--- title: Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 9 description: Improving foreign policy w/transparency, disruption through design, getting policy from the people, climate change and gender, and more. canonical: https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T17:01:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:43:25.746Z article:section: Ideas og:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas og:description: Learn about: Disruptive design, improving policy through feedback loops, collective conversations on race, and more. og:url: https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are Today's Best Ideas twitter:description: Learn about: Disruptive design, improving policy through feedback loops, collective conversations on race, and more. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 9 > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 9, 2014 5:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Dec 9, 2014 5:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Foreign policy isn’t public relations. The value of releasing the torture report outweighs the risks.**](http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/the-senate-torture-report-and-foreign-policy/) By Daniel Larison in the American Conservative **2\.** [**Innovation in design — not technology — might be the key to disrupting industries.**](https://medium.com/@toddols/disruption-by-design-85f55c81f85e) By Todd Olson in Medium **3\.** [**The simple notion of community potlucks is working to rebuild the torn fabric of Ferguson.**](http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/12/07/369186951/the-way-forward-in-ferguson-is-talk-and-prayer-says-pastor) By Shereen Marisol Meraji at National Public Radio **4\.** [**A new poverty alleviation strategy is built on feedback and direction from the actual beneficiaries — putting people at the center of policy.**](http://www.realclearpolicy.com/blog/2014/12/08/putting%5Fthe%5Fpeople%5Fback%5Fin%5Fpolicy%5Fand%5Fpractice%5F1146.html) By Molly M. Scott in RealClearPolicy **5\.** [**Women are uniquely positioned to understand the impact of climate change around the world. They must have a seat at the table to set global policy.**](http://aspen.us/journal/editions/novemberdecember-2014/women-must-be-partners-and-drivers-climate-change-decision) By Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in the Aspen Journal of Ideas  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/"},"headline":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 9","datePublished":"2014-12-09T17:01:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:43:25.746Z","description":"Improving foreign policy w/transparency, disruption through design, getting policy from the people, climate change and gender, and more.","url":"https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/","keywords":["Innovation","women","Foreign Policy","climate change","Technology","poverty","policy","torture","Government","United Nations","United States","Community","CIA","Design","Ferguson"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3625463/five-best-ideas-of-the-day-december-9/","name":"Five Best Ideas of the Day: December 9"}}]}] ```