The Bridge from The Aspen Institute

How has the women’s movement evolved since 1919? What challenges remain in the fight for gender equality? This month marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th amendment that granted white women the right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. In this episode of The Bridge, host Peggy Clark, Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group, interviewed Cecile Richards, former presid...

This month’s episode of The Bridge features an insightful conversation between Chelsea Kline and Kate Manne on how women encounter and deal with misogyny in their daily lives. Chelsea Kline is a long time champion for women’s rights and social justice and in 2018 she ran a fierce campaign for the Massachusetts State Senate, where she won 41% of the vote. Kate Manne is an associate professor at the Sage School of Philosophy...

This month’s episode of The Bridge Podcast features an intergenerational conversation on the intersection of current and past thinking of feminism and gender issues. Riane Eisler, one of the first thinkers of gender issues, joins Jamia Wilson, who is leading us in revisioning the thinking behind gender issues today, in a deep conversation on redefining the feminist movement. Hosted by Peggy Clark, Vice President of the Asp...

To kick off Women’s History Month and to celebrate International Women’s Day, The Bridge is excited to launch Season 3 with a fierce, intergenerational conversation between Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, and her daughter Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education. In an intimate discussion, Madeleine and Alice discuss the barriers and opportunities they both faced in their lives, th...

In every field — business, politics, science, tech, and sport — women are breaking barriers in unprecedented numbers. As more women have taken up careers than at any time in our history, are women experiencing a "moment,” or have the pressures for gender equality and compensation finally achieved results? This month’s episode of The Bridge is from the “Breaking Barriers: Women Defining Leadership” session at the Aspen Idea...

When women mobilize, countries are transformed. In the United States, women have been the majority of voters in every national election since 1964. In 2018, women helped elect a Congress with a record-breaking 127 women members. Supermajority, a national community for women’s activism and civic engagement, is using the sparks of millions of women across the country to ignite the fire of change. In this episode of The Bridg...

What is implicit bias, and how can we overcome it? How can we address our biases in a world hyperconscious of identity? In this special live episode of The Bridge, host Peggy Clark, Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group, sat down with Alexis McGill Johsnon and Ndidi Nwuneli to uncover why we experience implicit bias. Alexis, now the acting president and CEO of the...

Let’s talk about sex! In this politically charged and technologically driven era, how we talk about sex to different generations is exceedingly important. To dive into this topic, Dr. Ruth Westheimer and Molly Fischer sat down in this Bridge episode to discuss attitudes about sex today. Dr. Ruth is an acclaimed psychosexual therapist, author, and radio host of the “Dr. Ruth Show.” Molly is senior editor at the website The ...

In this episode, Kavita Ramdas proclaims, “We are the women of India. We are not flowers, we are the sparks that will ignite change.” Kavita is the Director of the Women’s Rights Program at the Open Society Foundation, and she has made gender equity and justice her life’s work. In this episode, Kavita joins host Peggy Clark, Vice President of the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group ...

How can women’s activists of different generations learn from each other? Is there a deep divide or are we closer than we think? Older activists bring decades of struggle and a sense of the fragility of hard-won gains, while young activists see issues through a more integrated and intersectional lens. This episode of The Bridge explores how we can learn from the past and also shape the future for women, and features a conv...

How can we build a global movement of love in a time of change and hatred? Ai-jen Poo is the Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Co-Director of Caring Across Generations, and Co-Founder of Supermajority. Kumi Naidoo is a human rights activist and the current Secretary-General of Amnesty International. Kumi was also the first African head of Greenpeace. On this episode, Ai-jen and Kumi join host Peggy Clark,...

Irin Carmon and Linda Hirshman share many things in common - one is that they both respect and have written books about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Irin Carmon is a senior correspondent at New York Magazine and the author of the New York Times bestseller Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Linda Hirshman is a lawyer, cultural historian, and the author of Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O...

Dr. Agnes Binagwaho served as the Rwandan Minister of Health for 5 years, and she is now the Vice Chancellor and co-founder of the University of Global Health Equity. Dr. Binagwaho returned to her home country just two years after the Rwandan Genocide in 1996, and since then has been a leader in fighting for better health systems in the country. In this episode, Dr. Binagwaho shares her thoughts on Rwanda’s push for creati...

What happens when women lead? In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the 24th president of Liberia and the first democratically elected female head of state on the African continent. To kick off season two of The Bridge, President Sirleaf shares her wisdom on leadership, the challenges she faced during her presidency, and what other countries might learn from her experience as the first female president in Africa. Learn mor...

At the 1995 Beijing World Conference on Women, Hillary Clinton famously said "Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights." Listen to two pioneering women describe where they were and what they were thinking when they heard that phrase. Ambassador Melanne Verveer, who was then Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton, listened from backstage. She remembers the decision for Clinton to make that b...

In what direction is the river flowing today for women in power and leadership? What tools do we have to break down walls and constructs of oppression: race, class, gender? If the politics of rage only get us so far, what kind of selves can we cultivate to take on these issues with levity, like a stream, towards tomorrow? Close friends Akaya Windwood, president of Rockwood Leadership, and Liz Ogbu, designer and social inno...

How can storytelling, especially through film, take people to a different place? How can stories expose vulnerabilities and empower people to take action? This episode features two award winning filmmakers who have used their craft to change hearts and minds. Abigail Disney and Michèle Stephenson share their respective journeys into film, and explain where they find hope for the women’s movement. Hosted by Peggy Clark of T...