Aspen Ideas to Go

It might be hard to see–with political attacks in high gear this election season–but there is something hopeful taking root. People with a moral foundation are running for public office and they’re driven by an ethic of service. These individuals are able to put service above self, says Rye Barcott, author of Courage Can Save US. “Courage is the conscious acceptance of risk in service of the common good, whether that’s your family, faith, community, or country but it cannot be yourself,” he says. Barcott, who co-founded With Honor, sits down with other nonprofit leaders working to put people of character into public life. Emma Bloomberg leads Murmuration and Mike Buman is the executive director of Lee. Their conversation is led by David Brooks, former New York Times columnist and staff writer for The Atlantic.

Watch the video of their conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Music has the power to unite our brains and bodies and connect us with people on the other side of the world. Humans have been making and sharing music for thousands of years, but modern medicine and research tools have only recently given us the ability to see what’s going on in the brains of creators and listeners. Cava Lee Menzies, a musician and educator at the Oakland School for the Arts joins otolaryngologist and music researcher Charles Limb for this talk on the power of music to bring us together, alter our neurochemistry and change our lives. Kelly Corrigan, host of the podcast and NPR show “Kelly Corrigan Wonders,” moderates the conversation.

Small businesses and entrepreneurship play a powerful role in American life. They help people build wealth and strengthen communities. In fact, small businesses are one of the most highly trusted institutions. The Pew Research Center reports 86 percent of Americans believe small businesses have a positive national effect–even outranking the military and churches. But emerging technologies are changing how businesses operate. How can we ensure these institutions receive the support they need in a new era? Francesca de Quesada Covey, vice president of community impact at the Knight Foundation, leads a conversation with Chiling Tong, Karen Kerrigan, Angie Cooper, and Elizabeth Kelly. Tong is president and CEO of the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship. Kerrigan is president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. Cooper is president of the nonprofit, Heartland Forward and Elizabeth Kelly is head of beneficial deployments at Anthropic.

Watch a video of their conversation.

Civilian control of the military is a cornerstone of American democracy. But what happens when the relationship between military and civilian leadership comes under strain? Amid significant changes in senior military leadership and renewed debate over the boundaries between military authority and civilian oversight, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr. joins foreign policy and defense expert Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute and Duke political science professor Peter Feaver. David French, New York Times columnist and former Army Reserve major, moderates a candid conversation about the state of civil-military relations and what comes next.

The number of people using chatbots for their news is increasing. According to a 2026 report, 10 percent of all people globally use chatbots–that’s up from 7 percent in 2025. Trust and interest in news is also declining. The highest purpose of journalism is to serve needed information to the public. But what happens when AI is affecting every aspect of news–how it's produced, distributed, and consumed? How can media and technology best respond? Patrick J. McGovern Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller leads a conversation with Laurie Richardson, Nabiha Syed, and Sam Gregory. Richardson is Vice President for Trust and Safety at Google. Syed leads the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to build a better technology future, and Sam Gregory fights deepfakes and deceptive AI with his organization, WITNESS.

We don’t all learn in school how to participate in democracy. And a lack of understanding about how our government works can feed frustration, cynicism and apathy. In the age of the internet, there’s an opportunity to fill those educational gaps for people and empower them to get involved. But how do you send a signal through the noise, and motivate people civically? Sharon McMahon is a former public school teacher who turned to social media and found a new audience. With her civics content, she’s built up an audience of 1.8 million people who call themselves “The Governerds.” She also writes a daily government and current events newsletter called The Preamble, and wrote the best-selling book “The Small and the Mighty.” McMahon sits down with Kelly Corrigan, the host of the podcast and NPR show “Kelly Corrigan Wonders,” for a conversation about bringing democratic basics to more Americans.

Some internet content creators are building major platforms by analyzing, dispensing and sometimes reporting current events. But how can viewers gauge credibility in this Wild West? And what is the role of legacy journalism in an increasingly fragmented media landscape? Veteran reporter Katie Couric joins two leaders charting a new course in journalism, Jerusalem Demsas, founder of The Argument web magazine, and Aaron Parnas, an independent journalist and former attorney speaking to audiences from TikTok and Substack. The dean of Columbia Journalism School and New Yorker writer, Jelani Cobb, moderates and guides the conversation.

After the deadliest terror attacks in United States history occurred the morning of September 11, 2001, sweeping changes to security were put in place. The 9/11 attacks gave rise to the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Congress passed the Patriot Act and President George W. Bush declared a global war on terror, leading to the detention of terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay. Now, 25 years later, the effects of the nation’s large-scale security response linger. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly asks former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and former US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales whether the measures adopted then should still be used today. The speakers, who were all involved in the 9/11 response, share sobering memories of that day. Their conversation was held in June.

The current appeal of authoritarian regimes around the world is raising questions about whether democracy has a future. What’s sparking these political backlashes and what has soured voters on democratic systems and values? Stanford political scientist and the author of “The End of History,” Francis Fukuyama, joins Canadian journalist-turned-politician Chrystia Freeland and New York Times columnist David French at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival for an informed and varied conversation taking a harder look at democracy. CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria moderates the discussion.

With the midterm elections on the horizon, will voters overcome a fraught electoral battlefield to show up at the polls? Threats to the electoral system such as polarization, misinformation, campaign finance, redistricting, and limits to the Voting Rights Act are reducing voters’ trust. How can the system be rebuilt in a way that inspires confidence across the political spectrum? Heather Gerken leads a conversation with Rick Hasen, Janai Nelson, Sarah Isgur, and Ben Ginsburg. Gerken is president of the Ford Foundation; Hasen is a professor of law at UCLA; Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund; Isgur is editor of SCOTUSblog; and Ginsburg is a political law advocate.

China’s ups and downs reverberate across the globe, and unpredictability from Washington has been throwing another wrench into the equation. Good diplomacy and an open trade relationship between these two superpowers is essential, but the playbook keeps changing. In this talk from the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival, three experts on U.S.-China relations bring us up to date on technological advances, economic leverage and national security, among other foreign policy affairs. Dan Wang, a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, joins Melanie Hart of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and Julian Gewirtz, a research fellow at Columbia University and the Asia Society. CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria moderates and guides the panel.

In an era of executive overreach, Congress and the Supreme Court are becoming less effective at reigning in presidential power. America’s three branches of government–the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial–were created to regulate each other. But the nation’s founders didn’t anticipate headwinds like the rise of modern political parties. A healthier inter-branch dynamic is needed, says a panel of leading scholars, to create a stable environment for the American concept of government to succeed. Journalist John Dickerson leads a conversation with Georgetown Law Professor Stephen Vladeck, Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith, and Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.

With so many problems in the world, it can be easy to skip over what’s actually working. But while progress often isn’t linear, history tells us that a lot of societal issues have actually improved. The experts on this panel help us see those bright spots and reframe our thinking to include hopeful visions for the future. Greg Jackson, a professor at Utah Valley University and the host of the “History Doesn’t Suck!” podcast joins Google Labs editorial director Steven Johnson and the host of the “What Could Go Right?” podcast, Zachary Karabell, for a wide-ranging discussion at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival about breaking through the doom and gloom.

Since the conflict in Iran began in February, the results have been mixed. It has degraded Iran’s nuclear capacity, reduced its missile arsenal, and sunk its navy. But the war has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, divided America’s Gulf allies, fractured the U.S.-Israeli relationship, and failed to achieve objectives like regime change and nuclear elimination. A panel of Iran experts with different perspectives discuss whether the conflict could mark the end of the Islamic Republic’s long strategy of proxy warfare or the beginning of a far more dangerous Middle East. Journalist and author Fareed Zakaria leads the conversation with Kim Ghattas, Karim Sadjadpour, and Mark Dubowitz. Ghattas is an Emmy-award winning journalist. Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mark Dubowitz is CEO of Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Their conversation was held June 29.

In an increasingly polarized nation with a divided Congress, the rulings of the Supreme Court’s latest term were as closely watched as ever. The justices took on decisions about birthright citizenship, voting rights, transgender athletes and many other hot button issues, with sometimes surprising results. Immediately after the term wrapped, three experts on the court met onstage at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival to discuss what these rulings say about the future of the court and American law. And they touch on the big question hovering over all recent decisions – has the court become too politicized? Colleen Sinzdak is a Supreme Court and Appellate partner at Milbank, Melissa Murray is an NYU law professor, and Sarah Isgur is the editor of SCOTUSblog. The panelists don’t hold back as moderator Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW keeps the conversation on track.

Before this month’s semiquincentennial celebration, the United States’ last milestone anniversary was in 1976–during a difficult period. “The 1970s were a rough time–9 percent unemployment, 15 percent inflation, violent crime tripled, divorce rates tripled. It was a rough time,” says David Brooks, staff writer for The Atlantic. Still, he says, it was a unifying and uplifting moment. He asks Danielle Allen, Reihan Salam, Martha Jones, and Shilo Brooks how today is different from the bicentennial and whether the original ideas that bound us together–laid out in the Declaration of Independence–still apply. Allen is political science professor at Harvard; Salam is president of the Manhattan Institute; Jones is a professor at John Hopkins University; and Shilo Brooks is president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center.

As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and pervasive, how will it affect our work, our lives, and our ability to connect? Brené Brown, research professor and best-selling author says she hears a lot of experts trying to soothe people’s anxiety about the pace of technological change by offering platitudes like, What makes us human will ensure our relevance. This is dangerous because, as she explains, we’re not especially good at what makes us human. We’re not hardwired for the current level of uncertainty, and many of us feel as if the constant need to self-protect is driving the humanity right out of us.

Brown joins Kate Crawford, AI scholar and University of Southern California professor, who points out that so much of what’s driving our feelings of emptiness and disconnection around AI is rooted in the fact that artificial intelligence is fundamentally a technology of extraction – it depends on the intensive exploitation of raw materials, human labor, and personal data. Together, Drs. Brown and Crawford encourage us to advocate for authentic connection over algorithmic convenience.

This episode will be our last for a few weeks as we pause for the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival. We will be back in mid-July with new content featuring brilliant thinkers and inspiring leaders.

The teachings offered by ancient religious texts are timeless and full of wisdom for today’s world. When hope can be difficult to find in contemporary society, sacred traditions sometimes fill the gap, with help from the interpretations of scholars. In this talk from the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Princeton historian and professor of religion Elaine Pagels unpacks the truths at the center of her life’s work. She talks with writer Pico Iyer about where to look for enduring guidance and how the world’s faiths talk to each other and fit into our daily modern lives. Pagels is the author of many books, most recently “Miracles and Wonders: The Historical Mystery of Jesus.”

Leaders who truly inspire and get the best out of people are few and far between. How do they learn to gain trust and rally a group to action? Steve Kerr has been coaching the Golden State Warriors NBA team for 11 years, four of which have been champion seasons. He joins Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who became the first Black person to hold that office after combat in the Army and a career fighting poverty, for a discussion about leading with respect and purpose. CBS co-anchor John Dickerson moderates the conversation.

Over the last 50 years or so, the divide between winners and losers in the United States has been deepening, says author and philosopher Michael Sandel. In the era of globalization, inequalities in income and wealth have widened and changed attitudes around success. “Those who landed on top have come to believe that their success was their own doing–a measure of merit. By implication, those who struggle and are left behind, must deserve their fate too,” says Sandel. He says this meritocratic thinking has poisoned our politics and eroded civil life. He tells playwright Anna Deavere Smith how to restore a vision of the common good. Sandel is a Harvard professor and author of The Tyranny of Merit. Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated performer, reads an original work about the complexities of merit.