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Generation after generation, we’re doing a pretty good job at regeneration. Yet sex continues to be a confusing subject — laden with ignorance, taboo, and shame — and the addition of technologies for connection, gratification, and reproduction are changing the landscape of intimacy. What do we really know about sex, and will we ever be good at talking about it?
Elisabeth Rosenthal on our broken healthcare system.
Dick Metcalf has been shooting since kindergarten, a member of the NRA since middle school. He’s been studying, writing, and teaching about firearms for over 40 years. But Metcalf’s long career as a columnist with Guns & Ammo magazine came to an abrupt halt in late 2013 after he penned a column that explored the line between firearm regulation and Second Amendment infring...
If we just do enough yoga, cleanse with the optimal juice fast, and buy products designed to help us meditate or foster positive thinking, we’ll feel better. That, at least, is what the $650 billion wellness industry wants us to believe. But what’s making us ill, argues Kerri Kelly, author of American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, can’t be cured by...
Over the past decade, levels of anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide have increased dramatically, but the causes are more nuanced than the headlines suggest. This session unpacks the data and real-world learnings to shed light on the changes — at the policy, family, school, and community levels — that have the most potential to improve kids’ well-being.
Every day, 91 Americans die following an opioid overdose. The misuse of opioids such as prescription pain relievers, heroin, and fentanyl is a national crisis, with a profound impact on social and economic well-being and on the public health. Although effective treatments for opioid addiction do exist, they are sorely underutilized. Potential therapies to help curtail the...
Black people are 3.5 times more likely to die of the coronavirus than white people. Why is this?
Throughout American history, racism has been embedded in health and health care. To justify slavery, scientists promulgated falsehoods about African Americans and health. More recently, social policies rooted in racism have led to less access to care, higher disease rates, and lower life expectancies for communities of color. Science writer Harriet Washington says structur...
Zeke Emanuel, a bioethicist and oncologist, shares his thoughts on what needs to happen for America to reopen.
The recent leaps of science—sequencing the human genome, advancing the world-changing technology of CRISPR, deepening knowledge of the brain—owe much to Francis Collins’s brilliant mind and steady hand. Who better, then, to talk about what transformative discoveries come next? Genomics, immunotherapy, precision medicine, new uses for mRNA technology, and other interdiscipl...
Longtime food journalist Mark Bittman says America's food system needs to be reimagined so land is used fairly and well and people have access to food that promotes health, not illness. His latest book, "Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal," tells the story of humankind through the lens of food. The frenzy for food has driven human hist...
A passion for food — growing it, cooking it, and eating it — has become one of the favorite pastimes of countless people. Did it all begin with James Beard? Learn why that claim is made in the new PBS American Masters documentary, James Beard: America’s First Foodie. Following the film, Corby Kummer, food writer for The Atlantic, will lead a panel discussion with two of Am...
The rapid rise of retail health presents traditional provider organizations with many challenges as they shift beyond a facility-based care model to one more closely aligned with patient expectations for convenience, affordability, and a personalized, consumer-oriented journey. It also introduces vast opportunities to leverage emerging technologies and care models to impro...
Many of the people doing today’s most consequential environmental work — restoring America’s grasslands, wildlife, soil, rivers, wetlands, and oceans — would not call themselves environmentalists; they would be too uneasy with the connotations of that word. What drives them is their deep love of the land — they feel a moral responsibility to preserve their heritage and ens...
Through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Insurance Program, and the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides or oversees health coverage for more than 150 million people across the country. With $1.5 trillion in annual healthcare spending, CMS plays a key role in shaping the direction of the US...
The United States is experiencing a critical shortage of healthcare workers—with labor market data showing a 3.2 million worker deficit by 2026. The growing crisis is causing disruptions across the healthcare landscape, but novel care models and new technology show promise in revolutionizing care delivery. How are hospitals leveraging existing technology and teams to reima...
Today’s kids are facing a mental health crisis unlike any before them, with rates of severe loneliness, anxiety, and depressive episodes reaching new heights. It’s an urgent concern with far-reaching impacts, especially for those in historically marginalized communities who too often do not have access to the help they need. How can organizations leverage their scale to ma...
Monkeypox has now been declared a public health emergency in the US and a global emergency by the World Health Organization. What do we know about this virus and the current outbreak? During Aspen Ideas: Health 2022, Helen Branswell of STAT gave an explainer about monkeypox, highlighting five interesting things to know about the world's latest infectious disease concern.
As the nation’s top doctor, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy helps to advance the health and well-being of all Americans. He has described the growing youth mental health crisis in America as the “defining public health crisis of our time” and warned that social media carries a “profound risk of harm to the mental health of children and adolescents.” Murthy has also highlig...