Aspen Ideas to Go

A traumatic event can literally change the way our brain functions, and live on in our body in unexpected ways. The field of psychiatry has not always acknowledged or fully studied the physical impacts of trauma, and mental health practitioners are often not aware of appropriate treatments for traumatized patients. Psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk has been researching trauma as a clinician for about four decades, and founded one of the first research centers in the United States dedicated to studying traumatic stress in civilians. In 2014, he published the book “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Treatment of Trauma,” which struck a chord with millions of people, and has stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for most of the time since publication. Van der Kolk has been a leader in exploring innovative treatments for trauma, such as neurofeedback and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) as well as a proponent of applying simpler and more widespread techniques to trauma therapy, such as yoga and Qigong. The executive director of Aspen Public Radio, Breeze Richardson, interviews van der Kolk at an event from the Winter Words 2023 season, from Aspen Words.

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What is it that pulls one person toward another, and connects them? What does love and attraction do to our brain, and vice versa? Biological anthropologist Helen Fisher has been studying questions of love and relationships for over 40 years. Through detailed data collection, research questionnaires and even brain scans, she has collected massive amounts of information on the topic, and identified four main styles of thinking that guide a person’s behavior and lovelife. Fisher is the chief scientist for Match.com, and a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute. In this 2017 interview from the Aspen Ideas Festival archives, Atlantic writer Olga Khazan talks to Fisher about why love takes so many different forms and trajectories, and looks so different for all of us. They cover attraction, romantic love, slow love, divorce, adultery and what keeps love alive.

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We could look at people who veer off society’s dominant tracks into moral gray zones as simply bad, or damaged, or living the consequences of bad choices. But from the inside, people always have reasons for doing what they do, and when all the cards are on the table, morality can become murkier. New Yorker writer Patrick Radden Keefe is fascinated by what drives people who land outside the norm, and especially those who do bad things. His latest book, “Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks,” compiles some of his best New Yorker pieces on “successful” outliers, including Mexican drug lord El Chapo Guzmán, the Sackler family, and late chef Anthony Bourdain. In the first event of the Winter Words 2023 season from Aspen Words, Keefe talks to Mitzi Rapkin, host of the literary podcast “First Draft,” about what draws him to these subjects, how he pulls information from his sources, and how he crafts narratives that keep us glued to the page.

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Kids growing up in the U.S. today are facing some terrifyingly real, daunting problems. Almost every day, they hear about political polarization, racism, climate change, gun violence and a host of other complex societal issues. They’re learning how to comprehend those challenges and the emotions they evoke at the same time they’re trying to learn everything else, and that overwhelm has consequences. Our mental health system is not robust enough to handle the current demand, for kids or adults, and not everyone gets the help they need. Professionals and parents alike are putting their heads together to come up with out-of-the-box ways of filling the gaps. In this panel discussion at Aspen Ideas, three experts in child development and psychology talk about solutions, big and small, that can help kids through these difficult times. Author and former college dean Julie Lythcott-Haims moderates the conversation between Christine Yu Moutier, chief medical officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Lisa Damour, clinical psychologist and writer, and Rick Weissbourd, psychologist and senior lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Graduate School of Education.

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Despite the deeply tragic, terrifying and high-profile nature of gun violence, the United States has not been able to make significant progress on the problem. The arguments on all sides are exhaustingly familiar, and so is the lack of governmental and societal action. In the meantime, more and more people are dying—researchers say more than 45,000 a year. A group of passionate health care providers and public health professionals are urging us to look at the issue in a different light, and think about how the country’s gun-owning and gun-despising populations can actually work together to save lives. Physician and Brown University professor Megan Ranney joins former U.S. surgeon general and anesthesiologist Jerome Adams and physician and program director of the American Foundation for Firearm Injury Reduction in Medicine (AFFIRM) at the Aspen Institute, Christopher Barsotti for a spirited talk at Aspen Ideas: Health. Each has firsthand experience treating people impacted by gun violence, and they share the ways they’ve employed a public health approach—emphasizing care over punishment—to reduce harm. Could their underused methods work in more parts of the country, and make a dent in this seemingly intractable issue?  Elizabeth Cohen, senior medical correspondent for CNN, moderates the conversation.

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People have been thinking about happiness for thousands of years. In fact, ancient thinkers came up with strategies for cultivating pleasures over a lifetime, or creating a lasting capacity to take joy in the world. This long-term flourishing is different from immediate pleasures — it’s a richer notion of happiness. Laurie Santos is a professor of psychology at Yale and an expert on human cognition and the cognitive biases that impede better choices. She’s joined by Yale philosophy professor Tamar Gendler. Their conversation sheds light on the modern science behind ancient discoveries.

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The pain and discomfort brought on by a newly-developed chronic illness can be exhausting. On top of symptoms, millions of people also have frustrating and belittling encounters with the medical system while on a quest to diagnose and treat their illnesses. Journalist Meghan O’Rourke was one of them, and it took her more than a decade to convince a doctor to run the tests that would finally explain what she was experiencing. That journey led to treatments and improved health, and also became the basis for her latest book, “The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness.” She talks with Yale internal medicine professor and author of the New York Times Magazine “Diagnosis” column, Lisa Sanders, about the process of illuminating the often disconnected and isolated community of chronically ill people. As O’Rourke explains, simple recognition can go a long way for patients facing the unknown, but even that is frequently hard to come by. In this conversation from Aspen Ideas: Health, she uses research, scientific analysis and storytelling to chart a course for a medical system that digs deeper for answers and does better for these patients.

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Most of us know where to find quick hits of pleasure and enjoyment. But what about satisfaction that lasts for years, or decades, or a lifetime? It can be tempting to think the secret lies in pursuing more—more money, more accomplishments, more friends, more stuff—but we have overwhelming evidence that more doesn’t work. Maybe the secret is…wanting less? Arthur Brooks teaches classes on happiness at Harvard Business School, and is the author of the New York Times bestseller “From Strength to Strength,” among many other popular books and essays. He draws from the latest research in psychology, neuroscience, behavioral economics, and other disciplines to explain why our biology pushes us to accumulate and pursue but doesn’t have our long-term best interests in mind. The good news is we can circumvent that hard-wiring by shifting our perspectives, pointing in a new direction, and chipping away at what we’ve built up on the outside to find our true selves within.

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Psychedelics are emerging from a period of prohibition and association with counterculture into the rigorous world of medical research and treatment. The potential outcomes for people suffering from difficult-to-treat mental ailments, such as PTSD and depression, are exciting, but the landscape is complex. The line between recreational and therapeutic use is muddy, and professionals trained to guide us through psychedelic experiences and legislative debates on legalization are few and far between. Professor Rachel Yehuda has contributed groundbreaking research to the field of PTSD and intergenerational trauma, and began incorporating psychedelic therapy into her studies a few years ago. She joined nurse practitioner and professor Andrew Penn, also a researcher and an advocate for the perspective of nurses in psychedelic therapy, and Jeeshan Chowdhury, a biopharmaceutical entrepreneur working on psychedelics and addiction care, for an informative and nuanced conversation about the cutting edge of psychedelic-assisted therapy. Doctor and podcast host Shoshana Ungerleider moderates the discussion.

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Professor Zoe Chance, who teaches the most popular class at the Yale School of Management, illuminates the skills and strategies necessary to improve your natural ability to persuade.

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