Ideas 2019
Dispatches from the Aspen Ideas Festival/Aspen Ideas: Health
Economics Is Broken
A former economic adviser to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama argues that the field should be focused on maximizing people’s happiness and fulfillment.
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Andrew Harnik / AP A Linguist’s Case Against Socialism
History has made the term vague and unproductive. Should it be retired?
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Steve Helber / AP The Alt-Right’s Tactical Cruelty
The so-called alt-right is characterized not only by its ideology, but also by the cruelty of its tactics. Trump and his allies embrace those tactics.
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Tom Fowlks / Getty Are Small Private Colleges Worth the Money?
Paying for college is becoming more difficult. So is justifying the full-freight cost of some private institutions.
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Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters Philanthropy Serves the Status Quo
What if powerful foundations pushed for radical, large-scale change?
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Virojt Changyencham / Getty How to Speak to Someone Who’s Suffering
A cancer patient wants the world to understand that bad things can happen to good people.
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John Vachon / Library of Congress The Education Deserts of Rural America
The college-completion gap between rural and urban residents is widening.
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John Minchillo / AP Suicide Isn’t Just a Personal Issue
The U.S. has a long history of misunderstanding mental-health struggles.
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Lucy Nicholson / Reuters A Practical Approach to Police Bias
Can changing officers’ default protocols help change minds?
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Nora Carol Photography / Getty / The Atlantic Corporations’ Social Crusades Often Leave Out Workers
All the good PR in the world won’t raise wages or improve benefits for a company’s employees.
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Andrey_Popov / Shutterstock The Architects Redefining Aesthetics
Building design isn’t just about visual appeal.
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Richard Drury / Getty Why Science Can Be So Indecisive About Nutrition
Years of conflicting studies about certain foods and diets tell us a lot about both our bodies and ourselves.
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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters What Gets Lost When Polls Become the Story
As the 2020 presidential-election season gets under way, many journalists are reflecting on how not to make the same mistakes from the last cycle.
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Isabelle Chauvel / Getty The Infrastructure of Joy
Will building delight into cities make them more cloying or more fun?
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Jeff Chiu / AP How to Remember Everything
The world’s most accomplished memorizers insist their powers aren’t an innate gift, but rather a skill that anyone can hone.
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Romeo Ranoco / Reuters ‘We Have Been Lazy on Hate’
Farah Pandith wants the U.S. government and corporations to do more to combat radical extremists as they recruit Millennials.
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Rogelio V. Solis / AP Electric Cars Still Face a Major Roadblock
To wean drivers off gas vehicles, automakers need to help them develop a whole new understanding of what it means to own a motorcar.
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Ian Wagreich / Aspen Institute Mark Zuckerberg Is Rethinking Deepfakes
In an interview, the Facebook CEO hinted that the company is trying a new approach to misleading videos created through artificial intelligence.
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David McNew / Reuters The Biggest Deterrent to Reporting Child Sexual Abuse
Children’s-rights advocates have been working to fix statute-of-limitation laws that stop victims from coming forward later in life.
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Boeing Boeing Won’t Rename the 737 Max
“We’re not focused on branding and marketing. We’re focused on safety.”
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Rick Wilking / Reuters ‘Don’t Go After Old Uncle Joe Too Fast’
Chris Christie’s debate tips
