Aspen Ideas to Go

Is the internet loosening our collective grasp on the truth? Pioneers of digital news once argued that new online sources would bring us new perspectives about the world. They did not anticipate the internet would destroy traditional media gatekeepers and give everyone a chance to indulge in news that confirms their preexisting ideas. How does the mass media fit into this landscape? Does the role of newspaper publisher or local TV station owner now belong to Facebook and Google? How do we sort fact from fiction? Featuring Joshua Johnson, Susan Page, Campbell Brown, and David Leonhardt.

Find our companion episode "What Have We Learned from Listening to America?," by clicking here. Find the latest episode of the Aspen Institute's new podcast Aspen Insight here. Follow our show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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A crisis is emerging that could pose as grave a threat to public health as obesity or substance abuse: social isolation. Neuroscientists have identified regions of the brain that respond to loneliness, and a powerful body of research shows that lonely people are more likely to become ill, experience cognitive decline, and die early. Across the industrialized world, millions of people live with sparse human contact, putting their well-being at risk. Does social media drive loneliness, or help to cure it? How does loneliness alter the brain, and how can we treat this condition? Featured guests are Carla Perissinotto, Dixon Chibanda, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, and Katie Hafner.

Find our companion episode "The Opioid Tsunami," by clicking here. Find Katie Hafner's New York Times investigative article about loneliness here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Muslim Americans — especially those who work in government or in other ways to counter radicalism and terrorism — feel caught in the middle. Much of American society questions their patriotism, while their own communities question their loyalty. The Department of Homeland Security’s Haris Tarin joins Rabia Chaudry, author, attorney, and activist, for a discussion about being Muslim and American in 2017.

Find our companion episode "The Future Dialogue on Race," by clicking here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Madison's legacy matters today more than ever. As founding genius he made the Constitution to avoid faction. Then he discovered the real world required parties — so he founded one and became a partisan. Ultimately he turned to foreign policy, seeking to establish America's place in the world without force. He almost succeeded. Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman discusses his new biography The Three Lives of James Madison.

Find our companion episode, "The Curse of Bigness," by clicking here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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In our politically charged climate, it’s not uncommon to hear about impeachment. Earlier this month, a billionaire environmentalist launched a campaign to impeach President Trump. How does the process of impeachment really work? What’s an impeachable offense? And how many presidents have been impeached? Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein offers a nonpartisan, historical guide — with some reverence — and even awe, for our constitutional order, and for the power it gives We the People. Sunstein’s latest book Impeachment: A Citizen’s Guide is out this month.

Find our companion episode, "The Imagination of Leonardo da Vinci," by clicking here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Walter Isaacson is fascinated by innovators — the kinds of geniuses whose ideas have transformed industry, science, and society. Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, and Benjamin Franklin each grabbed his attention in ways that allow us, as readers, to discover the depth and breadth of their brilliant thinking and creative sensibilities. Now comes Leonardo da Vinci, whose boundless curiosity renders him perhaps the greatest creative genius of all time. Isaacson explains the lessons that da Vinci left behind that we can apply to our own lives. He speaks with David Rubenstein about his book Leonardo da Vinci, which was released in bookstores today.

Find our companion episode, "Einstein's Creativity," by clicking here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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Why do happily married couples cheat? Why does the modern egalitarian approach to marriage quash desire? Are the heightened expectations we bring to modern love combined with our pursuit of happiness directly related to infidelity? In this special rebroadcast, author and couples therapist Esther Perel tackles the topic of infidelity. Her book The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity was released October 10, 2017. Perel is interviewed by Hanna Rosin, co-host of NPR’s Invisibilia.

This week's recommended companion episode is "Unfinished Business with Anne-Marie Slaughter." Find it here. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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World-renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs is distressed about the political and social atmosphere in the United States. With advances in technology, he says we can choose to do the ultimate good or create unimaginable disaster. Why aren’t we ending poverty, transitioning to a low-carbon economy, and protecting the earth’s biodiversity? He believes it’s because smart policy decisions in Washington are being held up by special interests. In this episode, he talks to Steve Clemons, Washington editor-at-large for The Atlantic, about globalization, health care policy, and why the US needs a “ministry of planning.”

Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Find additional notes from the show in our blog. Email your comments to [email protected].

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The “next economy,” or digital revolution, is restructuring every business, job, and sector of society. By 2055, it’s estimated that half of today’s work activities will be automated. Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, says we should be harnessing technology, rather than fearing it, to grow jobs and increase economic activity. He speaks with Charles Duhigg, senior editor and columnist for The New York Times, about O’Reilly’s new book WTF?: What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us.

This week’s recommended companion episode is “How to Survive Our Faster Future.” Find it here. Find additional notes from the show in our blog. Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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The tiny town of Norwich, Vermont, has likely produced more Olympians per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Over the past thirty years, the town of 3,000 has sent an athlete to almost every Winter Olympics. New York Times sports writer Karen Crouse traveled to Norwich to discover the town’s secret. Also in this episode, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred discusses taking the professionalism out of youth sports, and creating a simpler, more informal atmosphere of play. Featuring onstage talks from the 2017 Project Play Summit, held by the Sports and Society Program at the Aspen Institute.

Follow the show on Twitter @aspenideas and Facebook at facebook.com/aspenideas. Email your comments to [email protected].

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