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In the year plus since the murder of George Floyd and the global outcry for racial justice, much has changed in the world. And yet, systemic racism still casts its long shadow on many aspects of our lives. Join PayPal CEO Dan Schulman and Shartia Brantley to discuss the economic underpinnings of racial injustice and the investments that leaders across the ecosystem can mak...

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...

In its landmark 2002 study, Unequal Treatment, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated bluntly that racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health services than white Americans. Two decades after the IOM called out structural racism, the devastating toll remains apparent in the uneven risks associated with COVID, diabetes, asthma, cancer, stroke, and pregnancy. P...

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...

As the second largest minority group in the country, Latinos represent 19% of the population and play a significant economic, social, and cultural role. They also face disproportionate health challenges, including high rates of diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The absence of adequate health insurance, lack of timely access to care, language barr...

What is racial healing? This conversation between NBC News correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s La June Montgomery Tabron highlights the growing impact of racial healing and explores how this practice is at the heart of our journey to racial equity. We’ll candidly discuss recent headlines — the killing of George Floyd and the energy it mobilized...

America’s robust biomedical ecosystem and the therapeutic advances it has introduced are making remarkable progress against cancer, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses. But much more needs to be done to ensure that all communities can access the treatments and care they need. Prohibitive costs, ingrained biases, healthcare deserts, and distrust in the medica...

The past years have seen a tremendous mobilization of women, from #MeToo and Time’s Up to climate strikes and marches for political freedom. The potential to shift women’s political, economic, and social power is profound, so how will this activism be harnessed to fundamentally change our nation’s course? What is the agenda for women going into the 2020 elections? Hear fro...

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...

Filmed live just days after the Supreme Court granted marriage equality for same-sex couples in the United States, former Solicitor General Ted Olson and star litigator David Boies — the legal dream team that argued the case — join moderator Neal Katyal to illuminate their path to victory. They discuss their immediate reactions to the decision, how they plotted the argumen...

Despite some frontline successes and territorial reclamations, the destruction of organizational assets, and the death of thousands of militants, the Islamic State’s ideology of jihad continues its spread from Baghdad to Brussels to Orlando. How can the United States and its allies fight an enemy that is as much idea as it is entity? What securities do ISIS provide recruit...

Eighty percent of what impacts our health happens outside of the doctor's office: from education and employment opportunities to access to housing, transportation, and quality food. A panel of global experts will explore actionable solutions to address the root causes of disparities and how to build a path forward for collaboration, community co-creation, and a shared visi...

Join Deloitte, University of Colorado Boulder, and Aspen Institute experts for a conversation at the intersection of cutting-edge research and inclusive innovation on climate resilience. As severe weather and climate-driven natural disasters become the new norm, find out how to reduce climate-related risks across geographies and demographics. Presented by Deloitte

Join an intimate conversation on modern racism, hate, and the growing alt-right social movement with one of America’s first neo-Nazi skinhead leaders. Shaken from his old ideologies by tragedy, he’s now a leading figure in de-radicalizing people away from violence-based ideologies through his writing, his Free Radicals Project, and a controversial new MSNBC docu-series, “B...

If one dives deeply into the statistics, the American Dream is actually quite alive and well. In his provocative book, The Myth of American Inequality, former U.S. senator Phil Gramm argues that the facts reveal a very different and better America than the one currently described by policy advocates across much of the political spectrum.

2017 brought a sea change in gender equity and power. With the rise of the #MeToo movement, new opportunities and challenges have emerged to ensure all sectors — from corporations to government and beyond — are equipped to support women and girls at all levels. How can the momentum for women’s empowerment be harnessed for lasting, systemic change? The leaders of the Aspen...

David Skorton became the 13th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on July 1, 2015. A board-certified cardiologist who previously served as president of Cornell University, Skorton entered the institution at a time of transition and renovation, with new museums like the National Museum of African American History and Culture slated to open soon and major overhauls on o...

If you’re white and middle class, you were probably raised thinking that discussing race was impolite. Color blindness was seen as a virtue — and it’s a persistent one. A 2014 poll revealed that almost three-quarters of millennials believe we should not see the color of someone’s skin. But in truth, color blindness is an insidious form of racial oppression. Two philanthrop...

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...

In this new Aspen Ideas format, all attendees gather each morning to kick off the day by exploring a current issue of deep complexity. Debates over the content of our historical narrative and cultural values have Americans of differing ideologies engaged in heated battle, with educators and students caught in between. Meanwhile, have we failed to meaningfully educate o...