2024 Schedule

What health issues will play a role at the ballot box this election season? And will they influence voter turnout? As 2024 campaigns heat up, pollsters want to know what most concerns voters and whether those concerns will translate into political engagement, especially in battleground states. They’ll be polling key voting groups, including women, about their priorities and asking how healthcare a...

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."

In a live podcast recording, health policy journalists talk about hot-button health issues and what they mean for the upcoming election. From the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and prescription drug prices to reproductive rights, gender-affirming care, and veterans’ health, some issues are particularly resonant in local elections, others could have implications for presidential and congr...

Some say we are going over a caregiving cliff—too much demand for too few workers and too little respect for the uncompensated labor of family members. Caregivers don’t have the recognition, rights, or compensation they deserve and families can’t find, provide, or afford help for their youngest, oldest, and sickest members. The invisible and indispensable nature of caregiving came into sharp focus...

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...

Lessening the anguish of firearms injury demands that we reach across ideological divides. No one—not gun owners or health systems, not parents or politicians of any party—considers it acceptable that more than 48,000 Americans died by firearms in 2021 and twice that many were injured. The science of public health tells us how to implement evidence-based strategies that will keep all of us—childre...

Despite great differences in demographics, available resources, disease threats, and the structure of their health systems, all countries need responsive, equitable, and innovative policies to meet population needs. Leaders of national health agencies across the globe come together for a wide-ranging conversation that spotlights their unique and shared challenges and pioneering approaches to refor...

World-renowned cellist Joshua Roman blends performance and storytelling to share his experience with long COVID and the life-altering limitations that nearly ended his career. After a crisis of struggle and self-doubt, Roman emerged with a profound acceptance of who he is, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to deal with a mysterious medical challenge. An intimate musical journey, his Immu...

In less-developed countries, parasitic roundworms can colonize the gut and cause significant intestinal problems. But autoimmune diseases, the devastating package of disorders in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells, are rare in those places. By contrast, in the United States, where roundworm infections are no longer part of the ecosystem, as many as 50 million people suffer with a...

Traditional views of healthcare have built the environment we live in—and reinforced systemic inequities and poor health outcomes. Is our own thinking limiting our ability to truly transform community-level conditions that catalyze well-being? What cross-sector investments and strategies are required to rebuild communities through shifting power, voice and interest for community-led systemic solut...

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...

Today's young people (Gen Z) are the most diverse generation yet, have grown up as digital natives, and report poorer mental health outcomes than previous generations. Venture capitalists and philanthropies have the opportunity to help fuel innovation and growth and usher in a new era of effective, inclusive, and affordable behavioral health care.

Environmental stressors are a more potent influence on human health than genetic predisposition, a finding that has galvanized the emerging, interdisciplinary field of exposomics. Satellite technology, machine learning, and AI models are allowing experts at Mount Sinai’s Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Exposomics to reshape our understanding of what happens to the human bod...

Structural racism, reflected in uneven access to care, inequitable community conditions, and the wealth gap, drives persisting racial disparities in health. Unconscionable differences in life expectancy and the incidence of numerous diseases are the result. The systems and structures at the root of these inequities were created intentionally and need to be dismantled just as intentionally. That me...

In an ailing world, so many people are eager to contribute to their communities and connect with their neighbors. Hear stories of grassroots efforts to improve community health that draw on local talent to meet local needs—grandmothers delivering mental health counseling, volunteers teaching children about healthy food, and artists using murals to strengthen neighborhoods. All build on the recogni...

The healthcare investments venture capitalists make often signal where the entire medical enterprise is headed. Their resources are not unlimited, so decisions about where they place their bets are painstakingly considered. Often, they fund cutting-edge technology, such as gene editing and AI, that will transform the practice of medicine. Sometimes, they favor entrepreneurs who are thinking in new...

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...

The science-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the linchpin of the nation’s public health system. With its state-of-the art laboratories, world-class data analytics, and diverse workforce, the agency monitors emerging infectious diseases, ensures emergency preparedness, galvanizes community-focused responses to vaccines, environmental threats, workplace safety, opioid use, a...

Opportunities and risks evolve as we reach the age of 50 and consider how best to celebrate our second half of life. With people living so much longer than in the recent past, cultivating health-building habits and putting supportive public policies in place has never been more important. Developing social connections, fostering a sense of purpose, and soliciting advice from those who are thriving...