Aspen Ideas to Go

Aspen Ideas to Go is a show about bold ideas that will open your mind. Featuring compelling conversations with the world’s top thinkers and doers from a diverse range of disciplines, Aspen Ideas to Go gives you front-row access to the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Aspen Ideas to Go is a society podcast hosted by The Aspen Institute, with 611 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

The Aspen Institute hosts Aspen Ideas to Go, a society show with 611 episodes published.

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  Aspen Ideas to Go

  Consent of the Governed? The Fight for the Franchise

  Aug 26, 202657 min

  With the midterm elections on the horizon, will voters overcome a fraught electoral battlefield to show up at the polls? Threats to the electoral system such as polarization, misinformation, campaign finance, redistricting, and limits to the Voting Rights Act are reducing voters’ trust. How can the system be rebuilt in a way that inspires confidence across the political spectrum? Heather Gerken leads a conversation with Rick Hasen , Janai Nelson , Sarah Isgur , and Ben Ginsburg . Gerken is president of the Ford Foundation; Hasen is a professor of law at UCLA; Nelson is President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund; Isgur is editor of SCOTUSblog ; and Ginsburg is a political law advocate.

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  Aspen Ideas to Go

  The China Calculus

  Aug 19, 202653 min

  China’s ups and downs reverberate across the globe, and unpredictability from Washington has been throwing another wrench into the equation. Good diplomacy and an open trade relationship between these two superpowers is essential, but the playbook keeps changing. In this talk from the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival, three experts on U.S.-China relations bring us up to date on technological advances, economic leverage and national security, among other foreign policy affairs. Dan Wang , a research fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution, joins Melanie Hart of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub and Julian Gewirtz , a research fellow at Columbia University and the Asia Society. CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria moderates and guides the panel.

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  Aspen Ideas to Go

  Unchecked: Is American Democracy Out of Balance?

  Aug 12, 202649 min

  In an era of executive overreach, Congress and the Supreme Court are becoming less effective at reigning in presidential power. America’s three branches of government–the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial–were created to regulate each other. But the nation’s founders didn’t anticipate headwinds like the rise of modern political parties. A healthier inter-branch dynamic is needed, says a panel of leading scholars, to create a stable environment for the American concept of government to succeed. Journalist John Dickerson leads a conversation with Georgetown Law Professor Stephen Vladeck , Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith , and Maya Kornberg , a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.

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  Aspen Ideas to Go

  What’s Going Right in a World Gone Wrong

  Aug 5, 202653 min

  With so many problems in the world, it can be easy to skip over what’s actually working. But while progress often isn’t linear, history tells us that a lot of societal issues have actually improved. The experts on this panel help us see those bright spots and reframe our thinking to include hopeful visions for the future. Greg Jackson , a professor at Utah Valley University and the host of the “History Doesn’t Suck!” podcast joins Google Labs editorial director Steven Johnson and the host of the “What Could Go Right?” podcast, Zachary Karabell , for a wide-ranging discussion at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival about breaking through the doom and gloom.

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  Aspen Ideas to Go

  Strait-jacket: The Future of the Iran War

  Jul 29, 202651 min

  Since the conflict in Iran began in February, the results have been mixed. It has degraded Iran’s nuclear capacity, reduced its missile arsenal, and sunk its navy. But the war has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, divided America’s Gulf allies, fractured the U.S.-Israeli relationship, and failed to achieve objectives like regime change and nuclear elimination. A panel of Iran experts with different perspectives discuss whether the conflict could mark the end of the Islamic Republic’s long strategy of proxy warfare or the beginning of a far more dangerous Middle East. Journalist and author Fareed Zakaria leads the conversation with Kim Ghattas , Karim Sadjadpour , and Mark Dubowitz . Ghattas is an Emmy-award winning journalist. Karim Sadjadpour is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Mark Dubowitz is CEO of Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Their conversation was held June 29.

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