Aspen Ideas to Go

Laurence Steinberg is a distinguished expert on adolescence, while Lisa Damour is a clinical psychologist specializing in child development. Together, they tackle the unique challenges faced by teenagers and young adults today, particularly in a post-pandemic world. Their conversation reveals insights on fostering independence, understanding mental health complexities, and nurturing emotional connections. They provide strategies for overcoming generational gaps and supporting young adults navigating societal pressures, including financial expectations and identity affirmation.

Scientists could actually be close to being able to decode animal communication and figure out what animals are saying to each other. And more astonishingly, we might even find ways to talk back. The study of sonic communication in animals is relatively new, and researchers have made a lot of headway over the past few decades with recordings and human analysis. But recent advancements in artificial intelligence are opening doors to parsing animal communication in ways that haven’t been close to possible until now. In this talk from the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival in partnership with Vox’s “Unexplainable” podcast, two experts on animal communication and the digital world come together to explain what may come next. Tragically, a few months after this conversation was recorded in June, one of the panelists, Karen Bakker, passed away unexpectedly. Bakker was a professor at the University of British Columbia who looked at ways digital tools can address our most pressing problems. She also wrote the book “The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants.” The UBC Geography department wrote of Bakker: “We will remember Karen as multi-faceted and superbly talented in all realms.” Aza Raskin, the co-founder of the Earth Species Project, a nonprofit trying to decode animal communication using A.I., joined Bakker for this discussion. The host of “Unexplainable,” Noam Hassenfeld, interviewed Bakker and Raskin. aspenideas.org

Menopause is a normal phase of life, but can nonetheless be a challenging and confusing time for women reaching middle age. As a culture, we talk about the details of menopausal transition very little, and women often have to walk a gauntlet of sellers offering dubious cures and treatments before getting to medically sound and reliable solutions. Even experts frequently struggle to find the right combination of treatments for a particular patient’s hot flashes, memory lapses, sleep issues, sexual functioning changes and other symptoms that so many women experience. Two obstetrician and gynecologists meet on stage at the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival to shed light on the latest menopause research, hormone replacement treatments and the misinformation clouding women’s paths to relief. Jen Gunter wrote “The Menopause Manifesto” and has been called “the internet’s OB/GYN.” Nanette Santoro has helped run several studies on menopause, including the Women’s Health Initiative and the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). She’s also the chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. New York Times health reporter Margot Sanger-Katz moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

William Shakespeare started writing plays in an era when popular theater was exploding and cementing its place in culture. Audiences spanned economic classes, professions and educational backgrounds, and he was keenly aware of the need to write for all attendees. He frequently wrestled with topics that retain relevance for society across centuries, such as power struggles, relationships, politics, and love. Not only are Shakespeare’s plays still performed constantly, but his storylines and themes are also frequently borrowed for contemporary entertainment. The Scottish actor Brian Cox has performed classic Shakespeare roles, including King Lear, hundreds of times on stage. Most recently he played the iconic patriarch Logan Roy on HBO’s “Succession,” a modern King Lear story. Simon Godwin, the artistic director of the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, D.C., is tasked with keeping Shakespeare’s work fresh with every new season and reaching a broad cross-section of audience members. Both joined entertainment leader and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner for a conversation at the festival about Shakepeare’s timeless messages and storylines. aspenideas.org

Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor studying happiness research, shares tips on managing difficult emotions and understanding the science of happiness. He discusses the nature of emotions, controlling reactions, and methods for emotional management. The importance of love in effectively managing emotions is also explored.

The human capacity for empathy allows us to communicate, collaborate and understand each other. But we all know empathy isn’t always easy, and we can feel worn down by the effort. MIT professor and researcher Sherry Turkle studies empathy, and particularly how technology can undermine our natural human tendencies to connect. After several books and many decades of work compiling research on other people, Turkle looked inward to write, “The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir.” She explores how she arrived at her subject matter, which she says is not just a profession, but a calling. In this interview from the archives, Tricia Johnson, the editorial director of the Aspen Ideas Festival, interviews Turkle on stage at the 2021 festival. The event was Turkle’s first in-person book talk since the Covid pandemic hit. They discuss the role and power of being an outsider, how to build your empathy muscles, and the vital function of long-term relationships. aspenideas.org

The stories we hear about migrants trying to escape difficult circumstances tend to focus on hardship, conflict, statistics and policy. We rarely get a deep look at any of the people risking their lives to cross the U.S. border or take a boat to Europe, and we don’t get to know or understand them as fellow humans. Writer Javier Zamora came to the U.S. when he was nine years old, as an unaccompanied minor. Over the nine weeks it took to make the journey, he had to put his trust in a small group of strangers and the man paid to get him into the country. He revisited that experience to write a memoir called “Solito” that shows him and other migrants in full dimensions. Novelist Jamie Ford’s most recent book, “The Many Daughters of Afong Moy,” explores migration in a different time and place, along with the ways migrants’ decisions stretch across eras. Afong Moy was a Chinese woman brought to the U.S. as a performer in 1834. She became extremely well-known across the country, but remained a spectacle and was not offered citizenship or long-term opportunity. Ford researched his own family to help write the book, starting with his great-grandfather who came from China to work in a mine in Nevada. TODAY show co-host Jenna Bush Hager selected both books for her book club, “Read With Jenna,” and interviews the authors. aspenideas.org

When Duke divinity school professor Kate Bowler wrote her best-selling memoir, “Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved),” she was grappling with the consequences of a shocking cancer diagnosis. Many of the common messages about hardship, tragedy and success that she’d grown up hearing – and even studied as a religious scholar – no longer seemed to make sense. She was told she may likely die from her cancer, and at age 35 with a husband and young son, she wasn’t ready for that. Bowler talks about how being sick changed her relationship to her life, her body and her spirituality with Krista Tippett, the host of the public radio show and podcast On Being. This special On Being episode was taped live with an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival. aspenideas.org

For adults, the pressure to drink at social engagements, work events, restaurants or almost anywhere outside the home can feel constant. Recent research has found that “no amount or kind of alcohol is good for your health,” and a wide variety of health problems can be linked to drinking. The growing “sober curious” movement offers people a way to think about cutting down on alcohol consumption at their own pace and in their own way, without the stigma that sometimes comes with sobriety. Quality non-alcoholic alternatives are more available than ever before, and sober bars and gathering spaces have popped up in a few cities. An expert panel from Aspen Ideas: Health breaks down sober curiosity for an audience at the festival. Chris Marshall is a mental health counselor and the founder of Sans Bar, a sober bar in Austin, Texas. Jen Batchelor started Kin Euphorics, a functional non-alcoholic beverage brand. And Katie Witkiewitz directs a substance abuse program at the University of New Mexico. Journalist and founding editor of Healthcare Brew, Amanda Eisenberg, moderates the conversation. aspenideas.org

In today’s world, we tend to switch jobs more frequently than previous generations, and are more likely to have multiple jobs. Side gigs where we express passions or find meaning are also common, and many juggle additional roles as caregivers and community members, as people always have. In short, many of us are focused on a lot more than just climbing a corporate ladder. Our careers and lives aren’t linear, although a lot of the traditional advice about them is. Where do we look for updated guidance? In this panel discussion, three authors with recent books on finding our way in the world come together for a discussion on making life choices in modern times. Writer and speaker Bruce Feiler interviewed hundreds of people across the country for “The Search: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World.” Wired Magazine co-founder and co-chair of the Long Now Foundation, Kevin Kelly, compiled his lessons and experiences into a book inspired by his children called “Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier.” And journalist Joanne Lipman moderates the conversation and shares what she learned writing “Next! The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work.” aspenideas.org