Sean Jones
During our interview with him, Big Think asked Ted Kennedy to give his counsel: the primary lesson he had learned, the key insight one should take away from his historic life. It is a question we ask often, and usually one that sends interviewees through stages of stuttering, dithering, and ... Read More
A group of Scottish scientists are beginning one of the biggest computer backup projects in history: they’re creating an “accurate to within 3mm” 3D model of Mount Rushmore, so it can be recreated in case it is ever ruined by climate change, natural disaster, or war. The Guardian reports that this ... Read More
It may be, "I'm taken." The New Scientist reports today on a Journal of Experimental Social Psychology study finding that single heterosexual women prefer men who are identified as taken by a wide margin over men identified as single. Single men were far less picky in their choices generally, but ... Read More
When it comes to thinking big, it doesn’t get much bigger than determining the most significant year in human history. The Economist’s MoreIntelligentLife.com has launched a poll asking visitors to weigh in on the subject. The winner so far? 1439, the year Gutenberg invented the printing press ... Read More
Miller-McCune is reporting today on a Personality and Social Psychology study indicating that a connection to nature not only has stress-reducing and healing qualities, but that it also makes us kinder people. Green spaces promote selflessness, empathy, and peaceful coexistence. How do Big Think ... Read More
Today, Tara-Parker Pope of the New York Times "Well" blog reports on a flurry of studies suggesting that, contrary to popular opinion, running may in fact be good for your knees. Not only does the repetitive strain have little ill effects, but it can also prevent the arthritis associated with other ... Read More
Researchers are learning about the human brain from a system that is more similar to our gray matter than you may think: ant colonies. Just as neurons navigate through your head in a choreographed but mysterious dance, ants work together in a complex ways in order to make the colony far exceed any ... Read More
The New York Times recently presented an eye-opening graph derived from the American Time Use Survey. This unique project seeks to map out what Americans are doing every day, broken down minute-by-minute. The results reflect our under-employed age. At 3:30 PM, 13% of Americans are watching TV and ... Read More
Judd Apatow: comic visionary, insightfully raunchy, slacker hero… conservative crusader? Ross Douthat smartly makes the case that Apatow is leading the charge in making socially conservative lifestyles seem cool to a young, hip—and receptive—crowd, especially with his recently released Funny ... Read More
Here goes. In what is either the last gasp of a dying industry or the long-awaited retrenchment of an American staple, the big-time newspapers may be going pay only. Rupert Murdoch’s declaration yesterday that he will be charging for all online news under his media empire spurred enough reactionary ... Read More
If you have ever wondered why your boss is such a stickler for the rules, the American Psychological Association has an answer for you that isn’t necessarily reassuring. It turns out that the degree of power a person has is linked inexorably to his or her reliance on rule-based systems. Whereas ... Read More
Big Thinker and Harper's Magazine editor Bill Wasik appeared today in a New York Times op-ed musing upon the waning lure of New York City to young creatives. The replacement? Another crowded, dangerous, lewd megatropolis where, with some hard work and a dash of luck, you may make it big: the ... Read More
It's a question every writer asks themselves, either in the midst of sorting through overdue bills, during the dead hours of a suffocating block, or upon receipt of another rude rejection: why do I do this? Ta-Nehisi Coates, who discussed the subject with Big Think, recently posted about the ... Read More
It's accepted wisdom these days that artists are not the sanest people in the world. If you don't know one personally, you can turn to several recent studies and popular articles for confirmation of that fact. But recently researchers are theorizing that mental illness itself may have been ... Read More
The institution of marriage hasn’t had a good go of it of late. Not only is the gay marriage debate sparking animosity, but straight marriage has also been the victim of several recent screeds. The general argument is that in this age of sexual equality when a wife no longer must rely on a ... Read More
About Sean Jones
I'm a freelance writer as well as an editor and interviewer at Big Think. I'm primarily interested in arts & culture and have interviewed writers from Edmund White to R.L. Stine for a variety of national publications. Previously, I've worked with writers at Hachette Book Group as an editor and the Endeavor Agency as an agent. I live in Brooklyn, New York.