Aspen Ideas to Go

TAKEOVER is a special series of episodes that puts you on the ground during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This episode features Pete Dominick (comedian, radio host) as takeover host in conversation with Michele Norris (journalist, The Race Card Project) and Alec Ross (Author, "The Industries of the Future"). Dominick infuses humor into interesting conversation about politics, culture and future business. Music: Gillicuddy, Podington Bear aspenideas.org

TAKEOVER is a special series of episodes that puts you on the ground during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This episode features Emily Yoffe (The Atlantic) as takeover host in conversation with Bryan Stevenson (Equal Justice Initiative), Helen Fisher (The Kinsey Institute, Match.com), and Geoffrey Stone (Univ. of Chicago Law School). Yoffe asks probing questions and touches on issues such as the Supreme Court, politics, and love and sex. Music: Gillicuddy, Podington Bear aspenideas.org

TAKEOVER is a special series of episodes that puts you on the ground during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This episode features Franklin Leonard (The Black List Table Reads podcast) as takeover host in conversation with Melody Barnes (former assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; co-founder of MB2 Solutions), DeRay Mckesson (protestor, civil rights activist, and educator), and Sarah Lewis (author, curator, and assistant professor at Harvard University). Music: Gillicuddy, Podington Bear aspenideas.org

TAKEOVER is a special series of episodes that puts you on the ground during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This episode features Maria Hinojosa (NPR's Latino USA) as takeover host in conversation with Jose Antonio Vargas (journalist), Melvin Mar (producer, Fresh Off the Boat), and Roberto Villaseñor (former chief, Tucson Police Dept.). Music: Gillicuddy, Podington Bear aspenideas.org

TAKEOVER is a special series of episodes that put you on the ground during the Aspen Ideas Festival in Aspen, Colorado. This episode features Perri Peltz (documentary filmmaker and journalist) as takeover host in conversation with Piper Kerman (author, Orange is the New Black), Seth Berkley (founder of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative), and Adam Foss (co-founder of Prosecutor Integrity Institute). Music: Gillicuddy, Podington Bear aspenideas.org

Homicide remains an endemic, seemingly unsolvable problem in America. And violent crime afflicts African-American communities to a much greater degree than others, as does mass incarceration — and police violence. What is the cause of this crisis? What is the role of culture? Are there any solutions? This episode features New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu who has been confronting this crisis head-on, in conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates, national correspondent for The Atlantic, who has written widely on matters of race, policing, and American history. Jeffrey Goldberg, national correspondent for The Atlantic, moderates the discussion. (Rebroadcast of episode that originally aired in August 2015) aspenideas.org

Every summer, writers, professors, artists, activists, and others deliver their “big ideas” at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The onstage advice celebrates the Festival itself, which brings together great thinkers to debate and discuss the most important and fascinating issues of our time. The Festival marks its twelfth year in late June. This episode features “big ideas” from as far back as 2007 that cover science, arts education, happiness, and technology. Physicist Brian Greene, opera singer Jessye Norman and former congresswoman Gabby Giffords deliver their ideas, along with many others. aspenideas.org

Author and filmmaker Negin Farsad calls herself a social justice comedian. She works to prove that humor - just like activism - can effectively challenge deep-seated and sclerotic prejudices about race and religion. In her recent book, How to Make White People Laugh, she addresses the mistreatment and misperceptions of Muslims in the US after 9/11. In this episode, she's joined by radio host Dean Obeidallah and Imam Daayiee Abdullah, president and founder of the Mecca Institute. He's one of the world's only openly gay Imams. Farsad, Obeidallah, and Abdullah bring levity to serious, sometimes grim, topics in American cultural and political life. The discussion was held by the Aspen Institute's Arts Program. aspenideas.org

Now, more than ever, a diversifying United States needs a shared base of knowledge. That’s according to Eric Liu, executive director of the Citizenship and American Identity Program at the Aspen Institute. He’s calling on the American public and cultural leaders to build a crowd-sourced national list of facts and references every American should know. In this “Extra” episode, he talks to David Henry Hwang, Tony-winning American playwright, screenwriter, and opera librettist. He is the child of Chinese immigrants and shares how, growing up, he used television as one way to integrate into American society. (Music: Podington Bear/Jack) aspenideas.org

Public radio host Diane Rehm lost her husband to Parkinson’s disease nearly two years ago. His was an unconventional death, where, in the end, he refused food, water, and medication. Physician-assisted suicide isn’t permitted in Maryland, the state where he died, so he took matters into his own hands. Now, Diane Rehm is an advocate in the right-to-die debate, or what she terms “right-to-choose.” In this episode, she talks about her memoir On My Own, which details the struggle to reconstruct her life after the death of John. The couple was married for 54 years. Rehm spoke as part of the Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series at the Aspen Institute. aspenideas.org