USA
Race

Much of the public discourse around race and our national narrative is, perhaps understandably, filled with recrimination, but if Americans are to remain a nation, we must find a way to reckon with history and chart a path forward. Join two renowned historians for a conversation about how we might do just that.

Join us for a discussion with leaders who are on a path of racial healing personally and organizationally as they explore what happens when communities cross divides, engage in difficult conversations, and take transformative action toward a better future. Presented by W.K Kellogg Foundation with NBCUniversal News Group

Join W.K. Kellogg Foundation and racial-healing practitioners for a discussion on how to have sensitive conversations about race so that everyone feels seen, heard, respected, and welcome to participate. This session will help participants examine the impacts of racism, individually and collectively, while considering what it takes to create a shared vision for an equitabl...

If Black women bear the heaviest burdens of the maternal mortality crisis—they are 2.6 times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth—they are also the most determined to address it. Moving beyond grief and rage, their leadership is prioritizing culturally sensitive care, respect for best practices, and greater use of community-based models and licen...

No one is immune from the catastrophic storms, wildfires, heat waves, and drought that accompany climate change, but the risks are far greater for some populations than for others. Unstable housing, food insecurity, inadequate access to care, lack of tree canopy, and proximity to toxic emissions and other environmental hazards all intensify the health consequences. People...

Eighty percent of what impacts our health happens outside of the doctor's office: from education and employment opportunities to access to housing, transportation, and quality food. A panel of global experts will explore actionable solutions to address the root causes of disparities and how to build a path forward for collaboration, community co-creation, and a shared visi...

Meet Nathan Chomilo, a 2023 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who’s incorporating community collaboration and racial equity into Minnesota’s Medicaid policy development.

Of course, Black history shouldn’t just be a month-long nod on our yearly calendar — it is inextricable from American history and fundamental to the very soul of our nation and our past, present, and future. We’ve put together a collection of talks, podcasts, and interviews from Aspen Ideas speakers that celebrate Black joy, community, and genius while grappling with the i...

What is racial healing? This conversation between NBC News correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s La June Montgomery Tabron highlights the growing impact of racial healing and explores how this practice is at the heart of our journey to racial equity. We’ll candidly discuss recent headlines — the killing of George Floyd and the energy it mobilized...

Hate takes many insidious forms: as a mass shooting targeting a Black community, as an antisemitic remark, as a wave of anti-Asian violence. Intolerance and hate crimes have spiked in recent years, and experts, activists, and community members themselves are working hard not only to quantify the problem but to find actionable solutions. What does it take to stop hate in co...

Beyond the everyday policy disagreements that have typically characterized Americans from blue states and red states, we seem more divided than ever about the fundamental direction of our nation. For the first time since the Civil War, our political disagreements erupted into violence at the US Capitol. And the pandemic has only made things worse, as our differences became...

In its landmark 2002 study, Unequal Treatment, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated bluntly that racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health services than white Americans. Two decades after the IOM called out structural racism, the devastating toll remains apparent in the uneven risks associated with COVID, diabetes, asthma, cancer, stroke, and pregnancy. P...

No doctor awakens in the morning determined to discriminate against patients of color, yet their daily clinical decisions too often have that result. Implicit bias—unconscious assumptions and stereotypes—often cause the harm. The failure to ask the right questions, listen closely and reserve judgment can sabotage communication in any patient/physician encounter, but it wor...

From the skewed impact of climate change on the nations that have contributed least to the problem to financing mechanisms that allow primary care services to languish in the poorest countries, inequitable patterns in global health and development are all too evident. To radically reimagine healthcare systems, we need to acknowledge lingering colonialism and commit to exti...

America’s robust biomedical ecosystem and the therapeutic advances it has introduced are making remarkable progress against cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses. But much more needs to be done to ensure that all communities can access the treatments and care they need. Prohibitive costs, ingrained biases, healthcare deserts, and distrust in the medica...

With the power of a text message, the advice of a health worker fits in the palm of your hand. With innovative entrepreneurship, care becomes accessible where it previously was not. With the skill of a midwife, the pregnant woman in need of a champion thrives. Health systems may be complex, but what powers them is simple—the human beings at their backbone who are critical...


History is taught with textbooks and lectures, but it’s also passed down in more informal ways, within families from generation to generation. Different groups of people can become attached to varying stories of the same past, and some narratives are erased or distorted. Writer and scholar Clint Smith takes a close look at the mechanisms and consequences of those distortio...


We may have moved from a time of reckoning on racial equity to a time of transformation, says business leader Dr. Rohini Anand, and that gives her hope. The author of “Leading Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: A Guide for Systemic Change in Multinational Organizations,” Anand advises leaders all over the world on how to get to work and make DEI improvements that stic...
Director of Movement and Campaign Strategies, Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA)
James Bryant Conant University Professor and Director, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University