The Atlantic Festival 2023

The Atlantic Festival 2023

The Atlantic Festival will return September 19–20, 2024! Sign up here to receive updates.

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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CATCH 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.

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  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    Author

  • Rohit Aggarwala

    Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection and Chief Climate Officer, City of New York

  • Tim Alberta

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Jacqueline Alemany

    Congressional Investigations Reporter, The Washington Post

    Twitter
  • Peter Ambler

    Executive Director and Co-Founder, Giffords

    Twitter
  • Donnel Baird

    Founder and CEO, BlocPower

    Twitter
  • Ross Andersen

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Anne Applebaum

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Representative Nanette Barragán

    (D-CA)

    Underwriter Session

  • Laura Barrón-López

    White House Correspondent, PBS NewsHour

    Twitter
  • Xavier Becerra

    Secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

    Twitter
  • Julie Beck

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Gal Beckerman

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Omi Bell

    Founder and CEO, Black Girl Ventures

    Twitter
  • Melissa Ben-Ishay

    CEO and Co-Founder, Baked by Melissa

    Twitter
  • Richard Bonneau

    Vice President, Prescient Design, Genentech

    Underwriter Session

  • Arthur C. Brooks

    Contributing Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Ronald Brownstein

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Lonnie G. Bunch III

    Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

  • Yasmin Cader

    Deputy Legal Director, ACLU, and Director, Trone Center for Justice and Equality

    Twitter
  • Gilbert Campbell

    Founder and CEO, Volt Energy Utility

    Twitter
  • Representative Joaquin Castro

    (D-TX)

  • Kyunghyun Cho

    Senior Director of Frontier Research, Prescient Design, Genentech

    Underwriter Session

  • McKay Coppins

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Nancy Cordes

    Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News

  • Governor Spencer Cox

    Utah

  • Chris Cummiskey

    Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial and Customer Solutions Officer, Southern Company

    Underwriter Session

  • R.J. Cutler

    Director and Producer

  • Shreya Dave

    Co-founder and CEO, Via Separations

    Twitter
  • Jerusalem Demsas

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Caitlin Dickerson

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • John Dickerson

    Anchor, CBS News Prime Time, and Chief Political Analyst, CBS News

  • Andrea Ducas

    Vice President of Health Policy, Center for American Progress

    Twitter
  • Jamie Ducharme

    Health Correspondent, Time

    Twitter
  • Claudine Ebeid

    Executive Producer of Audio, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Jonathan Elkind

    Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy

  • Leah Ellis

    CEO and Co-Founder, Sublime Systems

    Twitter
  • Angel Ellis

    Director, Mvskoke Media

  • Franklin Foer

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Aneesa Folds

    Cast, freestyle+

    Twitter
  • Carla Frisch

    Acting Executive Director, Office of Policy, U.S. Department of Energy

  • David Frum

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Megan Garber

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Gabby Giffords

    Former Congresswoman and Co-Founder, Giffords

    Twitter
  • Celena Gill

    CEO, Frères Branchiaux Retail Enterprises

    Twitter
  • Bria Gillum

    Senior Program Officer, Criminal Justice, MacArthur Foundation

    Underwriter Session

  • Mary R. Grealy

    President, Healthcare Leadership Council

    Underwriter Session

  • Lauren Groff

    Author, The Vaster Wilds

    Twitter
  • Dennis Hancock

    Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Health, Medicines, and AI, Pfizer

    Underwriter Session

  • Adam Harris

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Hugh Herr

    Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab

  • Jemele Hill

    Contributing Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Ivor Braden Horn

    Chief Health Equity Officer, Google

    Twitter
  • Marisa Hughes

    Environmental Resilience Research Lead, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

  • Raúl Ibañez

    Senior Vice President, On-Field Operations, MLB

  • Mateo Jaramillo

    Co-Founder and CEO, Form Energy

    Underwriter Session

  • Weijia Jiang

    Senior White House Correspondent, CBS News

  • Alencia Johnson

    Founder, 1063 West Broad and Senior Adviser, Biden-Harris 2020 campaign

    Twitter
  • Tamara Keith

    White House Correspondent, NPR

    Twitter
  • Toby Kiers

    Executive Director, Society for the Protection of Underground Networks

    Twitter
  • Karlie Kloss

    Supermodel, Entrepreneur, and Philanthropist

    Underwriter Session

  • Rebecca Landsberry-Baker

    Director, Bad Press

  • Sarah Laskow

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Mark Leibovich

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Helen Lewis

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Shirley Li

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Sarah Longwell

    Publisher, The Bulwark

    Twitter
  • Annie Lowrey

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

  • Mike Madsen

    Strategic Adviser to the Director and former Deputy Director, Defense Innovation Unit, U.S. Department of Defense

  • Aamir Malik

    Executive Vice President and Chief Business Innovation Officer, Pfizer

    Underwriter Session

  • Michael Mann

    Director, Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media and Author, Our Fragile Moment

    Twitter
  • Debra Mathews

    Associate Director for Research and Programs, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

  • Alice McKown

    Publisher & CRO, The Atlantic

    Underwriter Session

  • Karhlton F. Moore

    Director, Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice

  • Russell Moore

    Editor in Chief, Christianity Today

  • Peter Moskos

    Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and Former Baltimore City Police Officer

  • Richard G. Newell

    President and CEO, Resources for the Future

    Twitter
  • Vann R. Newkirk II

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

  • Jen O’Malley Dillon

    Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign Manager, Political Strategist

  • Anita Otubu

    Senior Director, Universal Energy Facility (SEforALL)

  • Christian Paige

    Emmy-Nominated Spoken-Word Poet, Professional Speaker, and Educator

    Underwriter Session

  • Joe Peeler

    Director, Bad Press

  • Nancy Pelosi

    Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives

    Twitter
  • Rach Pike

    Co-Founder, As You Are DC

    Twitter
  • Elaina Plott Calabro

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Asahi Pompey

    Global Head of Corporate Engagement, Goldman Sachs

    Underwriter Session

  • Kimberly Powell

    Vice President of Healthcare, NVIDIA

    Underwriter Session

  • Laurene Powell Jobs

    Founder and President, Emerson Collective

  • Rena Priest

    Award-Winning Poet and Sixth Washington State Poet Laureate

    Underwriter Session

  • Natalie Quillian

    Deputy Chief of Staff, Biden-Harris 2020 Deputy Campaign Manager, Political Strategist

  • Anastacia-Renee

    Queer Writer, Educator, Interdisciplinary Artist, Speaker, and Podcaster

    Underwriter Session

  • Emi Reyes

    CEO, Latino Economic Development Center

  • Robert Rooks

    CEO, REFORM Alliance

  • Rebecca Rosen

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic

  • Hanna Rosin

    Senior Editor, The Atlantic, and Host, Radio Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Christina Ruffini

    Correspondent, CBS News

  • Melanie Rubin

    Cast, freestyle+

    Twitter
  • Sam Schaeffer

    CEO and Executive Director, Center for Employment Opportunities

  • Governor Josh Shapiro

    Pennsylvania

  • Hana S. Sharif

    Artistic Director, Arena Stage

  • Aasma Shaukat

    Director, GI Outcomes Research, NYU Langone Health

    Twitter
  • Sharyn Skeeter

    Editor, Poet and Author, Dancing With Langston and What’s Next? Short Fiction in Time of Change

    Underwriter Session

  • Clint Smith

    Staff Writer, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Evan Smith

    Contributor, The Atlantic, and Senior Adviser, Emerson Collective

  • Robert Stone

    CEO, City of Hope, and Helen and Morgan Chu Chief Executive Officer Distinguished Chair

    Underwriter Session

  • Cheryl Strayed

    Author

    Twitter
  • Elliot Stultz

    Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Allstate

    Underwriter Session

  • Mustafa Suleyman

    Co-founder and CEO, Inflection AI

    Underwriter Session

  • Jake Sullivan

    U.S. National Security Adviser

  • Morgan Sword

    Executive Vice President, Baseball Operations, MLB

  • Amir Tarighat

    Co-Founder and CEO, Agency

  • Bhumika Tharoor

    Managing Editor, The Atlantic

  • Aswad Thomas

    Vice President, Alliance for Safety and Justice, and National Director for Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice

    Underwriter Session

  • Nicholas Thompson

    CEO, The Atlantic

    Twitter

    Underwriter Session

  • Andrea Valdez

    Managing Editor, The Atlantic

    Twitter
  • Anthony Veneziale

    Cast, freestyle+

    Twitter
  • Cleo Wade

    Author and Poet, Remember Love

  • Robert Waldinger

    Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Author

  • Evelyn N. Wang

    Director of ARPA-E, Department of Energy

    Twitter
  • Anne White

    Executive Vice President and President of Lilly Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Company

    Underwriter Session

  • Maya Wiley

    President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

    Twitter
  • Chris Womack

    President and CEO, Southern Company

    Underwriter Session

  • Ramunda Lark Young

    Owner and Co-Founder, MahoganyBooks

    Twitter
  • Ali Zaidi

    White House National Climate Adviser

  • Ellen Zhong

    Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University

    Underwriter Session

In partnership with Washington, D.C.’s reimagined waterfront neighborhood The Wharf—home of The Atlantic’s new D.C. headquarters—and the many restaurants and cultural and community organizations in the area, we gathered to experience The Atlantic’s journalism come to life. See agenda below.

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AgendaSep. 28-29

Click “Learn More” below to watch specific sessions on demand.

Format:
9:30 am EDT

Ideas Stage, featuring Nancy Pelosi, Kerry Washington, Antony Blinken, and more

Virtual / In-Person
11:45 am EDT

The Big Story: Preventing Gun Violence

In-Person
11:45 am EDT

The Big Story: A Conversation With National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi

In-Person
12:15 pm EDT

Leaps by Bayer Presents: Mind to Machine*

Underwritten by Leaps by Bayer
In-Person
12:30 pm EDT

The Big Story: The Future of American Conservatism

In-Person
1:00 pm EDT

Ideas Stage, featuring Joaquin Castro, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Hakeem Jeffries, and more

Virtual / In-Person
2:30 pm EDT

The Climate Summit: Building a More Sustainable Future

Underwritten by Allstate
In-Person
3:30 pm EDT

Women of Washington

Underwritten by Eli Lilly
In-Person
4:00 pm EDT

Visit Seattle Presents: Strength and Poetry—Elevating Diverse Voices*

Underwritten by Visit Seattle
In-Person
4:30 pm EDT

The Big Story: The Future of Major League Baseball

In-Person
5:00 pm EDT

Happy Hour

In-Person
7:00 pm EDT

Atlantic Watch: Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul

In-Person

Presenting

Supporting

Contributing

Event Details

The Wharf in Washington, D.C. or Virtual

Maine Ave and Water St SW Washington, DC 20024

September 28 - 29, 2023

Sponsorship

Underwriter Opportunities

atlantic_advertising@theatlantic.com

Audience

Audience Engagement & Accessibility Needs

events_audience@theatlantic.com

Speakers

Speaker Pitches

speakerpitches@theatlantic.com