Aspen Ideas to Go

Will a cure for cancer be found in the North Pole? A group of Norwegian scientists are scouring the sea and shore in one of the harshest climates on earth, looking for wonder drugs. Writer Kea Krause experienced their search when she spent twelve days aboard a research vessel in the Arctic Ocean. In this episode, she talks about her journey and why this part of the world may unlock answers to some...

Famed writer and surgeon Atul Gawande believes there’s a gap between our aspiration for how we treat each other and the reality. In this divisive era, it’s especially challenging to see that all lives have equal worth. He explains to Lucy Kalanithi , professor of medicine, how we can bridge the gap. Kalanithi is the widow of the late Dr. Paul Kalanithi who wrote the bestselling book When Breath Be...

Technology is changing who and how we trust. While our faith in institutions such as governments, media, and charities has hit an all-time low, many of us will rent a complete stranger’s home, exchange digital currencies, and trust bots. When we trust Airbnb more than our elected leaders, what does that mean for society? Rachel Botsman , expert in technology and trust, says this fundamental shift...

Why is it so hard to watch our children fail? Why might a highly structured life for a child be a bad thing? And how important is our behavior, as adults, in the development of a child? In this episode, psychologist Angela Duckworth explains how to raise a child with strong character. Duckworth, who’s the author of Grit and a MacArthur “Genius,” talks with Jackie Bezos about how young people learn...

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson. What were America’s Founders like as individuals? And what would they think of American democracy today? In this lighthearted conversation, National Constitution Center President Jeff Rosen interviews David Rubenstein , co-founder of The Carlyle Group, collector of historic documents, and funder of American cultural and educational institutions....

Michael Pollan , author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire , focuses on psychedelic drugs in his most recent book. How to Change Your Mind dives into the latest developments in trials using psychedelic therapy to treat depression, anxiety, obsession, and trauma. For the book, Pollan immersed himself in the psychedelic experience, saying it helped him become more open, emotionally a...

The deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue is the latest hate crime in an especially atrocious period. The number of hate crimes against religious minority communities has surged in recent years, and it’s likely driven, in part, by the country’s deep polarization. Luckily, solutions are surfacing and some are led by this episode’s speakers. Christian Picciolini is a former white supremacist who...

Tech entrepreneur Ash Bhat dropped out of high school and college to pursue digital projects. The 20-year-old’s latest effort: combatting online bots, or Twitter accounts with no human oversight. It’s a job that’s worth a break from school, he thinks. “We have a moral responsibility to make a difference.” With his company RoBhat Labs, he and his co-founder are working to tackle the spread of fake...

Tristan Harris , former Google design ethicist, says the apps we use on our devices everyday are designed to maximize screen time. “Whenever we use these products, we’re activating supercomputers pointed at our brains.” They draw you in and keep you there, he says, and the result is loneliness. Harris, who founded the Center for Humane Technology, talks with Gizmodo’s Kashmir Hill about what we ca...

With the midterm elections around the corner, should internet users be on alert for fake news? As research director at New Knowledge, Renee DiResta investigates the spread of disinformation across social networks. Since the 2016 presidential election, tech companies like hers have taken “meaningful steps,” she says. In her conversation with Kashmir Hill , investigative reporter for Gizmodo Media,...

The forces of division have been tearing America's social fabric for decades. Our country is now dealing with isolation, alienation, and tribalism. But a new coalition of community builders with a new set of beliefs is rising to turn things around. New York Times columnist David Brooks is leading an effort at The Aspen Institute to bridge the differences that divide Americans. In this talk, he goe...

Adam Grant is exploring “how to make work suck less.” For his podcast WorkLife, he visited unconventional companies to discover how to improve the work experience. Grant, who authored Give and Take and teaches at the Wharton School, thinks we should be leading more creative and meaningful lives at work. After all, we spend a quarter of our lives there. He speaks with Mike Kaplan , president and CE...

In June, the University of Chicago announced it will become test-optional. It's the first elite school to do so. The move is part of a bigger effort to expand access to a broader talent pool of well-deserving applicants. But, will removing the requirement that incoming undergraduates submit ACT and SAT scores make a difference? What are the best ways to reach aspiring students who are stopped from...

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...