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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.

COVID-19 has hindered progress in gender equity as women have left the workforce to care for children. But 2020 also held record high numbers of women running for office & holding executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. So while progress is being made in one realm, deeply-ingrained societal gender roles are roaring back to life. From politics to tech to health, learn...

Two weeks before the first woman of color became Vice President, an angry mob that included members of the white supremacist group Proud Boys, stormed the US Capitol. As Ibram X. Kendi puts it, “we’re engaged in this struggle between two forces: racial progress and racist process.” Watch recent conversations that offer ways to recognize, reckon with and repair societal rac...

The unflinching humanity that Martin Luther King, Jr. embodied is part of what makes his legacy so lasting. In addition to his preeminent civil rights work, he spoke out about worker protections, access to housing, and warmongering. Watch and listen as Aspen Ideas speakers, some who worked with Martin Luther King, Jr., explain how he indelibly shaped the world.

Music and dance are humanity’s hallmarks, a shared ritual of communities the world over. Over the millennia, we’ve created some highly specialized forms, but at its root, music is a language of emotion and empowerment, longing and loss — though it can also be a subversive force against authority.

On November 9, 2020, as coronavirus cases surge, President-elect Joe Biden named a COVID-19 Advisory Council. Aspen Ideas has been honored to host several of the council members over the years. While only a few of the talks listed here are about the pandemic, each gives a window into the speakers and their expertise in public health. Congratulations to Ezekiel Emanuel, Atu...

The highest court often seems distanced from our day-to-day lives, but the rulings that come out of the Supreme Court are woven into the fabric of the nation. Though it aims to be apolitical, the court regularly hears cases that involve some of the most contentious questions dividing the nation, and its decisions can change the course of our social, political, and economic...