The Aspen Institute 9d ago

Advances in science, coupled with clinical experience, are deepening knowledge about how the gut and brain are connected. Messages pass in both directions, influencing not only digestion, food preferences, and hunger but also mood, stress, inflammation, and immune function. Signals between the central nervous system and the gut microbiome—that community of organisms inhabiting the gastrointestinal tract—even suggest new pathways for managing neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s. Join “Science Friday” for a live podcast recording as they explore how a deeper understanding of the gut-brain axis, and the biological, environmental, lifestyle, and psychosocial factors that affect it, could dramatically improve health outcomes. Aspen Ideas: Health takes place on the Aspen Institute’s wondrous 40-acre campus in the Rocky Mountains from June 22-25, 2026. The three-day event, which has opened the renowned Aspen Ideas Festival since 2014, is where health’s biggest challenges meet its biggest thinkers. #AspenIdeasHealth #AspenIdeas For more information about Aspen Ideas: Health, visit https://www.aspenideas.org/health.