Big philanthropy can contribute to a democratic society by addressing problems that neither government nor the private sector will take on. Yet philanthropic institutions and foundations are institutional oddities within a democracy: exercises of power by the wealthy with little accountability, donor-directed preferences in perpetuity, and generous tax subsidies. What, if anything, confers democratic legitimacy on foundations? Might foundations be a threat to democratic governance? Or are there modes of operation that illustrate how foundations can support democracy? Stanford political scientist Rob Reich challenges us to consider the role of philanthropy in democratic society.

Listen to the Aspen Ideas to Go episode, Living a Moral Life. Discover Aspen Ideas to Go's sister podcast, Aspen Insight. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Author Luis Alberto Urrea's latest novel, The House of Broken Angels, is inspired by his own Mexican-American family. Set in a San Diego neighborhood, the book's characters celebrate a final birthday for a beloved brother dying of cancer, and a funeral for his elderly mother. The farewell doubleheader may sound depressing, but the book buzzes with joy. And so does this talk from Urrea, held on stage in Aspen, Colorado as part of an Aspen Words lecture series. Aspen Words is the literary program of the Aspen Institute.

Listen to the Aspen Ideas to Go episode, US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. Find the long list of finalists for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. The winner of the Prize is Mohsin Hamid for his book Exit West. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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In rallies from coast to coast, students across the United States are calling for tighter gun control. The deadly Parkland, Florida shooting resurfaced the conversation but the issue of gun violence is all too familiar for people in Chicago. For residents in certain neighborhoods, shootings are frustratingly frequent. In 2016, a particularly deadly year, there were nearly 800 murders, and about half of the gun crimes happened in just five neighborhoods, according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab. So what’s being done to reverse the violence? In this episode, we hear from Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart, Corey Brooks, a pastor of a nondenominational church on Chicago’s South Side, and Liz Dozier, founder of Chicago Beyond and former principal of a South Side Chicago high school. Their conversation is moderated by Ron Brownstein, a senior editor at The Atlantic.

Watch "The Tragic Toll of Mental Illness Behind Bars" from the Aspen Ideas Festival. The conversation features Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart. Listen to "Speaking Up," an episode from Aspen Insight that features Todd Breyfogle, director of seminars for the Aspen Institute. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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A young, courageous African American woman risked it all to gain freedom from America’s First Family in the late 18th century. Ona, or “Oney,” Judge escaped George Washington’s Philadelphia mansion after years of serving as a seamstress for the famous founding father. There’s little written about Judge. Historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar stumbled on Judge’s story by chance when she discovered a runaway slave advertisement. “I remember sitting back and saying, ‘Who is this Ona Judge and why don’t I know her?’” Dunbar went on to write Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. In this episode she speaks with Michele Norris, founder of The Race Card Project and executive director of The Bridge at the Aspen Institute, about what Judge’s story can teach us about racial injustice and gender inequality.

Listen to the episode Why We Need to Talk About Race from Aspen Ideas to Go. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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For centuries the human race has been grappling with how to live a moral life. In this conversation we hear from scholars who think deeply about moral philosophy and helping others. David Brooks suggests that, “We have words and emotional instincts about what feels right and wrong,” yet questions the criteria we use to “help us think, argue, and decide.” New Yorker author Larissa MacFarquhar profiles a number of do-gooders whose deep, even extreme moral commitment leads as frequently to criticism as to admiration. Columbia philosophy professor Michele Moody-Adams believes that we find our best selves through serious self-examination and constant scrutiny. And Stanford political philosopher Rob Reich engages us all in deep exploration of these questions.

Listen to the episode Taxation and Investigation from Aspen Insight. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Throughout history, young people have been at the center of activism: the Civil Rights movement, Black Lives Matter, the labor movement, and now gun violence. What barriers do young people have to overcome to get adults to listen? What tactics must they employ to get people in power to take them seriously? We hear from young student activists working on issues of racism, inequity, and transgender rights. One recent movement, the #MeToo effort, has mobilized people across the globe in a short period of time. In the second part of the show, Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women's Law Center, speaks with journalist Jay Newton-Small about how to keep the energy of #MeToo going.

Listen to our episode Inequality and Opportunity. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Why do people do evil things? We hear from Yale psychologist Paul Bloom and journalist Graeme Wood about the nature of evil. Bloom studies morality in babies, children, and adults. Wood immersed himself in ISIS, readings the terror group’s propaganda and conversing with its members, in order to write the book The Way of Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State. Graeme explains that ISIS members aren’t crazy but are driven to do horrific evil deeds, like murder and rape. Why do they carry out these evils? And what about smaller-scale evil acts like cheating a lying? Is it enough to define evil as having a sense of right and wrong? Bloom and Wood’s conversation touches on philosophy, religion, and politics.

Listen to our episode Coping with Disappointment, Setback, and Crisis. Find Aspen Insight's latest episode, This Land Is Our Land. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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The debate around gun laws is resurfacing in the wake of the deadly high school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Can America’s shared sorrow inspire a consensus that gun violence should be tackled as a public health issue? For years former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has labeled gun deaths this way. “Whenever you have large numbers of people who are dying for preventable reasons,” he says, “that constitutes a public health crisis.” Murthy is a supporter of gun laws. In fact, his confirmation in 2014 was delayed a year because of his stance on the issue. In this episode, he speaks with Judy Woodruff, managing editor of the “PBS Newshour,” about what he thinks needs to be done to prevent another mass shooting.

Listen to our episode, The Opioid Tsunami. Learn more about Spotlight Health. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Historian Jon Meacham has written extensively about the presidency, with acclaimed books on Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, and most recently, George H. W. Bush. What does his research into these presidents suggest about the nature of the office? What might we learn from the past about the current state of politics, the White House, and perhaps more broadly, democracy in America? He speaks with John Dickerson, co-host of "CBS This Morning."

Find the Aspen Insight episode, "Finding Meaning in Your Work" by clicking here. Listen to the latest episode of our sister podcast Aspen Insight. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith says her true self comes out in her work. Poetry, she says, helps her wrestle with dark, sometimes unresolvable questions. In this episode she reads new and old work that examines subjects like death, the afterlife, nature, and African American history. Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Ordinary Light, and three books of poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Life on Mars. Her book Wade in the Water is due out this spring. She was appointed the 22nd US Poet Laureate in 2017. She’s the first laureate appointed by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

Find the Aspen Insight episode, "Living the Creative Life" by clicking here. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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