![Norris Michele Aif2017 0](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/d341d813-509a-4c0a-bbe4-df534c0eb8cc/Norris_Michele_AIF2017_0.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C1000&w=290)
Michele Norris
Journalist; Founder, The Race Card Project; Executive Director, The Bridge, The Aspen Institute
Michele Norris is a Peabody Award-winning journalist, founder of The Race Card Project, and executive director of The Bridge, the Aspen Institute’s new program on race, cultural identity, connectivity, and inclusion. For more than a decade, Norris was a host on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” where she interviewed world leaders, American presidents, Nobel laureates, leading thinkers, and groundbreaking artists. Prior to that, she was a television correspondent for ABC and a staff writer for The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, and the Los Angeles Times. An author and sought-after speaker, Norris has also produced special projects for National Geographic, PBS, Lifetime Television, and TIME magazine.
Previously
![Deep Dive: Machines and Morality](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullef9a8894-bf66-48b5-bbdb-12358db513cb/35519509001_2d40f6ceb8_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C54%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Artificial intelligence has rapidly and deeply permeated our lives; and for much of the public, these infiltrations were unexpected — some even remain unrecognized. As we deve...
![When Color Blindness Renders Me Invisible to You](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulledf6a4b3-712a-4d4b-91ea-7118730bed88/35449339082_344fe0063b_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C55%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
If you’re white and middle class, you were probably raised thinking that discussing race was impolite. Color blindness was seen as a virtue — and it’s a persistent one. A 2014...
![The MLK I Knew — and What Today’s Changemakers Should Learn from Him](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null9a5ae6a9-7433-41af-864e-265be90c4ab5/35203837080_48aa5d544b_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Clarence Jones was the person who secreted out the scraps of paper that Martin Luther King, Jr. used to write his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” He wrote part of King’s icon...
![Can DNA Help Us Grapple with the Past?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null5359f57b-c793-4b0d-87b3-2cca1de607ac/35441844551_3eba9b5359_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C282%2C4000%2C2246&w=400)
We know DNA is a master key that unlocks medical and forensic secrets, but genetic testing is also impacting urgent social issues around race in America. DNA-based techniques...
![The Gatekeepers: Expanding America’s Cultural Power Structure](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulladf0e65f-f356-48e1-8506-fd000dd950da/27917793822_d562ba0310_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C119%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
When the ranks of a cultural institution or a creative field tend toward high levels of homogeneity in terms of race, class, and/or gender, what are the challenges and opportu...
![Why Trump?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null6ceeea17-de72-43b8-b4c1-7f2aef2d20e4/28003286175_bb3838cf35_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C87%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Almost no one predicted it. He began the Republican primary as the most disliked candidate in the field and heads to Cleveland its presumptive nominee. Political establishment...
![The Emergent Chorus: Collaborative Creativity, Simple Tech, and Giving Voice to the Voiceless](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nulld70cdf28-2e96-4b29-8a47-5b07b38dfebf/27702260750_143a095894_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C72%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Journalists Michele Norris, Jose Antonio Vargas, and Amar Bakshi have all worked to create global megaphones for sharing experiences and stories that too often go unnoticed. N...