Season 2 of Aspen Ignites: Conversations to Build a Better World is now live with new episodes dropping every Wednesday. Aspen Ignites is, an original series from the Aspen Institute bringing together influential voices and diverse perspectives with Institute directors and partners.
The second season was recorded at the 2023 Bloomberg CityLab, which brought together global mayors alongside prominent city innovators, business leaders, urban experts, artists, and activists to discuss and discover replicable solutions to pressing issues. This season, we learn from prominent voices engaged in vibrant dialogue on some of the day’s most pressing issues.
In Episode 1, Leseliey Welch, an Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow who has been pioneering the effort to avail culturally congruent birth care to Black, Indigenous, and people of color through her non-profit initiatives, Birth Detriot and Birth Center Equity sits down with Marjorie Sims, the Managing Director of Ascend at the Aspen Institute.
Episode 2 features Maria Ortiz Perez, Managing Director of the Energy and Environment Program at the Aspen Institute, who talks with Justin Worland, Senior Correspondent at Time. “I see a huge opportunity in righting the wrongs of the past through climate mitigation and adaptation [in cities],” she says. “Because we have an opportunity to rethink what our cities in the future are going to look like with this huge influx of investment of federal funds.”
In the third episode, Dan Porterfield, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, speaks with Krystal Reyes, Chief Resilience Officer at the City of Tulsa. This position emerged from the city’s participation in the Rockefeller Foundation’s initiative 100 Resilient Cities.
“Building a resilient city means that our city – our institutions, businesses, and organizations – can survive, adapt, and thrive through chronic stressors and acute shocks,” says Krystal Reyes as she highlights the resilient strategies Tulsa is implementing to foster trust within the community
And there’s much more to come. New episodes of Aspen Ignites drop every Wednesday on our YouTube channel.
