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Sometimes the underdog prevails. Acting on principle, with sparse resources and limited support from regulators and legislators, a few determined individuals took on the industry behind the opioid epidemic and found a semblance of justice for those it had harmed. Although Purdue Pharma gained particular notoriety for its deceptive marketing strategies, it did not act alone...
If Black women bear the heaviest burdens of the maternal mortality crisis—they are 2.6 times more likely to die during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth—they are also the most determined to address it. Moving beyond grief and rage, their leadership is prioritizing culturally sensitive care, respect for best practices, and greater use of community-based models and licen...
Who controls a woman’s body? Herself? Her church? Her community? Her government?
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...
The impact of climate change is dire: floods, drought, fire, hurricanes, deforestation, degraded water systems, agricultural devastation, and refugee crises. No one will escape the health effects, as respiratory, cardiovascular, and infectious disease rates rise, water and food shortages widen, and mental health harms escalate. But communities with weak infrastructure, fra...
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...
With no end in sight to gridlock in Congress, federal courts will continue to have a significant impact on major health policy decisions. Katie Keith of Georgetown University Law Center helps us understand how litigation is shaping healthcare and public health in the United States– from access to preventative services to climate regulations.
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...
Amazing discoveries are happening in the garages and high school science classes of young pioneers. A 17-year-old invented color-changing stitches, dyed with beet juice, to provide early warning signs of infection. A Time Magazine “Kid of the Year” is building a device to detect contaminants in the water supply and using AI to call out cyberbullying. Another teenager devel...
Poverty is a powerful stressor that influences growth and development in children, and physical and mental health throughout adulthood. Science and imaging technology are making its impact visible, demonstrating how the socioeconomic disparities that flow from historical injustice alter brain structures. We’re also learning that social capital can be a protective layer aga...
Watch select daily livestreams and join the virtual #AspenIdeasHealth conversation from June 21-24!
The Aspen Challenge presents three high school teams from Louisville and one team from Dallas who developed innovative solutions to issues that have chronically impacted their communities. See these young change-makers take to the stage to prove that entrepreneurial community solutions can be created at any age. Learn how Justin F. Kimball and Central High School Magnet Ca...
Jeffrey Sachs, named by The Economist as one of the world’s “three most influential living economists” is the author of End of Poverty, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, and The Age of Sustainable Development. Turning his bold and optimistic eye toward global health, he presents a compelling framework that integrates health with the environment, the economy, t...
In the United States, there is growing debate over the role of antitrust and competition policy in protecting competition and American consumers. Digital platforms, corporate mergers, and consolidation are profoundly changing the global competitive landscape. Can antitrust law temper the power of digital platforms like Google and Facebook? Is the current antitrust legal re...
Nearly 75 percent of us experience some significant adversity by the age of 20, but these experiences are often kept secret — as are our battles to overcome them. Clinical psychologist Meg Jay, author of Supernormal, tells the tale of everyday superheroes who have made a life out of dodging bullets and seeking justice, even as they hide among us as doctors, artists, entrep...
Food labeling covers a range of issues important to consumers from personal health and well-being to healthier production systems. Consumers and advocates have been pushing for an assortment of food labels: GMO, organic, worker justice, animal welfare, and nutrition facts, to name a few. Meaningful labels can allow consumers to vote with their dollars to support their valu...
By every measure — including life expectancy, infant mortality, and rates of heart disease and cancer — people of color fare worse than white people, even after controlling for education and income. Social policies that foster segregation, discriminatory employment and housing practices, and inequities in the criminal justice system can all have dire health consequences. E...
A society that dedicates resources to women is certain to be a healthier society. Ensuring equitable access to education, healthcare, and entrepreneurial opportunities can nurture family well-being and support thriving communities. Yet the pandemic dealt a bitter blow to global progress, sending 47 more million women into extreme poverty, escalating sexual violence, and un...
For the last 18 months, adults in Colorado and Washington State have been able to walk into retail stores and do what was previously unthinkable: buy marijuana. How are the states dealing with the inherent conundrum that results when you have a state permitted, but federally banned substance on the market? This session examines the Constitutional and political issues surro...