While there are no ironclad rules for producing children who perform well in school, pursue healthy behavior, and work towards wise goals, there are proven strategies that can help. Lucky are those with natural talent, but some work suggests grit, perseverance, and pure stick-to-it-ness may matter even more. Research also highlights the value of finding meaningful life purpose. Artificial intelligence has emerged as an effective tool for predicting long-term outcomes, but can it also help...

In May, 2016, the FDA finalized a rule extending its authority to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco. This historic rule allows the FDA, for the first time, to restrict the sale of these tobacco products to minors nationwide. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will discuss the importance of this new rule, the implications for combatting tobacco use and the future of tobacco cessation. Speakers: Vivek Murthy, Julie Rovner

Recent scientific research has shown that the human brain develops almost from conception to perform basic biological and cognitive functions, process emotions and memories, think and learn, and understand signals from the surrounding world. On the journey from fetus to young adult, the structures of the brain are altered by experience, attachments, trauma, and learning. Today’s ever-more-sophisticated imaging tools generate a visual picture of all that, helping to decode the brain’s...

Speaker: Jackie Bezos

The idea that investing in girls is the single most effective investment available to spur economic development and end global poverty has become a widely popular notion. And yet, what does investing in girls actually look like on the ground? What have we learned as of late about which kinds of investments for which kinds of girls in which kinds of settings have the biggest ROI? Join us for a wide-ranging conversation featuring some of the freshest and wisest voices on girls’ empowerment,...

Kids can be a mystery to their parents even at the best of times. But when they are dealing with serious illness, figuring out what they most care about, both physically and emotionally, becomes that much harder. Now, a panel of kids offers some answers. Listen to the voices of young people who have survived cancer and heart disease, lost limbs, or are facing a lifetime of chronic illness. Their wisdom is hard earned, their sense of humor delightful, and their hopes and wishes for the...

Parenting is perhaps the most profound responsibility that adults can take on. There is no easy formula for raising children with the social and emotional skills to move through the world with confidence, but disturbing indicators among our youth suggest something is awry. In this age of connectivity, too many of our kids seem to be disconnected. An epidemic of youth suicide has devastated some prosperous communities. Are we emphasizing achievement and material advantage over meaningful...

A sea change is underway among many of today’s girls: they are developing faster and entering puberty earlier than ever before. Just a generation ago, fewer than 5 percent of girls started puberty before the age of eight; today that percentage has more than doubled. Early puberty is not just a matter of physical transformation – it’s deeply psychological too, with effects that can put a girl at higher risk for behavioral problems as well as long-term health challenges such as obesity,...

The deaths of children under age five fell by 50 percent to below six million in 2015, the first time that has happened; in 1990, there were 12.7 million under-five deaths. In the same period, there have been major gains in reducing child malnutrition and improving maternal health. Those successes are a reminder that simple, affordable solutions are within reach, and that vigorous commitment can transform lives. But 16,000 children under five still die every day, so there is much more to do....