Awe Is More Powerful than You Think

The world seems to be moving and evolving faster than ever before, and democratic ideals are under threat in many countries around the globe. New York Times columnist and journalist Thomas Friedman has spent his career learning how to see things from many sides and identify the seams in the fabric of society. He believes we’re at a moment in time when it’s critical that we focus our energy on coming together and rebuilding functional democracy. In the closing session of the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival last June, Friedman shares his experiences of reporting in the Middle East and at home in the United States, and reflects on witnessing the best and worst of humanity.

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It doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to put the generative artificial intelligence genie back in the bottle. But we might still be able to prevent some potential damage. Tools like Bard and ChatGPT are already being used in the workplace, educational settings, health care, scientific research, and all over social media. What kind of guardrails do we need to prevent bad actors from causing the worst imaginable outcomes? And who can put those protections in place and enforce them? A panel of A.I. experts from the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival shares hopes and fears for this kind of technology, and discusses what can realistically be done by private, public and civil society sectors to keep it in check. Lila Ibrahim, COO of the Google A.I. company DeepMind, joins social science professor Alondra Nelson and IBM’s head of privacy and trust, Christina Montgomery, for a conversation about charting a path to ethical uses of A.I. CNBC tech journalist Deirdre Bosa moderates the conversation and takes audience questions. 

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History has the power to teach us what to do in the present, but do we actually make good use of that tool? Many events in our recent past might suggest otherwise. American history is complex and full of pain, suffering and missteps. Harvard professor Imani Perry’s interdisciplinary work draws from African American studies, legal history and cultural studies to find insights into how we live today. In this talk from the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, she joins author, historian and Vanderbilt professor Jon Meacham for a conversation about how to reckon with the United States’ difficult history. The two touch on the Civil Rights movement, the value of civics education and a collective mindset and what simply getting along with our neighbors can and cannot accomplish.

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After millennia of human existence, we’re still figuring out and talking constantly about one of our most fundamental behaviors – sex. Despite the sexual revolution of the 60s and 70s and the growth of sex positivity in recent decades, a lot of people still report having a lot of bad sex. The reasons for that are varied and multiple, but culture has a role to play, and we can help each other get to the root of what might be making sex feel unsatisfying, or even scary or shameful. In this panel from the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival, the renowned sex columnist Dan Savage, longtime author of the Savage Love advice column, joins Washington Post columnist Christine Emba, author of “Rethinking Sex: A Provocation,” for a candid conversation about building healthy sex lives and finding physical connection. Kelly Corrigan, the host of the PBS show “Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan,” moderates the conversation and carefully chooses questions from the audience.

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Teenagers and young adults today are dealing with challenges their parents never experienced and couldn’t have prepared for. Nobody has a map and the road to resolution can be bumpy for all involved. Two adolescent psychologists published books last year aimed at helping parents understand and empathize with what their kids are going through and guiding everyone toward helpful solutions. Clinical psychologist and author Lisa Damour wrote “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers: Raising Connected, Capable and Compassionate Adolescents,” after demand for her professional help skyrocketed during the pandemic. Developmental psychologist and researcher Laurence Steinberg released “You and Your Adult Child: How to Grow Together in Challenging Times,” to meet a need in society for more guidance on adult children moving back in with parents and going through tough periods. Damour and Steinberg interview each other about their books at the 2023 Aspen Ideas Festival and take questions from the audience.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Living a happy life isn’t as simple as having a smile on your face all the time. We often think that our negative emotions should be minimized and repressed, but acknowledging and managing them is actually key to achieving a healthy baseline. Author and Harvard professor Arthur Brooks studies the latest happiness research across behavioral science, philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. He shares his findings with the business school students he teaches and with the general public he writes for, and explains how to understand and manage our emotions. We cannot control our emotional responses to the world, he says, but we can learn to control how we react to them.

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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.

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