Every year, Stewart and I open our home to the speakers who appear at the Aspen Ideas Festival, an event thrown by the Aspen Institute as a forum for the world's thought leaders to speak on global issues. At our dinner, I always give a little...
0 Comments | Posted June 15, 2010 | 1:41 AM
0 Comments | Posted June 14, 2010 | 12:38 PM
This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of addressing the graduating class at UC Riverside's College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. As the graduates prepared to set off and make their way in the world, I shared the seven pieces of advice that I have found to be most helpful...
0 Comments | Posted May 21, 2010 | 10:42 AM
It seems like just yesterday we were in the dark about breast cancer, Parkinson's and prostate cancer. To say that tireless efforts led by strong, unified communities have increased public awareness is an understatement. To be able to say they've afforded hope to so many where there...
0 Comments | Posted February 1, 2010 | 8:33 PM
Whenever education budgets get tightened, art programs are the first to get cut. Like the enduring popularity of reality TV, this never ceases to amaze me. So much evidence points to art's importance in a child's development - and not just in...
0 Comments | Posted December 25, 2009 | 5:07 PM
This New Year's, instead of waiting for our government to solve your health care needs, take action and do everything you can to keep yourself and your loved ones well -- and away from doctors and hospitals. So many in our society are already suffering from disease, but for those...
0 Comments | Posted September 21, 2009 | 9:08 PM
We're facing a crisis in our nation, and I'm not talking about the economy (which is indeed grim), or our health care system (even more grim), or Kanye West's lack of manners (annoyingly grim). I'm talking about the state of journalism, that once-great bastion of integrity crumbling around us. A...
0 Comments | Posted September 8, 2009 | 1:30 PM
In an era in history when so many of the companies and brands we once trusted have come to let us down, it's comforting to find entrepreneurs who believe in the basic tenet that to do well in business involves some degree of doing good. Any entrepreneur worth their salt...
0 Comments | Posted June 29, 2009 | 4:24 PM
Last night the Socrates Society of the Aspen Institute had their annual fundraiser. It was an outstanding success. Founded 13 years ago by Silicon Valley venture capitalists Gary and Laura Lauder, this group is a forum in which emerging leaders from various sectors of society come together to explore...
0 Comments | Posted June 2, 2009 | 12:02 PM
It wasn't so long ago that starting a small business was attempted by only the most stalwart of entrepreneurs. It took stamina to brave the reams of paper and hordes of attorneys, real estate agents, and CPAs that were a necessary part of the start-up process. It didn't matter how...
0 Comments | Posted April 28, 2009 | 3:14 PM
0 Comments | Posted April 21, 2009 | 1:36 PM
Don't let the name fool you. Get Satisfaction is not of the type of website that would get you fired if you viewed it in your office cube. In fact, it's quite the opposite: Its focus is on what many companies, especially small businesses, need right now: an inside...
0 Comments | Posted March 15, 2009 | 8:27 PM
Have you had enough of this "evangelical pessimism" that has for months held our nation in its tyrannical grasp? Our tabloid era reduces everything to sound bites of doom and gloom; it's as if the Grim Reaper was given his own primetime news show and has been broadcasting 24/7 on...
0 Comments | Posted January 17, 2009 | 2:03 PM
"Pilot Hailed for 'Hudson Miracle,'" said the BBC.
"Miracle on the Hudson," declared both MSNBC and the New York Daily News.
A dear and very spiritual friend said to me yesterday, "The Hudson River crash is a sign." I know she didn't mean we should start flying...
0 Comments | Posted December 22, 2008 | 9:04 PM
Reverend Rick Warren was speaking at the 2005 Aspen Institute Ideas Festival. I had taken the afternoon off to finish the preparations on our annual dinner, which hosts the event's speakers, when my husband suddenly burst into the room, exclaiming something I had long suspected. "You know, you're not going...
0 Comments | Posted December 1, 2008 | 9:19 PM
Just a few weeks ago, my husband and I were in Mumbai with friends. We stayed at the stately Taj hotel -- the one we saw burning on television this week. It is part of The Taj Group, owned by the Tata family. They own hotels all over India; the...
0 Comments | Posted November 30, 2008 | 2:31 PM
Even though I knew our world was bloated and out of control. Even though I groaned every day when I saw the stock market rising into the stratosphere, and even though I wrote a book about marketing that pointed to the inevitable out come of our reckless spending; I never...
0 Comments | Posted November 9, 2008 | 1:27 PM
My husband and I were in India during the U.S. election. Of course we cast (so to speak) our Obama votes before traveling to India during the last three weeks of the campaign -- an insightful experience. We followed CNN throughout our journey, but we were more drawn to news...
0 Comments | Posted July 4, 2008 | 5:52 PM
For the last three summers the Aspen Institute has conducted an Ideas Festival in Aspen. About 70 speakers who discuss subjects ranging from Global Warming to Globalization, India and it's place in the world, Health and Obesity and World Famine, the current Political Landscape and Education in America appear at...
0 Comments | Posted August 19, 2007 | 3:12 PM
Those words were whispered to me by the brilliantly kinetic, auburn-haired teenage daughter of Cathy and Walter Isaacson as we listened to a presentation given by members of the New Orleans community on the aftermath of Katrina.
This magical young woman is exposed to a wide range of issues,...

0 Comments | Posted July 9, 2010 | 4:59 PM