Book me in 2025!
Currently scheduling talks, podcast interviews, and guest blogging for 2025
One of the surprising things (for an academic, anyway) about getting started in popular writing is how much time I’m spending seeking out new audiences. Unlike academic audiences, popular audiences hide in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Moreover, radically moderate messaging has to fight against the currents of extremist algorithms and the 24/7 news cycle.
One way I reach new readers is via social media shares, but another important way is via public talks (in-person and on Zoom), podcast interviews, media visits, and guest blogging. In one way or another, I do quite a lot of public speaking and I’m pretty good at it (if I do say so myself).
My spring schedule is filling up a bit, but I still have some availability. Speaking fees (generally) only apply for speaking gigs requiring travel or significant prep work (at least for now).
I have a full speaking page on my website, but I’ll drop below a quick summary of a couple talks I’ve given recently. Really, though, anything on the Substack or in my recent writings is fair game. I play around a lot with themes of complexity, optimism, and tradeoffs, for example, so a talk on any one of those (or combo of those) would work. If there’s a post that resonated with you that you’d like to see in person, just reach out!
Recent Talks
Life in Four Dimensions
This one is an accessible talk on escaping binary thinking and employing radical moderation in our lives, our relationships, and our politics. It can be tailored to a variety of audiences and interests and has some fun autobiographical flair.
Universities as Neutral Cartographers
This talk is aimed more at academic audiences, exploring when and how universities go wrong. The goal of university research and education is not to achieve some kind of pre-defined outcome but instead to create accurate maps of our shared landscapes so we can all make better decisions - together.
Family, Moderation, and Civil Society
This one looks at how the family as an institution challenges ideological views of the world and moves us back to the moderate middle. It’s based off my 2014 book, but can be adapted for any audience.
What Elites Owe the Rest of Us
I’ve been thinking about this a lot more recently (go figure). This talk explores the dangers of binary thinking and how the media, universities, and political figures inadvertently or intentionally trigger binary and zero sum thinking. I end with a list of duties elites have and provide some resources and hopeful signs from people on the ground that we’re moving in the right direction.
Other Topics
I also have a number of scholarly talks that I give in areas relating to bioethics and healthcare regulations (often looking at maternity care or end of life care, but other areas as well), and a few other areas that you can see on my website with a more comprehensive list of past talks on my LinkedIn.
How You Can Help
Good news! There are lots of ways my readers can help spread the word about radical moderation.
Book me! If you’re at a university or run a podcast or have a community group looking for help navigating our crazy world I can tailor talks to a range of audiences and formats.
Share the blog with people you know who are looking for speakers. Even if you don’t need a speaker right now, chances are good that you know someone in your network who does. Please share!
Share my writing! Finally (and always), if you like what you read, let other people know about the work. This remains the number one way I find new readers.
As always, thanks for reading and if you haven’t already, subscribe and share! And while you’re here, leave a comment about a talk topic or future Substack post you’d like to see.
I'd love to hear you speak!