Walter Isaacson is the Leonard Lauder Professor of American History and Values at Tulane University. From 2003 to 2018, he was president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, where he is a distinguished fellow. Previously, Isaacson was chair of CNN and editor of TIME magazine. The author of “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race,” “Leonardo da Vinci,” and “Einstein: His Life and Universe,” his latest book is “Elon Musk.” Isaacson is a co-host of “Amanpour and Co.” on PBS, a contributor to CNBC, and host of the “Trailblazers” podcast. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Society of the Arts, and American Philosophical Society, he received the National Humanities Award in 2023.
Previously
The Afternoon of Conversation is the Aspen Ideas Festival's pinnacle programming moment. Over 2,000 people gather in the Benedict Music Tent, an open-air venue with acoustics...
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. The rapid growth of generative A.I. —...
The festival kicks off with thought leaders sharing fresh ideas about bridging divides, having better conversations, and encouraging creativity. A conversation with Saudi Arab...
The arts are not a luxury or an escape, but a vital tool for thriving physically, mentally, and spiritually. Neuroscience explains how art changes the body, brain, and behavio...
The last two decades have seen revolutionary transformations in productivity, communications, and industry, generally thanks to the massive applications of technology. There i...
Over the past decade, Walter Isaacson has explored the minds of history’s most curious innovators. Leonardo da Vinci. Benjamin Franklin. Albert Einstein. Steve Jobs. Jennifer...
The recent leaps of science—sequencing the human genome, advancing the world-changing technology of CRISPR, deepening knowledge of the brain—owe much to Francis Collins’s bril...
Jennifer Doudna and her Berkeley lab collaborators are not alone in their quest to understand nature. As scientists with profound curiosity, leaders of labs across the globe h...
In their own ways, authors Walter Isaacson and David Rubenstein explore the kinds of pioneering leaders who drive meaningful change. Leonardo DaVinci’s rare form of curiosity...
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...
Thanks to the genius of biochemists such as Jennifer Doudna, who’s credited with the co-discovery of CRISPR, our biggest scientific advances in the near future may easily come...
“I still can’t get his voice out of my head,” George Packer writes of the late diplomat Richard Holbrooke. “One day I know it will start to fade, along with his memory, along...
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 o...
No argument against genomic editing is going to halt that advancing science, given the remarkable potential of CRISPR and other disruptive technologies to treat or cure diseas...
Six decades after the discovery of the DNA double helix, basic gene sequencing is becoming increasingly accessible to consumers, and start-up companies are hurtling into the r...
Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer, along with partner Ron Howard, just completed season one of “Genius,” a multi-part series for television based on Walter Isaacson’...
Walter Isaacson is fascinated by innovators — the kinds of geniuses whose ideas have transformed industry, science, and society. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Benjamin Fran...
After 40 years, the internet has begun to corrode, both itself and us. It is still a marvelous and miraculous invention, but now there are bugs in the foundation, bats in the...
Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer D...
How far have we come toward racial equality since the civil rights era? What does it mean to be black today? How can we have had a black president while events like Ferguson c...
A Conversation with US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price (Interviewer: Jeffrey Goldberg) A Conversation with Larry Brilliant (Interviewer: Walter...
Welcome from David G. Bradley and Walter Isaacson; A Conversation on the Future with Astro Teller, Captain of Moonshots at X, Interviewer: Andrew Ross Sorkin; Brave Ideas: Ani...
Norman Lear is the prolific television writer and producer of stories about diverse American life—among them “All in the Family,” “Sanford and Son,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Ti...
Music can lift the spirits and help heal the body. No musician demonstrates that better than Jon Batiste, a “crowd-thrilling rebel bandleader,” according to Rolling Stone maga...
Richard Besser recently assumed the role of president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and...
Join Walter Isaacson, Margaret Low, Peggy Clark, Katie Drasser, and Select Spotlight Health Presenters to kick off the Spotlight Health Festival.
Presented by Spotlight Health and the Aspen Ideas Festival.
Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker joins Walter Isaacson to discuss the opportunities for growth inherent in the digital economy, as well as the challenges they present for...
Our signature event, the 2016 Afternoon of Conversation hosts an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. From criminal justice for the most vulnerable, to spac...
A discussion with Comcast Corporation Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Olympic primetime host Bob Costas. The rapid advances in technology are changing how we interact w...
For more than a decade, Laura Bush has led efforts to protect the hard-earned rights of women in Afghanistan. The George W. Bush Institute recently released the book We Are Af...
In Conversation with Christine Lagarde Managing Director, International Monetary Fund Interviewer: Jane Harman In Conversation with Susan E. Rice Assistant to the Presid...
The 3rd annual Spotlight Health is a deep-dive into issues around health, and it’s a momentous time for health. It’s becoming easier to alter human genes, and the Zika ep...
Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture. He is the world’s first jazz artist to per...
Across the nation, cities and metropolitan areas, and the networks of pragmatic leaders who govern them, are taking on the big issues that Washington won’t—or can’t—solve. The...