A global network of thinkers navigating change through ideas
what we do
We develop new conceptual frameworks to meet the challenges & harness the opportunities of the arriving future
Our work forges new frameworks of thought in democracy, capitalism, planetary politics, science and technology, and philosophy and culture. We foster dialogue between East and West, and develop shared perspectives for our world. Our goal is to create a planetary network of thinkers from diverse disciplines and cultures. We believe these thinkers—connected and emboldened—can reshape our social and political institutions, and drive solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time.
featured
UCLA x Berggruen Institute
2026 Berggruen Governance Index
The Planetary x Natural History Museum
Berggruen Institute's Planetary Program Joins NHM's First Fridays
Berggruen Institute Europe
Collana dei Tre Oci Subscription
Berggruen Institute China
Berggruen Institute China 2025 Annual Report
The Planetary
Explore the Planetary Compendium
Noema
Introducing Noema VI: Paradigm Shifts
Future Humans
Discover Proxima Kósmos, a speculative exploration of life beyond earth
Future Humans
Enter the Future Wunderkammer
featured
UCLA x Berggruen Institute
2026 Berggruen Governance Index
The Planetary x Natural History Museum
Berggruen Institute's Planetary Program Joins NHM's First Fridays
Berggruen Institute Europe
Collana dei Tre Oci Subscription
Berggruen Institute China
Berggruen Institute China 2025 Annual Report
The Planetary
Explore the Planetary Compendium
Noema
Introducing Noema VI: Paradigm Shifts
Future Humans
Discover Proxima Kósmos, a speculative exploration of life beyond earth
Future Humans
Enter the Future Wunderkammer
The Latest from Futurology
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on Spectacles and the Future of Real Life
Was “open and transparent” social media ever a good idea? Evan Spiegel explains why he built Snapchat differently.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Reza Aslan on Our Unwinnable War with Iran
What does it mean for a nation to fight a war it cannot win? Iranian scholar and author Reza Aslan joins Nathan Gardels to cut through four decades of American self-deception about Iran.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Why Big Tech Capitalism Puts Freedom in Danger
Is the collapse of liberal democracy already here? Political philosopher Lea Ypi grew up in communist Albania and watched an entire political system disintegrate overnight. Now she sees a familiar undermining of the institutions the West takes for granted, fueled by Big Tech’s ubiquitous surveillance practices.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Novelist Elif Shafak on Why We Need Faith to Face the Future
We are living through an age of acceleration. The hardest part is not necessarily the pace of change, but the societal whiplash it creates. One decade we are promised a frictionless future. The next we are told everything is collapsing. The antidote is not certainty, but the discipline of holding opposites together, especially in the realms of identity, faith, and doubt.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Neuroscientist Christof Koch on Why LLMs Are Emotional Deep Fakes
Where does consciousness come from, and who (or what) gets to have it? The newest AI models have the power to convince users that they’re very much alive inside. But what if there were a test to check if they’re right? Consciousness science is working on just that.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Welcome to the Multiverse with Google Quantum AI’s Hartmut Neven
Can quantum computing unlock the secrets of consciousness and hasten the arrival of artificial super intelligence? Hartmut Neven, the visionary founder of Google’s Quantum AI Lab, has spent decades pushing the boundaries of what machines can do. Now he’s betting on quantum computing to clear the path for the next era of possibilities.
Listen/Watch on YouTube
Noema Weekly Roundup
The Humility Of Bioscientists
Upcoming & Ongoing Events
May 1, 2026
Life at the Cosmic Scale with Natural History Museum's First FridaysNatural History Museum, Los Angeles, CA
May 6, 2026
Release of 2026 Berggruen Governance Index: The Four Worlds of GovernanceUCLA Kerckhoff Grand Salon Los Angeles, CA
May 14, 2026
Global Thinkers Series lecture with Carlo Rovelli and Roger AmesPeking University, Beijing
May 16, 2026
Berggruen Institute China
May 28, 2026
Berggruen Institute China
our themes
Renovating Democracy
Bringing together public leaders and thinkers, the Renovating Democracy theme is reimagining democratic institutions to meet the challenges of the 21st century, placing the citizen at the center of the democratic process.
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Universal Capital
Global capitalism is the dominant form of economic organization but is unable to address problems such as climate change, wealth inequality, and financial and price instability. Our work in this area develops and implements cutting-edge thinking designed to address these failures of capitalism’s institutional architecture.
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Future Humans
Future Humans connects experimenters, creators, and scholars who are shaping how humans of the future will collaborate with natures and technologies. At the center of these projects is a crucial question: What will life become?
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The Planetary
We are entering a new era, in which our most pressing challenges exceed the narrow concerns of human beings. These challenges call for a conceptual break with traditional human-centered understandings of the world and its politics, toward processes and institutions that are planetary in scale and scope.
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Antikythera
Antikythera is a research and development organization reorienting planetary computation as a philosophical, technological, and geopolitical force. Directed by Philosopher of Technology, Benjamin Bratton, and incubated by the Berggruen Institute, Antikythera produces new philosophies of technology through design studios, salons, and productions that orbit around five core research themes–Synthetic Intelligence, Recursive Simulation, Synthetic Catallaxy, Hemispherical Stacks, and Planetary Sapience.
Explore
In the News
April 30, 2025
“Michael Sandel, a philosopher who is a prophet in his own country.” | Berggruen Prize CeremonyLe Figaro
April 15, 2026
"Michael Sandel saw it coming" | Berggruen Prize Ceremony Recap in the Harvard GazetteThe Harvard Gazette
March 23, 2026
Nils Gilman featured in Foreign Policy, "Electrostates vs. Petrostates"Foreign Policy
March 6, 2026
"Reclaiming Democracy From the Market" Michael Sandel interviewed by Daron Acemoglu in Project SyndicateProject Syndicate
Our Centers
Los Angeles
Los Angeles is a place where innovation and diversity are celebrated, and where far-reaching ideas are given a chance to take root. The city is uniquely suited to be the headquarters for the Berggruen Institute, where the world’s best minds will study the most pressing issues of our time.
Learn more
Venice
Europe’s exposure to the limits of the nation state makes it a unique laboratory to explore our planetary future. The Berggruen Institute Europe attracts philosophers and political thinkers, artists and architects, scientists and technologists, to develop and promote long-term answers to the main challenges of the 21st century by developing ideas that emerge from Europe and address the world.
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Beijing
Established in December 2018, the Berggruen China Center is located at the heart of Peking University. The Center engages with outstanding thinkers on its global platform to examine, share, and develop ideas to address planetary challenges in times of profound great transformation. Intellectual themes for research programs are focused on frontier science, technology, and philosophy; Creative Futures; and Ancient Wisdom and Planetary Governance. The Center funds a fellowship program, supports publications that feature its major research focuses, hosts programs activities such as lectures, workshops, and symposia, and produces multi-media outreach programs.
Learn moreFROM Noema Magazine
Daniele Cavalli
How To Protect Human Autonomy In An Age Of AI
Nathan Gardels
What Separates The Great From The Petty In History
Klaus Thymann
When The ‘Eternity Glaciers’ Disappear
Michael Sandel Interviewed by Nathan Gardels
The Vulnerability Of The Liberal Neutral State
Chris Insana
The Eradication Of Grief
FROM Noema Magazine
Daniele Cavalli
How To Protect Human Autonomy In An Age Of AI
Nathan Gardels
What Separates The Great From The Petty In History
Klaus Thymann
When The ‘Eternity Glaciers’ Disappear
Michael Sandel Interviewed by Nathan Gardels
The Vulnerability Of The Liberal Neutral State
Chris Insana
The Eradication Of Grief
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