Setup
Stuart Weitzman is one of America’s most famous shoe designers, known for outfitting countless celebrities (think Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Kate Moss) but — perhaps more importantly — women across the globe who aspire to quality, class, and style. Here, he shares the lessons of his entrepreneurial adventure — which concluded with the 2015 sale of the company for $574 million — including how he built an iconic brand and formidable company in ways that departed from the conventional manufacturing model.
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Economy
![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...
![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)
![Does American Capitalism Still Work?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6ddc1a5b-c983-41dc-9fdf-c50d8411fce7/53823880878_647f9e3767_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
In a time of growing wealth disparity and evolving societal values, can capitalism adapt to sustain the American Dream?
![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...
![Ford’s CEO on EVs and Driving Into the Future](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/08b088f4-4719-4c3b-9330-be6ac4ff123a/fordceo.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1562%2C0%2C2508%2C3762&w=400)
Join Jim Farley as he explores how drivers' needs and priorities are guiding the future of vehicle technology and reshaping our expectations of cars and trucks.
![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...
![Navigating Tomorrow’s Economy (Part 1 and Part 2)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/6174eb00-1e5e-4da8-acfb-8b85be903d4b/53822186869_5287ac99ed_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C312%2C6000%2C3375&w=400)
![The Secret of Making Hits](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/008361bf-2540-4a00-8e1f-69739f370ce8/53822660989_e5265f0505_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=1%2C307%2C5880%2C3308&w=400)
Amid seismic shifts in the entertainment world, Oscar-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning Brian Grazer has managed to keep pivoting to new ways to tell stories in movies, TV and...
![Guerrilla Creativity](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/24e08eb1-8bb0-4970-9930-a617d58c5f32/53821275967_e65a66da2d_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1594%2C0%2C2306%2C3459&w=400)
In the last 30 years, conglomerates from Amazon to Netflix to Spotify have changed the way we interact with media, books, fashion and music. Creatives are struggling to mainta...
![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...
![What Images Teach About Racial Justice](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/b952ab2d-c640-4a57-8279-6c7d03238fb9/53820187272_5aeee651ba_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C242%2C4650%2C2616&w=400)
Images communicate truths, and also lies. Learning to pay attention to photographs can help us discern. An art and cultural historian and a visual artist host a master class o...
![The Iconoclast](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/32220310-b38a-40d9-b373-6fb5dbb0b1e9/53820643279_96e2c83e4f_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C302%2C5790%2C3257&w=400)
Peter Thiel has made no secret of his feelings about economic and cultural issues. Hear him discuss his vision for the future, his bets on AI and digital currencies, his thoug...
![Vagabond of Song](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/7eea29da-ea74-4516-b211-776d628c7f8a/53821145355_6b0d6d5891_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=1660%2C0%2C2656%2C3984&w=400)
Hurray for the Riff Raff is more than Alynda Segarra’s musical moniker; they spent their youth hopping trains across America, capturing that life in youthful poetry then and a...
![Creativity in Confinement](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/5817dd14-bfd6-49b1-b658-02ccfd2bfa4d/common.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
When people in prison are given creative outlets, the impact is life-changing. Hear from a hip-hop artist setting up prison recording studios, an architect designing more huma...
![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...
![Where the Economy, and the World, Are Headed](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d8986ff4-a47f-46fc-be37-9b4ce958b80b/53821150470_57bfabf5b6_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C430%2C8256%2C4644&w=400)
If you want to know where the economy is headed, ask an economist. If you want to know why (and more), ask a treasury secretary, an economic diplomat, a director of the Nation...
![Julia Louis-Dreyfus Talks Easy with Sam Fragoso (podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/1c8e8da8-5413-4723-a7ab-21a749e85606/53820905095_26da4c7347_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=600&q=80&rect=2293%2C0%2C3669%2C5503&w=400)
Whether as Elaine Benes from “Seinfeld” or Selina Meyer from “Veep,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus delivers laughter. But in the upcoming film “Tuesday,” she communicates with death — i...
![Economic Envy? The Real State of the American Economy](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/35590916-0e61-4c37-b00d-896024fd6557/53819467536_b957e4504c_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C237%2C5688%2C3200&w=400)
The market is at record highs. Unemployment is at record lows. And most economists will tell you the American economy is the envy of the world — but far too many working famil...
![Echoes of Time in Type](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a0a8f949-e84c-4dd4-90fa-fa22b81a0f3d/53819113811_fa4c876577_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C245%2C4651%2C2618&w=400)
You may not know what typeface this sentence is written in, but typography is crucial to how we convey, process and retain information. How has the form evolved? Hear from des...
![Raised by Hollywood](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/f4cbcde9-0ecf-4991-87f1-04612ce76564/53815514942_0719f738aa_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C5888%2C3313&w=400)
Maybe all of us feel like we’ve been raised by Hollywood, but being raised in Hollywood is a different kind of drama. Actor, producer and director Griffin Dunne joins friend (...