Todd Breyfogle
Senior Advisor for Humanistic Studies and Practices at the Aspen Institute, where he leads work on the Institute’s humanistic tradition of thinking and dialogue, oversees the Aspen-Kern Program for Leadership and Character in Higher Education, and designs and moderates Aspen Institute seminars.
Liberal Education Is a Condition of the American Republic
Shilo Brooks, president and CEO of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, argues that America’s 250th anniversary should be treated as a test of civic formation, not an exercise in commemoration. In a conversation with the Aspen Institute’s Todd Breyfogle, Brooks makes the case that self-government depends on liberal education: citizens reading seriously, examining their own false convictions, practicing moderation, and learning to argue without contempt. His warning is that civic ignorance is not just an educational failure but a constitutional problem for a republic in which the people are meant to rule.
Aspen Institute Marks 75 Years of Humanistic Convening
Todd Breyfogle presents the Aspen Institute’s 75th anniversary as evidence of continuity rather than reinvention. Founded in 1949 by Walter and Elizabeth Paepcke amid postwar and early nuclear anxieties, the Institute is described as a humanistic project built on the idea that leaders need time, space, and rigorous dialogue before they can act well. Breyfogle argues that the same premise now underlies Aspen’s global network of programs, fellowships, and convenings.