Aspen Ideas to Go

News reporters have covered the #MeToo movement since it gained ground one year ago. But journalists haven’t just written about the movement, some have experienced sexual harassment and violence themselves. In this episode, a group of leading female journalists share their personal stories and discuss how newsroom culture must shift. What concrete steps can the industry take to serve women current...

Rebecca Traister ’s new book Good and Mad details how women’s anger has erupted into the public conversation. In our first Off Stage interview on women, she tells USA Today Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page that women are “mad that Donald Trump is president and they’re mad about sexual harassment.” Women in the past have been angry individually, but a new movement that emerged following the 2016...

Former treasury secretary Larry Summers has been vocal about his disagreements with the current direction of US economic policy, particularly in the areas of trade, tariffs, and the rethinking of international agreements on commerce and investment. What would he do differently? What do we need to do to really ensure economic growth? He speaks with Jillian Tett , US Managing Editor of the Financial...

In an era when the mainstream media is under attack, New York Times Deputy Managing Editor Rebecca Blumenstein is heartened because more people are paying for news. “Our circulation has almost doubled. People have realized that facts have value,” she says. In her Off Stage conversation with USA Today ’s Susan Page , she talks about fake news, covering Trump, and what advice she would give to young...

Global economist Dambisa Moyo says democracy is in crisis around the world. In her book Edge of Chaos , she explains how voter participation rates are low, money is seeping into politics via big donations, and political freedoms have declined. “We do have democracy on paper, but in terms of the efficacy and efficiency of the democratic process, I think there are deep concerns.” In her conversation...

What does it mean to be American? How is that story best told and understood? New York Times columnist David Brooks talks with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and undocumented immigrant Jose Antonio Vargas about citizenship without certainty. Vargas was smuggled from the Philippines to his grandparents’ home in California when he was 12 years old. He discovered a few years later that he was undo...

What role does faith play in bringing people together? Reverend Adam Hamilton pastors the largest United Methodist church in America. Within his Kansas congregation, he observes deep divisions that reflect the larger disunity in our nation. These divisions, he thinks, are tearing at our social fabric. His plan: to get people to think differently by focusing on influencing, not irritating, and seei...

This spring marked the 15th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, and the war in Afghanistan has gone on long enough that children born after 9/11 are now old enough to enlist in the military. Is there any path out of conflict for Iraq and Afghanistan — for the United States, or for the citizens of the war-weary countries? This episode features individuals who were deeply involved in both confli...

Broward County School District Superintendent Robert Runcie remembers clearly the events of February 14, 2018. That’s the day a gunman killed seventeen people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In this conversation with the Washington Post ’s Jonathan Capehart , Runcie talks about the power of hope and how some of the radical academic changes he brought to the District,...

Sal Khan ’s career journey took him from finance to the classroom. The former hedge fund manager now runs the nonprofit Khan Academy , which provides free online education. He says online learning is changing the way students learn and instructors teach. For classrooms that have integrated the Academy into their lessons, students are learning at their own pace and teachers have more time to tutor...

Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres led the global adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, and continues to fight for the climate today in her work with Mission 2020 . Working to reduce greenhouse gases globally can be frustrating, she admits, but she chooses optimism over pessimism. She recalls a moment where her attitude shifted, “I many years ago, decided — because it is a decision — that...

More than 65 million people around the globe are either refugees, asylum seekers, or displaced within their own countries. It’s the largest number of people forced to flee their homes since World War II. From South Sudan to El Salvador and Yemen to Afghanistan, the International Rescue Committee is working to help people recover and resettle. David Miliband leads the organization and thinks the wo...

How do we save ourselves from repeating errors of our past? Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright poses this question in her new book, Fascism: A Warning . She thinks fascism now presents a greater threat to peace than at any time since the end of WWII. In this episode, she speaks with Aspen Institute CEO Dan Porterfield about what tools in the “national security toolbox” we can use to figh...

Across the US, students are heading back to college for the start of the school year. Many will wrestle with mental health challenges. Campus counseling offices are busier than ever and peer-run mental health clubs are popping up. Colleges are working to keep up as students’ academic, social, and athletic demands sometimes become too much to bear. In this episode, Teen Vogue editor Samhita Mukhopa...

Midterms are often seen as the first nationwide referendum on a first-term president. Donald Trump’s ratings have ranged from low to medium-low, but a “blue wave” of victories is far from guaranteed this fall. Where Democrats strive for inclusiveness with regard to race, gender, and immigration status, critics see “identity politics,” and successfully fending off that critique may determine the pa...

At age 25, Gaby Pacheco was the first undocumented Latina to testify in front of Congress. In this conversation with New York Times Contributing Op-Ed Writer Wajahat Ali , she talks about the struggles immigrants still face years later. She spearheaded efforts that led to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and participated in the Trail of Dreams, a four-month walk from Miami...

In our first “Off Stage” bonus episode, New York Times Contributing Op-Ed Writer Wajahat Ali speaks with former white supremacist skinhead Christian Picciolini . For 8 years, Picciolini was a follower, then a leader in the white supremacist movement. When the people he thought he hated showed compassion, he left the group. Now he helps others disengage from extremism. In this one-on-one discussion...

One year after a deadly hate rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the city continues to heal. White supremacists gathered at the University of Virginia and then in downtown Charlottesville in mid-August last year. Protesters clashed and a young woman, Heather Heyer, died in the fray. Now, the historic city that was once home to Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe is also associated with the white sup...

Russian President Vladimir Putin in July, singled out American-born businessman Bill Browder at a joint press conference in Helsinki, Finland. Putin, standing alongside President Trump, named Browder and his business dealings. Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until he was arrested in 2005 and expelled from the country. His corporate documents were seized by Russian authorities, h...

Is the Republican Party in the United States having an identity crisis? Are the priorities of the Republican Party, conservative ideals, and the Trump administration’s policies aligning? Or, are we witnessing the factions of the party splintering off? Our panel includes Jonah Goldberg ( National Review ), Allysia Finley ( The Wall Street Journal ), Michael Steele (former Republican National Commit...

Since 2016, we’ve watched women rack up unprecedented wins in statehouses, city halls, and even Congress — and thousands more are throwing their hats into the ring. How did factors like Donald Trump’s win and #MeToo influence this wave, and why does the movement seem to be taking hold now? Writer Rebecca Traister (“All the Single Ladies”) leads a discussion with Christine Matthews , president of B...

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats goes over President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in this discussion held July 19th. These are his first public comments after standing by the intelligence community’s findings on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump has questioned the intelligence assessment. Coats manages America’s 17 intelligence agencies and serves...

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has defended the Trump administration’s controversial "zero tolerance" immigration policy that has led to families being separated at America’s southwest border. In this discussion, she addresses illegal immigration, saying it reflects a broken system. Her conversation with Peter Alexander , national correspondent for NBC News, also touches on Russian m...

FBI Director Christopher Wray is firm in his position that Russia was involved in the 2016 presidential campaign. “The intelligence community’s assessment has not changed,” he says, “and my view has not changed, which is that Russia attempted to interfere with the last election.” Wray spoke July 18 at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colorado. His interviewer, Lester Holt of NBC News, also asked...

A lot has happened since US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in May a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal crossings at the southwest border. The family separation policy that contributed to dividing nearly 3,000 children from their guardians was halted and now the US government is working to reunite families. In this episode, Mimi Marziano , president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, tal...