2024 Schedule

Join us to kickoff Aspen Ideas: Health 2024 with welcome remarks from Aspen Institute leaders, 10 Big Ideas from Aspen Ideas: Health speakers, and a special performance from the cast of the Broadway Show "How to Dance in Ohio."

Barely a dozen years ago, Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues published a paper in Science about CRISPR, the pioneering gene-editing technique that thrilled the scientific community. In 2020, the discovery earned her a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. CRISPR is now a mainstream area of study, with researchers looking at its use not only to advance medicine but also to improve animal health, develop droug...

Mental health crises are plaguing Americans. Despite parity mandates that require mental health services to be reimbursed like any other medical service, clinician shortages, knowledge gaps, inequitable access to services, lack of culturally appropriate treatment models, and stigma combine to undermine effective care. To address the growing crisis, we need more research and a package of supports a...

History was made this year when the first FDA-approved CRISPR-based gene editing therapy became available to patients, designed to cure sickle cell anemia. That represents ground-breaking progress, but the treatment involves a months-long ordeal with often-brutal side effects and it is hugely expensive. With dozens of CRISPR therapeutics in the second phase of human trials, hopes run high that...

The conversation about motherhood and the “power of moms” is becoming more robust and nuanced, and a spotlight is finally being shined on the needs of mothers and their families. Curbing preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth and creating the emotional landscape so vital to health and wellbeing requires passionate activism and advocacy, intentional shifts in cultural norms and national pol...

Mental health professionals consider sociopathy to be a personality disorder characterized by generalized apathy and difficulty internalizing and/or connecting to the learned social emotions. In her new book Sociopath: A Memoir, Patric Gagne freely admits the diagnosis applies to her, and attempts to help readers understand what it's like living with the complex personality type. Sociopathy is “an...

The Broadway musical “How to Dance in Ohio” is the true story of a group of young people with autism preparing for a formal dance. Based on a documentary of the same name, the autistic characters are played by autistic actors in a musical celebration of neurodiversity and the universal need for connection. “If you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person,” says one actor, suggest...

John Fetterman was campaigning for the US Senate when he suffered a near-fatal stroke. Fortunate that a visiting physician was on duty in a nearby rural hospital, Fetterman survived and went on to win the general election. A few weeks after being sworn in, his longstanding struggle with depression intensified and he entered an inpatient mental health facility. He has translated his personal experi...

Climate change, with its global threats to health, could destroy low-lying nations and push as many as 135 million people into poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. But these catastrophic consequences are not inevitable. Acknowledging that the burdens of climate change have been distributed inequitably, and targeting aggressive action specifically to vulnerable populations, could mitigate...

The idea of gathering DNA samples into a vast database in order to identify disease risks and breakthrough therapies was once a distant dream. Not long ago, immunotherapy seemed like pure fantasy. Today, these genetic-based approaches offer patients insights into their risks for developing cancer, potentially leading to new therapeutic approaches, earlier screenings, and prevention, all based on p...

To secure equitable global health and security, the world needs its own immune system. That’s the message from surgeon and author Atul Gawande, who leads global health assistance for the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The current strategy is emergency-driven, rarely going beyond reactive responses to infectious diseases, natural disasters, and the violence that undermines health....

The hormonal changes and hot flashes that accompany menopause are familiar to most women, but the accompanying brain changes have not received as much attention. We now know that the inflammatory responses associated with declining levels of estrogen have neurological consequences, which could explain why women are more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease. The author of The Menopause Br...

Science is confirming what artists have long known—the arts change the body, brain, and behavior. An interdisciplinary new field known as neuroarts is building that evidence and exploring ways to put knowledge into practice. “Imagine a world in which music and the visual arts, dance and movement, theatre and storytelling, architecture and design, and many other art modalities are as common in the...

Featuring inspiring conversations, the closing session is not to be missed. First, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and Jennifer Ashton of ABC News explore the loneliness epidemic and the importance of rebuilding social connection. Next, hear a special performance by cellist Joshua Roman and a conversation between Elizabeth Cohen and Joshua Roman about his Immunity Project aimed at helping others...