Wilson's magazine of choice for his excerpts; sponsor of his 2006 Aspen Ideas keynote — the path where Hare met him with Bill Joy; owned since 2017 by Emerson Collective
This is Jonathan Hare's account, with its provenance shown. The person or organization named has not yet claimed or corrected it.
In Jonathan Hare's account (S-181), The Atlantic was E. O. Wilson's magazine of choice for publishing excerpts from his books, and it sponsored his keynote at the first Aspen Institute Ideas Festival in 2006 — the festival Pam Alexander's pass put Hare inside, where he ran into Wilson on the Aspen Meadows path walking with Bill Joy, and where Wilson connected him to Jay Short and the Foundation. The public record, at web grade, sits beside that: the magazine ran Wilson's 'The Biological Basis of Morality' in April 1998, adapted from Consilience — the book that named this network; and the Aspen Ideas Festival, founded in 2005, is presented by the Aspen Institute with The Atlantic.
Founded in Boston in 1857 with Ralph Waldo Emerson among its founders — the reason Laurene Powell Jobs named her organization Emerson Collective. In 2017 Emerson took the majority stake and Powell Jobs became its chair. In February 2026 David Brooks joined its staff after twenty-two years as a New York Times columnist. Hare's point in asking for this page (S-181): the magazine is the one institution that connects the woman he parked next to at Stanford, the biologist who gave this network its name, and his favorite political commentator — three of the people he most wants this record to reach.
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The Atlantic sponsored Wilson's keynote. On the path afterward, walking with Bill Joy, Wilson told Hare the foundation they had discussed in 2000 now existed — and connected him to Jay Short. The technical advisory board, the Google summit and 'your wish is impossible' follow from that walk.
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A year ahead at Stanford GSB; a symphony series; a borrowed Ferrari that was Steve Jobs's. Now: Emerson Collective, The Atlantic, and a network the record wants to reach
Open →his excerpts; his 2006 keynoteThe commission, the foundation, and the name
Open →the path that led to itThe foundation agreed in 2000, real by 2006 — Hare chaired its technical advisory board, and its wish was the Encyclopedia of Life
Open →staff writer since 2026Twenty-two years a New York Times columnist; a staff writer at The Atlantic since February 2026; one link from Laurene Powell Jobs
Open →the Aspen passFriend and patron — who let a broke man live her life for a weekend at a time
Open →on the path"Bill knew."
Open →Everything above is a distillation. The primary source is published in full, so that any claim on this page can be walked back to what was actually said — and where the two differ, the source governs.
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