Interviews, presentations, and panels from "Stories from the Near Future," the New Yorker Conference held on May 8-9, 2008: Michael Novogratz talks with Nick Paumgarten about the long-term effects of a shifting economy; Fareed Zakaria and David Remnick discuss democracy, modernity, and what it means to be a superpower; Peter Gelb talks with Alex Ross about the appeal of opera in modern culture; Sheila Nevins and Jeffrey Toobin discuss the art of documentary filmmaking; Scott Hemphill a[...]