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As members of the Giving Pledge, Melanie and Richard Lundquist have given more than $400 million over the past decade to critical causes ranging from educational opportunity to health care access to climate change mitigation. What drives a modern philanthropist to do what they do, what models of giving work best, and where are the opportunities for private dollars to make...
Raised by uncompromising survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover survived extreme adversity, from never being allowed to go to school, to suffering serious physical injuries (and a dad that prohibited doctors or hospitals), to being at the mercy of a volatile and often abusive older brother. How did she not only make it through this childhood, but ultimately...
For over a decade, Ascend at the Aspen Institute has lifted up parents’ voices and experiences to inform bold solutions for economic mobility in the United States. How does lived expertise influence the way programs and policies are created? What can we learn from a new wave of philanthropic efforts to invest in communities and their parent leaders? Four dynamic leaders sh...
If climate change is the issue that defines the 21st century, how are we preparing the next generation to lead on this challenge? Deans from two of America’s top institutions focused on climate — Stanford and Columbia — discuss their approach to educating tomorrow’s leaders with a person key to hiring them: the chief sustainability officer at General Motors.
From purple mountain majesties to cities built on coastlines, American landscapes are as diverse as the people that inhabit them. How does our relationship to the outdoors define us as individuals and as a nation? In his new PBS show “America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston,” comedian and civic educator Baratunde Thurston explores this question, uncovering America’s compl...
When the US Supreme Court rolled back the 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion, attention immediately turned to the health and economic significance for women forced to carry an unwanted or risky pregnancy to term. Those profound concerns persist, but a year later, numerous unanticipated consequences are also coming into focus. The tentacles of impact stretch in al...
In aggregate, men in America are suffering. As many as ten million are missing from the workforce; jobs their fathers and grandfathers held have been automated and outsourced. Millions fewer boys are enrolling in college. Tens of thousands perished last year, victims of the opioid epidemic. One in ten black men in his thirties is incarcerated. What is the story behind all...
At first blush, this year might be considered the year of parental power, with the proliferation of parental bills of rights across the country that put limitations on what can be taught in public schools and allow objecting parents to seek removal of books from the school library. These bills and similar legislation purport to provide parents a greater voice in their chil...
For decades, diet and exercise fads have promised to shrink waistlines, build muscle, detoxify, and so on. But evidence is mounting that there’s no one diet or routine that works for everyone. Researchers are experimenting with AI to determine personalized nutrition algorithms based on an individual’s health, lifestyle, physiology, and immune system. Christie Aschwanden, a...
As income inequality grows, leaders have the power to unite and divide us. The Aspen Institute Ascend Fellowship invests in diverse, entrepreneurial leaders from a range of sectors who have breakthrough ideas to build economic security, educational success, and health and well-being for families in the US. Hear from several dynamic leaders from the Ascend Fellowship on the...
The Bauhaus was among the most progressive art schools in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. While it existed for only a brief period of time, from 1919 to 1933, its influence on international art, architecture, and design, as well as on educational theory and practice, is unparalleled. A key figure in the history of the school was Herbert Bayer, a Bauhaus maste...
How do we develop scalable policy solutions that will empower families throughout the United States to rise out of poverty and achieve better life outcomes? How we can improve children’s opportunities in communities that currently offer limited prospects for upward income mobility? Award-winning Harvard scholar Raj Chetty, whose research focuses on equality of opportunity...
Whom do we trust to tell us what to read and, perhaps more importantly, should we trust anyone to tell us what not to read? And why? We put our trust in people and organizations for so many facets of our lives and our children’s education, but the perennial issuance of banned-book lists elicits confusion, questions, and controversy. The chief executive of the nation’s larg...
Three of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning are now led by women with broad accomplishments in health-related fields. Elizabeth Bradley, Vassar College’s newly appointed president, has helped to strengthen health systems around the world; Paula Johnson, president of Wellesley College, has special expertise in women’s health and gender biology; Ka...
In a time of uncertainty, rapid change, and disruption, who is best positioned to move society forward? Many are losing faith not only in government, but in the institutions of journalism, nonprofits, and higher education. What role should these organs of civil society play in today’s fractured world, and how can people of good will come together to best make a difference?...
By some measures, American women are enjoying more opportunity today than ever before. And the #MeToo movement brought women’s stories of surviving harassment and assault to the center of the national conversation in an unprecedented way. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that critical disparities persist when it comes to income security, health and reproductive rig...
Featured Ideas Festival Scholars include Lashon Amado, María Teresa Kumar, Michael McAfee, and Eshauna Smith. Fueling today’s highly charged political environment is the growing sense that opportunity is elusive and inequality is rising because our national economic policies unfairly disadvantage the middle class. Millions of Americans believe they’re pawns in a game they...
A society that dedicates resources to women is certain to be a healthier society. Ensuring equitable access to education, healthcare, and entrepreneurial opportunities can nurture family well-being and support thriving communities. Yet the pandemic dealt a bitter blow to global progress, sending 47 more million women into extreme poverty, escalating sexual violence, and un...
Cities’ identities are made and remade over time by their cultures, but is a city’s cultural identity integral to its survival? When infrastructure is crumbling, public education funding has flagged, and the world of art and culture is accessible on any device with an Internet connection, is there still a specific, irreplaceable value inherent in the cultural identity of a...
They’re up, they’re down, they’re up again — at least that’s what it looks like from the outside. But maybe the myths we perpetuate about the adolescent emotional roller coaster represent a cultural habit more than reality. Is understanding how humans experience feelings over the course of a lifetime the key to understanding teens? Join us as we explore how parents, coache...