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If you missed the festival or want to watch a session again, visit our playlist.
The Atlantic Festival brought together influential and provocative political, cultural, business, tech, and climate leaders for two full days of in-depth interviews, timely forums, intimate breakout sessions, book talks, screenings, and networking opportunities.
Our writers and moderators hosted a lively exchange of complex ideas, addressing the most significant issues of our time with today’s boldest thinkers as we bring The Atlantic’s journalism to life onstage.
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Sign in or SubscribeCATCH UP ON OUR TWO DAYS OF CAN’T-MISS EVENTS
If you missed the festival or want to watch a session again, visit our playlist. Two full days with more than 50 events. 130-plus speakers, happy hours, thousands of attendees to meet and have meaningful connections and conversations with. An experience worth investing in that you won’t want to miss.
Former Secretary of State and United States Senator
Former Representative, Texas
Actor, Director, Producer, Activist, and Author
Editor in Chief, The Atlantic
Chief Technology Officer, OpenAI
Author, All the Demons Are Here; Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent, CNN
Filmmaker
U.S. Secretary of State
Author
Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection and Chief Climate Officer, City of New York
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Congressional Investigations Reporter, The Washington Post
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Giffords
Founder and CEO, BlocPower
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
(D-CA)
Underwriter Session
White House Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Founder and CEO, Black Girl Ventures
CEO and Co-Founder, Baked by Melissa
Vice President, Prescient Design, Genentech
Underwriter Session
Contributing Writer, The Atlantic
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Deputy Legal Director, ACLU, and Director, Trone Center for Justice and Equality
Founder and CEO, Volt Energy Utility
(D-TX)
Senior Director of Frontier Research, Prescient Design, Genentech
Underwriter Session
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News
Utah
Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial and Customer Solutions Officer, Southern Company
Underwriter Session
Director and Producer
Co-founder and CEO, Via Separations
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Anchor, CBS News Prime Time, and Chief Political Analyst, CBS News
Vice President of Health Policy, Center for American Progress
Health Correspondent, Time
Executive Producer of Audio, The Atlantic
Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy
CEO and Co-Founder, Sublime Systems
Director, Mvskoke Media
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Cast, freestyle+
Acting Executive Director, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Energy
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Former Congresswoman and Co-Founder, Giffords
CEO, Frères Branchiaux Retail Enterprises
Senior Program Officer, Criminal Justice, MacArthur Foundation
Underwriter Session
President, Healthcare Leadership Council
Underwriter Session
Author, The Vaster Wilds
Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Health, Medicines, and AI, Pfizer
Underwriter Session
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab
Contributing Writer, The Atlantic
Chief Health Equity Officer, Google
Environmental Resilience Research Lead, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Senior Vice President, On-Field Operations, MLB
Co-Founder and CEO, Form Energy
Underwriter Session
Senior White House Correspondent, CBS News
Founder, 1063 West Broad and Senior Adviser, Biden-Harris 2020 campaign
White House Correspondent, NPR
Executive Director, Society for the Protection of Underground Networks
Supermodel, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist
Underwriter Session
Director, Bad Press
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Publisher, The Bulwark
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Strategic Adviser to the Director and former Deputy Director, Defense Innovation Unit, U.S. Department of Defense
Executive Vice President and Chief Business Innovation Officer, Pfizer
Underwriter Session
Director, Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and Author, Our Fragile Moment
Associate Director for Research and Programs, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Publisher & CRO, The Atlantic
Underwriter Session
Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice
Editor in Chief, Christianity Today
Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Former Baltimore City Police Officer
President and CEO, Resources for the Future
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign Manager, Political Strategist
Senior Director, Universal Energy Facility (SEforALL)
Emmy-Nominated Spoken-Word Poet, Professional Speaker, and Educator
Underwriter Session
Director, Bad Press
Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives
Co-Founder, As You Are DC
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Global Head of Corporate Engagement, Goldman Sachs
Underwriter Session
Vice President of Healthcare, NVIDIA
Underwriter Session
Founder and President, Emerson Collective
Award-Winning Poet and Sixth Washington State Poet Laureate
Underwriter Session
Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Deputy Campaign Manager, Political Strategist
Queer Writer, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist, Speaker, and Podcaster
Underwriter Session
CEO, Latino Economic Development Center
CEO, REFORM Alliance
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Senior Editor, The Atlantic, and Host, Radio Atlantic
Correspondent, CBS News
Cast, freestyle+
CEO and Executive Director, Center for Employment Opportunities
Pennsylvania
Artistic Director, Arena Stage
Director, GI Outcomes Research, NYU Langone Health
Editor, Poet and Author, Dancing With Langston and What’s Next? Short Fiction in Time of Change
Underwriter Session
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Contributor, The Atlantic, and Senior Adviser, Emerson Collective
CEO, City of Hope, and Helen and Morgan Chu Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair
Underwriter Session
Author
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Allstate
Underwriter Session
Co-founder and CEO, Inflection AI
Underwriter Session
U.S. National Security Adviser
Executive Vice President, Baseball Operations, MLB
Co-Founder and CEO, Agency
Managing Editor, The Atlantic
Vice President, Alliance for Safety and Justice, and National Director for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice
Underwriter Session
CEO, The Atlantic
Underwriter Session
Managing Editor, The Atlantic
Cast, freestyle+
Author and Poet, Remember Love
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Author
Director of ARPA-E, Department of Energy
Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Company
Underwriter Session
President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
President and CEO, Southern Company
Underwriter Session
Owner and Co-Founder, MahoganyBooks
White House National Climate Adviser
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University
Underwriter Session
Click “Learn More” below to watch specific sessions on demand.
The Atlantic Festival, now in its 15th year, is the preeminent live exploration of The Atlantic’s journalism. Join us on the Ideas Stage to unpack the most consequential issues shaping our changing nation. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi will be in conversation with The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to discuss the future of global and domestic democracy; the actor, producer, and activist Kerry Washington will join Clint Smith, an Atlantic staff writer, to discuss her deeply personal and highly anticipated new memoir, Thicker than Water; Jeffrey Goldberg will also interview Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the future of American foreign policy; and many more coming soon.
2 hours 15 minutes
Arena Stage
Actor, Director, Producer, Activist, and Author
Editor in Chief, The Atlantic
U.S. Secretary of State
Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Business, Climate, Culture, Health, Politics, Progress + Tech, Race + Identity
Join former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords and Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords: Courage to Fight Gun Violence, for a timely conversation about the urgent need to address gun violence in America.
30 minutes
Pier Stage
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Giffords
Former Congresswoman and Co-Founder, Giffords
Culture, Politics
The rising temperatures, biodiversity loss, energy strains, and air, water, and plastic pollution of the climate crisis are pushing us toward a global tipping point. White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi joins Atlantic managing editor Bhumika Tharoor to explore strategies that modernize the power grid and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure, and the scalable new technologies and nature-based solutions being implemented by this administration.
30 minutes
Dockmaster
Managing Editor, The Atlantic
White House National Climate Adviser
Climate
This session is produced by our underwriter and is independent of the Atlantic’s editorial staff.
Today, one in five adults in the U.S. struggles with their mental health, and nearly half of the country’s high-school students experience persistent feelings of hopelessness. The advent of AI-based diagnostic tools and chatbots could result in many more people accessing crucial therapeutic services. At the same time, humans are wired for connection—centering that fact is the only way the technology will be effective when it comes to matters of the mind. In a conversation facilitated by Leaps by Bayer, Nick Thompson sits down with two prominent voices in the tech space, Karlie Kloss and Mustafa Suleyman, to explore the promises and perils of entrusting our psychological health and well-being to machines.
45 minutes
Pearl Street Warehouse
Supermodel, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist
Co-founder and CEO, Inflection AI
CEO, The Atlantic
Health, Progress + Tech
The spectrum of the political right is broad—social conservatives, libertarians, MAGA supporters, populists, and RINOs—and the issues prioritized by each group vary largely. Led by senior editor Rebecca Rosen, Atlantic journalists Helen Lewis, David Frum, and Tom Nichols explore the evolution of our political parties and the future of American conservatism. What defines the Republican Party today? And what are the animating forces galvanizing conservative voters in 2024?
30 minutes
Dockmaster
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Politics
The Atlantic Festival, now in its 15th year, is the preeminent live exploration of The Atlantic’s journalism. Ideas Stage interviews tackle the most consequential issues shaping our changing nation. This session includes Founder and President of Emerson Collective Laurene Powell in conversation with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Representative Joaquin Castro discusses the urgent need to address border security and immigration with Pulitzer Prize–winning Atlantic staff writer Caitlin Dickerson. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro talks about governing during this transformational time with CBS News’s John Dickerson. Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has a powerful conversation about freedom of expression with Atlantic senior editor Gal Beckerman.
2 hours 15 minutes
Arena Stage
Author
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
(D-TX)
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Anchor, CBS News Prime Time, and Chief Political Analyst, CBS News
Founder and President, Emerson Collective
Pennsylvania
Business, Climate, Culture, Health, Politics, Progress + Tech, Race + Identity
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Finding ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change is the opportunity and challenge of the moment. The Atlantic will assemble policy makers, climate innovators, scientists, and business leaders to address today’s most urgent climate challenges and offer solutions for a more resilient future.
1 hour 30 minutes
Dockmaster
Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection and Chief Climate Officer, City of New York
Founder and CEO, Volt Energy Utility
Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News
Executive Producer of Audio, The Atlantic
Acting Executive Director, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Energy
Environmental Resilience Research Lead, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Executive Director, Society for the Protection of Underground Networks
Senior Editor, The Atlantic
Director, Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and Author, Our Fragile Moment
Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Allstate
Climate, Progress + Tech
Women in leadership roles in Washington, D.C., face unique challenges and exciting opportunities to make a difference. In this installment of Women of Washington, The Atlantic brings together women in the administration, the halls of Congress, and the media who are reshaping the D.C. landscape while making their mark on the future of our nation.
1 hour 30 minutes
Pearl Street Warehouse
Congressional Investigations Reporter, The Washington Post
(D-CA)
White House Correspondent, PBS NewsHour
Senior White House Correspondent, CBS News
Founder, 1063 West Broad and Senior Adviser, Biden-Harris 2020 campaign
White House Correspondent, NPR
Publisher, The Bulwark
Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign Manager, Political Strategist
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Deputy Campaign Manager, Political Strategist
Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Company
Culture, Politics
This session is produced by our underwriter and is independent of the Atlantic’s editorial staff.
This session offers the stage to three distinguished, Seattle-based poets who share diverse perspectives in both topic and lyrical style. From anti-racism to the LGBTQ community, Indigenous experience to the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, this session will ignite conversations and offer inspiration that can continue to shape our collective culture for the better. Hosted by fellow Seattleite Sharyn Skeeter (writer, poet, novelist, and former fiction/poetry/book-review editor at Essence), this session showcases the Emerald City as a UNESCO City of Literature and underscores its commitment to equity and inclusion.
45 minutes
Pier Stage
Emmy-Nominated Spoken-Word Poet, Professional Speaker, and Educator
Award-Winning Poet and Sixth Washington State Poet Laureate
Queer Writer, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist, Speaker, and Podcaster
Editor, Poet and Author, Dancing With Langston and What’s Next? Short Fiction in Time of Change
Culture
Join Atlantic staff writer Mark Leibovich in conversation with Major League Baseball executives Morgan Sword and Raúl Ibañez for a discussion on the league’s recent innovations and the future of America’s pastime.
30 minutes
Dockmaster
Senior Vice President, On-Field Operations, MLB
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Executive Vice President, Baseball Operations, MLB
Culture
Join us for an open bar, passed appetizers, and snacks. Network and unwind outdoors on the District Pier before evening programming gets under way. Open to Pass Holders only, no additional reservations are required. You must be 21+ to attend.
1 hour 30 minutes
Netflix will debut its new documentary series Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul, directed by R. J. Cutler. The series, based on the book Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul, by the Time correspondent Jamie Ducharme, chronicles Juul’s path from a scrappy tech start-up to a multibillion-dollar tobacco company whose high-nicotine-concentration and flavored products helped spark what top health authorities labeled an epidemic of youth addiction. Join us on the Pier and experience the screening of the first episode of the documentary series before its fall global premiere on Netflix. Immediately following the screening, enjoy a conversation with director R. J. Cutler and author Jamie Ducharme, led by the Atlantic staff writer Shirley Li.
Watch the Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul trailer HERE.
2 hours
Pier Stage
Director and Producer
Health Correspondent, Time
Staff Writer, The Atlantic
Culture
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September 28 - 29, 2023