Aspen Ideas to Go

AITG is taking off a couple of weeks for the holidays. We'll be back in January with new episodes. This week, we revisit an earlier episode — A Formula for Happiness. Want to be happy? Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, has read all of the books and studies about what makes us happy — so you don't have to. By marrying ancient wisdom and new data, he says we can identify what brings the most happiness, and the most unhappiness, to the most people. In short, love people, not pleasure. This Aspen Lecture was recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival. Check out the Aspen Lectures Compendium on iTunes U.

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Three authors shed light on the writing life and the stories behind their works. New York Times bestseller Jess Walter ("Beautiful Ruins"), former US Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey ("Thrall"), and LA Times Book Prize winner Ruth Ozeki ("A Tale for the Time Being"). They spoke at Winter Words, a series hosted by Aspen Words, a literary organization and program of the Aspen Institute.

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Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the Aspen Institute Summit on Inequality and Opportunity. Biden discussed root causes of poverty and inequality in America. He separately addressed topics related to terrorism, ISIS, and Syrian refugees.

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Most people think that happiness has four sources: the sensory pleasures, material wealth, romantic relationships, and children. But recent research suggests that much of what people think about happiness is wrong. Daniel Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," hosts this symposium in which experts discuss what science has discovered about each of these sources. The featured speakers are Paul Bloom, author of "How Pleasure Works"; Tim Kasser, author of "The High Price of Materialism"; Eli Finkel, author of "The All-Or-Nothing Marriage"; and Jennifer Senior, author of "All Joy and No Fun."

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Continuing our celebration of the 100th anniversary of the General Theory of Relativity, this talk features theoretical physicist Brian Greene. Arguably one of the best and most entertaining explainers of all things cosmic, Greene gives a refresher on what the theory is, and why we should care. He also sheds light on the exciting advances science has made in understanding black holes. (This is a companion episode to last week’s podcast about Einstein’s creativity.)

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Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the General Theory of Relativity, this talk takes a look at Albert Einstein's creativity. Where did it come from, how was it reflected in his life, and what can we learn from it? Biographer Walter Isaacson brings the physicist’s creativity to life through historical details and insights Isaacson uncovered in his book ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe.’

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In 'Being Nixon,' Evan Thomas peels away the layers of the complex, confounding figure who became America's 37th president. Drawing on a wide range of historical accounts, Thomas reveals the contradictions of a leader whose vision and foresight led him to achieve detente with the Soviet Union and reestablish relations with communist China, but whose underhanded political tactics tainted his reputation long before the Watergate scandal. One of the principal architects of the modern Republican Party and its "silent majority" of disaffected whites and conservative ex-Dixiecrats, Nixon was also deemed a liberal in some quarters for his efforts to desegregate Southern schools, create the Environmental Protection Agency, and end the draft. Thomas is the author of nine books. He was a writer, correspondent, and editor for over three decades at TIME and Newsweek.

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Boris Johnson, Mayor, London, Michael Bloomberg, Founder, Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, 108th Mayor of the City of New York, and With Walter Isaacson, CEO and President, The Aspen Institute discuss how cities are the hubs of tech innovation. Recorded at CityLab 2015 in London.

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Conversation is facing a crisis in our culture. We regularly put people on "pause" in conversation to check our phones. We treat machines as if they are almost human. We want technology to step up, as we ask humans to step back. And having nothing to forget about how we used to relate to one another, children embrace these new rules for talking to machines. In this talk, Sherry Turkle, MIT professor of the social studies of science and technology and author of "Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age," explains how we have arrived at this "robotic moment." She explores what she calls the "four fantasies of the robotic relationship" and the impact our dwindling face-to-face conversations have on empathy.

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We've all had great teachers who opened our minds — and maybe even changed our lives. But how can we make every teacher a star teacher? Elizabeth Green's New York Times best-selling book 'Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone)' presents teaching as a complex skill — one that requires infrastructure for support and training. She gives examples of the methods America's best educators are using in the classroom, as well as how Japan's education system has adopted policies that have changed teachers across the country. Green discusses her book with Stanford University's renowned mathematics education professor Jo Boaler. Boaler is co-founder of YouCubed, and online resource for educators and families.

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