USA
Culture
The rollback of reproductive rights, the push to end no-fault divorce, and gun laws that allow domestic abusers to own a firearm are turning the clock back on women’s rights. How can women preserve their freedoms?
Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and documentaries. In this session, Grazer discusses how he stays ahead of the creative curve with Michael Eisner, the entertainment powerhouse who transformed the Walt Disney Company.
Peter Thiel has made no secret of his feelings about economic and cultural issues. Hear him discuss his vision for the future, his bets on AI and digital currencies, his thoughts on the state of America — and why he’s staying out of the 2024 U.S. presidential election (for now).
Firearms are one of the leading causes of death among children in the U.S., a country where there have been more than 150 mass shootings in the first five months of 2024. Sit with those statistics for a moment — then ask what roles policy, litigation, art and public awareness can play in solving one of America’s most intractable problems.
Hurray for the Riff Raff is more than Alynda Segarra’s musical moniker; they spent their youth hopping trains across America, capturing that life in youthful poetry then and acclaimed songwriting now. Join a songwriting adventure of love, loss and reflections on America.
From climate change and mental health to hate crimes and chronic school absenteeism, no challenge is too big for young people’s community-changing solutions. Hear from teams of high school students from Brooklyn and San Diego, and leave knowing that the future is in good hands.
Whether as Elaine Benes from “Seinfeld” or Selina Meyer from “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus delivers laughter. But in the upcoming film “Tuesday,” she communicates with death — in a quite unexpected form. The acclaimed actress sits down with Sam Fragoso for a live recording of the podcast, “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso.”
Part 1. The Disruptors: Two of Silicon Valley’s most innovative founders also share a tight friendship. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has transformed how people travel, host and experience new worlds. Sam Altman’s OpenAI put artificial intelligence in the hands of everyone with the release of ChatGPT and set off a race to dominate the digital future. Part 2. Americ
Too many men are falling behind women academically and economically, and feeling unmoored. Millions are turning to online influencers rather than finding fulfillment in a purposeful life. How do we curb the rise in male loneliness and create gender norms that allow them to thrive?
NCAA women’s basketball shattered viewership records in 2024. Two of the game’s most influential coaches talk about the years of struggle it took to get that win. With new financial obligations for programs and players, can teams stay on offense?
The pressure on cultural institutions to return artifacts to their places of origin is growing in intensity, but some argue that repatriation threatens the preservation and study of these treasures. Who, in the end, does history belong to?
We the people were not truly “We the People” until the Reconstruction amendments altered our Constitution in a post-Civil War "second founding". As we confront another democratic crisis, what new understandings could ensure our democratic renewal?
In a world on fire, many of us feel starved for hope. Join the president of Juilliard, America’s leading soprano, an Oscar-winning director and composer, and the former mayor of New Orleans for an evening of conversation with performances that show why there are so many reasons for hope.
Scientific investigation is laser focused on psychedelics to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), ease end-of-life anxiety, and address mental health challenges, including addiction. The FDA has issued draft guidelines to drug sponsors studying psychedelic-assisted therapy as it considers an application for MDMA-assisted therapy for use in PTSD care. As regulators...
From early childhood to advanced age, we all need some fun. Society hints that there is something childish, even self-indulgent, about playing, but it’s quite the opposite: play helps us handle our adult responsibilities better. Taking time for fun can strengthen relationships, refresh cognitive capacity, bolster creativity, and invigorate daily life. Whether you carve out...
Climate change, with its global threats to health, could destroy low-lying nations and push as many as 135 million people into poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. But these catastrophic consequences are not inevitable. Acknowledging that the burdens of climate change have been distributed inequitably, and targeting aggressive action specifically to vulnerable pop...
How do we describe the Republican Party today, and what are the dynamics that will shape its future?
In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. For decades, American policy regarding those who reach our borders has been the subject of intense political disagreement, reflecting economic realities and cultural divides. What would a policy look like that meets both our labor and se...
We don’t always know how to express it, but many of us feel it: There’s something wrong with America today. The mood is tense. More Americans say they won’t have children because of climate change and other future catastrophes. But are things really as bad as they seem? Is decline something we need to accept—or is there a case for a new optimism?
The designers of our democratic republic created a political system and institutions intended to avoid concentrated power, mob rule, and to defuse factions. Is the America we live in today so different from theirs that only fundamental reform can fix what ails us?