Aspen Ideas to Go

Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) discusses faith and public life with Jim Wallis. The conversation begins from an agreement that the separation of church and state is imperative but that moral values should not be segregated from public life. Coons, who graduated from Yale Law School and Yale Divinity School, has said, "I think it’s foundational to our country that if we allow people to choose their p...

Scientific evidence suggests that we can change our brains by transforming our minds and cultivating habits of mind that will improve well-being. These include happiness, resilience, compassion, and emotional balance. Each of these characteristics is instantiated in brain circuits that exhibit plasticity and thus can be shaped and modified by experience and training. Mental training to cultivate w...

Maajid Nawaz shares his remarkable journey from Islamist extremism to liberal democratic values. Nawaz is the co-founder of Quilliam, a counter-extremism think tank based in London, and engages in counter-Islamist thought-generating, social-activism, writing, debating, and media appearances. He served four years in an Egyptian prison as an Amnesty International "prisoner of conscience" until he be...

Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor to President Obama, was the chief US negotiator in the secret normalization talks with Cuba and has been a central player in the making of American foreign policy since 2009, both as a key advisor and as the president’s chief foreign policy speechwriter. Rhodes and Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, discuss the worldv...

Recorded just four days after the SCOTUS ruling, this episode features a wide-ranging discussion of the cases and history behind the Marriage Equality ruling. Featuring the legal dream team that helped make this a reality, former Solicitor General Ted Olson and star litigator David Boies. Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General, moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

During the Ebola crisis, strong grassroots relationships and homegrown leadership made the difference between life and death. Drawing on that learning, movers and shakers from the Aspen New Voices Fellowship will share their stories about the silo-busting connections that can be forged under stress. From Sierra Leone to Nepal, these kinds of bonds keep our most vulnerable communities healthier and...

In many ways, artificial intelligence has become the norm. From autopilot on airplanes to language translation, we've come to accept once novel concepts as just something thinking machines do. What we have ultimately learned is that human thinking is just one way of thinking. So, how far will artificial intelligence go? This episode features a conversation between Danny Hillis and Alexis Madrigal....

The discussion of "designer babies" often revolves around gender or hair color, but as Nita Farahany and Marcy Darnovsky explore, the medical debate is far more complicated. Farahany is Professor of Law and Philosophy, Director of Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University; Member, Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Should we screen embryos for disease? Shou...

From co-founding Artists for a Free South Africa, to working in failing schools to turn them around, actor and 2014 Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence Alfre Woodard has played a role in making change as an activist artist. Woodard joins the Aspen Institute's Damian Woetzel in a conversation about her career and work as an artist on the front lines. aspenideas.org

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says that nowhere is America's crisis of violence more evident than in the African-American community.  In this talk, he asks: What’s the real cost of violence? And how do we change it? Since taking office in 2010, Landrieu has reformed the city’s police department and launched NOLA for Life, an initiative to reduce murders. And it seems to be working, at least inc...

What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? Youth culture and technology expert Danah Boyd talks with The Atlantic’s Hanna Rosin about what Boyd sees as the major myths regarding teens’ use of social media, exploring tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Boyd argue...

This episode features Nicholas Burns and Strobe Talbott discussing Russia and Putinism. Burns is director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Talbott is an ASG member and president of the Brookings Institution. In this discussion, they follow up on a lecture Talbott gave at the Aspen Institute back in August. That lecture, entitled "Putinism: The Back Story", focused on Russia’s current policies, turn...

Winner of the 2014 National Book Award, "Redeployment" takes readers to the front lines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Author Phil Klay reads from and discusses this collection of short stories which asks readers to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven are themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival. the chara...

Despite medical advances and the application of scientific principles to modern medicine, there seems to be increasing controversy about the "right" diagnostic and treatment choices, even for very common medical issues – such as how best to treat high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol; whether to take vitamins, and who should be screened for cancer with mammograms and PSA. Doctors Jerome Gro...

Description Some people seem to lead inner lives that are richer and more substantive than the rest of us. How do they do it? In this talk, author and commentator David Brooks explores some of history's leaders in terms of personal character. He asks how love, suffering, struggle, surrender and obedience lead them to their depth. His latest book, "The Road to Character" was released on April 14, 2...

In this lecture, philosopher, cultural theorist, and author Kwame Anthony Appiah rejects the idea that cross-cultural conversations often lead to the discovery of irreconcilable differences. The argument holds that conversations across groups about ethical questions breakdown because each culture has different and incompatible ethical starting points. Appiah maintains such an argument is mistaken....

A professor of public policy at Harvard, Robert D. Putnam has consulted for the last three American presidents and many other leaders around the globe. His newest book, "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis" is a groundbreaking examination of the growing inequality gap and explores why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility. He has written fourteen books and been translat...

At 28, musician Jon Batiste is considered by many to be one of the most exciting and progressive new crossover talents on the scene today. His modern take on the American songbook — equally influenced by his passion for jazz and classical styles, which he calls "Social Music"  — attracts critical acclaim as well as audiences across all demographics. These two New Orleans natives will discuss Batis...

Astrophysicist and writer Janna Levin offers an epic tour through time from the beginning of the universe in a big bang, through black holes, past the emergence of life on at least one little planet spinning in a conceivably infinite cosmic ocean, to the possible end of time. aspenideas.org

Michael Lewis is the author of the bestsellers "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt", "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game", and "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game", among other books. After graduating from Princeton University and the London School of Economics, Lewis worked on the bond desk at Salomon Brothers, an experience he recounted in "Liar's Poker", his first book. He left the fin...

Lawrence Lessig (professor at Harvard Law School) says there's a profound loss of confidence by Americans in their government. In this Aspen Lecture, Lessig shows exactly why Americans are right, and just how we could restore the rightful sense that we have a government that represents us. aspenideas.org

Congressman John R. Lewis (D-GA), civil rights leader, and co-author of the bestselling graphic memoir March: Book One, is the recipient of numerous awards including the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His new graphic memoir trilogy, March, is a vivid first-hand account of Lewis' lifelong struggle for civil and human rights, meditating in the modern age on...

Our interconnected world is susceptible to sudden and dramatic shocks and stresses: a cyber-attack, a new strain of virus, a structural failure, a violent storm, a civil disturbance, an economic blow. Through an astonishing range of stories, Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation and author of The Resilience Dividend: Being Strong in a World Where Things Go Wrong, shows how people,...

Want to be happy? Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has read all of the books and studies about what makes us happy — so you don't have to. By marrying ancient wisdom and new data, he says we can identify what brings the most happiness, and the most unhappiness, to the most people. In short, love people, not pleasure. This Aspen Lecture was recorded live at the Aspe...

Journalist Katie Couric interviews "House of Cards" creator and producer Beau Willimon. Recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the two have a lively conversation about Willimon's career (he studied painting in college and later worked on political campaigns) and the turbulent lives of the show's characters. The third season of the political drama hits Netflix on Feb. 27, 2015. NOTE: This episo...