Personal Growth — April 22, 2011

World’s Most Influential Women

A record 34 women made Time magazine’s 2011 list of the world’s 100 most influential people. But why weren’t there 50? And after featuring last year, why is Sarah Palin missing?

bigthinkeditor

What is the Latest Development?

This year’s Time magazine list of the most influential people in the world features 34 women, a record number for it, and up from 31 in 2010. Women of very recent impact have been included, such as controversial “Tiger mom” Amy Chua, Pulitzer fiction winner Jennifer Egan, newly appointed Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and soon-to-be royal Kate Middleton. However, Sarah Palin, who featured prominently last time, is absent this year. “Why might Palin have been omitted? Is she losing traction?” asks Jenna Goudreau.

What is the Big Idea?

“Influence is impossible to measure,” says Time editor Richard Stengel. But some things can be measured and the statistics speak for themselves. “Women do two-thirds of the world’s work but earn only 10% of the world’s income, and produce half of the world’s food but own just 1% of its farmland. Clearly, influential female voices are needed more than ever,” writes Goudreau.

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

▸

7 min

—

with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Personal Growth

Who Are Your Pride Builders?

Pinpoint the “pride builders” in your organization when you need to implement change. They are a key “viral” factor in igniting the necessary emotional motivation for other workers.