Aspen Ideas to Go

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. aspenideas.org

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. aspenideas.org

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. aspenideas.org

The automotive industry is going through a time of profound transformation, facing internal and external pressure to electrify America’s fleet of personal vehicles. General Motors has made a bold pledge to phase out internal combustion and produce only electric vehicles by the year 2035. CEO Mary Barra is leading the ambitious effort to revamp the company, after about a decade in the top role. Journalist Rebecca Blumenstein of NBC News interviews Barra about starting at GM in college and ending up as CEO, and plotting the company’s groundbreaking future. aspenideas.org

Populations around the world have been electing more and more autocratic leaders in the past couple decades, via supposedly free, fair, and democratic elections. The freedom of the press is being impinged upon in many places, and fear, outrage and misinformation are often taking the place of reasoned debate. Minority populations in some countries are increasingly oppressed and vulnerable. Is democracy working? Filipino journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, Brookings Institution Fellow Shadi Hamid and president of the advocacy group Freedom House, Michael Abramowitz, meet on stage at the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival to share their diverse expertise about what got us to this point, and where democracy might go in the future. Journalist Ravi Agrawal from Foreign Policy moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

Merely defining gun violence is difficult, and coming to agreement on what to do about it often seems near-impossible in the United States. But people on all sides of the debate agree that they want to feel safe, even if they have different ideas of how to achieve security. What will it take to truly listen to each other and make progress on this issue? U.S. Representative Lucy McBath, advocate John Feinblatt, Cato Institute legal scholar Clark Neily and sociologist Jennifer Carlson come together at the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival to share their unique perspectives and expertise on fighting gun violence. Journalist and public radio host Jenn White moderates the discussion. aspenideas.org

The U.S. Supreme Court continues to issue major decisions that have profound impacts on the lives of Americans and the political future of the country. During the term that just ended, the court ruled on affirmative action, voting rights, gay rights and student loan forgiveness, among other issues with broad reach. But the justices are not a monolith, of course, and there is much to be learned from closely reading the full opinions and dissents, and placing the decisions in legal context. Georgetown Law professor Neal Katyal, Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan and Clark Neily from the Cato Institute join law professor and journalist Jeffrey Rosen for an in-depth discussion at the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival about the justices’ arguments and what we expect to see from the court in the future. aspenideas.org

Like all technology, artificial intelligence can be used for good, and it can be used for evil. What little federal regulation the United States has governing technology and the internet was written before artificial intelligence existed in its current form, and as a society, we’re flying blind and in way over our heads as we enter this next phase of digital life. What could we possibly do to help point these constantly-evolving tools in the right direction, anticipate the biggest risks, and not replicate the overblown optimism of social media’s early days? Philanthropist and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the head of MIT’s College of Computing, Daniel Huttenlocher, explain how generative A.I. is built and taught to create content, and where it could go wrong. The two co-authors of the book “The Age of A.I.: And Our Human Future” point out the human biases built in to AI systems, and the dystopian (and some utopian) use cases of these tools in politics, warfare and other societal realms. Biographer and former Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

Why is it that simple pleasures such as bubbles, rainbows, and hot air balloons bring joy to most people? Designer Ingrid Fetell Lee says, “there’s something really powerful in the idea that we all find joy in the same things,” especially items with little significance otherwise. Fetell Lee studied how our physical environment impacts our well-being, both physically and psychologically. She believes that our surroundings can be a powerful tool for cultivating happier, healthier lives … and joyful moments. In this episode, she talks about the difference between happiness and joy and how we can stimulate our senses to produce joy. Fetell Lee is the author of Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness. aspenideas.org

The desire to try and stop people from reading certain printed material has been around since material was first printed. In the modern era, book banning has waxed and waned in popularity, experiencing peaks during McCarthyism and again in the 1980s. We’re now in the midst of another wave, mostly targeting books by people of color and LGBTQ identities. In 2022, the number of U.S. attempts to ban books hit the highest point since tracking began more than 20 years ago, according to the American Library Association. Not all of the 1,269 attempts last year were successful in actually removing books from shelves, but many were, and several were the result of efforts by coordinated groups with political ties. John Szabo, the head of the Los Angeles Public Library, has dealt with the challenges of library systems of all sizes all over the country, and now leads the nation’s largest. He joins Nadine Strossen, the former president of the American Civil Liberties Union and an expert in constitutional law, at the 2022 Ideas Festival for a conversation about why book banning is so alluring for some, and antithetical to the purpose and mission of a library. The Aspen Institute’s Elliot Gerson moderates the discussion. aspenideas.org