Aspen Ideas to Go

We may have moved from a time of reckoning on racial equity to a time of transformation, says business leader Dr. Rohini Anand, and that gives her hope. The author of “Leading Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: A Guide for Systemic Change in Multinational Organizations,” Anand advises leaders all over the world on how to get to work and make DEI improvements that stick. Each situation is uniq...

The cornerstone of democracy is the principle that all citizens have the right and ability to participate in their own governance, either directly or via representation. While many Americans today may believe that we’ve lost sight of that inclusive ideal, Rashad Robinson, racial justice activist and the president of Color of Change, points out that for some, the system has never worked as well as...

Anthony Doerr is probably best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the Light We Cannot See . Just like that book, his latest work, Cloud Cuckoo Land , features protagonists who are dreamers and outsiders who find hope in the midst of danger. He talks with Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes , about the inspiration for his latest book and its focus on technology, destruction, prese...

People have been thinking about happiness for thousands of years. In fact, ancient thinkers came up with strategies for cultivating pleasures over a lifetime, or creating a lasting capacity to take joy in the world. This long-term flourishing is different from immediate pleasures — it’s a richer notion of happiness. Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale and an expert on human cognitio...

Even though women are likely to live longer than men, their hormonal changes make them far more susceptible to age-related memory loss like Alzhemier’s disease and other conditions. Yet gender is often not a primary consideration by the medical community  — but more and more research shows that it should be. Professor of neuroscience, neurology, and radiology Lisa Mosconi directs the Women’s Brain...

It used to be that having a “bird brain” was an insult. Now, it’s practically a compliment! Turns out the brain of a bird, which is small enough to fit into a nut, is full of neurons. These animals are capable of complex cognition — they can solve problems, count, understand cause and effect, and even communicate in ways that resemble language. Jennifer Ackerman chronicles birds’ intelligence in h...

In the 1950s and 60s, mental health providers used psychedelics to help patients open up about difficult memories. Then, the drugs were banned. Now there’s a resurgence. Psychedelics like MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine are being studied as solutions for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Findings show that drugs like MDMA are especially useful in the context of healing from trauma. Rachel Yehuda, dire...

The global Covid-19 pandemic has worsened inequality. Oxfam International found that while billionaire fortunes returned to pre-pandemic highs in just nine months, a recovery for the world’s poorest people could take over a decade. In the United States, wealthier people have kept their jobs and decreased their expenses as they transitioned to working from home, while others have either gone to wor...

The Covid-19 vaccine was developed at an unusually rapid pace, and now the public's expectations are high for what science can deliver. It's a good thing we're in a science moment . Gobs of data are being produced, researchers are collaborating more, and the public is engaged. But is the pace of discovery keeping up with the science? Alison Snyder, managing editor at Axios, interviews Darío Gil, s...

Current political fault lines are fracturing American society as people grow farther apart from one another due to differing beliefs and opinions. We often see people we disagree with as caricatures, and think we can never reconcile our differences. Yet despite that sense of contradiction we are much closer to each other than we think. To bridge the divide, we have to strengthen the bonds that mak...

Longtime food journalist Mark Bittman says America's food system needs to be reimagined so land is used fairly and well and people have access to food that promotes health, not illness. His latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal , tells the story of humankind through the lens of food. The frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most ca...

It's clear the United States isn't united right now. A Pew Research poll done before the 2020 election showed about 9 in 10 voters worried a victory by the other party would lead to lasting harm for the country. Our partisan divides aren't just endangering relationships and slowing progress in Washington, they're threatening our national security. "The greatest gift the United States can give to o...

Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features Gayle Smith, the State Department’s coordinator for the global response to Covid-19. Watch her full conversation from the Aspen Security Forum. The talk was co-presented with the Aspen Institute Health, Medicine, and Society Program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYXL0PpkvYE Follow us on instagram...

We try our whole lives to avoid pain and suffering and when it does show up, we try to solve it. In her new book, No Cure for Being Human , religious scholar Kate Bowler says we try to out-eat, out-learn, and out-perform our humanness. Truth is, bad things do happen to good people and if we're going to tell the truth, we need one another. As someone who lives with cancer, Bowler knows first-hand a...

Want to raise creative kids who learn how to think for themselves? Go easy on the rules.  Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at The Wharton School and author of The Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. Listen to his entire talk from the Aspen Ideas Festival https://www.as...

Norms in newsrooms across the United States are being upended thanks to deep polarization, a racial reckoning, and the pandemic. Hallmark journalistic traits like neutrality and objectivity are being redefined. Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR, says it's impossible to be objective, and journalists have long been advocates for the status quo. “We’ve seen newspapers apologize for how they covered the...

Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features astronomer Jill Tarter. She co-founded SETI, or the “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.” Watch her full conversation from the Aspen Ideas Festival https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/searching-for-aliens-finding-ourselves Follow us on instagram.com/aspenideas  Follow us on facebook....

When President Biden expanded the nation's Child Tax Credit in March, US Senator Michael Bennet applauded the move. Bennet, a democrat from Colorado, has been working to increase support for families since he introduced the American Family Act in Congress in 2017. Now he wants to make the Credit, which pays most American families $250 or $300/child each month, permanent. He says it will cut childh...

What if the key to a healthier brain is as simple as getting up out of your chair? Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Listen to the full episode https://www.aspenideas.org/podcasts/building-brain-health-at-any-age Follow us on instagram.com/aspenideas  Follow us on facebook.com/aspenideas Follow us on t...

When you tick a box on an online privacy notice, just how much personal information are you giving away? Is the tradeoff worthwhile? When it comes to data, the relationship between companies and consumers is uneven — customers are getting a raw deal because there's no limit on what a company can collect. Whose job is it to regulate this space and better protect consumers' data? Tom Wilson, CEO of...

Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd. Watch her full conversation from the Aspen Ideas Festival https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/the-billion-dollar-bumble-that-changed-the-dating-game-forever Follow us on instagram.com/aspenideas  Follow us on facebook.com/aspenideas Follow us on twitter.com...

Technology has changed the way we think and interact with one another, and social media platforms are intentionally engineered to be addictive and manipulative. Those messages are in the documentary "The Social Dilemma," which was created by Jeff Orlowski's filmmaking company Exposure Labs. "Big social," says Orlowski, is transforming our information ecosystem. He tells Vivian Schiller, executive...

How can technology be used to help people leave conspiracy movements? A technologist for Google weighs in. Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features Yasmin Green, the director of research and development for Jigsaw, a unit within Google that works to use technology to solve global security challenges. Listen to the full episode https://www....

John Hagel, author of The Journey Beyond Fear, says there's increasing fear and uncertainty in the world and it's not just from the pandemic. Competition for jobs, mounting performance pressure, and a rapidly accelerating pace of change are escalating fears, especially in the workplace. But fear exists in other places — far-flung locales few people visit. Alison Levine is a polar explorer who made...

What classrooms need now: A focus on emotional health. Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form. Today’s episode features Tim Shriver, chairman of the Special Olympics and founder of Unite, speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Watch the full conversation, produced in partnership with the Walton Family Foundation:  https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/the-classroom-...