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Shakespeare is ubiquitous in literature classes and theater, but the avenues of relating to his work are not always clear to young people and modern audiences. Some, such as Shakespeare scholar and professor Ayanna Thompson, argue that his plays make sense as living, breathing, adaptable instruments that can be shaped to fit the times. Playwright, director and professor Ja...


When Sal Khan created Khan Academy, he was trying to scale up the successful experiences he’d had tutoring his cousins one-on-one in math. He saw how effective it could be for students to go at their own pace, ask questions and be questioned about their reasoning, and he wanted to make those benefits available to as many kids as possible. The organization eventually grew t...

Do American universities have an obligation to educate their students to be the next generation of citizens and civic leaders? What does it mean for a university “to offer students an education that will promote their flourishing as human beings, their judgment as moral agents, and their participation in society as democratic citizens”? Join a workshop with leaders from th...

At a moment when decades of academic achievement have been lost, can we amplify the benefits of A.I. equally across society, or will we allow a deeper digital divide to leave out even more students? Khan Academy founder and CEO Sal Khan talks about the potential for this nascent technology to transform education, activating and engaging an entire generation to create chang...

Digital skills open doors to jobs in tech, media, and across all industries. Connecting diverse students and workers with the education and training needed for the 92% of today’s jobs that require digital skills creates a pipeline of talent, critical to driving economic opportunity and mobility.

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...

With students learning in more places and different ways than we have ever seen, the pace of change in education is dizzying. Join our panel of education experts in a discussion about what the classroom of the future will look like, how educational innovation can bridge divides, and how we can work together to get there. Presented by the Walton Family Foundation

In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. This year, the Supreme Court is once again considering the constitutionality of race-based affirmative action programs, and its ruling may have a profound impact on the makeup of America’s most selective colleges and universities. How sh...

In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. Debates over the content of our historical narrative and cultural values have Americans of differing ideologies engaged in heated battle, with educators and students caught in between. Meanwhile, have we failed to meaningfully educate o...

Why is there resistance to the idea that public funds should be used for art? What does it mean for the stewardship of cultural and educational organizations and the support of individual artists? And how does the relationship between non-profit and commercial culture impact how we value the creative sector?
Founder and CEO, Khan Academy; Founder, Schoolhouse.world, Khan Lab School, and Khan World School


The desire to try and stop people from reading certain printed material has been around since material was first printed. In the modern era, book banning has waxed and waned in popularity, experiencing peaks during McCarthyism and again in the 1980s. We’re now in the midst of another wave, mostly targeting books by people of color and LGBTQ identities. In 2022, the number...

Today's kids are coming of age against a backdrop of political, social, technological, and economic upheaval. While these circumstances are shaping a precocious generation that is changing society and redefining cultural norms, kids are also struggling with mental health issues, the pressures of social media, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on key developmental years....


Parents have always cared about what their kids are learning in school, but education debates have become particularly explosive in the U.S. in the last couple of years. All over the country, parent groups have introduced bills that try to control and restrict what children learn – especially around issues of race, history, and LGBTQ identity. What’s behind the recent push...
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.

Be it in her commanding, critically acclaimed written works or her masterfully insightful lectures, author and professor Azar Nafisi has given so many others the space and language to reflect on their own — often unseen and unacknowledged — experiences; enlightening and inspiring us all. Moderated by Zinhle Essamuah whose own command of storytelling includes working both i...

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...

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 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...

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 Doudna. And now: Elon Musk. All geniuses, to be sure. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their...