'The Next Big Idea Daily': Why Your Teen Thinks You're an Idiot

The Next Big Idea

Next Big Idea Club

Self-improvement, Arts, Books, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you’ve raised an adolescent (or been one), you already know it’s a life stage that can feel like an emotional rollercoaster—full of drama, defiance, and slammed doors. But what if all that chaos wasn’t a bug but a feature? Today we’re hearing from Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times journalist Matt Richtel, who says adolescence is a brilliant, necessary phase of human development. In his new book ⁠How We Grow Up⁠, Matt explains how teenage brains are wired to question, rebel, and innovate—and how that friction might just be the thing that helps our species survive. 📱 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning, Michael Kavnan.
0:02.1	Good morning, Rufus. How are you?
0:04.2	Just great, man. Let's get right into it.
0:06.8	What's happening at the next Big Idea Daily?
0:09.9	Yeah, well, thanks for asking.
0:11.2	As you know, we are in the business of picking the most interesting new books coming out,
0:15.5	and we ask the authors to share their key insights in under 15 minutes.
0:20.8	They're like itty-bitty little life lessons, mini masterclasses.
0:25.0	That's the goal.
0:26.1	Perfect to listen to with your morning coffee.
0:28.8	And now this week, I've lined up some good stuff on topics like how to have more productive political conversations.
0:35.3	And also the surprising science of headaches.
0:38.1	It's a pretty diverse lineup.
0:40.2	Yeah, we try to mix it up.
0:41.7	Today's episode, I think, is going to be of special interest to you, Rufus.
0:44.9	I happen to know you have a little experience raising teenagers.
0:48.5	Do I ever?
0:50.6	I've got three of them, as you know.
0:53.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:53.7	I've just got one, but I feel you. I mean,
0:56.1	we both know that it's a time of life that can be pretty challenging, pretty dramatic, both for the kids and for the parents.
1:02.7	Tell me about it. Yeah, so today we've got Matt Richtel on the show. He's a Pulitzer Prize-winning science reporter for the New York Times. He wrote a whole
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