Leveraging Innovation to Revive the American Dream

Leveraging Innovation to Revive the American Dream

From DealBook Summit by The New York Times

December 8, 2025 · 1h 18m · Season 3 · Episode 16

About this episode

This episode discusses how universities and the private sector can collaborate to revive the American dream and foster economic growth.

Watch all of the day’s interviews. Prosperity today feels concentrated in a few places, leaving many Americans questioning whether the system still works for them. This panel asks how universities and the private sector can work together to address this critical issue. Can universities help restore faith in the American dream? Not just by educating leaders, but also by engaging with the private sector and generating the ideas, companies and industries that power national growth? We will seek to have a deeper understanding of how research universities can be engines of opportunity, creating ripple effects across health, technology and the economy, with examples of how innovation in one place can have lasting impact across the country and around the world. What examples of private-sector collaboration should we seek to replicate? Where does this relationship need strengthening? What support systems spur the best innovations, and build communities? And how can these innovative and entrepreneurial partnerships work to revive prosperity in sometimes overlooked parts of the country? Panelists: Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-chief executive of Warby Parker; Steve Case, co-founder of…

People in this episode

Host: Domenico Grasso

Guests: Neil Blumenthal, Steve Case, Kevin Plank, Carolina Pluszczynski, Shivani Siroya

Topics covered

  • innovation
  • American dream
  • private sector collaboration
  • universities
  • economic growth
  • opportunity
  • prosperity

Keywords

  • innovation
  • American dream
  • universities
  • private sector
  • economic growth
  • prosperity
  • collaboration
  • opportunity

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Warby Parker, AOL, Revolution, Under Armour, Michigan Central, Tala

Places: American, United States

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