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The Lavin Agency Speakers Bureau

A speakers bureau that represents the best original thinkers,
writers, and doers for speaking engagements.

Jordan Ellenberg

Math is the science of not being wrong. It touches everything we do.

New York Times bestselling author of Shape and How Not to Be Wrong

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Lavin Exclusive Speaker

How can you stop a pandemic from sweeping the world? Can ancient Greek proportions predict the stock market? And how do ChatGPT and other generative AI tools really work? New York Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong, JORDAN ELLENBERG draws on his recent bestseller Shape to show us how math touches everything we do—this time, zeroing in on the geometry behind the world’s most important scientific, political, and technological problems. He pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of our most powerful AI tools, showing us their strengths and limitations and how we can use them as partners at work. Much like how Freakonomics brought economics into popular discourse, Ellenberg’s work uses math to unveil the hidden beauty and logic of the world around us, and put its power into our hands.

“Like Lewis Carroll, George Gamow, and Martin Gardner before him, Jordan Ellenberg shows how mathematics can delight and stimulate the mind. But he also shows that mathematical thinking should be in the toolkit of every thoughtful person—of everyone who wants to avoid fallacies, superstitions, and other ways of being wrong.”— Steven Pinker

Math, as Jordan Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” Math helps every kind of thinker think better—it hones our intuition, sharpens our judgment, tames uncertainty, and lets us see the deeper structure and logic of our world.
The Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Ellenberg is the author of several books. His most recent, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything Else, combines his trademark intellectual curiosity and jargon-free language to transform a long-forgotten subject from our high school days into a powerful tool for measuring the world around us. His previous books include How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking—a beautifully written and refreshingly lucid mathematic exploration praised by the New York Times and Washington Post—and The Grasshopper King. Recently, he served as a consultant (and actor, briefly!) for the film Gifted, directed by Marc Webb, who cast Ellenberg for the role because, in his words: “he’s just a really charismatic teacher.”

Ellenberg has held an NSF-CAREER grant and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and in 2013 he was named one of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Mathematical Society. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Wired, The Believer, and the Boston Globe, and he is the author of the “Do the Math” column in Slate. His Wired feature story on compressed sensing appeared in the Best Writing on Mathematics 2011 anthology.

Testimonials

Jordan Ellenberg was great, funny, warm on stage, and he was very well received. Our clients and colleagues were all very happy with him and his presentation. Hoping to do this again with him very soon.

Drury Entertainment Group

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Speech Topics

ChatGPT and Generative AI

ChatGPT Isn’t MagicBehind the Scenes of Generative AI

With the sudden rise of ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies, many of us are asking what exactly generative AI is, and how we can use a technology that we don’t understand. But Jordan Ellenberg says these new AI technologies aren’t magic. They’re just a continuation of existing tech and math. We can understand what goes into generative AI, he says, and become better equipped to use it as a tool and a partner in every field.

In this engaging, accessible talk, Ellenberg draws on his instant New York Times bestseller Shape, in which he revealed the hidden geometry of everything around us (including AI and machine learning). He gives us a behind-the-scenes look at not only the inner workings of AI, but also its strengths and weaknesses. When we understand what machines do better than humans—and what humans do better than machines—we can use this technology to augment and not replace us, and turn it into a partner in our work, school, and everyday life. This talk is a must-listen for anyone interested in the vast potential of generative AI.

Creativity

How Not to Be WrongThe Power of Mathematical Thinking

The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In this talk, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how wrong this view is: Math touches everything we do, allowing us to see the hidden structures beneath the messy and chaotic surface of our daily lives. It’s a science of not being wrong, worked out through centuries of hard work and argument. Drawing from history as well as the latest theoretical developments, Ellenberg demonstrates that profound mathematical ideas are present whenever we reason, from the commonplace to the cosmic. And, he shows how to use this knowledge in our lives, whether you’re a business looking to discover the power of big data, a corporate audience out to improve logic and understanding within your organization, or a college crowd with an appetite for the latest research by one of America’s rising scholarly stars.