Aspen Ideas to Go

It might be hard to see–with political attacks in high gear this election season–but there is something hopeful taking root. People with a moral foundation are running for public office and they’re driven by an ethic of service. These individuals are able to put service above self, says Rye Barcott, author of Courage Can Save US. “Courage is the conscious acceptance of risk in service of the common good, whether that’s your family, faith, community, or country but it cannot be yourself,” he says. Barcott, who co-founded With Honor, sits down with other nonprofit leaders working to put people of character into public life. Emma Bloomberg leads Murmuration and Mike Buman is the executive director of Lee. Their conversation is led by David Brooks, former New York Times columnist and staff writer for The Atlantic.Watch the video of their conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Music has the power to unite our brains and bodies and connect us with people on the other side of the world. Humans have been making and sharing music for thousands of years, but modern medicine and research tools have only recently given us the ability to see what’s going on in the brains of creators and listeners. Cava Lee Menzies, a musician and educator at the Oakland School for the Arts joins otolaryngologist and music researcher Charles Limb for this talk on the power of music to bring us together, alter our neurochemistry and change our lives. Kelly Corrigan, host of the podcast and NPR show “Kelly Corrigan Wonders,” moderates the conversation. 

Small businesses and entrepreneurship play a powerful role in American life. They help people build wealth and strengthen communities. In fact, small businesses are one of the most highly trusted institutions. The Pew Research Center reports 86 percent of Americans believe small businesses have a positive national effect–even outranking the military and churches. But emerging technologies are changing how businesses operate. How can we ensure these institutions receive the support they need in a new era? Francesca de Quesada Covey, vice president of community impact at the Knight Foundation, leads a conversation with Chiling Tong, Karen Kerrigan, Angie Cooper, and Elizabeth Kelly. Tong is president and CEO of the National Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship. Kerrigan is president and CEO of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. Cooper is president of the nonprofit, Heartland Forward and Elizabeth Kelly is head of beneficial deployments at Anthropic. Watch a video of their conversation.

Civilian control of the military is a cornerstone of American democracy. But what happens when the relationship between military and civilian leadership comes under strain? Amid significant changes in senior military leadership and renewed debate over the boundaries between military authority and civilian oversight, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, Jr. joins foreign policy and defense expert Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institute and Duke political science professor Peter Feaver. David French, New York Times columnist and former Army Reserve major, moderates a candid conversation about the state of civil-military relations and what comes next.

The number of people using chatbots for their news is increasing. According to a 2026 report, 10 percent of all people globally use chatbots–that’s up from 7 percent in 2025. Trust and interest in news is also declining. The highest purpose of journalism is to serve needed information to the public. But what happens when AI is affecting every aspect of news–how it's produced, distributed, and consumed? How can media and technology best respond? Patrick J. McGovern Foundation CEO Vivian Schiller leads a conversation with Laurie Richardson, Nabiha Syed, and Sam Gregory. Richardson is Vice President for Trust and Safety at Google. Syed leads the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to build a better technology future, and Sam Gregory fights deepfakes and deceptive AI with his organization, WITNESS.