Reimagining the end-of-life experience

May 9, 2024

An Aspen Ideas Festival Update on “Morning Joe”

Aspen Ideas Festival guest curator Tina Brown appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” this week and announced new speakers including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Reverend William Barber. They join our growing lineup, with nearly 300 tech and media innovators, artists, policymakers, activists, scientists, and global thought leaders set to participate.

You don’t want to miss out. Limited passes to the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival are still available.

PODCAST

Designing a Good Death

“In order for folks to have a good death, we must honor the totality of their lived experience,” says Alua Arthur, a death doula and founder of Going With Grace. “That means looking at the intersection of their identities for all that they were. Not just the parts that we think are worthy, but for every part of who they were.” Arthur works to help people find peace with themselves so they can live presently and die gracefully. At a panel from Aspen Ideas: Health 2023, Arthur joins several experts who are redefining the end-of-life experience. Dan Diaz advocates for people facing terminal illness — his wife, Brittany Maynard, died from a brain tumor at age 29 after fighting to access medical aid in dying. Designer Katrina Spade founded the world’s first human composting company, Recompose, and has helped expand legalization of the practice to several states. Stanford medical professor Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, who lost her husband Paul to terminal cancer, moderates the conversation. Together, they explore what it means to have a good death and why having a plan for our last moments on Earth can be empowering for individuals, families, and communities.

Listen

20 YEARS OF IDEAS

Alone on the Wall

On June 3, 2017, Alex Honnold became the first person to climb the 3,000-vertical-foot granite face of Yosemite’s El Capitan, alone, without ropes, a feat that was chronicled in the Academy Award-winning documentary “Free Solo.” He’s since completed other record-breaking speed climbs, free ascents, and traverses around the world, while getting married and having two young daughters. In this conversation from the 2019 Aspen Ideas Festival, Honnold explores questions like: How do you manage fear? What's the line between daring and recklessness? What should we sacrifice in the pursuit of excellence? And what is the connection between freedom and happiness?

Watch

COLLECTION

Breaking the Silence and Opening Up About Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, an opportunity to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions around an issue that affects so many of us — in America, nearly 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year, and teens are reporting record-high levels of violence, sadness, and suicide risk. Despite the ubiquity of these struggles, conversations around mental health are still rife with stigma and shame. We’ve put together a collection of conversations, articles, and podcasts with Aspen Ideas speakers — including NBA star Kevin Love, happiness guru Arthur Brooks, and clinical psychologist Lisa Damour — who are candid about their own struggles with mental health while offering insight, empathy, and expert advice.

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FESTIVAL

Join Us in June

Hear from some of the world’s most brilliant leaders and thinkers as they engage in deep discussion of the ideas that will shape tomorrow and help us understand today, all against the awe-inspiring backdrop of our Rocky Mountain campus.

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