Sunday Pick: The Office’s Rainn Wilson on meaning and happiness | ReThinking with Adam Grant

How does studying the end of time change your perspective of life on Earth? Cosmologist and TED Fellow Katie Mack joins designer and podcaster Debbie Millman to talk about the story of the cosmos — from the Big Bang's ancient light still glowing across the universe to the five ways it might all come to an end — plus what aerobatic flying taught her about staying present. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Did progress on your next big project stall out? Transformation expert Mary Martin refers to this moment as the "messy middle" — the frustrating gap between starting and finishing a goal, when you might lose confidence or give up altogether. Offering three ways to find glimmers of progress when the going gets tough, she explores what to do when you feel stuck. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a self-proclaimed radical street librarian, Storybook Maze makes books appear where they're scarce. Through initiatives like free, public book vending machines and street corner story times, she eliminates book deserts — or areas with limited access to literature — by making books accessible for children in underserved communities. (And in case you're wondering, she shares how you can become a radical street librarian, too.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you ate bread this week (or cooked with salt and oil), you probably benefited from something millions miss out on: food fortification. Social entrepreneur Felix Brooks-church is on a mission to solve "hidden hunger" — malnutrition caused by a lack of nutrients — by fortifying everyday foods for regions of the world hit hardest by food insecurity. Laying out a pragmatic vision to improve food systems globally, he reminds us that hunger doesn’t always look like an empty plate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most of the technology powering life in Europe today — chatbots, the cloud, digital infrastructure — is owned by companies in the United States. Writer and curator Bruno Giussani makes the case that Europe's reliance on American technology has crossed the line from convenient to risky. His answer isn't to go it alone, but to build something the continent currently lacks: a real alternative, rooted in a different model. "Technology that does not spy on you — that should be Europe's digital difference,” he says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.