Aspen Ideas to Go

The Covid-19 vaccine was developed at an unusually rapid pace, and now the public's expectations are high for what science can deliver. It's a good thing we're in a science moment. Gobs of data are being produced, researchers are collaborating more, and the public is engaged. But is the pace of discovery keeping up with the science? Alison Snyder, managing editor at Axios, interviews Darío Gil, senior vice president and director of IBM Research at IBM, Serpil Erzurum, chief research and academic officer of Cleveland Clinic, and Nicholas Dirks, president and CEO of the New York Academy of Sciences, about the pace of discovery in an age of streamlined research and development processes and advanced computing.

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Current political fault lines are fracturing American society as people grow farther apart from one another due to differing beliefs and opinions. We often see people we disagree with as caricatures, and think we can never reconcile our differences. Yet despite that sense of contradiction we are much closer to each other than we think. To bridge the divide, we have to strengthen the bonds that make us human. In this special Thanksgiving conversation, Krista Tippett longtime host of the radio program “On Being,” and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks who writes the “How to Build a Life” column for The Atlantic, discuss ways we can share our humanity and work towards re-creating politics and civil society. Their discussion is part of Unfinished Live, an online event series produced in collaboration with Aspen Ideas partner, Unfinished. Learn more at www.unsfinished.com

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Longtime food journalist Mark Bittman says America's food system needs to be reimagined so land is used fairly and well and people have access to food that promotes health, not illness. His latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal, tells the story of humankind through the lens of food. The frenzy for food has driven human history to some of its most catastrophic moments from slavery and colonialism to our current moment of Big Food. Big Food—driven by corporate greed and gluttony—is exacerbating climate change, plundering the planet, and sickening people. He speaks with Kathleen Finlay, president of the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming, about what needs to change so that agriculture doesn’t wreck the planet and healthy food is available to all.

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It's clear the United States isn't united right now. A Pew Research poll done before the 2020 election showed about 9 in 10 voters worried a victory by the other party would lead to lasting harm for the country. Our partisan divides aren't just endangering relationships and slowing progress in Washington, they're threatening our national security. "The greatest gift the United States can give to our national foes is hating each other. Why? Because it’s the ultimate distraction," says Arthur Brooks, professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Business School. He speaks with Amy Walter, editor and publisher of The Cook Political Report, and Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker, about this month's election results, the psychology behind our partisanship, what history shows us about division, and why there’s hope on the horizon.

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Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form.

Today’s episode features Gayle Smith, the State Department’s coordinator for the global response to Covid-19. Watch her full conversation from the Aspen Security Forum. The talk was co-presented with the Aspen Institute Health, Medicine, and Society Program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYXL0PpkvYE

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We try our whole lives to avoid pain and suffering and when it does show up, we try to solve it. In her new book, No Cure for Being Human, religious scholar Kate Bowler says we try to out-eat, out-learn, and out-perform our humanness. Truth is, bad things do happen to good people and if we're going to tell the truth, we need one another. As someone who lives with cancer, Bowler knows first-hand about the everything-works-out fantasy common in American culture. She speaks with Adelle Banks, national reporter at Religion News Service, about her personal experiences with pain and grief and the role religion plays in dealing with suffering.

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Want to raise creative kids who learn how to think for themselves? Go easy on the rules. 

Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form.

Today’s episode features Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at The Wharton School and author of The Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. Listen to his entire talk from the Aspen Ideas Festival https://www.aspenideas.org/podcasts/originalshow-nonconformists-move-the-world

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Norms in newsrooms across the United States are being upended thanks to deep polarization, a racial reckoning, and the pandemic. Hallmark journalistic traits like neutrality and objectivity are being redefined. Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR, says it's impossible to be objective, and journalists have long been advocates for the status quo. “We’ve seen newspapers apologize for how they covered the Civil Rights Movement because they marginalized civil rights advocates." Still, today's challenges are unique. Newsrooms are grappling with generational change, the Me Too movement, and journalists who became oppositional following President Trump's "enemy of the people" comments. Deggans speaks with Joanne Lipman, former editor in chief for USA Today, and Vivian Schiller, executive director of Aspen Digital.

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Quick Take is a weekly dose of ideas and insights delivered in short form.

Today’s episode features astronomer Jill Tarter. She co-founded SETI, or the “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.” Watch her full conversation from the Aspen Ideas Festival https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/searching-for-aliens-finding-ourselves

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When President Biden expanded the nation's Child Tax Credit in March, US Senator Michael Bennet applauded the move. Bennet, a democrat from Colorado, has been working to increase support for families since he introduced the American Family Act in Congress in 2017. Now he wants to make the Credit, which pays most American families $250 or $300/child each month, permanent. He says it will cut childhood poverty in half. Still, Republicans reject an effort to extend it saying it's a waste of taxpayer money and costs American jobs. Bennet speaks with Etsy CEO Josh Silverman about the role of the Federal Government and the private sector in assisting today's families. They're interviewed by Marketplace's Samantha Fields.

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