The reversal of Roe v. Wade would make it difficult or impossible for millions of people to obtain abortions, but would also open the doors to criminally prosecute people who seek or obtain an abortion. And in our technological age, that criminalization brings new, frightening opportunities for digital surveillance by law enforcement agencies or anti-abortion vigilantes. I...

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...

The Aspen Institute remembers and mourns Secretary Madeleine K. Albright, who passed away on March 23, 2022. She was a diplomat, professor, author, business leader, and the first woman to be the U.S. Secretary of State. In 2018, she raised the alarm on dangerous world leadership with her book “Fascism: A Warning,” calling out the regimes of Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin,...

The industrial revolution and consequent terrible labor conditions sparked a wave of revolutions in Europe, and then a string of laws and protections for workers. As author and innovation expert Alec Ross describes it, we “rewrote the social contract.” But, Ross says, we may be due for another rewrite, as we transition from an industrial economy to one based on information...

Any organization, public or private, with any connection to Ukraine, should be exercising extreme technological vigilance, says cybersecurity expert Sandra Joyce, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Intelligence at Mandiant. In addition to the attacks on the ground, Russia could come at Ukraine virtually, with a wide range of targets and tactics and varying levels...

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...

The cornerstone of democracy is the principle that all citizens have the right and ability to participate in their own governance, either directly or via representation. While many Americans today may believe that we’ve lost sight of that inclusive ideal, Rashad Robinson, racial justice activist and the president of Color of Change, points out that for some, the system has...

Anthony Doerr is probably best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel All the Light We Cannot See. Just like that book, his latest work, Cloud Cuckoo Land, features protagonists who are dreamers and outsiders who find hope in the midst of danger. He talks with Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes, about the inspiration for his latest book and its focus on technolo...

People have been thinking about happiness for thousands of years. In fact, ancient thinkers came up with strategies for cultivating pleasures over a lifetime, or creating a lasting capacity to take joy in the world. This long-term flourishing is different from immediate pleasures — it’s a richer notion of happiness. Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale and an...

Even though women are likely to live longer than men, their hormonal changes make them far more susceptible to age-related memory loss like Alzhemier’s disease and other conditions. Yet gender is often not a primary consideration by the medical community — but more and more research shows that it should be.