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The pandemic has exposed long standing inequity when it comes to access and adoption of critical technologies, from broadband connections to laptops to digital literacy. These are the necessary conditions for children to learn, for young adults to acquire needed skills, for adults to find jobs, and to ensure everyone has access to the services they need. In this conversati...
The reality of educating children during a pandemic can be overwhelming. Learn how educators and policymakers are working to ensure every child is digitally connected.
Perhaps the most palpable of the pandemic’s economic aftershocks have been dramatic and widespread supply chain disruptions, which have upended expectations for businesses and consumers across the country and the world. Companies that rely on the production of semiconductor chips — think computer companies, automakers, and producers of any kind of “smart” device or system...
Meet Neale Batra, a 2022 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who's on a mission make the field of epidemiology more efficient, collaborative, and equitable through open-source software and training resources.
Kai-Fu Lee, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, gives AI a B- for its performance during the pandemic. It’s far from perfect, he says, but gets a solid pass for its contributions to contact tracing and containment in China, where Lee lives and works. Importantly, he says, advances in artificial intelligence give us plenty of reasons to believe that the next...
In the third year of a global pandemic, many American workers have a new relationship with their work. Whether they are navigating new working models, striving for better work-life balance, or feeling anxious about their financial resiliency amid rising inflation and economic uncertainty — work looks and feels different than it did in 2020. Employers, meanwhile, face a num...
From blockchain to back to school and virus-hunting to bridging divides, speakers at the 2021 Aspen Ideas Festival addressed issues in a new kind of world—one touched, and changed, by the pandemic. Our speakers looked to the future and discussed the biggest, boldest ideas. Here's a sampling of the some of the Festival's conversations.
Disinformation online is on the minds of voters, candidates, government officials, and technology platforms as the US election gets closer. Already experts have seen disinformation campaigns around the Covid-19 pandemic, which could spell trouble in November.
Coming out of the COVID pandemic, airlines are bracing for a wave of passengers that will, ideally, revive the struggling travel industry. In this conversation with United CEO Scott Kirby, Walter Isaacson will dive into the goals of a company recently in the news for its next big bet — supersonic jets — but also for its commitment to sustainability. How will we travel into...
There’s a mental health crisis plaguing America’s youth. The last decade saw major increases in adolescents who reported having a depressive episode, and “serious loneliness” affected a majority of young adults—and the global pandemic has likely worsened these conditions. The stats are staggering, but we need to do more than just talk about them, and come together as paren...
The older we get, the more we need our friends — but the harder it is to keep them. This is an aphorism in the best of times, but it’s tragically true after more than two years of pandemic. Jennifer Senior's story, "It's Your Friends Who Break Your Heart," published in The Atlantic last winter, touched a nerve and went viral. Are we seeing a fundamental shift in the nature...
As scientists work to develop a vaccine to battle the coronavirus pandemic, many people question whether the process has been rushed and if the results will be effective and safe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for approving new vaccines in this country. FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and former FDA commissioner Dr. Peggy Hamburg say the agency use...
The world is different in 2022. As we begin to emerge from a global pandemic we’re faced with a barrage of new crises that are shaking nations to their core: war, food shortages, broken supply chains, bioterrorism, energy shortages, and inflation. Will data-driven intelligence, now a critical component for countries, business managers, and economic enterprises large and sm...
Instead of coming together during the pandemic, many Americans have grown farther apart. People are increasingly living in different realities of news, politics, and information, which is putting public health, elections, and democracy at risk. False and misleading information online are partly to blame, says Vivian Schiller, director of Aspen Digital. "Much of this stems...
As the nation’s top doctor, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy helps to advance the health and well-being of all Americans. He has described the growing youth mental health crisis in America as the “defining public health crisis of our time” and warned that social media carries a “profound risk of harm to the mental health of children and adolescents.” Murthy has also highlig...
In the face of the pandemic, technology became an important part of how we accessed care almost overnight. Suddenly, physician video consults became standard practice, tests and devices were routinely used to diagnose and monitor disease at home, and new software was connecting people with the information they needed from the convenience of their phones or tablets. This ch...
David Agus, author of "The Lucky Years," says we’re living in a golden age when the latest science and technology can customize care.
With many students returning to school from the comfort of their living rooms, educators are using this unique period to address long-standing problems of equity.
Soon, we may be able to visualize any biological process in the human body, at any scale, in real time. Here’s what it will take to get there. Presented by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.