Aspen Ideas to Go

Fertility may be more about the daily choices we make rather than factors like delayed maternal age, says fertility physician Dr. Natalie Crawford. Markers of metabolic health, such as chronic inflammation, affect women’s egg quality. Crawford, who experienced four failed pregnancies before having her children, began studying the link between inflammation and infertility. Taking charge of your fertility, she says, means having early conversations about hormonal health and taking steps, like better sleep and nutrition, to improve your chances of getting pregnant. She speaks with Pamela Brown, anchor and correspondent for CNN, about her new book The Fertility Fo...

As fewer and fewer Americans attend traditional houses of worship, the role religion plays in our society is shifting. People will always hunger for spiritual fulfillment and seek value systems, though, so where will they go to meet those needs? Secular life often still draws from deep religious traditions, and faith leaders are in the best position to offer advice about mixing the two worlds. The panelists from this talk at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival examine the evolution of organized religion from several diverse angles. Krista Tippett is the creator and co-host of the public radio show “On Being,” and...

We all have the ability to be more compassionate, which is scientifically proven to make us healthier, happier, and more connected. It almost sounds like a miracle cure – and it doesn’t even cost anything. So what gets in the way and how do we break down those barriers? Lonnie Ali is the co-founder of the Muhammed Ali Center, which created the Muhammed Ali Index and produced the 2025 Compassion Report. She explains the findings to an audience at Aspen Ideas: Health, joined by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, the director of the Social Connections Lab at Brigham Young University, and Sara Konrath, a so...

It’s tough to prepare for a future that’s impossible to see, but also critical. How are today’s younger generations balancing the need to save money while responding to current economic uncertainty? What does financial security and preparedness look like for older Americans approaching the end of their careers? Penny Pennington, the head of the financial services company Edward Jones joins Vivian Tu, the CEO of social media financial advice brand Your Rich BFF, for a conversation about finding your own definition of fulfillment while achieving financial goals. Kelly Corrigan, the host of the podcast “Kelly Corrigan Wonders...

As humans, we have a deep desire to know we’re needed and that our community values who we are and our contributions. Jennifer Wallace is the author of the forthcoming book Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose. “Mattering is like gravity,” she says, “When we feel it, we feel anchored. We show up to the world in positive ways, we want to connect, we want to engage and contribute.” But, she says, mattering is eroding, leading to loneliness, anxiety, and burnout. She speaks with podcast host and author Kelly Corrigan and Northeastern University psychology...

Gül Dölen is a pioneering neuroscientist in the emerging field of psychedelics. She’s studied how psychedelics may assist in treating trauma, addiction, depression, and even Parkinson’s. A key piece of her research has involved critical periods–when the brain is capable of rapid and deep learning. Psychedelics may be a master key for unlocking these critical periods and curing diseases of the brain. Dölen speaks with Krista Tippett, host of the “On Being” podcast, about what she’s learning about the brain and its capacity to heal. Dölen is a professor at UC Berkeley where s...

The jobs artificial intelligence could replace and the blunders it makes tend to steal all the headlines. But are there also ways we could use AI to actually make us better people? And how would we even define or assess that? At the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, three experts on the human side of this technology discuss what AI is capable of, how it’s limited and how it could be harnessed for self-improvement. UCLA marketing and psychology professor Hal Hershfield joins MIT researcher Pat Pataranutaporn and co-host of the “Hard Fork” podcast, Kevin Roose, for a lively exploration of AI-ass...

Theoretical physicist Brian Greene says science gives him a sense of meaning and purpose because it uncovers how reality is shaped. “When you use physics to understand reality’s deepest workings,” he says, “you feel a kind of cosmic communion by virtue of seeing beneath the surface.” As co-founder of the World Science Festival and a prolific author, Greene has made a career of bringing accessible stories of science to the masses. People will engage with science when it’s visceral and relevant, he says. He visits with Kelly Corrigan, NPR podcast host and New York Times best-selling author, about how we...

Investing in women’s sports is an increasingly appealing and sound business decision, but the sector still has a lot of room for growth. When someone like WNBA star Caitlin Clark comes along, audiences boom and the league benefits. But what happens when she leaves? What will help solidify the business of women’s sports in the long term? In this panel discussion, industry insiders talk about what works and what’s still needed. Carol Stiff, the president of the Women’s Sports Network, joins sports investor and Gotham women’s soccer team governor Carolyn Tisch Blodgett and sports journalist...

Conversations about wellness and our bodies usually don’t focus on what makes all movement possible – our muscles. But these parts of us are more complex than we give them credit for and tied to our overall health in nuanced ways. How we think about strength and muscle also differs based on our gender, upbringing and experience of society. In her latest book, “On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters,” journalist Bonnie Tsui explores how muscles really work, and what doctors and scientists are learning about the importance of strength training and muscle health. In this pro...

Writer Pico Iyer stumbled into a lifelong practice of periodic retreat and reflection after he lost nearly everything in a 1990 wildfire that burned his family’s house down. A friend suggested that he recuperate at a Benedictine monastery near Big Sur, California, and the calm he found there was life-altering. He began returning to the oceanside hermitage regularly, and slowing down became a fundamental part of his life and productive career. In this talk from the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Iyer shares what those times of silence have given him, and how he’s learned to navigate tumult while always comi...

Aspen Ideas to Go teamed up with our friends at the podcast “Life in Seven Songs” for this special episode recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Host Sophie Bearman interviews NPR host and reporter Mary Louise Kelly about seven songs that tell a story of her life spanning war zones, motherhood, hearing loss, and late-in-life love.

Hope seems like a simple concept, but the feeling can be difficult to hold onto. And when times are difficult and chaos swirls around us, it’s more important than ever. How do we find and practice hope when it’s elusive? Spiritual and religious leaders rely on centuries of experience and wisdom to continually guide people back to hope, and this episode’s discussion from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival draws from these experts. Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber founded the House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, and doesn’t shy away from unorthodox methods of ministry. Rabbi Sharon B...

Weight loss and diabetes drugs in the class called GLP-1s have exploded onto the market, starting to put a real dent in the obesity epidemic. And as doctors are gathering more data, it looks like the medications may also provide real benefits for cardiac health, liver disease, kidney function and possibly even addiction and sleep disorders. In this episode, a panel of experts explains how the drugs work, why they’ve been so effective, and how hopeful we might be about other uses. Cedars Sinai cardiologist Martha Gulati joins Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Dr...

Aspen Ideas to Go teamed up with our friends at the podcast “Life in Seven Songs” for this special episode recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Host Sophie Bearman interviews biographer and historian Walter Isaacson about seven songs that tell a story of his life and upbringing in New Orleans. Isaacson was the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute from 2003 to 2018, and is the author of “Leonardo da Vinci,” “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” and “Elon Musk,” among others. His latest book, “The Greatest Sentence Ever Written,” is out on November 17. “Life in Seven Songs” is a production of The San Fr

What does it look like to hope in the face of tough times and undeniable challenges? The speakers in today’s talk might describe true hope as more than a passive platitude, but something closer to a muscle that needs exercise. Krista Tippett, the creator and host of the public radio show “On Being,” reunites with young adult author and MacArthur grantee Jason Reynolds to continue their multi-year conversation about how to find resilience in a world full of obstacles. They explore the relationship between fear and hope, and share experiences of finding light and connection in unexpected places.

Arts institutions carry a responsibility for responding to and driving culture. What does it take to lead these organizations and support diverse groups of artists, audiences, and benefactors? Actress, playwright and professor Anna Deavere Smith leads a frank and deep discussion about the role of museums, foundations, and cultural centers in today’s creative environment. Lonnie G. Bunch III, the head of the Smithsonian Institution, joins Mariko Silver, the CEO of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, and Yana Peel, the president of Arts, Culture and Heritage at Chanel.

Leaders who truly inspire and get the best out of people are few and far between. How do they learn to gain trust and rally a group to action? Steve Kerr has been coaching the Golden State Warriors NBA team for 11 years, four of which have been champion seasons. He joins Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who became the first Black person to hold that office after combat in the Army and a career fighting poverty, for a discussion about leading with respect and purpose. CBS co-anchor John Dickerson moderates the conversation.

Following economic news too closely can give you feelings of whiplash and confusion, and may not speak to your personal experience. What economic information should you actually pay attention to, and how should you interpret what you hear? Former economics professor and head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Austan Goolsbee, and the CEO of polling and analytics company Gallup, Jon Clifton, break down the economic indicators we come across all the time. They tease apart what’s based on data and reality, what’s missing, and what’s hype and fluff. And how consumers react to economic news...

Who would have thought play would be a transformative tool to de-stress and build resilience? Turns out the act, which is different for everyone, is biologically hardwired in our brains. “Everyone has a sense of joyfulness,” says Dr. Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play. He began studying play science after discovering the perpetrator of a 1960s mass shooting lacked play from the time he was born. Play deprivation can have grave consequences, he found, but joyful engagement fuels happiness and intelligence. He joins a panel of play experts including Cj Hendry, an artist whose large-scale installations ofte...

As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and pervasive, how will it affect our work, our lives, and our ability to connect? Brené Brown, research professor and best-selling author says she hears a lot of experts trying to soothe people’s anxiety about the pace of technological change by offering platitudes like, What makes us human will ensure our relevance. This is dangerous because, as she explains, we’re not especially good at what makes us human. We’re not hardwired for the current level of uncertainty, and many of us feel as if the constant need to self-protect is driving...

Many technology companies infamously measure their success based on how long someone spends in their app. That amount of screen time may or may not be good for a person’s wellbeing, but executives don’t see that as their problem. Not all CEOs have fallen into that trap, though. Bill Ready, the head of Pinterest, and Justin McLeod, who runs the dating app Hinge, have different priorities. When the writing on the wall was becoming more apparent and more disturbing, they led resets at their companies and looked for ways to put their users’ health first. Success for them m...

Colossal Biosciences has grand ambitions to bring back extinct species like the woolly mammoth and the dodo. But while it’s still working on those, Colossal surprised the world by announcing in April that it had created three white animals it says are dire wolves — a canine that lived in the Americas and is thought to have been slightly larger than a gray wolf. Colossal’s CEO Ben Lamm explains what it all means and how they brought the wolves into being. CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria interviews Lamm about the buzz Colossal created with its wolves and what’s coming n...

Raising our kids with access to touchscreens and technology at almost all hours of the day is an untested experiment with unknown results. But by many measures, it isn’t going well. For several years, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been collecting and analyzing the data on young people, social media and smartphones. He’s found some deeply troubling trends, which he explains in his latest book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” In a talk at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Haidt highlights his key findings and underscores the seriousn...

A push to expand publicly-funded school choice programs across the country is gaining steam. In only three decades, the practice has grown dramatically and President Trump is supportive of the idea. But what effect do school choice policies have on the K-12 education system as a whole? And where do charter schools fit in this debate? In this discussion from the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, three education experts from various perspectives report on what the data is telling us and highlight the nuances we should be considering. Alberto Carvalho is the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the...

Major forces shaping the U.S. economy are already causing ripple effects across the globe. To say it’s a time of economic uncertainty and transformation may be an understatement. America could see the biggest tariff shock in nearly a century and immigration policy is affecting the labor market. In addition, the Tax Act, or One Big Beautiful Bill, could add trillions to the deficit. Prominent business leaders unpack the situation in a well-rounded discussion on the state of the economy. Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of The Economist, moderates the conversation that includes Blackrock CEO Laurence Fink, Ge...

Regardless of one’s politics, most would agree that America is going through a difficult time. Our rifts seem overwhelmingly deep, and it’s not clear how to repair them. New York Times columnist and writer David Brooks has had his idea of what America is supposed to be and stand for upended in recent years. But he also isn’t giving up. In his 20th talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival, he charts a path of recovery. He looks to history for examples of eras when society’s ruptures reached untenable levels, and to psychology, philosophy, theology and other di...

The United States is in a pivotal foreign policy moment. What can a zoomed-out view of the current world order tell us about where things are going? Several foreign policy experts come together on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival for a discussion on the state of the world order. David Petraeus is a former CIA director and Army general, Susan Rice served as an advisor to both Biden and Obama and UN ambassador, and John Bolton was Trump’s national security advisor for part of the president’s first term. CNN journalist and author Fareed Zakaria keeps the conv...

The mission of the U.S. Department of Justice has been tested over the past few months, as the Trump administration has thrust the agency into the center of several politicized debates. In the current atmosphere, can the DOJ fulfill its job of keeping our country safe and upholding civil rights? Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who served under President George W. Bush, and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who served under President Obama, lend their deep experience to this question in a talk at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival. CNN journalist and author Fareed Zakaria moderates the conversation...

The Middle East is being remade at this very moment. With missiles flying between Iran and Israel with US engagement, and Gaza in rubbles, what will the future hold? Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he hopes for peace. In a wide-ranging conversation with CBS Evening News Co-Anchor John Dickerson, Olmert speaks passionately about the state of his region — from Israel’s war with Hamas and the crisis in Gaza to the likelihood that Iran’s nuclear program wasn’t completely wiped out in the June bombing.

U.S. Government funding for scientific research has led to innovations and breakthroughs for decades. But, with funding freezes, slashed budgets, and the cancellation of grants, the health of America’s scientific enterprise is in jeopardy. What’s at stake – for research, innovation, and the economy? How did we get here, and what will it take to chart a more sustainable path forward? David Leonhardt, director of the Editorial Board of The New York Times, leads a discussion with Holden Thorp, editor in chief of the Science family of journals, Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiology professor at Brown University, and Karel Merten...

Since many Americans’ ancestors arrived at Ellis Island, the United States has experienced surges in immigration. But the largest escalation, surpassing even the peak at the turn of the 20th century, was during the Biden Administration. “In the U.S. and much of the world, we are living in an age of mass migration that has no precedent,” says David Leonhardt, editorial board director at The New York Times. What accounts for this upsurge and why has it fiercely divided republicans and democrats? Leonhardt speaks with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, and ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Rom...

Controversies on college campuses have been near-constant over the past several years, and higher education institutions are now politically divisive targets. Administrators are asked to meet difficult demands and account for the actions of the thousands of faculty, staff and students under their wing. A panel of experts reflect on major recent challenges facing schools and share honest thoughts on previous shortcomings and where to go from here. Michael Elliott is the president of Amherst College, Margaret Spellings is president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center, and Ted Mitchell is president of the American Council on Education. New...

Are you ready for bold ideas and thought-provoking conversations from the world’s top thinkers and doers? From happiness and leadership to AI, global affairs, the arts, and beyond — Aspen Ideas to Go is your front-row seat to the Aspen Ideas Festival where we challenge assumptions and ignite curiosity, one conversation at a time. New episodes drop weekly in 2025. Subscribe now and learn more at Aspen ideas.org/podcast.

In the 1990s, scientists unearthed a striking discovery – there are planets outside of our own solar system. Turns out, many of these planets are in a habitable zone capable of supporting water and oxygen. “The current estimate is about one sextillion habitable planets across the universe,” says Garett Graff, author of UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here – and Out There. Given the huge number of planets and the vastness of the universe itself, it seems likely intelligent life could exist (or may have already come and gone). Graff leads a discussion with Bill...

The nuclear family structure that Americans think of as traditional is actually a relatively recent convention. And for a lot of folks, it isn’t quite working. More and more people are rethinking who they want to live with and how they want to raise children, and are willing to brave legal hurdles and social stigma to give something else a try. Jaymes Black is the CEO of the organization Family Equality, which works to help LGBTQ+ families thrive. They join NPR producer and editor Rhaina Cohen, the author of “The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the...

A privileged childhood in Hollywood surrounded by entertainment industry characters gave actor, producer and director Griffin Dunne a wealth of stories. Some are about the kind of funny and charming encounters with glittery names that you might expect. But others are tragically life-altering, such as his sister’s murder by her ex-boyfriend and the excruciating high-profile trial that followed. Dunne got it all down on paper and published “The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir” last year. He spoke at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival with his longtime friend and fellow actor and producer Fisher Stevens about reliving years of hilari...

Communication is about a lot more than the words coming out of our mouths. We often hear each other, but don’t really listen. Or we understand the literal meaning of what someone is saying, but we seem to miss the point and fail to connect. What’s happening in our brains in those situations? And why is it sometimes so hard to do something we’ve been doing since we were children? New Yorker writer Charles Duhigg set out to find the answers to these questions in his latest book, “Supercommunicators: The Science of Conversation and Connection.” In this talk...

In 2018, professional basketball superstar DeMar DeRozan gave the world a dose of reality when he tweeted about struggling with depression. Even though he was in the middle of NBA All-Star weekend – an achievement many people think is the ultimate dream – he didn’t want to leave his hotel room. He was just looking to be truly seen and heard, but he ended up starting an important conversation and becoming a devoted advocate for mental health issues. And he inspired fellow NBA player Kevin Love to speak out not long after with an essay about dealing with longtime anxiety and depres...

In 2018, professional basketball superstar DeMar DeRozan gave the world a dose of reality when he tweeted about struggling with depression. Even though he was in the middle of NBA All-Star weekend – an achievement many people think is the ultimate dream – he didn’t want to leave his hotel room. He was just looking to be truly seen and heard, but he ended up starting an important conversation and becoming a devoted advocate for mental health issues. And he inspired fellow NBA player Kevin Love to speak out not long after with an essay about dealing with longtime anxiety and depres...