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With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration has committed a record amount of federal funds to encourage the advancement of clean energy, but myriad regulatory, political, and practical challenges remain to meet our climate goals. White House clean energy advisor John Podesta shares how the administration is implementing the IRA and work...
How can we overcome our own biases and stop seeing the worst in others? Psychologists and bestselling authors Jennifer Eberhardt and Adam Grant, along with CBS News’ John Dickerson, use cutting-edge research and examples from their own lives to discuss whether there’s hope for our schools and workplaces to bring out the better angels of our nature.
For more than 130 years, the National Geographic Society has pushed the boundaries of science by engaging the average citizen in a deeper understanding of the planet. Join two Nat Geo Fellows, Joel Sartore, renowned animal photographer, and Scott Loarie, director of a plant and animal identification app, to learn about the tools and strategies they're using to connect peop...
Mental health disorders are rampant in America’s correctional facilities — in many cases, our prisons and jails are the main providers of mental health treatment in their municipalities. Furthermore, prisons and jails routinely subject people with mental illness to environments that radically exacerbate their condition, often to the point of suicide or self-harm. Why do so...
The White House beat is always challenging, but being in the press corps during the first few months of the Trump administration has truly been a wild ride. From the administration’s daily antagonism toward the press to the physically threatening environment journalists are encountering at rallies and political events — and the simply furious pace of it all — learn how the...
The complexity of indigenous cultures is underappreciated by most modern observers, yet native people have sophisticated knowledge and ways of thinking that could help heal the planet. Traditional societies seldom distinguish between the health of the environment and the health of those who inhabit it, and recognize that damage to one is damage to the other. There is much...
How do we develop scalable policy solutions that will empower families throughout the United States to rise out of poverty and achieve better life outcomes? How we can improve children’s opportunities in communities that currently offer limited prospects for upward income mobility? Award-winning Harvard scholar Raj Chetty, whose research focuses on equality of opportunity...
After decades of urban depopulation, US cities are experiencing a reversing of that trend, led by millennials, 40 percent of whom say they plan to live their lives in urban settings. But families and empty nesters are moving to the city too, and for the first time since the 1920s, population growth in US cities is outpacing the growth of the suburbs. What will this reshapi...
NBCUniversal News Group recently announced the honorees for its prime-time special, “Inspiring America: The Inspiration List.” NBC News’ Tom Llamas brings this conversation featuring Americans making a difference to Aspen. The panel includes environmental and climate justice activist Catherine Flowers; Susan Burton, creator of the nonprofit A New Way of Life; and actor Joh...
In any city in the world, an extremist could explode your subway car, yet surveillance and security are more advanced than ever. Ebola ravaged thousands for months and now Zika continues its creep around the globe, yet life expectancy and healthcare are more advanced than at any other time in human history. A slowing Chinese economy and falling oil prices warn of a global...
America has always meant business. We’re a nation of self-starters, strivers, and entrepreneurs — with the courage to take big risks and the confidence to determine our own destiny. Entrepreneurs are seen as the beating heart of our economy, generating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that keep the American Dream alive. But what are the conditions that small businesses nee...
With nearly 40 million people, the innovation powerhouse of Silicon Valley, and the sixth-largest economy in the world (larger than France’s, Italy’s, and India’s), California is a force to be reckoned with. And it’s got bones to pick with Washington, on issues from environmental protections and health care to immigration enforcement and drug policy. What are the legal and...
President Biden entered office identifying climate change as one of four historic crises facing the United States. Nearly two years later, detractors claim that a lack of urgency, the divisive state of Congress, and a combative Supreme Court could stifle his agenda. This conversation between Michael Regan, administrator of the EPA, and Gina McCarthy, the White House nation...
As Latino Americans emerge as the majority minority and the new mainstream, representing 18 percent of the US population and approaching one-third by 2060, questions are emerging about where and how Latinos fit into the national narrative. Latinos are revitalizing rural communities, starting businesses, and entering the workforce and educational system at record rates, yet...
Featured Ideas Festival Scholars include Lashon Amado, María Teresa Kumar, Michael McAfee, and Eshauna Smith. Fueling today’s highly charged political environment is the growing sense that opportunity is elusive and inequality is rising because our national economic policies unfairly disadvantage the middle class. Millions of Americans believe they’re pawns in a game they...
When Rochelle Walensky was appointed director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2020, the pandemic had commandeered much of the agency’s attention. But its many other responsibilities never went on holiday. Even as the world’s premier public health agency developed guidance for COVID-19 testing, masking, quarantines, and vaccination, it...
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...
The conventional playbook for winning office involves relying either on big moneyed interests or the angriest and most extreme fringes of our society. Of course, political campaigns are not just a game. Our elected officials heed in office those they need on the campaign trail, so the full force of our federal government—whether setting policy for our economy, our environm...
Before signing the $1.2 trillion dollar Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, President Biden put Mitch Landrieu in charge of executing its vision. In this role, the former New Orleans mayor oversees the biggest investment in American infrastructure in generations. With promises of generating millions of high-paying jobs, fixing supply chains, and repairing America’s roa...
Are we a union, or are we 50 states? States are finding themselves at odds with federal policy on a wide range of issues: immigration enforcement, marijuana legalization, environmental regulation, health issues including reproductive services and Medicaid, and social issues from gay marriage to who can use what bathroom. What are the constitutional roots of these conflicts...