"I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it,” David Brooks has said about his experience writing his latest New York Times bestseller about personal virtues and honesty in a materialistic age. Katie Couric explores this journey with the deeply thoughtful author.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

By June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule in the marriage equality cases coming out of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. Join us for a wide ranging discussion on these cases with the legal dream team that helped make this a reality, former Solicitor General Ted Olson and star litigator David Boies. Neal Katyal, former Acting Solicitor General, will moderate. Underwritten by EY.

Since penning “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” one of the most-read articles in the history of The Atlantic magazine, Anne-Marie Slaughter has re-examined, reflected, and broken free of her long-standing assumptions about work, life, and family. Slaughter returns with her vision for what true equality between men and women really means and how we can get there. Slaughter and the Atlantic’s Hanna Rosin provide a sneak peek at Anne-Marie’s new book, Unfinished Business.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Our signature event, the Afternoon of Conversation will host an audience of more than 2,000 in the Benedict Music Tent. Big thinkers and doers will engage serious ideas about their work and the future.

Speakers: Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Knowles

There is a raging debate underway today in K-12 education circles about student testing and assessment. This session aspires to provide perspective and good thinking to the path forward on these critical themes: Are students in fact being tested too much? Are we testing for the “right” outcomes? What is the relationship between cognitive outcomes and the development of “soft skills” or “non-cognitive” outcomes? How might assessments better prepare young people for success in careers and/or...

This panel will address both broad approaches to impact investing and specific portfolio construction models that incorporate an active, quantitative methodology for reviewing U.S. equities and taxable corporate bonds across a wide array of criteria that marry social impact and financial performance. They will discuss how the trend of Womenomics informs investing strategies and practices to drive positive social change of equality for women and girls. (Content produced by U.S. Trust.)

In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, Vital Voices will have leaders share their progress and vision on work that is at the cutting edge of today’s most urgent issues: transformation in the Middle East, gender-based violence, African women’s meteoric rise to leadership, the emergence of social business, and the extraordinary potential of digital presence and power. Underwritten by U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

In 1987, E.D. Hirsch sparked a national debate with his book Cultural Literacy, claiming that there is a foundation of common knowledge every American should know — and codifying it in a list of 5,000 facts and cultural references. Hirsch’s famous list was attacked for being too focused on “dead white men.” But now, amidst giant demographic and technological shifts, we need such common knowledge more than ever, and it needs to be radically more diverse and inclusive. What should today’s...

At a time when traditional notions of college are under attack — in the shift to online instruction, in the emphasis on STEM fields and the denigration of the liberal arts, in the continued privatization of public higher education — it is urgent that we ask what college is supposed to be about in the first place. What happens when education is understood in purely vocational terms? What happens to schools, to teachers, to society — to students themselves? Why are students learning so little...

David Brooks writes about character. Aaron Sorkin writes about characters. The opinionator and consummate storyteller join in a conversation about how Sorkin’s connection to and love of character distinguishes his writing and his craft.

Roger Martin studies the future of democratic capitalism at the Martin Prosperity Institute. Tim Brown is the CEO of IDEO, which designs solutions to systemic challenges in education, health, financial inclusion and government. Together, they are examining new approaches to tackle decades of stagnation in US household income and rising income inequality. What are the structural underpinnings of democratic capitalism? What pragmatic steps might we take to make progress on complex challenges?...

For decades, film and TV producer Brian Grazer has scheduled a weekly “curiosity conversation” with an accomplished stranger. From scientists to spies, and adventurers to business leaders, Grazer has met with anyone willing to answer his questions for a few hours. These informal discussions sparked the creative inspiration behind many of Grazer’s movies and TV shows, including Splash, “24”, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, and “Arrested Development”, and many others. Whether you’re looking to...

Cartel Land is a harrowing look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy – the murderous Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as “El Doctor,” leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years. Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley – a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley – Tim "Nailer"...

In this candid talk with the first woman elected to represent the State of Minnesota in the US Senate, Senator Amy Klobuchar will share the personal story of her entry into politics as well as reveal her secret to getting things done on a bipartisan basis, which has been her mission since taking office in 2007. Senator Klobuchar’s successes in bringing adversarial groups together to find common ground brings to mind a particular virtue of Benjamin Franklin of whom biographer Walter Isaacson...

Some argue that capitalism is a great blessing and a fundamental force for good. Others argue that it can encourage greed. The truth? Both sides are onto something. Free enterprise has lifted billions of people out of poverty worldwide. But while we fight for prosperity at home and around the world, we must guard against materialism and remember that money is only a means to greater ends. Please join Arthur Brooks—New York Times columnist, bestselling author, and president of the American...

We may think we don't host an ounce of racism in our minds or hearts. And yet, each of us has a part in what is entrenched and systemic racism. Hear from people featured in our short films about race: A Conversation with My Black Son; A Conversation about Growing Up Black; A Conversation with White People About Race. Springboard with us from these personal stories to a 3-dimensional conversation that replaces rhetoric, rage, and accusations with open dialogue.

The often exclusionary language of money can be full of cryptic, indecipherable jargon and obscure technical terms. Peter Orszag helps decode the complex language of finance, explains the barriers to understanding money, presents the case for why we should all develop a basic level of financial literacy, and provides an essential glossary of terms we should all know.