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People and families suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia often feel desperate for a cure and will try anything. Unfortunately, no cure exists and not a single treatment has been shown to reverse the effects of these brain diseases once they’ve started. Millions of Americans are afflicted by Alzheimer’s and dementia, and dishearteningly, the numbers are growing. But stud...

Lily Brooks-Dalton is the bestselling author of "Good Morning, Midnight" and "The Light Pirate." Ahead of her appearing at Aspen Ideas: Climate 2024, we caught up with her about how climate fiction lets us imagine new futures, ask hard questions, and sit in the unknown.


Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist and Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy. Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate next week, we caught up with Dr. Hayhoe to discuss tips for talking about climate change with anyone, how her faith informs her climate activism, why environmental guilt-tripping never works, and how to develop real, muscular hope.

It is common wisdom: Inequality is terrible for democracy. What choices exist for executives seeking to invest in democracy and its institutions? The idea that business leaders can keep their heads down and maximize profits, and that liberal democracy will follow, feels flawed in these times. How might business help rebuild our democracy? What are the levers for change? Th...

How is constitutional law being harnessed to address climate change? Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate, we caught up with Andrea Rodgers, Senior Attorney at Our Children's Trust, whose environmental law practice is fighting on behalf of young people and future generations.


When Duke divinity school professor Kate Bowler wrote her best-selling memoir, “Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved),” she was grappling with the consequences of a shocking cancer diagnosis. Many of the common messages about hardship, tragedy and success that she’d grown up hearing – and even studied as a religious scholar – no longer seemed to make...


Ahead of his live taping with actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus at this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, we caught up with him about his intensive research process, the ingredients of a good conversation, and how he gets people who have given thousands of interviews to say something new.

What happens when revolutionary gene editing technology is applied to human health and climate? Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Climate, we caught up with Brad Ringeisen, Director of the Innovative Genomics Institute, about using CRISPR for climate change, how biotechnology can help feed the world, and why plants are carbon capture superstars.

After Aspen Ideas: Climate 2024, we caught up with speaker Rich Powell, the CEO of ClearPath who advises policymakers on energy innovation and emissions reduction. We interviewed Powell about bipartisan climate conversations, how to remove roadblocks to building new clean energy projects, and the private sector's role in the energy transition.


Rodney Foxworth says the racial “wealth gap” is a misnomer because it implies something that’s achievable to close. “Wealth chasm” is more on the nose since we’re talking about disparities created by centuries of oppression. Growing up in Baltimore, Rodney witnessed firsthand what many Black and brown communities face in America—systemic racism, over policing, economic dis...

Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. Perry's latest book, South to America, was the 2022 National Book Award winner for nonfiction. We caught up with her about how she defines love of country, why the best writing is a conversation, and how books are invitations into each other’s imaginations. Perry spoke at the 20...

Perspective, identity, history, commodity, race — these are just a few of the issues conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas explores through his work. He’s the 2024 Aspen Institute Harman/Eisner Artist in Residence, and we were thrilled to host two of his artworks at this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival. We caught up with him about how art helps him make sense of the world, what...


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 –...


Does it feel like the quality of our national discourse has gone down in the last several years? You’re not the only one who’s noticed. It’s not individuals who have gotten stupider, says NYU social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, but it’s our collective intelligence that’s suffering. Institutions aren’t getting as much done, and leaders are making rash decisions under the pr...


How can ethical corporate culture benefit the bottom line and boost productivity?


For years, Yale undergraduate students have lined up to take a wildly popular course called Life Worth Living. Bucking the highly competitive tone you might expect at an Ivy League school, the class teaches students to look beyond traditional markers of success for deeper meaning. Theology professor Miroslav Volf is one of the co-teachers, and also one of the co-authors of...