Aspen Ideas Festival (including Fests 1 and 2, and the fantastic Spotlight Health session that kicked it off) included 387 sessions — and produced untold hours of video and audio, thousands of tweets and posts, millions of impressions, live broadcasts, and probably a fruitful conversation or two.
Attendees will be talking about their experiences at the festival at board meetings, dinner parties, and bus stops in the near future. But if you’d like a bite-sized introduction to the experience to email to your friends, we’ve pulled together a few of our favorite moments here.
Atul Gawande is from Ohio, and he still talks to people there. Here’s what they think about health care being a right.
Christian Picciolini, a former white supremacist, takes us deep into the mindset of those communities.
David Brooks has a few thoughts that could change your next conference experience. (We’ve already put them into practice here.)
If you’ve ever wanted to hear an impromptu dramatic recital of the Federalist Papers, Jeff Rosen is your man.
There is such a thing as the Better Arguments Project, and during the festival Eric Liu taught us the five elements of a better argument. Now we’ll win every time! (Oh wait. That violates Rule #1.)
Rose Marcario — Patagonia’s CEO — says that if you want to see the future of capitalism, you should look at what women are doing.
Jose Antonio Vargas gives us a reality check about being undocumented in the US.
David Petraeus has some advice about how to make war, such as “Understand the country…before you invade it.” It’s advice the US could have used.
Have you ever been dressed down by one of your idols? Songwriter Joe Henry has. And Harry Belafonte delivered a burn that will keep you warm through a cool Aspen night.
You can watch more clips on the Aspen Institute YouTube page.
