Dr. Vikas Shah MBE DL Interviews the world's leading thinkers, and the people shaping the century.

The World’s Most Profound Health Challenge. In these exclusive interviews we speak to: Dr. Thomas Insel (Former Director of the National Institutes of Mental Health, NIMH – Co-Founder, Mindstrong Health), Dr. Shekhar Saxena (Director: Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organisation, WHO), Paul Farmer CBE (Chief…

 

How Climate Change and Environmental Damage Threaten Humanity, and What We Can Do to Protect Our Future.  In this exclusive interview series, we speak to H.E. Mohamed Nasheed (Former President of the Maldives), H.E. Anote Tong (Former President of Kiribati),  Achim Steiner (Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme UNEP), Professor…

 

I meet Thor Björgólfsson, an Icelandic entrepreneur who made one of the greatest comebacks in modern entrepreneurial history- losing close to 100% of a $4 billion fortune, dusting himself off, starting again, and eventually re-joining the billionaire-class with a current fortune estimated (conservatively) at $2 billion.

 

“Can you hear me OK? It’s not a great line…” those were some of my first words to Frederik Paulsen, Jr. – the Chairman of Ferring Pharmaceuticals; a company he inherited as a small family concern (with revenues of around U$15 million), and which he turned into a global biopharmaceuticals…

 

Explore an archive of more than 3,000 quotes.

I want to free everyone from that misconception. You can't know everything. And when you shift from a personal attribution for not knowing—thinking, 'I don't know, but everyone else seems to, so I'll fake it or avoid the situation'—to a universal attribution—realizing, 'I don't know, you don't know, nobody knows'—you stand taller. This allows you to embrace what I believe is the most successful mindset: confident uncertainty.

— Ellen J. Langer
Harvard psychologist & researcher in mindfulness and the psychology of possibility

This is transforming the whole of our economy and we are seeing more companies making decisions across those dimensions of risk-return-impact and being judged on the basis of the profit and impact they create. It really turns our economies away from risk-return (where they create profit without counting the huge damage they cause) to risk-return-impact.

— Sir Ronald Cohen
Founder of Social Venture Network & Pioneer of Social Impact Investing

If you look at the countries in the world that are leading in their levels of reported happiness, it's countries such as the Nordics- Denmark virtually always comes out on top. The countries where people are happiest are ones which are much more domestically oriented and not seeking world-power.

— Richard A. Easterlin
Economist known for the Easterlin Paradox on income and happiness

To me it was an adventure. I'm a hardened explorer and adventurer, and I remember the whole mission as an adventure with some awesome experiences and beautiful sights.

— Charlie Duke
Astronaut on Apollo 16 Moon Landing Mission

There is also a huge cultural misconception that heart disease is the patient's fault, they did something wrong to themselves. When we blame individuals and not the society that created those risk factors and behaviours, we don't react as forcefully as we could.

— Haider Warraich
Cardiologist and author specializing in heart disease and public health

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Long-form Interviews with the World's Leading Thinkers — Thought Economics


The Wisdom Series

Ten in-depth articles distilling insights from over 550 interviews with the world's leading thinkers, creators, and changemakers.

The Wisdom of Leadership The Wisdom of Entrepreneurship The Wisdom of Creativity The Wisdom of Technology The Wisdom of Meaning The Wisdom of the Mind The Wisdom of Justice The Wisdom of Science The Wisdom of Geopolitics The Wisdom of Health
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