It’s a wrap on the 2026 edition of the Aspen Ideas Fest on the Aspen Institute campus in Colorado—a spectacle of music, celebrity, art, nature, food, and yes, IDEAS in one of the most beautiful spots in our country.

But don’t let the idyllic surroundings of Aspen fool you. The agenda was loaded with thorny topics: sessions on voting rights, the Supreme Court, MAHA and our food system, AI in the workplace, and many more, all designed to elevate ideas, illuminate tensions in politics and communities, and explore solutions. The political sessions under the heading The American Experiment, designed by Guest Curator Fareed Zakaria, were both timely and bipartisan.

One of the many memorable sessions I attended was moderated by Corby Kummer of the Institute’s Food and Society program. He masterfully managed a conversation titled “The American Wellness Paradox,” with two experts of different political perspectives who engaged in a fair amount of one-upmanship—but actually agreed on just how broken our food system is, and even what to do about it.

And shout-out to Corby and the Institute for securing participation by the administration, namely, Calley Means, a senior advisor on health and nutrition in the White House. Watch this space for progress on naming and addressing ultra-processed foods—and improving offerings in schools, and even prisons.

The track on the American Dream exposed the growing tension over AI and jobs. The conversation curated by my colleague Miguel Padro with Natalie Foster of The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program‘s Future of Work Initiative, and expertly moderated by Diane Brady of CEO Daily explored what the data is telling us about insecurity in the workplace: “Can the American Dream Survive the Age of AI?” Brady writes about her takeaways here. A quick poll of the audience suggests opportunity ahead, but the panelists put the focus on better management of the workplace to reconnect workers to their potential, and the need for much more support from the employer to unlock AI capabilities we are only beginning to understand.

Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup, talked about the dire condition of the workplace: “anger, pain, worries and sadness”—a by-product of disengagement that will require better management skills than we are seeing now. Hasan Malik added important insight into economic fulfillment, based on research that Edward Jones and Gallup conducted in the past year. What became clear is that AI’s impact on the American Dream will be determined not only by money and productivity, but also personal meaning, freedom, and confidence in the future for one’s self and family.

And then there were those moments of pure bliss—an early-morning yoga class in Anderson Park with a beautiful art installation fluttering overhead, and time-outs at The Julliard School pop-up tent, showcasing their talented students and graduates, and that of our neighbor on the Institute campus, the Aspen Music Festival.

And do check out THIS guy, Charles Yang. I fell in love and casually asked him if he ever plays in New York.

“Ah, our last gig was Carnegie Hall?”

If you have the cash, or can secure one of the many scholarships, drop everything and attend Ideas Fest next year. If that’s not in the cards, a lot of the content also ends up online. Watch sessions from the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival on The Aspen Institute YouTube Channel.

But here’s the BEST session to sit back and enjoy as we lean into the next 250 years of the American Experiment: The Story of America, a review of great moments of our history and promise through the documentary films of Ken Burns, the Festival’s Harmon-Eisner Artist-in-Residence. It was a soulful hour, brilliantly crafted by Fareed Zakaria and the filmmaker himself.

Burns’ beautiful commentary on moments and figures of America’s history was as stirring as the clips of film and music. He argued that the American Revolution was the most consequential moment of history—an Idea from which the world can never pull back. Have tissues handy, but expect to be uplifted, and better able to see the times we are living through as part of a 250-year experiment—critically important, worthy of our time and attention—but not how the story will end.

Happy 250th!

This blog post was originally published on LinkedIn. Follow Judy Samuelson for more insights on business and society.