Aspen Ideas to Go

For centuries, people have tried to get to the bottom of what makes us happy. Recent studies show regular sex makes people happiest and commuting is when we’re most unhappy. And, happiness levels fluctuate throughout life. “Happiness follows a u-shaped curve,” says author and columnist David Brooks. “People are happier in their twenties. They typically decline and hit their bottom happiness category at age 47 and they tend to get happier as they get older.” These findings, though, may not tell the whole story. How does the consideration of purpose, meaning, and virtue change the definition of happiness? What can we lea...

Being a parent today is full of stress, pressure and information overload. Experts offering advice are everywhere, and for some parents, the wealth of available resources can make it feel like failure and criticism is inevitable. How do you pick out what’s actually helpful in the limited time you have? This talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival features a panel of moms who are also experts on parenting and child development. Aliza Pressman, MD is a developmental psychologist and co-founder of the Mount Sinai Parenting Center. Grace Bastidas is the editor-in-chief of Parents magazine and founder of a pa...

Using the law to charge and imprison political opponents is a favorite tactic of dictators the world over. In an age of growing global authoritarianism, unscrupulous rulers are getting more strategic about their methods and sharing lessons learned. The fight to free political prisoners is one with moving goalposts for the human rights attorneys and advocates working hard behind the scenes. Jared Genser of Perseus Strategies and Caoilfhionn Gallagher of Doughty Street Chambers, both human rights lawyers, explain how these processes often play out in reality, and where governments frequently fall short. Diane Foley, founder of the James W...

The quest for work-life balance is neverending for many of us. The advice in this talk from the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival still holds a lot of relevance, so we’re bringing it back for a refresher. In today’s world, we tend to switch jobs more frequently than previous generations, and are more likely to have multiple jobs. Side gigs where we express passions or find meaning are also common, and many juggle additional roles as caregivers and community members, as people always have. In short, many of us are focused on a lot more than just climbing a corp...

Today’s boys and young men are having a tough time. By several measures of success and happiness, they’re struggling to keep up and turning to the internet for help, where many end up hooked by extremists. We need to find better ways to frame the problem, support them and push them in the right direction. The solution starts with a frank conversation about what’s really going on, according to the experts on this panel from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival. Richard Reeves founded the American Institute for Boys and Men and wrote “Of Boys and Men: Why the Mode...

Some musicians start with formal lessons and daily practice and some get hooked by picking up a washboard between hopping train cars across the country. Alynda Segarra is the latter type, and it led them to a new life dedicated to music and community in their adopted home of New Orleans. As the band Hurray for the Riff Raff, Segarra has been making music beloved by critics and fans since 2008 and is still going strong. Their most recent album, “The Past is Still Alive,” came out last year. They sat down with poetry professor and host of the PBS seri...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus has kept us laughing for years in her roles as Elaine Benes in “Seinfeld” and Selina Meyer in “Veep.” But her most recent work has her shifting from comedy to drama. She plays Zora in the film “Tuesday” about a mother battling to accept the impending death of her terminally ill daughter. “I really love being an actor, so even the hard stuff has a grip on me,” she tells podcast host Sam Fragoso. A master interviewer, Fragoso is known for eliciting emotions his guests don’t expect. His wide-reaching conversation with Louis-Dreyfus touches on ambition, frustration in showbusiness, L...

Living as a trans person in America comes with its share of challenges, which are sometimes even life-threatening. But some say it can also open up access to incredible freedom. What lessons can we all learn from people who’ve transitioned and transformed? Alok Vaid-Menon is a comedian and writer with remarkable patience and compassion for everyone and their inner journey – even the people sending them hate and death threats. “I am trying to look in their face and say ‘I want you to live,’” they say in a documentary short about them titled “Alok.” Artist and filmmaker Alex Hedison got to k...

The rapid development of the Covid-19 vaccine and the ramp-up of manufacturing and global distribution were unprecedented feats of medical coordination. But those on the inside say it could have gone even smoother and faster, and if we implement the lessons learned we’ll be in much better shape if another pandemic hits. Unfortunately, most global leaders seem to want to just move on and prioritize other issues, according to Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of vaccine company Serum Institute of India. His firm is one of the only family-owned medical manufacturers, and they were able to scale up production dr...

It’s a tough time to try and express the complexity of life honestly. Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie doesn’t shy away from truth-telling and believes we should all step up and do more of it. She thinks there’s more of a political “middle” in the general public than is generally represented in media, and she keeps that group in mind in her work. An essayist, poet and novelist, Adichie published her first novel in 12 years, “Dream Count,” on March 4, 2025. Last summer, she joined podcast host Kelly Corrigan of “Kelly Corrigan Wonders” on stage for the closing session of the 2024 Aspen...

Few working technology reporters have been around as long as Kara Swisher. The start of her career coincided with the emergence of the internet, and she’s interviewed almost all of the major tech players between then and now. She’s still known today for making billionaire founders sweat in the hot seat. But she’s not just a technology critic, she’s also an ardent cheerleader. As she explains in her memoir, “Burn Book: A Tech Love Story,” and in this episode, her tough questions aim to be in service of better technology and a better world. The co-founder a...

Creativity is as intrinsic to our species as any of our basic instincts, says Debbie Millman, designer and curator. But for millions of people in the United States, the ability to create has been thwarted. This basic human need, as important as love and shelter, Millman says, isn’t available for people serving time at the nearly 2,000 correctional facilities across America. In this discussion, moderated by Millman, a group of artists and activists share how they’re working to bring creative outlets to people who are incarcerated. Turns out ushering creativity into these dark and lonely spaces not only incr...

The entertainment industry has had to pivot and refresh time and again to adapt to constant changes in format, business models and attention spans. Somehow, producer Brian Grazer has been able to keep up. The storyteller, who has received multiple nominations and wins at the Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes, manages to find what people connect with and turn it into a hit – and he does this over and over. In this talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, Grazer and the entertainment leader and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner discuss what makes something work and how to go from an...

Advances in medicine and healthy living mean that more and more people will live to be 100. But just because their bodies can last doesn’t mean their bank accounts will keep up. Retirement, and especially a long retirement, takes careful planning and sophisticated financial literacy. It’s impossible to know what the future economic world will look like, but accounting for the unexpected and finding good guidance is essential. In this talk sponsored by Aspen Institute supporter Prudential Financial, two financial planning experts lay out the options for saving later in life and spread the word on the importance of p...

In the early days of cable television, there wasn’t a single network aimed at Black audiences. Sheila Johnson and her husband at the time saw an opening, and put all their hopes, efforts and money into co-founding Black Entertainment Television. The gamble paid off and the channel grew to become an influential and successful part of culture and television history. But behind the glitter, Johnson’s marriage was difficult and degrading and she lost track of herself and her dreams. In her memoir “Walk Through Fire,” Johnson shares what those tough times were like, and how she found her way...

Owning a professional sports team is not for the faint of heart. Results are volatile and wins and losses come with the strong emotions of a city’s fan base. But it’s a sound investment for the right type of business leader, and the value of professional teams has been steadily rising over the past several years. Two legendary owners with very different backgrounds meet for this conversation about what it’s like to have a major stake in the game. Alex Rodriguez wrapped up an incredible career in major league baseball in 2016, after playing for 22 years. He’s gone o...

Looking around and experiencing the suffering and injustice in the world can make it difficult to believe that happiness exists. But the Judeo-Christian tradition teaches that it’s sinful to succumb to despair, and we have a responsibility to ourselves and others to try and find our way through dark times. On the other hand, when you avoid suffering, you avoid meaning, and therefore, you avoid happiness, says professor and author Arthur Brooks. One of the great secrets of happiness, he says, is unhappiness. Spiritual and intellectual leaders may have a lot to offer us about building our lives in...

Millions of children across America don’t have art classes in school and don’t grow up going to art museums and galleries. They might be hours away from the closest museum, or their families might not have the means to bring art into their lives. Philanthropist Alice Walton had that kind of childhood, and wants to prevent as many people as possible from repeating it. When she discovered the art world as an adult, she also learned how insular and urban it was, leaving out so many. These experiences led her to found the Crystal Bridges Museum of Amer...

The extremely wealthy and powerful drug cartels in Mexico operate with near-impunity, perpetuating violent crime and terrorizing Mexican citizens. But they also bring pain and suffering to the United States by importing massive amounts of fentanyl, fueling the deadly opioid epidemic. Drug lords saw an opening after the U.S. government finally stepped in to stop the flow of prescription opioids created by the pharmaceutical industry. A ready-made market of addicted people just over the border provided incentive, and fentanyl was cheaper and easier to produce than other drugs. Anabel Hernandez, a Mexican journalist who’s covered the cartels fo...

This episode is from the 2022 Aspen Ideas Festival, but we’re bringing it back because it’s still as relevant as ever. Though it can sometimes feel like conflict and discord is human nature, our brains are actually predisposed to forming groups and working together. In our individualistic society, we may think our minds stop at our skulls, but when people come together and connect effectively, they actually think in different ways, and they all become smarter and healthier together. Science writer Annie Murphy Paul, the author of “The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain,” joins NYU psyc...

Sir Ken Robinson believed that as a society, we tragically underestimate and underutilize human ability. We create linear systems for our minds modeled on industry and manufacturing, and we fail to honor the nonlinear imagination and creativity inside all of us. As a speaker and educational advisor, Robinson worked with people all over the world in various sectors and settings on helping them reconnect with their natural inclinations and aptitudes. He advocated for educational reform that treated children as individuals motivated by interests and passions. Robinson unfortunately passed away in 2020, and this episode is from our archives. He gave...

Scholars are still uncovering information about Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and its era of slavery, piecing together how the wealth generated from these atrocities shaped the nation’s history. For some descendants, this means just now learning about their families’ roles in and benefits from these horrors. In Britain, a few horrified heirs and private institutions are stepping forward to make amends, but there are few models for what meaningful reparations or restorative justice could look like. Where do we go from here, and what would truly make a difference? In this conversation from the 2024 Aspen...

Each year brings more destructive natural disasters and growing evidence of the challenging future we face if we don’t address climate change. But the biggest cause of climate-related deaths is one that’s hard to see and hardly talked about. Extreme heat killed more than 2,000 people in the United States in 2023 and put intense stress on millions as they faced high costs of utilities and numerous life interruptions. Federal, state and local policy hasn’t kept up with rising temperatures and the scale of the heat threat, and cities are scrambling to adapt and prevent more deaths. In this p...

Young people in America are struggling. The causes are varied and may not be entirely clear, but the results are unfortunately unmistakable. Many of our youth feel lonely, isolated or depressed and struggle to see a future where they can buy a house, have a family or feel connected to their community. The two panelists in this talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival bring a distinct expert perspective, filling out the picture of how to come to the aid of young people and prevent these patterns from repeating. The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has issued advisories on...

Young people in America are struggling. The causes are varied and may not be entirely clear, but the results are unfortunately unmistakable. Many of our youth feel lonely, isolated or depressed and struggle to see a future where they can buy a house, have a family or feel connected to their community. The two panelists in this talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival bring a distinct expert perspective, filling out the picture of how to come to the aid of young people and prevent these patterns from repeating. The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has issued advisories on...

New technologies have always led to changes in society, though not always as quickly or drastically as people feared. Could artificial intelligence be different? Instead of letting a new AI reality unfold amid helpless hand-wringing, what if we tried to learn from the past? In this talk recorded at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, a panel of thoughtful technology experts from various perspectives meet to discuss what might happen in a future AI-infused world. They explore the possibilities between immediate havoc and the eventual end of humanity, and suggest actions we can take to get the outcome we want. UK...

Research on aging and extending life and healthspan has ventured beyond humans to our best animal friends – dogs. In less than a year, dog owners may be able to buy a drug that would extend their dog’s life and hopefully keep it healthier for longer. Especially for owners of big dogs with short lifespans, this could be welcome news. And what the drug developers learn about dog aging might contribute to learnings on human aging. Scientists are also building some of the first long-term studies on dog health that will provide detailed information and important insights on our pets...

After a lifetime of successful acting and passionate activism, Jane Fonda is far from done. At 86, she’s now pouring all of her efforts into pushing for action that will stop climate change, and she’s willing to put it all on the line for this fight. From protesting and getting arrested in DC to talks and appearances across the country, Fonda is lending her famous face and using her platform every chance she gets to ensure our planet has a future. Her latest book, from 2020, is called “What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action.”Journali...

Many more Americans are struggling to survive and make ends meet than is typically portrayed in the media and public policy debates. And when poverty is depicted, harmful and inaccurate stereotypes often contribute to divisiveness rather than sympathy. Outdated measurement systems and unrealistic living standards have artificially kept U.S. poverty rates low over the past few decades. But Reverend William Barber II and his colleagues at the social change organization Repairers of the Breach have worked to correct the data and popularize the true scale of the problem. About 135 million people, or roughly 40% of the country, are considered...

Leaders are the face of their institution, answering for all its missteps and sometimes taking the fall for the actions of others. How can anyone manage that job in today’s divisive world, and why would anyone want to? Three successful leaders come together in this episode for a frank conversation full of wisdom on the recipe for great leadership and recruiting and shepherding the next generation. Darren Walker is the head of the Ford Foundation, and speaks to the challenges of running a philanthropic organization focused on global justice. Businesswoman Indra Nooyi was CEO of PepsiCo for many ye...

Technological innovations are led by people, and in this episode, the leaders of two of the most influential companies in Silicon Valley provide some insight into the human drivers of their products. Sam Altman is co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, which created the artificial intelligence tools ChatGPT and DALL-E. Brian Chesky is co-founder and CEO of Airbnb, which has revolutionized the hospitality industry. Altman and Chesky are also close friends, exchanging advice and support when the road gets bumpy, as it has at times for both. NBC News anchor Lester Holt interviews the founders about the challenges, accomplishments and...

Relations between the United States and China have become increasingly tense over the past few years. Trade wars have escalated, and U.S. national security experts are bracing as China bulks up its military power, purportedly for a 2027 anniversary. If China invaded Taiwan, it would spark major conflict between the two nations. In this June panel from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, experts with varying perspectives debate how to interpret the countries’ recent actions and speculate on where this relationship might be headed. London School of Economics professor Keyu Jin joins Matt Pottinger from research firm Garnaut Global, Tsinghua University ec...

America’s “second founding” came on the heels of the Civil War, when the architects of the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments thought long and hard about how to enshrine civil rights that were truly for all into the U.S. Constitution. Despite an immediate backlash, including from the Supreme Court, and repercussions we’re still dealing with today, that second generation of framers added a profoundly important layer to our legal foundation. With demagoguery on the rise and increasing evidence that social norms are fraying, do we need to do more to protect ourselves and those around us? In this...

If we do absolutely nothing to mitigate climate change, scientists estimate the toll could be $38 trillion a year in damages. Industrialized countries like the United States, China, Russia and European nations are the biggest contributors to the problem, but as things stand, they probably won’t pay most of the costs from catastrophes that happen in other parts of the world. Transitioning to clean energy and staving off the worst possible climate harms will cost less in the long run, but requires investment now. What can spur the private financial sector to get excited about clean energy investment? Former cl...

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...

Almost anyone with a computer can figure out how to make a deepfake photo, video or audio. With a contentious and vitally important election around the corner in the United States, what can we do to prepare for convincing misinformation aimed at voters? Experts around the country and the world have been preparing for this issue, and many have already gone through their own recent elections. At the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, public and private sector officials met for a discussion on how to inoculate voters against bogus content and combat bad actors intent on disrupting democratic processes. Audrey Tang...

It’s been decades since the United States has updated its immigration policies in any sort of comprehensive way, and the problems and suffering at the southern border have persisted. Meanwhile, worsening conflicts around the world push more and more people to leave their homes and try and make their way to America. Immigration is a top concern of U.S. voters, and almost everyone agrees that something needs to change. Why is immigration reform so difficult? Four experts with diverse perspectives meet for a frank and lively panel at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, and point out the gaps an...

Where will artificial intelligence be in five years, or 10 or 20? What happens if the technology is regulated? And if it isn’t? How will it shape the world and the way we live our lives? The CEO of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, has been working in this young field for more than a decade. He knows the AI landscape inside and out, and is a level-headed advocate for the technology’s future. He talks with journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, the co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” about how to proceed carefully and bring out the best version of AI while fost...

The challenges for university presidents keep coming, from Middle East protests to standardized testing and admissions debates, to complaints over classroom content and pedagogical methods. The American public has little faith in college administrators right now, according to polling, and it’s often unclear how institutions can move forward and assuage the critics. Not to mention how to best educate our future leaders and citizens. A panel of wide-ranging experts on college life tackles these issues head on at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, sharing examples from their schools and answering audience questions. Two college presidents, Dr. Sian Beilock of Da...

Whether they publicly tout it or not, U.S. technology companies play a powerful role in politics, cultural issues and the way we live. Founder and investor Peter Thiel is one of the more visible and outspoken Silicon Valley figures. A member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia," a highly successful group of PayPal founders and employees, Thiel waded into the limelight in the lead-up to the 2016 election when he became an avid supporter and funder of the Trump campaign. While Trump and Thiel’s relationship has reportedly suffered since then, he explains in this interview at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Fe...