Setup
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 can’t win—a sentiment familiar to generations of men and women living in poor urban and rural communities. But as discontent grows across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and educational lines, and becomes the pervading sentiment of many Americans, the hunt for solutions becomes more urgent. Join us for a conversation with some of the country’s savviest national and local social entrepreneurs, policy leaders, community activists, and critical thinkers to discuss the challenges and learn more about the innovative solutions they are deploying in communities across the United States.
Explore More
Society

Jump in by watching our ten most popular talks of all time. From black holes to jazz and civil rights to psychology hacks, we've collected the talks that remain audience favor...



Meet Patience Lee, a 2023 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who’s building cultural awareness into mental health support services for unaccompanied refugee children in the United Sta...

Meet Nathan Chomilo, a 2023 Aspen Ideas: Health Fellow who’s incorporating community collaboration and racial equity into Minnesota’s Medicaid policy development.

You may have heard of "Dry January" and mocktails, but what is being "sober curious" really about? Ahead of Aspen Ideas: Health, Sans Bar's Chris Marshall explains the growin...



Are you truly tuned in to the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures that surround you every day? Ahead of her book talk at Aspen Ideas: Health, best-selling author Gret...











The pandemic put into stark relief deeply-ingrained gender roles in society, as the burden of unpaid care fell to millions of women who left the workforce. Yet the past years...

Friends, partners, children, families, coworkers — these connections profoundly shape our lives and happiness. For many of us, the upheaval of the past few years became an une...



Of course, Black history shouldn’t just be a month-long nod on our yearly calendar — it is inextricable from American history and fundamental to the very soul of our nation an...







