The Aspen Ideas Festival
Inspired Thinking in an Idyllic Setting
Aspen, CO
June 30 - July 6, 2008
Aspen, CO
June 30 - July 6, 2008
About Aspen Ideas Festival
For more than 50 years, the Aspen Institute has been the nation’s premier gathering place for leaders from around the globe and across many disciplines to engage in deep and inquisitive discussion of the ideas and issues that both shape our lives and challenge our times. In a ground-breaking extension of its mandate to create opportunities for deep dialogue, the Aspen Institute now seeks to engage a broader audience in a discussion of some of the significant ideas and issues that touch all parts of our society as found in the arts, science, technology, culture, religion, philosophy, economics, and politics. Alongside our partner, The Atlantic, we will offer a stimulating and invigorating celebration of many of the liveliest minds on the stage today. We invite you to join us. The 2008 Aspen Ideas Festival will engage its participants in a variety of programs, tutorials, seminars and discussion events which together are guaranteed to charge the atmosphere with vibrant intellectual exchange. Think of it as a week-long summer university for the mind – remarkable lectures and classes across a stimulating array of topics. Imagine some of the most inspired and provocative writers, artists, scientists, business people, teachers and leaders – drawn from myriad fields, from across the country and from around the world – all gathered in a single place, ready to teach, speak, lead, question and answer – all interacting with an audience of thoughtful people, who have stepped back from their day-to-day routines to delve deeply into a world of ideas, thought and discussion. The week promises to be stimulating, meaningful and fun – true to Aspen tradition. In its fourth year, the Aspen Ideas Festival will gather scientists, artists, politicians, historians, educators, activists, and other great thinkers to present and discuss some of the most important and fascinating ideas of our time. Participants contribute provocative perspectives from their fields, and discuss the world with a sophisticated audience highly motivated to engage in dialogue.Festival Layout
- Large plenary sessions offered three times a day, taking the form of panels,
one-on-one
interviews, and/or presentations on the dais; - Multiple, concurrent tutorial classes every day, offered in the mornings
and afternoons (e.g.,
issues in biological research; the agricultural impacts of India’s epic growth, etc.); - Casual conversations, book signings, and “action”-oriented discussions
on campus between
attendees and speakers, offering further opportunities for exchange; - "Evening Exchanges" and daily events in venues around Aspen that
will bring Atlantic Monthly
editors and other of the nation’s prominent journalists together with presenters for interesting
debates and discussion.
discussions along specific themes. Some tracks run the course of the week while others are covered for only either the first or second session of the Festival. Program tracks allow participants to focus on a particular area of interest each day, should they choose; however, attendees are welcome to pick and choose what most interests them from the diverse topics across each area of programming.
| Tracks | |
| Date | Track |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Global Dynamics |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Arts and Culture |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | American Experience |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Climate and Sustainability |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Children and Education |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Innovation and Technology |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Religion and the Modern World |
| June 30 - July 3, 2008 | Medicine 2025 |
| Tracks | |
| Date | Track |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | Global Dynamics |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | Arts and Culture |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | American Experience |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | Climate and Sustainability |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | Global Commerce and the World Economy |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | The Net Generation |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | Food and Society |
| July 3 - 6, 2008 | India |
Program Tracks
- Global Dynamics
- With a focus on issues of global security, we will examine current thinking on a range of issues that dominate geopolitics today, from nuclear weapons and technology, terrorism, and statecraft to attitudes and ideas that address complexities in the Middle East, Latin America, Southeast Asia and other regional hot spots.
- Arts and Culture
- The freshest ideas — plus timeless themes with contemporary relevance — in the world of culture, presented in discussions, reading, performances, and more by some of the most interesting minds in literature, music, dance, design, fashion, and popular culture.
- The American Experience
- Politics, values, the state of the “American Dream,” a special historical series on the Presidency, just in time for the 2008 election, and much more. What ideas are defining American life nearly a decade into the 21st Century, and which ones will define the decades to come?
- Climate and Sustainability
- Some say that we can collectively solve the carbon and climate problem in the first half of this century simply by scaling up what we already know how to do. What are their ideas? Are they correct? We’ll explore the best ideas for combating climate change and other environmental challenges that may threaten the health of the planets and its inhabitants.
- Children and Education
- Politicians, educators, and policymakers constantly debate the standards schools should meet, how resources should be provided to schools, how to provide health care coverage to all children and how to support vulnerable children and families without intruding on family life. This track will touch on these and other issues, all with a focus on the “big picture” — our core values and most compelling new ideas about how we might improve how we educate and care for our children — as well as what the future might look at if we don’t.
- Innovation and Technology
- What are some of the new, game-changing technological innovations that will help us create clean energy, live longer and lead more productive lives? We’ll take a tour of the most interesting ideas in the world of technology — from the fascinating, critical field of nanotechnology to the newest research on the interface between digital technologies and the brain — with the most interesting (and accessible!) innovators around.
- Religion and the Modern World
- Religious belief – or lack thereof -- seems increasingly to determine how nations and communities across the globe see themselves and relate to one another. How does religion factor into social and political activity the globe today? What are the most dynamic and potent religious ideas today? What political impacts do they have? This series of discussions investigates the increasingly fraught relationship among different spiritual traditions and also between the religious and the secular, with a particular focus on the conflicts within and between contemporary Islam and Christianity.
- Medicine 2025
- Where will stem cell research take us? What will hospitals look like? Will we have experienced the next pandemic, and if so, how many of us will have survived it? Will AIDS be under control? Will cancer be cured? Diabetes? Heart disease? Join doctors, researchers, and world health experts in discussions about medicine and health care in the not-too-distant future.
- Global Commerce and the World Economy
- In the past quarter-century alone, world trade has grown fivefold in real terms, and growth in flows of cross-border capital has been even more explosive — a transformation without historical precedent. Will we continue to embrace this headlong rush to globalization? Could we resist it, if we choose to try? Here we will discuss the implications for how business is conducted, how economies are managed, and most important, how we run our societies.
- The Net Generation
- The internet has, in a very short period of time, had enormous effects on individuals’ notions of “community”, as millions across the globe now create and promote online multiple and varying identities and allegiances – a far cry from traditional notions of community as defined by citizenship, family, religion, social class, and profession. We’ll take on these complex issues through the lens of such internet-based media as online gaming, music, and social sites and explore questions of values as relate to the ever changing and evolving world of the internet.
- Food & Society
- A taste of the issues surrounding food in a global society: organics and agricultural policies to the latest ideas to combat modern famine; the conversion of food crops to fuels; genetic modification; animal rights; and then the more individual-based issues such as nutrition, diet, and the obesity epidemic.
- India
- With its rapidly growing and diverse population, dazzling entrepreneurship, enhanced geopolitical influence, and vigorous democracy, India is a country — indeed, a civilization — to be reckoned with as never before. It also faces huge challenges, including widespread extreme poverty and illiteracy, tense relations with Pakistan, emerging internal threats to its democracy, dramatic social and economic inequities, energy shortages, corruption, and more. This track will explore the Indian mosaic in all of its paradoxes, mysteries, obstacles, and possibilities, with discussions of politics, economics, foreign policy, art and culture, and domestic challenges ranging from maintaining a secular democracy amidst such religious diversity to poverty eradication and the persistence of caste.
More information on
The Aspen Ideas Festival
