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Presented by Spotlight Health and the Aspen Ideas Festival.
On the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, witness a conversation with longtime congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis about his latest journey using graphic novels to move young people to embrace nonviolence. In the late 1950s, his own mentors, Rev. Jim Lawson and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., used a remarkable comic book to teach young people the fundamental p...
Jordan Peterson, author of the best-selling 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos, may be one of the most famous intellectuals in North America today. He also may be among the most misunderstood. His fans say that he’s saved their lives, and detractors say that he’s the gateway drug to the alt-right. Who is this psychologist-philosopher whom so many of us had never heard...
With the power of a text message, the advice of a health worker fits in the palm of your hand. With innovative entrepreneurship, care becomes accessible where it previously was not. With the skill of a midwife, the pregnant woman in need of a champion thrives. Health systems may be complex, but what powers them is simple—the human beings at their backbone who are critical...
It is no secret that leaders, at home and abroad, have a problem with journalists. Rants against news organizations and individuals punctuate conversations in Europe and Asia as easily as they do in the United States. How do members of the media navigate their profession in such a climate? Some of the top journalists in the country, representing National Review, CNN, MSNBC...
Is the view from “out there” in America as bleak as our pundits and politicos keep telling us it is? Deborah and James Fallows — who have spent the past five years traveling the interior of America from South Dakota to South Carolina and dozens of points in between — say no. Their new best-selling book, Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America, argues th...
Oscar-winning filmmaker John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, All Is by My Side) is known for his uncompromising and thought-provoking work examining some of society’s most pressing issues: immigration, sex trafficking, slavery, and race relations, among others. Ridley is joined by frequent collaborator, Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning actress Felicity Huffman, in conversation abo...
In just over a decade, John Hickenlooper has gone from a craft-brew entrepreneur to mayor of Denver to governor of Colorado. In conversation with Jane Harman about his new book, The Opposite of Woe, the maverick—and very funny—statesman tells his story of determination and daring. From bouncing back after personal loss to launching a remarkably successful business to landi...
As the 2016 presidential election approaches, the economy is a tale of two realities. On one hand, employment numbers, housing prices, and corporate profits have rebounded substantially since President Obama took office nearly eight years ago at the height of the financial crisis. At the same time, the nature of work is shifting, leaving many behind, long term unemployment...
Is the current chief justice of the United States a conservative activist, or a neutral umpire concerned first and foremost with preserving the institution of the Supreme Court? He may be a bit of both. An acclaimed recent biography, by a journalist who has known and observed Roberts for two decades, contends that Roberts is torn between two, often divergent, priorities: t...
How should progress be defined for communities, individuals, and groups too long left out of the economic mainstream? Inequality and poverty challenge the dynamism of our and other advanced economies. While public policy choices are critically important, so too are the decisions of companies as generators of jobs and in shaping job quality and economic opportunity. People...
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...
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms joins CNN political commentator Angela Rye for a candid conversation about her most challenging months as mayor of Atlanta — an epicenter for the multiple crises we’re seeing across the country in 2020. Bottoms opens up about authenticity and exhaustion, identity and the American experience, and the leadership lessons she’s learned from Covid-19....
Creative expression takes many forms. Through history, art has provoked a range of feelings: emotion, empathy, fear, surprise, joy, compassion, anger. Now, amidst a time of national angst, where many in society might not hear the voices of those who don’t agree, a group of remarkable artists and political strategists are imagining ways that art can be used to catalyze dif...
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham shares a view of Abraham Lincoln, who managed to hold the country together despite threats to democracy and the devastations of the Civil War. Understanding Lincoln, his unwavering commitment to democratic principles, and this period in history provides a critical lens to comprehending America’s contemporary challenges, and the...
The author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" explores Jefferson's complicated legacy and suggests how we might reclaim the Jeffersonian insistence that political leaders be conversant with the philosophical and cultural currents of their time. (Book signing to follow.)
Join us for an interactive evening of presentations, small group discussions, performances, and opportunities to engage with other participants. Featuring Harold Green, Jonathan Greenblatt, Neal Katyal, Jon Lovett, Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, Manoush Zomorodi, and more. (Participants must be ages 14 – 24.) NOTE: Tickets are NOT available on aspenshowtix.com. Visit aspenideas.com...
Historian Jon Meacham has written extensively about the presidency, with acclaimed books on Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, and most recently, George H. W. Bush. He is currently working on a book on James and Dolly Madison. What does his research into these presidents suggest about the nature of the office? What might we learn from the past about the...
Americans of all political leanings and ideological persuasions can agree on at least one thing: In this era of hyperpolarization, we don’t know how to talk about the things on which we most vehemently disagree. Experts in conflict resolution and constructive dialogue share their insights into how things might improve.