The Aspen Institute

Featured Video and Audio: 

• Festival Opening and Welcome – What’s the Big Idea?  featuring Walter Isaacson, Justin Smith, Salman Khan, Michele Norris, James Fallows, Kristina Johnson, Paola Antonelli, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin Wright, Clive Crook, Michel Martin, Mark Tramo, Hanna Rosin and David Leonhardt. http://www.aifestival.org/session/festival-opening-and-welcome-whats-big-idea# 

• Insights and Ideas: Immigration and Its Impacts on Society featuring a conversation with Melody Barnes, moderated by Ron Brownstein. http://www.aifestival.org/session/insights-and-ideas-immigration-and-its-impacts-society

Additional featured videos can be found at: http://www.aifestival.org/  

Quotes from the Festival:

“Let’s start treating museums as the R&D departments of society.” —Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, Museum of Modern Art, New York

“The American idea has never been more powerful and yet rarely more in need of shoring up.” —James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic

“The future does not bode well for us unless we are seen as being more inclusive and unless we recognize the natural demographic shifts that are going on in our country.” —Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Advisor, White House

“The problem with Congress is it’s not grappling effectively with decisions; it’s one that as a body is profoundly irresponsible.” —Paul Romer, Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research 

“Public opinion can be big drag on growth.” —David Leonhardt, The New York Times

“We do have issues of polarization in this country. I think we need to get to know each other and work better together.”—Sandra Day O’Connor, Retired Associate Justice, US Supreme Court

“The American family is long overdue for a definitional overhaul.” —Hanna Rosin, Contributing Editor, The Atlantic

“We are becoming a more diverse country by the year, and unless we start to focus on a range of different issues that are important to us and those [immigrant] communities, as well as our overall population, we are undermining our economic growth and innovation and our ability to compete with the rest of the world.”—Melody Barnes, Domestic Policy Advisor, White House

The Ideas Report on TheAtlantic.com 

More Festival coverage is also available from The Atlantic, which produces the Aspen Ideas Festival in partnership with the Aspen Institute. The Atlantic’s “Ideas Special Report” includes:

• Video from the Aspen Ideas Festival
• A “Today at Aspen” photo gallery
• An #AspenIdeas Twitter feed
• Blog posts highlighting ideas from all sections of TheAtlantic.com, and responses to a new question they put to their readers each day.

Today’s Select Highlights:
*all times are MDT 

• 7:15 am – Interactive Session: Finding Common Ground in America; Edward Reilly, Thomas J. Wilson
• 7:45 am – Will School Reform Improve Education? Diane Ravitch
• 9:00 am – Game Changers: New Ways to Teach Our Kids; John Hunter, Salman Khan, Katie Salen, Amanda Ripley (moderator)
• 9:00 am – Protecting Public Health and Innovating for a New Energy Future: A Discussion with EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson; Michele Norris (interviewer)
• 10:30 am – The Freedom of the Press in the Age of (Wiki)Leaks; James Fallows, Lawrence Lessig, Jeffrey Rosen, Jonathan Zittrain, Richard Wilhelm (moderator)
• 12:00 pm – “Talk of the Nation” Live Show; Hour 1: 9/11: Ten Years Later, What Have We Learned? Michael Chertoff, Thomas L. Friedman, Jane Harman, John Negroponte; Hour 2: Speaking Across Differences; Michel Martin, Michele Norris; Ender: Feisal Abdul Rauf; Neal Conan (interviewer)
• 1:15 pm – We Agree on Problems; Can We Agree on Solutions? David Axelrod, Jane Harman, Mark McKinnon, Vin Weber, Thomas J. Wilson, Ron Brownstein (moderator)
• 2:45 pm – What Is Next for the Internet? Evan Williams, Biz Stone, Walter Isaacson (moderator) 
• 5:00 pm – Great Shifts in American Politics: A Conversation with David Axelrod; Joe Klein (interviewer) 
• 7:30 pm –The Race to 2012 Mike Allen, Ron Brownstein, Betsy Fischer, Jonathan Martin, Mark McKinnon, Mark Whitaker, John Dickerson (moderator)
• 8:00 pm – PAGE ONE: Inside the New York Times, Film Screening and Discussion David Carr, Andrew Rossi, James Bennet (moderator)
• 8:30 pm – Why Invest in America’s Women? Melissa Bradley, Joan Dempsey, David Leonhardt, Anne Mosle, Michel Martin (moderator)

Full schedule available at http://www.aifestival.org/festival/schedule. Select sessions will be livestreamed; more information available at http://www.aifestival.org/content/watch-live.

AIF Online: 

• Aspen Ideas Festival Website: www.aifestival.org
• The Atlantic Ideas Special Report: http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/ideas/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/aifestival | #AspenIdeas
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/aspenideas
• Flickr: www.flickr.com/aspeninstitute 

*Editors note: Video and images from the Aspen Ideas Festival are available upon request.* 

For more information about the Aspen Ideas Festival, please contact: