Aspen Ideas to Go

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 this timeless talk at the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival. aspenideas.org

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 Ideas Festival, the three panelists bring personal and academic experience to this weighty conversation. Harvard historian Vincent Brown, British TV presenter and historian David Olusoga and former BBC journalist and reparations advocate Laura Trevelyan discuss the meaning and practical application of reparations and restorative justice. New York Times editor Dean Baquet moderates the talk and takes questions from the audience. aspenideas.org

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 panel from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, the chief heat officer for Miami-Dade County, Jane Gilbert, joins the chief heat officer for the city of Los Angeles, Marta Segura, to share their learnings and innovations in these brand new positions. Rolling Stone journalist Jeff Goodell, the author of “The Heat Will Kill You First,” brings a wider lens to the issue. NBC News correspondent Liz Kreutz moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 the youth mental health crisis and raised the alarm about social media use. Kaya Henderson is the executive director of the Center for Rising Generations at the Aspen Institute, after spending years as an educator and entrepreneur. Both see the need to address this problem holistically and see kids as more than future workers. Former university administrator Dan Porterfield, now the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 historian, writer and TV presenter David Olusoga joins UK government technology advisor Karen McLuskie and tech philanthropist Vilas Dhar of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. The executive director of Aspen Digital at the Aspen Institute, Vivian Schiller, moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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’ lives, and maybe our own. Neuroscientist Celine Halioua founded her company Loyal when she was just 24, and is close to getting FDA approval for the company’s first drug. Daniel Promislow, a biogerontologist at Tufts University, founded and leads the Dog Aging Project, collecting data on dogs across the country from all walks of life. The Aspen Institute’s executive vice president, Eliot Gerson, moderates this feel-good conversation recorded at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival in June. aspenideas.org

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.”Journalist Katie Couric interviews Fonda at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival about this stage of her life and activism. Their conversation was recorded in June. aspenideas.org

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 poor or low wage, which means making less than $15 an hour. And in his book released earlier this year, “White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy,” co-written with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, he tackles misconceptions about race and poverty that keep people divided and powerless. The myth that all poor people are Black hides reality and exploits racism to ensure that nothing changes. In this talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival in June, Barber talks with longtime public servant and former mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu, about what poverty really looks like and why the issue has been so distorted. aspenideas.org

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 years, and now sits on the boards of Amazon and Philips. Representing the public sector, Mitch Landrieu is former mayor of New Orleans, and most recently served as Infrastructure Coordinator for President Biden. Veteran journalist Katie Couric interviews the leaders at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival in June. aspenideas.org

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 responsibilities that come with charting new technological territory. This conversation was recorded at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival in June. Altman said publicly in late September that OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit, is considering converting to a for-profit company. The day before that announcement, three top executives resigned from the company, but Altman said those departures were unrelated. Despite internal turmoil, OpenAI reportedly raised $6.6 billion in early October, which follows a funding round of $10 billion in January. aspenideas.org

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 economics professor David Daokui Li and U.S. Naval War College professor Andrew Erickson for a lively and informative discussion. Historian and Hoover Institution fellow Niall Ferguson moderates. aspenideas.org

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 talk from the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival, civil rights attorney and scholar Sherrilyn Ifill of Howard University School of Law makes an inspiring case for a third American founding. Law professor and writer Jeffrey Rosen, now CEO of the National Constitution Center, joins Ifill in laying out the historical legal context for this bold idea. aspenideas.org

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 climate envoy and U.S. secretary of state John Kerry joins Anne Finucane of TPG Rise Climate Fund and Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the global energy and climate innovation editor of The Economist for a strategic conversation at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival on how to get funding for climate mitigation projects to move faster. MSNBC business correspondent Stephanie Ruhle moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 Brous is the founder and leader of IKAR, a nondenominational Jewish congregation in Los Angeles. Humanist chaplain Greg Epstein works with the populations at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Union Theological Seminary professor and the former director of the Religion and Society Program at the Aspen Institute, Simran Jeet Singh, introduces and moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 is Taiwan’s first Digital Minister, and led a successful effort to safeguard the country’s January elections. Michigan’s Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, has been through the past two election cycles and received national recognition for her special attention to tech interference. And Ginny Badanes manages Microsoft’s Democracy Forward program, focused on addressing global challenges to democracy. The Vice President and Executive Director of Aspen Digital, Vivian Schiller, moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 and roadblocks in our current system. President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband, brings the aid organization outlook. New Yorker staff writer Jonathan Blitzer has reported on immigration for years. U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw from Texas sees the political fight from inside Congress. And Marcela Escobari serves the public as coordinator for the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, and is also a special assistant to President Biden. NBC News journalist Rebecca Blumenstein moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

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 fostering progress. He believes friction and regulation aren’t necessarily a bad thing for an industry that could literally change the way we think about ourselves as humans. Suleyman is the bestselling author of “The Coming Wave: Technology, Power and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma.” Their conversation took place at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival. aspenideas.org

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 Dartmouth and L. Song Richardson, formerly of Colorado College, bring the perspective of leadership to the conversation. Theo Baker, a Stanford University student and investigative journalist known for exposing falsifications in the former Stanford president’s research, speaks to the student experience at a well-resourced institution. And the CEO of U.S. News and World Report, Eric Gertler, explains how the higher education watchdog publication is observing the landscape. Financial Times editorial board member and columnist, and provost of Kings College, Cambridge University in the UK, Gillian Romaine Tett, moderates the discussion. aspenideas.org

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 Festival why he’ll likely still vote for Trump in 2024, but not donate to any campaigns. Co-anchor of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Andrew Ross Sorkin presses Thiel on what another Trump presidency could mean for the country and democracy. Since this conversation was recorded on June 27, Trump selected Thiel’s mentee J.D. Vance as his vice presidential pick, and Thiel reportedly may be warming up to stronger support of the campaign. Sorkin also picks Thiel’s brain on the future of AI, cryptocurrency and cultural clashes in Silicon Valley and the tech world. aspenideas.org

Sizable electorates around the world are flocking to populist candidates who promise power, domination and a return to better times. The global experiment in liberalism seems to be suffering a setback. In his latest book, “Age of Revolutions,” journalist Fareed Zakaria teases apart the foreign policy decisions that got us to this point. Several U.S. missteps, such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 2008 financial crisis, eroded trust in the vision of the American project, he says. And growing individual liberty and choice sparked a backlash among those mourning a cohesion they believe their society used to enjoy. New York Times columnist David Brooks, interviews Zakaria and takes questions from the audience. aspenideas.org