Aspen Ideas to Go

Disinformation online is on the minds of voters, candidates, government officials, and technology platforms as the US election gets closer. Already experts have seen disinformation campaigns around the Covid-19 pandemic, which could spell trouble in November, says Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy. “When you’re sowing doubt about the information the government is providing about the pandemic, you’re sowing doubt in citizens’ faith in their democratic institutions. That primes us to have less faith in the integrity of the election.” She speaks with Renée DiResta, technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, and Cecilia Kang, technology reporter for The New York Times, about how this perfect storm of disinformation is being tackled.

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In July of 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to ever free-solo climb the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan. He climbed nearly 3,000 vertical feet alone and without ropes. The historic feat was captured in the Academy Award-winning film, “Free Solo.” He says self-confidence helped him complete the climb. “If you get scared while free-soloing, [your self-confidence] starts to crumble a little bit. You start to not trust your feet...they’re more likely to slip. Everything can spiral negatively.” He speaks with New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens about the line between daring and recklessness, and how the mammoth climb has impacted every part of his life — from relationships to fame and future climbing pursuits.

We are in a golden age for organized crime and corruption, according to watchdog groups. Technological innovations like cryptocurrency have given criminals new tools for covering their tracks, and allowed them to spread out around the globe. Bad actors have spent decades building tangled webs of enablers and tactics, and they now have more resources and capital than ever to invest in new crime enterprises. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project has reporters and editors on every continent who put their lives at risk to follow trails of laundered money and trace clues back to the guilty parties. Their reporting uncovers the ways corruption is chipping away at democracy, human rights, and quality of life for regular citizens. The co-founders of the OCCRP, Drew Sullivan and Paul Radu, along with Freezing Order author Bill Browder, joined NPR host and reporter Mary Louise Kelly on stage at the Aspen Ideas Festival, to explain their methods, share their read on the magnitude of the problem, and speculate about the future of organized, globalized crime.

In the age of streaming entertainment, there’s Apple, Disney, Comcast, and many others. But it began with Netflix. In 2013 Netflix shifted from a distribution company (remember the mailed DVDs?) to a distribution and content creation business. Some of the company’s first shows were hits like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black.” Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, describes this transition and how the company has grown since. He tells Derek Thompson, staff writer for The Atlantic, how Netflix is keeping up in an increasingly crowded streaming market, and why a changing entertainment business is a good thing for artists. The views and opinions of the podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.

Have Democrats become too identified with technocratic ways of speaking — about the economy, the pandemic, climate change? Has this deepened the political divide between those with and those without college degrees? Can Democrats reconnect with working-class voters who were drawn to Donald Trump? A few people inside the Democratic Party, including Colorado senator Michael Bennet, are speaking up to do just that, and figure out how to reorient the party to a compassionate and winning strategy. Harvard political philosophy professor Michael Sandel lays out a similar argument in his recent book “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?” Bennet and Sandel hash out recent history and imagine a new direction — philosophical, social, economic and strategic — for the Democratic Party and the American people.

Throughout American history, racism has been embedded in health and health care. To justify slavery, scientists promulgated falsehoods about African Americans and health. More recently, social policies rooted in racism have led to less access to care, higher disease rates, and lower life expectancies for communities of color. Science writer Harriet Washington says structural racism is a well-oiled, perpetual motion machine. "Once the structure of racism has been installed — the mythologies, beliefs, and practices — then nothing else needs to be done to continue it's onslaught on people of color," she says. How can this system of inequality be dismantled? Harriet Washington speaks with Marcella Nunez-Smith, chair of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, and David R. Williams, professor of public health at Harvard. Trymaine Lee, correspondent for MSNBC, moderates the discussion.

When she met him, Tanya Selvaratnam thought New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was her perfect match. But as time went on, Schneiderman became controlling, mean, and manipulative. In her new book, Assume Nothing, Selvaratnam chronicles how domestic violence took away her voice, how she managed to get it back, and her decision to use it to help other women find their way to freedom. In a conversation with contemporary artist and personal friend Carrie Mae Weems, Selvaratnam talks about how the social ecosystem in America needs an overhaul. "We need to chip away at the condition that normalizes the cycle of violence and chip away at the patriarchy."

Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. As a nation, America has cycled through the same defense and intelligence issues since the end of the Cold War. In her book Insanity Defense, Congresswoman Jane Harman chronicles how four administrations have failed to confront some of the toughest national security policy problems and suggests achievable fixes to move America toward a safer future. She joins Nicholas Burns, President Biden's nominee for US Ambassador to China and former senior State Department official, to discuss the book and her experience on the frontlines of American foreign policy.

Across the United States, from rural areas to cities and suburbs, people have been hitting the streets to protest racism and police brutality. How is the national fervor around anti-racism different than in the past when people rallied following the death of Trayvon Martin in 2012, or when Civil Rights protestors called for an end to segregation in the 1960s? Alicia Garza, co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter, says she hopes it’s a moment of change when institutions, like police departments, examine their practices, and communities take a close look at rules and roles that disenfranchise Black people. She speaks with Michael Eric Dyson, sociology professor at Georgetown University, and Eugene Scott, political reporter at The Washington Post, about fighting racial oppression in America. The views and opinions of the speakers in the podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.