the next decade at Big Think? Click here to see our membership options. Signing up now will grant you instant access to the features above, and it’ll put you on our mailing list to receive our next print magazine — The Resilience Issue — this spring. You’ll also be able to check out our upcoming class with Simon Sinek on the kind of leadership people actually want to follow.

Much more to come,
Stephen

Stephen Johnson is the executive editor at Big Think.

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