Climate change catastrophes are already happening with increasing regularity, and it’s clear we need to take action. The Biden administration has set a target of zero carbon emissions in the United States by 2050. Reaching that ambitious goal will require a major transition in many sectors, including energy, agriculture, transportation, manufacturing and construction. John Podesta leads the Office of Domestic Climate Policy in the White House, and is focused on implementing the projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment in clean energy the country has ever made. As he puts it, we have to get good at building things again, with an eye toward a carbon-free future. Podesta talks with Noticias Telemundo reporter Vanessa Hauc about what it will take to meet our climate goals, and what success looks like.

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A technological future where our brain waves could be monitored and our thoughts decoded and analyzed — sometimes against our will — is not as far away as we think. But our existing legal protections and conception of human rights around cognitive liberty are trailing innovations in neurotechnology. Brain hacking tools and devices could bring massive benefits, for people suffering from dementia or mental health disorders, for instance. If we want to avoid dystopian outcomes, though, we have to be deliberate about how we allow this technology to develop, says Nita Farahany, a bioethics researcher and professor at Duke University. In this talk, Farahany points to what we need to watch out for, and explains how to proceed carefully. With her 2023 book, “The Battle for Your Brain: Defending Your Right to Think Freely in the Age of Neurotechnology,” as a guide, she explains why several major tech companies are betting big on brain data collection tools. And she urges us to build safeguards to ensure a cognitively healthy society

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Even when the economy is booming and unemployment is low, millions of Americans still face economic hardship. And in the last few years the United States has dealt with supply chain challenges, inflation and financial instability. The economic tools we have to identify, address and talk about those problems aren’t always up to the task, and sometimes the picture we get is hard to match with reality. Gene Ludwig is a longtime financial advisor to Wall Street, and founder of the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity. His organization aims to help middle and low-income families achieve prosperity, in part by developing new headline statistics for economic data that bring us closer to truly understanding Americans’ experiences. Ludwig joins Heather Boushey from Biden’s Council of Economic Advisors on stage at the Aspen Institute, for a conversation about how to truly invest in American industry from the ground up. What principles and policies will help achieve national security and a strong economy that supports workers? Gillian Tett, U.S. editor-at-large of Financial Times, moderates the conversation.

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The United States is a more secular society than many, and the percentage of people who don’t identify with organized religion is rising. Some of the impacts from that shift might be obvious, such as declining membership in congregations or decreased support for religious organizations and institutions. But some of the consequences are less obvious. How do we change as people when we don’t practice religious ritual? When we aren’t part of a community? Three scholars and leaders from different religious traditions come together on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival to grapple with these questions. They point out how ancient faiths permeate our modern lives even where we don’t notice, and speak about the spiritual gaps religion fills for people and society. Kate Bowler is a podcast host and history professor at Duke Divinity School. Haroon Moghul is an imam and director of The Concordia Forum, a network of Muslim leaders. And Shira Stutman is interim rabbi at the Aspen Jewish Congregation, and the founder of Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC. The executive director of the Religion and Society Program at the Aspen Institute, Simran Jeet Singh, moderates the conversation.

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About two decades ago, NPR host Mary Louise Kelly had her first child and went down the extremely common yet commonly daunting life path of balancing a demanding career with a family. As a national security correspondent on assignment war zones, she missed family events and emergency phone calls from her kids’ school. As the daily weekday co-host of “All Things Considered,” she missed almost all of her sons’ soccer games. She’s tried working full time, working part time, working from home and working far away from home, and in each, there’s been something missing. Every year, she said she would figure it out next year. But as she writes in her latest book, the memoir “It. Goes. So. Fast.: The Year of No Do-Overs,” next year came quickly. Her sons were about to leave for college, and she had to make the most of the time they had left. Kelly talks with podcast and TV host Kelly Corrigan, host of PBS’ “Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan,” about the constant challenge of trying to be there for your family and your job at the same time.

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Artificial intelligence is clearly going to change our lives in multiple ways. But it’s not yet obvious exactly how, and what the impacts will be. We can predict that certain jobs held by humans will probably be taken over by computers, but what about our thoughts? Will we still think and create in the same ways? Author and former Aspen Institute president Walter Isaacson has been writing biographies about big thinkers and innovators for decades, including Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Benjamin Franklin and Jennifer Doudna. Isaacson returned to the world of technology for his most recent book on Elon Musk. Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin interviews Isaacson on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival about whether a society fully integrated with AI can foster the same qualities shared by many influential people. Will A.I. augment the best that humans have to offer, or will it compete with or even degrade human intelligence? And are there some traits that technology just will never be able to replicate, like empathy and compassion?

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When Sal Khan created Khan Academy, he was trying to scale up the successful experiences he’d had tutoring his cousins one-on-one in math. He saw how effective it could be for students to go at their own pace, ask questions and be questioned about their reasoning, and he wanted to make those benefits available to as many kids as possible. The organization eventually grew to include free online content on just about every subject taught in schools, and even test prep for the LSATs and MCATs. Now Khan Academy has been experimenting with the next level of scalable tutoring. In March, the organization launched Khanmigo, a generative artificial intelligence tool made specifically for learning. Educators have been embroiled in debate about the role A.I. could and should play in school, and how to ensure that it’s effective for students and trustworthy for teachers. Khanmigo is aimed at quelling some of those fears and finding the opportunity in technology that’s so interactive and easily accessible. In this talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival, Khan demonstrates Khanmigo and explains how it was designed. Mehran Sahami, the head of Stanford’s computer science department, interviews Khan about the tool and takes questions from the audience.

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The White House has declared hostage-taking to be a national emergency. In July 2022, Biden issued an executive order outlining steps to deter the practice and help bring Americans back sooner. Increasingly, autocratic nation states such as Russia and Iran are detaining U.S. citizens unlawfully or on minor and bogus charges with the aim of getting something they want. Hostage diplomacy is no longer a tactic of terrorists or rogue actors, but a tool government officials are turning to. Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, is the person who takes charge and tries to start negotiations when the State Department determines that a detainment is a diplomatic issue. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, NBC correspondent Tom Llamas talks with Carstens about the process, as well as Jason Rezaian, who spent 544 days in an Iranian prison for being a Washington Post reporter. Hostage expert Dani Gilbert, a political science professor at Northwestern University, also joins the panel to share research in this field.

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Almost everyone agrees that immigration policy in the United States is lacking, but despite decades of debate, Congress has not been able to pass comprehensive reform on the issue. For some, the primary issues are border security and economic concerns, and for others, labor needs and a commitment to humanitarianism take precedence. Why is it so hard to find common ground, and what are some visions for a different immigration future? NBC correspondent Tom Llamas moderates a panel of experts at the Aspen Ideas Festival who identify the key immigration pressure points and share thoughts on moving forward. Former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey joins Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, U.S. representative Tony Gonzales from Texas and Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union.

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Actor Rainn Wilson had his dream job on the hit TV show “The Office,” but was still being kept up at night by anxiety, depression, and life’s big unanswerable questions. He went on a quest to discover the world’s spiritual teachings, reading all the holy books of the world’s major religions. For several years, he researched and pondered concepts like truth, love, free will, and suffering, and he eventually landed back at the Baha’i Faith of his family and childhood. His latest book, “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution,” explores what he learned on his journey and how he’s navigated the spiritual gaps that can be found in our modern society. NBC TV host Jenna Bush Hager interviews Wilson about getting in touch with his spiritual self, reconciling with the difficulties of his past and writing Soul Boom.

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