 | | January 23, 2025 |  | | Can We Disagree Better?
| | Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Colorado Governor Jared Polis have been champions for an initiative of the National Governors Association: Disagree Better. “It doesn't mean you sacrifice your deeply held values. In fact, it's in many ways a more elevated way of expressing those values," says Polis. Trust can grow from something as simple as asking, “Tell me more about why you believe that,” Cox suggests. By finding common ground before diving into tough conversations, Cox and Polis believe we can begin to disagree without descending into hostility. Watch
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 | | Why Suffering is a Great Teacher
| | “The world is going to be full of sadness. That’s a non-negotiable fact of life. But that doesn’t have to diminish your joy,” says essayist Pico Iyer. “And in fact, that’s what makes your joy necessary.” He speaks with Harvard professor and social scientist Arthur Brooks, and together they wind through loss and emptiness, opportunity and purpose, and biology and psychology. In a stroke of odd serendipity, Iyer’s latest book, “Aflame: Learning From Silence,” about narrowly escaping a 1990 California wildfire, came out in mid-January just after the Los Angeles fires. He touches on that experience in this talk. Listen
|  | | The Role of Art in Civic Life
| | Perspective, identity, history, commodity, race — these are just a few of the issues conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas explores through his work. We were honored to host two of his artworks at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival. In this interview, we talk to him about how art helps him make sense of the world, what lessons he’s learned from his mother — the prolific photographer Deborah Willis — and his sculpture “The Embrace,” in tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Read
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 | | | | ASPENIDEAS.ORG
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