![](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null52c9394b-1ba2-4566-bcf3-7075b2900783/48144845572_e65e3e6dfd_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2245&w=800)
How Sports Solve All the World’s Problems
Setup
Pick your issue: academic achievement, drug use, female empowerment, race relations, obesity, mental health, medical costs. Engaging young people in sports can help communities tackle all of these, and many more. What’s more, it can yield benefits like community cohesion, citizen engagement, economic productivity, urban development, and help foster social-emotional skills like resilience and teamwork, respect for your opponents, and the rule of law. Give a kid a quality sport experience, and the evidence suggests that lives — and societies — can be transformed. So how can we trigger systems-level change that delivers opportunity to every child?
Explore More
Society
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=8a5f4e&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
![Gettyimages 1488043800](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4f1048e8-0b45-4e5c-ab68-b59fdc805164/GettyImages-1488043800.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=2240%2C0%2C4480%2C4480&w=400)
Conflict and suffering can bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best. This is one of the lessons New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has learned...
![Global Affairs](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/44bccdbd-af20-4238-accc-18fd46aba397/GettyImages-959876146.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=267&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C4245%2C2832&w=400)
The war in Ukraine continues to reshape European security and global alliances, while the war in Gaza raises urgent questions about humanitarian aid and international interven...
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=ac473e&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
![Aif Stock Hero Images](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d53c86d8-a116-4261-8468-bf005c53bca1/AIFStockHeroImages.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=1453%2C0%2C3377%2C3375&w=400)
The federal right to abortions in the United States has been overturned, access to contraception and IVF services are threatened in many states, and the gender wage gap persis...
![Gettyimages 110925335](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9060cbea-f0ea-4983-ae0b-7f4cdd4923a8/GettyImages-110925335.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&mono=0a80bc&q=80&rect=435%2C0%2C3744%2C3744&w=400)
![Gettyimages 110925335](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9060cbea-f0ea-4983-ae0b-7f4cdd4923a8/GettyImages-110925335.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=400&q=80&rect=435%2C0%2C3744%2C3744&w=400)
The grim stream of news from the Middle East has been making it more and more difficult to hold onto hope for peace. When and how will the conflict in Gaza end? And could war...
![Chasing Hope](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/2f55539f-2197-464f-8b26-2929b02cf707/53824051485_57d377543e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1613%2C0%2C2576%2C3864&w=400)
As one of the foremost reporters of his generation, Nicholas Kristof has been witness to century-defining events and atrocities around the world. How has he managed to weaponi...
![Roots and Revelations](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/9a7290c3-c71d-4303-979a-7b49449a77c4/53824082684_f2a441a5d7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C312%2C6000%2C3375&w=400)
Henry Louis Gates Jr. — one of America’s leading public intellectuals and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard — explains the i...
![Closing Session](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/48047a1f-d980-4abf-ae89-bfbd1c8bc246/53824584793_ab831623a7_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C160%2C3200%2C1800&w=400)
![In Defense of Misfits: The Transcendence of an Unconventional Life](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/87df6db6-1f1f-4b05-95dd-118770600fd1/53823661837_0b1ee54615_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=4%2C0%2C8248%2C4640&w=400)
A nonbinary comedian challenges us to question our notions of self, gender and society, and opens our eyes to what we may gain in the process.
![Supercommunicators: The Science of Conversation and Connection](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4439f33b-44f3-4ce3-918c-6b7713b6017a/53825026550_67fcc31319_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=506%2C0%2C586%2C879&w=400)
Why do some conversations succeed while others stumble? The neurology and psychology of communication offer surprising explanations for why human connection goes right or wron...
![Women Investing in Women](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/29942e24-e2ab-4f83-94d2-b907fbaf4615/53823873613_23991edd49_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
Women are twice as likely to invest in female-led businesses. Explore the ways women approach wealth building and investment, and how they create opportunities to build financ...
![Are American Women Going Backwards?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a4f70e43-9976-4d6c-936d-6ffb4f1b3993/53824046585_143bcae259_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C462%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
The rollback of reproductive rights, the push to end no-fault divorce, and gun laws that allow domestic abusers to own a firearm are turning the clock back on women’s rights....
![Pushback: The Perils (and Power) of Corporate Commitments](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/4740a973-6c0d-4f57-9c35-796fdd369fa2/53823862693_2b19d6cc7e_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
With ESG caught in the political culture wars, business executives must decide to speak up or stay quiet about climate, diversity and democracy. What do employees and citizens...
![Choosing Our Families](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3812d6cd-ff04-4feb-b0a9-ab271b9c5849/53823337075_48dbca4089_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2293%2C0%2C3669%2C5503&w=400)
Marriage rates have been decreasing for decades, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t finding new ways to create family ties that bind. Family bonds in the LGBTQ community and...
![King of the Deal](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6ae1f900-5437-49d6-b9b1-b2a8d361dd92/53823958184_0494f8c2a2_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
From one of the highest perches in the entertainment industry, the CEO of sports and entertainment behemoths Endeavor and TKO takes us on a journey of leadership and leverage....
![Forgiveness in Times of Turmoil (podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6a39dfbb-1abd-4ee5-9416-2290484c22f4/53823968189_21a4f4f910_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
As the stakes of political confrontation have escalated, the issue of forgiveness is complicated. Should one ever hold the line rather than look for avenues of reconciliation,...
![The African Century](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/bdb124db-886c-4221-854e-1e6893bfb3be/53824085325_aa02dd6d1f_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C1453%2C3100%2C1744&w=400)
Africa is a rising giant. By 2050, one in four people on the planet will be African, and by 2060, Africa will have the largest labor force in the world. A former Nigerian pres...
![A Vision for Tech Equity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d6b710dc-4837-4bae-aedc-b17d43cbe3ee/techequity.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2581%2C0%2C3093%2C4639&w=400)
The innovative philanthropist who paid off the student debt of the entire graduating class of Morehouse College class of 2019 talks about how to ensure all communities benefit...
![Does Philanthropy Need a Course Correction?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/c2625980-db3e-4b07-892d-fe5e8f98d61e/53819193282_a149fff465_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C293%2C5863%2C3298&w=400)
The racial reckoning of 2020 called for new models of philanthropy, but four years later there is strong political and social opposition to philanthropic investment in equitab...
![The Crisis in Trust](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/02f10f22-5fd4-4b5c-99c3-d3e2502bdf52/53821399919_115686be5a_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
In a time of widespread suspicion and cynicism, everyone has a role to play in strengthening social trust and building bridges. How can individuals and organizations work toge...
![The Power of Place: Youth Opportunity in Latin America, India and Africa](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/84fd7a2d-7412-47b0-a1e1-54beeb6835a3/53821058621_a78c29e4cc_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Of the 1.2 billion youth aged 15 to 24 worldwide in 2019, close to half were out of school, out of work or underemployed, and this number will continue to grow. Listen as glob...