FEATURE

The Aspen Ideas Festival

For the past three years, The Aspen Institute has held a week-long gathering over the Fourth of July holiday in bucolic Aspen. The festival convenes hundreds of politicians, artists, academics and other, well, big thinkers who exchange ideas in the spirit of "serious, uninhibited, and intellectually uncompromising public discourse."

This summer, Big Think's production team was fortunate enough to have been invited to film at the festival. While there is no substitute to actually attending, we hope this feature offers some sense of the extraordinary intellectual experience that is the Aspen Ideas Festival.

To learn more about the upcoming 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival, click here.

RESPOND TO FEATURE

Aspen Ideas Festival: Global Dynamics

Big Thinker

The Aspen Ideas Festival attracts some of the world's greatest minds and asks them to engage in open and uninhibited debate. Over the course of the week-long festival, guests discussed a host of topics concerning global dynamics, ranging from European demographics to global communications and nuclear proliferation. We've compiled some of their ideas here.

RESPONSES

Problems with the War on Terror

Arthur Mutambara

Pres., Movement for Democratic Change (Zimbabwe)

Re: Does globalization pose new challenges for ...

Stephen Breyer

Assoc. Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

Re: How do you explain the rise of fundamentalism?

Jon Meacham

Editor, Newsweek

Re: Are we headed for a military conflict in Iran?

Sallai Meridor

Ambassador of Israel to the U.S.

Re: Is there a clash of civilizations?

Dalia Mogahed

Executive Director of Muslim Studies, Gallup

Re: How has globalization changed regional cult...

Virginia Postrel

Author; Blogger; Fmr. Editor, Reason Magazine

Iraq: What’s Next?

James Woolsey

fmr. Director of Central Intelligence (CIA)

Re: What is America's role in the Middle East?

Arlen Specter

U.S. Senator, R-PA

Re: What does Africa need?

Ezekiel Emanuel

Bioethicist, National Institutes of Health

Re: Where did the developed and developing worl...

William Easterly

Economist; Prof. of Economics, New York University

Aspen Ideas Festival: The American Experience

Big Thinker

The festival's track on the American Experience offered some of the most interesting discussion about where the United States is today, and where it might be headed. The conversations ranged from U.S. foreign policy to the role of women in politics. Here are some selections from those talks.

RESPONSES

Re: Is the media to blame for the war in Iraq?

Sir Richard Branson

Chairman, Virgin Group

Re: Are you satisfied with American race relati...

Stephen Breyer

Assoc. Justice, U.S. Supreme Court

Film and the American Experience

Dan Glickman

Pres., Motion Picture Assoc. of America

Democracy and the Rule of Law

James Woolsey

fmr. Director of Central Intelligence (CIA)

Re: What is America's place in the world?

Lee Hamilton

Vice-Chair 9/11 Commission, fmr. Congressman

Re: Why have our values and our policy parted w...

Arlen Specter

U.S. Senator, R-PA

Aspen Ideas Festival: Media and Community

Big Thinker

The digital age is transforming the world of journalism and media faster than at any other point in history. The Aspen Institute brought together some of the foremost figures in media to discuss this brave new world. Here are some takeaways from those plenary sessions.

RESPONSES

Re: What is the future of journalism?

Kurt Andersen

Novelist; Host, Studio 360 (NPR)

Regulating the Press

Sir Richard Branson

Chairman, Virgin Group

Re: Is the American approach to news different?

Philippe Cayla

Chmn. & CEO, EuroNews

Re: How does the media affect the practice of m...

Anthony Fauci

Immunologist; Director, NIAID

Re: What do you do?

Jim Lehrer

Journalist; Anchor, The NewsHour (PBS)

Re: What is the state of American media today?

Jon Meacham

Editor, Newsweek

Aspen Ideas Festival: Arts and Culture

Big Thinker

This year, participants of the Aspen Ideas Festival attended a series of discussions that celebrated the world of artistic expression. Speakers included some of America's great literary talents such as Billy Collins, Tobias Wolff and Edward P. Jones, among many others. Playwright Anna Deavere Smith performed a fantastic monologue for guests and moderated an interview with opera singer Jessye Norman. We were fortunate enough to be able to speak with some of these attendees, who shared their thoughts about the state of the arts in America today.

RESPONSES

Writers on Writing

Billy Collins

Poet; Former U.S. Poet Laureate

Culture in America

Dana Gioia

Poet; Chmn, National Endowment of the Arts

Hollywood Legends

Dan Glickman

Pres., Motion Picture Assoc. of America

Re: Do you have a creative process?

Jim Lehrer

Journalist; Anchor, The NewsHour (PBS)

Cultivating Respect for the Arts

Kurt Andersen

Novelist; Host, Studio 360 (NPR)

Aspen Ideas Festival: Science and Society

Big Thinker

Scientific progress has implications that reach well beyond the laboratory. From genetic engineering to the agricultural revolution, society is confronted with new and difficult decisions about the appropriate use of scientific innovation. This year, the Aspen Ideas festival hosted plenary sessions that explored challenges to future advancements, where science might take us in the 21st century, and the ethical and moral quandaries that lay at these frontiers.

RESPONSES

Re: Does the open-source genomics present any b...

George Church

Prof. of Genetics, Harvard

Re: Can technology solve our problems?

William Easterly

Economist; Prof. of Economics, New York University

Re: How does media affect bioethics?

Ezekiel Emanuel

Bioethicist, National Institutes of Health

Re: What does science reveal about the human co...

Anthony Fauci

Immunologist; Director, NIAID

The Dilemma of Organ Donation

Virginia Postrel

Author; Blogger; Fmr. Editor, Reason Magazine

Re: Is our healthcare system broken?

Lee Hamilton

Vice-Chair 9/11 Commission, fmr. Congressman

Re: How do we address AIDS in Africa?

Anthony Fauci

Immunologist; Director, NIAID

Medicine Today

George Church

Prof. of Genetics, Harvard

Aspen Ideas Festival: The State of the Environment

Big Thinker

Of the participants at the Aspen Ideas Festival who attended talks on the state of the environment, many left with a changed vision for the future. Other attendees shared work they have already done on the issue. Here's what they had to say.

RESPONSES

Solving Climate Change

Sir Richard Branson

Chairman, Virgin Group

Re: Whose responsibility is it to take care of ...

Ezekiel Emanuel

Bioethicist, National Institutes of Health

Re: Is the United States addicted to oil?

Sallai Meridor

Ambassador of Israel to the U.S.

Re: Should the government do more to promote re...

Arlen Specter