Five Best Ideas of the Day: October 22

1. Don’t conflate a cause with its celebrity.

By Kriss Dieglmeier at the Tides Foundation

2. Handwashing and Ebola: Understanding the power of a proven public health intervention.

By Hanna Woodburn in Ebola Deeply

3. President Obama has remade the federal courts by appointing more women and non-white judges than ever before. The impact will far outlast his administration.

By Jeffrey Toobin in the New Yorker

4. It’s vital that new pre-K initiatives are designed to build a high-quality foundation for learning.

By Beverly Falk in Hechinger Report

5. Trafficked workers — who often enter the country legally before being exploited — power many American cities.

By Tanvi Misra in Citylab

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C.