“25 years ago I used to give out copies of Hello, He Lied, telling people it was the most practical business book I’d read (and still is!),” David says. “Someone suggested I get in touch with the author. I knew that there was no way one of the most successful producers in Hollywood history would sign up with a small agency in Toronto, but it only cost me a stamp so I sent along a letter. She called me. We talked. She signed with us.
“Simply put—Lynda was delightful! We were friends and colleagues for years. Just a few months ago she got on a Zoom call with the entire office to talk movies, life, business. Why did Interstellar take eleven years to get made? How did The Fisher King get made at all?
“The world sees her as a great producer. I see her as a remarkably generous person who will be missed by all who knew her.”
One of the most successful female producers in Hollywood history, Lynda was a trailblazer in every sense of the word. Her hit films include Sleepless in Seattle, Contact, Interstellar, and many more. Along with producer Debra Hill, she co-founded one of the first all-female production companies, Hill/Obst Prods, where they made Adventures in Babysitting and The Fisher King, which won Mercedes Ruehl an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Lynda was also the bestselling author of two books: Hello, He Lied and Sleepless in Hollywood.
CAA’s CEO Bryan Lourd told The Hollywood Reporter that Lynda’s “special sauce is this crazy intuitive intelligence and taste. She loved the audience as much as she loved the filmmakers and understood that the ultimate win was when you could tick both boxes in making something great with great people and creating an experience for the audience that was not only satisfying and entertaining but moving.”
Glen Powell (known for Top Gun: Maverick and Anyone But You) paid tribute to Lynda on social media, saying, “I interned for Lynda when I first moved to LA. A true trailblazer who never missed an opportunity to help me learn. I’d often get to drive her home from the office and witnessed someone who took in everything. To her, the entire world was a great story ripe for the making.”
Ranked one of North America’s top leadership speakers, Angela Duckworth helps us to identify and cultivate one of the most important factors in determining long-term success. What sets people up for lasting success? It’s not always IQ or effort. It’s grit: determination and perseverance towards achieving long-term goals. The Godmother of Grit and one of the most influential psychologists of the last decade, she shows us that grit is a trait we can learn and develop not only in ourselves, but in the people around us as well.
Inclusion Will Get You to the Stars
As the first Latina in space and first Hispanic Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Ellen Ochoa knows that diversity drives unique ways of thinking—but it isn’t enough to hire diverse candidates. People need to feel encouraged and emboldened to speak up and share their ideas, concerns, and experiences. When we create a culture that allows people to be themselves—great things happen.
Creativity is a Team Sport
The makeup of our teams has a profound effect on their output. This is why Greg Hoffman, the former CMO of Nike puts so much emphasis on creating and encouraging diverse teams. People with different skillsets, from different backgrounds, and different experiences, all have a unique way of thinking. Giving them the freedom to share ideas and make mistakes unleashes their creativity and drives unparalleled innovation.
People, Data, and Effective Decision Making
Google’s Chief Strategist Neil Hoyne shows us how, as leaders, we can lean into our teams for new ideas and how to consult the data to make better decisions for short and long-term success. Neil has worked with hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, spending over 9000 hours in boardrooms talking to the world’s most successful CEOs about how they make decisions, and his insights into data-based decision making are invaluable.
Developing Cultures of Growth
A leading voice in the psychology of growth mindsets and the bestselling author of Cultures of Growth, Mary C. Murphy shows us that our environments drastically shape our ability to grow and flourish. Sharing over a decade of research alongside Carol Dweck, Mary shows us the actions we can take at every aspect and level of leadership to give our employees the opportunity to succeed long-term.
Helping Your Teams Reach Their Potential
When we expect great things from our employees, they learn to expect great things from themselves. Danny Southwick is a professor and ex-NFL quarterback who shows us that by encouraging your employees to challenge themselves, you not only get more engaged and productive employees, but higher retention as well. His talks give you the tools and the strategies you need to develop a growth mindset in your team.
The Importance of Relying on Your Team
As the first female rookie to complete the Eco Challenge—the world’s hardest race—and a long time executive, Yvonne Camus knows that in order to be successful, we need to rely on, and put our trust in, the people around us. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but when we lean into and encourage people’s strengths, we can accomplish more than we could have imagined possible.
Unlocking the Value of Mentorship
We all interact with people every day who excel at things that we wish we did better. It’s vital to not only recognize this, but to seek it out. At 19, Manjit Minhas took her savings and founded what is now one of the world’s largest Breweries. She knows that good mentorship is key to getting ahead—and now, as a venture capitalist in countless other startups, she is mentoring the next generation of business leaders.
Changing Behavior for Good
Making change as a leader is hard. Fortunately, there is a science backed way to make it happen. Katy Milkman is a behavioral economist and bestselling author of How to Change. She will give you the tools you need to influence behavior for the better and to make lasting, effective change.
The New Science of Motivation
Feedback is a critical aspect of leadership. It can either lead to success, or it can have detrimental effects. David Yeager, bestselling author of 10 to 25 and one of the top 0.1% cited psychologists, shows us how—with high standards and high support—we can effectively communicate with our colleagues and provide feedback in ways that motivate and inspire them.
Indivisible Leadership
Diversity is hard, and there are real barriers to inclusivity that make allyship difficult. Denise Hamilton consults for numerous Fortune 500 companies and shows us how we can manage those challenges. She shows how simple strategies like “humble curiosity” can make room for different perspectives and effective communication. Her ethos? Small consistent contributions will make us indivisible.
How Does AI Help You Lead?
Leaders have a lot of responsibilities and, more often than not, not enough time in the day to get to them all. Justin Reilly has the solution to this problem, and it’s automation. Understanding your business means understanding what can and can’t be automated, and Justin will show you how you can implement AI to help manage your day to day—giving you more time to spend on higher level thinking and leading your team to success.
What is Leadership?
The world’s top leaders are using the new science of leadership to remain competitive in today’s ever-evolving business landscape. New age leaders go beyond managing tasks; they unlock creativity, foster innovation, build relationships, and empower others to reach their full potential. The top leadership speakers know that leadership is not just a role, but a dynamic process of continuous learning and development that shapes the future of organizations and societies.
What can Leadership do for your business?
Incorporating strong leadership into your business strategy can transform how you operate, compete, and succeed in today’s dynamic market. Effective leadership offers numerous benefits, from fostering a motivated and engaged workforce to driving innovation and facilitating change management. Leaders who inspire and empower their teams can enhance productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and create a culture of continuous growth. Our leadership speakers can help by developing leadership skills within your organization, you can open new avenues for growth, creativity, and competitive advantage, ultimately making your business more agile and resilient in a constantly evolving world.
Why book a Leadership speaker?
Booking a leadership speaker is a strategic move towards improving the leadership capabilities within your organization. Our top leadership speakers are not only experts in their fields, but visionaries who can simplify complex leadership concepts and present them in engaging and easily actionable ways. They provide valuable insights into the latest trends, effective strategies, and best practices, inspiring your team to think creatively and lead effectively. Our roster of leadership speakers includes renowned executives, industry pioneers, and thought leaders who offer cutting edge insights into new age leadership and provide you with the tools and skills needed to navigate and thrive in the new age of business. We are proud to represent these top dynamic and compelling leadership speakers, who can position your organization at the forefront of leadership excellence. Contact us today to bring one of them to your event!
Use the Mentor Mindset to Motivate Your Younger Employees
As Gen Z enters the workforce, many managers are struggling to motivate these younger workers. A new science-backed approach can help. Psychologist David Yeager, author of the forthcoming book 10 to 25, suggests adopting what he calls “the mentor mindset,” holding young employees to high standards while offering high support—instead of the “enforcer mindset” (high standards but low support) or “protector mindset” (high support but low standards). For instance, try asking questions instead of giving instructions, and watch their initiative and motivation soar.
Inclusion Is Big. Focus on the Five Feet Around You
“When we make the challenges seem so big and so monstrous, it stops us from doing the very necessary work we can do right here.”
– Denise Hamilton
Fostering a truly inclusive environment can seem like an insurmountable task—but all you need to do is focus on the five-foot radius around you, says Denise Hamilton. An inclusion consultant sought after by Fortune 500 companies like Amazon and the United Nations, she says that small gestures can build a culture where everyone can thrive. “I don’t need you to do the big things,” she says. “I need you to invite someone to lunch who doesn’t look like you. When we make the challenges seem so big and so monstrous, it stops us from doing the very necessary work we can do right here.”
Lean Into Your Workplace Discomfort
Most of us spend more time interacting with our colleagues than we do with our relationship partners—but we don’t actually learn effective strategies for building healthy workplace relationships. That’s why we’re so uncomfortable with conflict, especially when it arises from class, race, or cultural differences. But Tessa West, NYU professor of psychology and author of Job Therapy, argues that we should actually lean into the discomfort—when we learn how to give honest feedback and manage conflict early and often, we’ll unlock the full potential of our diverse teams.
Radhika is one of the world’s foremost voices on the human implications of AI—what this technology means for us, and how we can turn it to our advantage. In powerfully hopeful talks, she illuminates the limitless possibilities of generative AI in every field, then breaks down the strategy and tactics that every business leader needs to gain an edge in the AI future.
Every moonshot needs stepping-stones, Radhika says—you don’t get to Mars in one leap. You have to try different paths and pick up expertise in different fields, which can be an expensive and time-consuming process. But with generative AI, which draws from diverse sources of information across the internet, you can achieve these stepping-stones almost for free. “What used to take billions of dollars now takes thousands of dollars, or even hundreds,” Radhika says. “And most people don’t realize that. They’re still looking at what productivity tools they can use. But generative AI is so much bigger than that.”
Radhika draws on her wealth of experience in AI (from fintech to healthcare to data management) to show you and your organization how to navigate this new landscape of possibility. She’s worked in tiny startups and massive corporations, which makes her uniquely positioned to offer tailored solutions for any organization. Incorporating AI isn’t one-size-fits-all, Radhika says. But with her experience, she can help your organization develop a plan and take advantage of the opportunities of today (and tomorrow).
Who is Radhika?
This visionary AI innovation speaker has been a vital part of the conversation around AI since 2014, when her AI program predicted the rise of ISIS before The New York Times even coined the term. She’s been named to Forbes‘s 30 Women in AI to Watch and Deloitte’s top women in the AI world. She co-founded XLabs, the world’s first AI moonshot factory, where her technology found potential cures for 11 cancers within its first 1.5 years.
She was also a founding member of Shell’s $1.5B venture capital group and was COO of Rotary Gallop, a game theory-based fintech firm. Her work on quantum computing and Artificial Intelligence has been cited hundreds of times, and she’s been featured everywhere from Fast Company to the BBC.
How do I learn more about Radhika?
Interested in learning more about this top AI innovation speaker? Get in touch with us at our Contact Us page, read more about Radhika and our other top AI speakers, or watch a short video about how generative AI is changing the core of who we are as humans:
Artificial Intelligence is already playing a powerful role in our everyday lives—from the AI voice assistants like Alexa and Siri that we use every day, to the generative AI tools like ChatGPT that are already revolutionizing everything about our workplaces, homes, and even our identity. But despite that, we often think of AI as abstract and opaque.
Kate has been at the cutting edge of AI research for two decades and is uniquely positioned to help us understand what goes into the technology we use every day, what’s at stake if we don’t take control of it today, and how to forge a path towards a better future.
“We urgently need more forensic investigation that will reveal the fuller picture of how AI is designed, and the longer implications of these technical infrastructures,” Kate says. “Because the AI tools that we use today have profound implications for how we’re terraforming ourselves, our culture, and the Earth itself.”
In her smart yet accessible talks, Kate shows us how AI is “made” in the fullest sense: from data, human labor, and environmental resources. She draws from her 20 years of AI research around the world, as well as her journeys to field sites—from lithium mines to Amazon warehouses to Jeff Bezos’ rocket base. She reveals how AI is amplifying discrimination and inequality, and offers paths forward for research and policy that address the political, social, and economic effects of AI.
Who is Kate?
This top AI ethics speaker is a professor at USC Annenberg, a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in New York, and the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Her wide experience from two decades at the cutting edge of tech has made her one of the world’s leading AI researchers.
She’s the author of the award-winning Atlas of AI, a unique and grounded behind-the-scenes look at the complex topic of artificial intelligence. It was named to The Wall Street Journal‘s Five Best Books to Read to Get Smart About AI, and Nature called it “meticulously researched and superbly written.” She has also created award-winning collaborative projects with major artists around the world, like her “Anatomy of an AI System” with Vladan Joler and her viral app ImageNet Roulette with Trevor Paglen.
How do I learn more about Kate?
Interested in learning more about this top AI ethics speaker? Get in touch with us at our Contact Us page, read more about Kate and our other top AI speakers, or watch an exclusive Lavin video about why rethinking the “infrastructure of AI” is so important:
Now that generative AI can write and draw—and do so many other tasks—as well as any human, what opportunities present themselves? What hazards need to be addressed? What parts of your work can be outsourced to Artificial Intelligence, and is that necessarily bad? And do creativity and the “human factor” matter even more in the face of increasing automation?
Nick Thompson has the answers. There’s no one more qualified than him to help you understand not only what generative AI is, but also how it affects you—and what’s next. “We’re driving 160 miles an hour with this technology and trying to make ethical decisions—which is a lot harder than when you’re driving 20 miles an hour—but they’re not going to slow down because of all of the money and power that’s at stake right now,” Nick tells Lavin.
In vital and inspiring talks, he maps out where we’re going for the next weeks, months, and years, showing us what we can be doing today to gain an edge, and how to make sense of the changes that are already underway.
Who is Nick?
Nick’s years of experience covering tech make him a leading analytical voice in the field, where he uncovers how each new development will impact us all. As CEO of The Atlantic, he’s led the team to National Magazine Award wins for unprecedented coverage of the Covid-19 Pandemic, new perspectives on 9/11, the case to return the national parks to Native American tribes, and more. Previously, as editor-in-chief of WIRED, he broke massive stories about Facebook’s hidden flaws, cyber-warfare, the Robert Mueller investigation, and numerous other topics, and oversaw work that won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and has even led to Oscar-winning films. He’s also one of the top influencers on LinkedIn, where he has 1.7 million followers and posts a video every day about the most interesting thing in tech.
How do I learn more about Nick?
Interested in learning more about this top AI business speaker? Get in touch with us at our Contact Us page, read more about Nick and our other top AI speakers, or watch an exclusive Lavin video about incorporating ChatGPT into your company:
Jamil Zaki is one of the brightest lights in psychology. He shows that kindness is not a sign of weakness but a source of strength.”Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
Empathy is the greatest tool for leaders who want to encourage teamwork, well-being, and innovation in their organizations. There are even different kinds of empathy that we can use strategically to achieve different goals. “For instance, diversity and inclusion training is more effective if it’s coupled with training in cognitive empathy: trying to step into the perspective of someone who is different from yourself,” says Jamil Zaki, author of The War for Kindness and a top mental health speaker. But how do you actually implement it in the day-to-day?
Good news, says Jamil: empathy is a skill that anyone can learn and strengthen. And when we develop this skill in ourselves and our cultures, we’ll build workplaces where employees and leaders are not only happier, but also more innovative and effective.
In practical talks, Jamil offers research-backed strategies for leaders to strengthen their empathy. He speaks without blame—one of the most compelling aspects of empathy, he says, is that it allows you to engage in meaningful conversations about inclusion without feeling like you have to wade through a “muddy river of guilt” first. He demonstrates how you can put different kinds of empathy into practice, using tools like “precision listening” to ensure people from all backgrounds and perspectives feel seen, heard, and understood.
The Identity Trap brings vital context to some of the most fraught and divisive debates of our time.Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard’s Alphonse Fletcher University Professor
“Group identities will always be a part of a diverse democracy. That’s perfectly fine and perfectly healthy,” Yascha tells Lavin. But when we start to see those identities as the only thing that defines us—that’s when we fall into what the Johns Hopkins professor calls “the identity trap.” When we’re in this trap, we wall ourselves off in our own echo chambers, convincing ourselves that politics is an “us vs. them” game, and we lose our ability to meet in the middle and make progress together.
But there is a way out. In his urgent and timely new book, The Identity Trap, Yascha “proposes an alternative to the ceaseless combat between ‘woke’ and ‘anti-woke’ extremes—one that takes seriously the enduring malignant legacy of systemic discrimination yet correctly identifies that universal values, not group solidarity, offer the surest path to justice, fairness, and enduring social peace” (New York Times columnist David French).
In compelling talks, Yascha shows us how to get out of the identity trap and come together for a future where we aren’t defined solely by the groups we’re in, but rather by the tastes and quirks that truly make us unique. He offers strategies for promoting healthy discussion without falling into extremism on either end—for example, “engage the reasonable middle rather than the loud extremes”—and shares practical takeaways that can help us move forward together.
“To build a better society, we must overcome the prejudices and enmities that have for so much of human history boxed us into the roles seemingly foreordained by our gender, our sexual orientation, or the color of our skin,” Yascha says. “We should keep striving for a society in which categories like race, gender, and sexual orientation matter a lot less than they do now because what each of us can accomplish—and how we all treat each other—no longer depends on the groups into which we were born.”
Extreme conspiracies taken as fact. Uncannily lifelike AI-generated content. A democracy so divided it’s impossible to know who we can trust. How do we find our way back from a landscape rife with doubles and confusion?
Naomi Klein knows how. A legendary activist and critic described as “one of the few revolutionary public intellectuals of great integrity and vision” (Cornel West), Naomi examines this Mirror World in her new book, Doppelganger. She begins by discussing her own doppelganger, Naomi Wolf—author of The Beauty Myth and once a liberal feminist icon, now turned “an industrial-scale disseminator of vaccine-related medical misinformation”—and what being confused for the “Other Naomi” did to her sense of self. She then turns to the other doubles and sources of disorientation that we’re all experiencing, offering us not only a look at how we got here, but also a way to get ourselves out.
In empathetic talks, Naomi shows us how we can navigate the overlapping crises that have “taken humanity somewhere we have not been before, a place close but different—everything so familiar and yet more than a little off.” Author Judith Butler says that Naomi “moves her reader toward the truer grounds of solidarity in these times, letting ourselves be upended by what we thought we could not bear to see so that we can face and build an affirmative future.”
“Our world has changed but, as if we’re having a collective case of jet lag, most of us are still attuned to the rhythms and habits of the place and selves we left behind,” Naomi says. “It’s past time to find our bearings.”
Watch Naomi explain how to escape the Mirror World and get back to what really matters:
How do you boost motivation, persevere longer, and become a better performer? The answer is simple, says Kristin Neff: be kind to yourself. The UT Austin professor, who pioneered the field of self-compassion, shares simple and actionable strategies from her bestselling books to help you harness this superpower. Her science-based guidance shows you how to bolster resilience and transform how you work and live. Watch Kristin’s TEDx talk on self-esteem and self-compassion.
The Skill of “Deep Curiosity” Is Your Key to Connection and Creativity
“Deep curiosity” is our compass to navigating differences, sidestepping negative behaviors, and controlling anxiety, says Scott Shigeoka. Drawing from his research at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and his eagerly awaited book Seek, Scott shows us how to practice transformative curiosity and develop better workplace teams and personal relationships. When we harness the power of curiosity, we can bridge the disparities we encounter and foster a more inclusive world.
Leading Others Starts with Leading—and Talking to—Yourself
The voice inside your head can be your worst critic—but it can also be your best coach, says Ethan Kross, bestselling author of Chatter and University of Michigan professor. In talks, the award-winning psychologist reveals practical steps to becoming your own coach, taking control of the conversations you have with yourself, boosting motivation, overcoming impostor syndrome, and gaining an edge.
Anxiety is uncomfortable. But it’s also a vital tool that helps us plan for a hopeful future, says psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary, author of Future Tense. Through a new framework for anxiety, real-world examples, and groundbreaking research, Tracy helps us see anxiety (which is just a natural response to uncertainty!) as a tool we can leverage rather than be overwhelmed by—sparking boundless change. Watch Tracy break down the three steps to using anxiety to your advantage.
The Four Pillars of Meaning Can Help You Find Purpose
Finding our purpose can be transformative, and Emily Esfahani Smith is on a mission to show us how. Drawing from her book The Power of Meaning, she reveals the “four pillars” that can help you develop motivation and grace. In her inspiring talks (like her popular TED Talk with over 5M views!), she offers actionable strategies that help you find meaning in your day-to-day and thrive at work and beyond.
In the Story of Your Life, Are You a Side Character—or the Hero?
Don’t let your story be told for you—take control of it, says Lori Gottlieb. The instant New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and renowned psychotherapist, Lori offers a unique perspective on how we navigate our mental health. If the story you’re telling about your life, your relationships, or your purpose is keeping you stuck—then it’s time for a change. Watch Lori’s TED Talk on how changing your story can change your life.
Happiness, or Success? Good News: You Don’t Have to Choose
You don’t have to sacrifice your happiness when chasing success, says Dan Lerner. In fact, putting your well-being first helps you do better at work and in life. Dan is a positive psychologist and creator of NYU’s most popular elective, “The Science of Happiness.” His electric talks spark real change in how we see the world, proving that we must prioritize our well-being to unlock our full potential.
Music Isn’t Just Art. It’s a Tool for Hope and Healing
Music is medicine, says Vijay Gupta—it’s a powerful tool for human well-being. A MacArthur Genius and TED mainstager, Vijay is the founder of Street Symphony, an organization bringing music and art to America’s most disadvantaged communities. “A riveting speaker” (The New Yorker), Vijay shows us the creative ways to revitalize our sense of hope and belonging even in the face of inequality. Watch Vijay’s TED Talk on how music can spark hope and change the world.
David Eagleman has been called “the kind of guy who really does make being a neuroscientist look like fun” by The New York Times. He’s a popular TED mainstage speaker. He’s been profiled in the New Yorker. He hosted the Emmy-nominated PBS series The Brain. And he’s the national bestselling author of several books, including Incognito and, most recently, Livewired, a look at brain plasticity that Kirkus called “outstanding popular science.” In talks, David offers unique and accessible insights into everything from neuroscience and creativity, to our future in an AI-dominated world, and beyond.
In Inner Cosmos, David employs captivating storytelling, meticulous research, dynamic interviews, and exciting experiments—helping us understand ourselves, and others, better.
Among many topics, he answers the questions:
Is AI truly intelligent? And is it intelligent in the same way humans are? Traditional intelligence tests are ineffective, so David proposes a new test to help us better answer this question.
Will writers, artists, and musicians find themselves replaced by AI? (Hint: they won’t!) What are the new capabilities and opportunities emerging instead?
How does your brain decide what to buy? How is your decision-making influenced by price, emotions, or your friends? (Turns out, all three play a huge part!)
This podcast is more than just a reflection of David’s expertise—it’s a testament to his exceptional ability to narrate the wonders of the human brain.
If you’ve ever complained about not having enough hours in the day, Cassie Holmes has good news for you: you already have all the time you need. You just need to rethink what you’re investing it in.
Cassie’s bestseller Happier Hour, which was named to Amazon’s Top 20 Business Books of the Year, is a research-backed guide to building a schedule that is both full and fulfilling. It’s a much-needed antidote to the over-filled schedules that many of us face. We don’t have to sacrifice our wellbeing for productivity, Cassie says—we can actually have both, if we use our time well.
In talks, Cassie draws on her book to give you scientific strategies for making the most out of your time. She’ll show you how to make the time you spend on chores or commuting actually enjoyable, how to “time craft” your schedule around the things that really matter, how to use a “purpose filter” to identify what’s most important, and much more. Her insights are vital—both for individuals looking to become more productive and find purpose, and for leaders who want to get the best out of the people they lead.
“My research has revealed that happiness has agency,” Cassie says. “Happiness is a choice. Every hour of every day.”
Everyone feels stuck, whether you’re wrestling through a difficult project or trying to mend a friendship. “People believe that stuckness is inevitable,” says Adam Alter. “And it is—but it turns out to be surmountable.” A New York Times bestselling author and TED mainstage speaker, Adam has spent the past two decades learning how to overcome the forces that keep us stuck, escape our inertia, unleash our full creative potential, and reach our long-term goals.
Adam’s highly anticipated new book Anatomy of a Breakthrough is already winning critical raves and media attention. “I loved it,” says Malcolm Gladwell. In the book, the NYU marketing professor weaves together scientific studies and practical strategies to show how we can flourish in the face of friction. Along the way, he draws lessons from the soccer player who sacrifices the first few minutes of a game in order to win the rest, the “black sheep” method that Pixar uses to boost the innovation of an entire team, the “real-life Dr. House” whose checklists bring him 75% of the way to a breakthrough, and much more.
“Getting stuck and searching for breakthroughs feels messy and unpredictable,” Adam tells Lavin. “But just like building a house or putting together a jigsaw puzzle, there’s a series of steps that together enable you to manufacture breakthroughs and to shrink periods of friction. Anatomy of a Breakthrough is that roadmap.”
Read about Adam’s book in The New York Times: “A wonderful concept. Anatomy of a Breakthrough tackles the internal factors that keep you mired in the mud [and] provides a primer on changing ingrained habits.”
Listen to Adam on Harvard Business Review‘s IdeaCast: “Small bursts of action, even if they’re not themselves directly productive, are great unsticking mechanisms. Just the act of acting itself is one of the best unstickers.”
And watch an exclusive Lavin interview with Adam where he explains how ChatGPT can serve as an “agent of chaos” and help you unlock your best ideas:
“Ethan Kross isn’t just a world-renowned scientist, he’s an expert storyteller too. Chatter is the groundbreaking and transformative book the world needs now.” — Susan Cain, New York Times bestselling author of Quiet
We spend up to half our waking hours talking to ourselves. Our inner voice can be unhelpful or downright cruel, but it can also help us work through difficult problems and tap into high performance and innovation at work. Ethan Kross—an award-winning psychologist and University of Michigan professor—calls our inner voice “the Swiss Army knife of the mind,” and shows us how to make it work for us rather than against us. When you turn your inner voice from a critic into a coach, he says, you can avoid burnout and anxiety, and lead yourself (and others) better.
Drawing on his bestselling book Chatter, which grit pioneer Angela Duckworth calls “a masterpiece” and “required reading for all,” Ethan gives you the tools you need to boost motivation and hone your mental fitness. He explains the “2 a.m. chatter strategy” that he’s already taught to executives across the country, and reveals the secrets to breakthrough creativity that everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Microsoft is talking about. (For example, giving yourself a pep talk using your own name is an incredible performance tool!) His surprisingly simple and incredibly practical tools have widespread appeal for leaders and employees at every level.
“Getting lost in negative thought loops is one of the big problems we face as a species,” Ethan tells Lavin. “The good news is that science reveals countless tools that allow us to not just manage chatter, but transform it into an asset rather than a liability.”
“Just as Eat Pray Love and Wild inspired millions, this book will send countless readers on a different — yet no less life-changing or profound — pilgrimage, as it did for me.”— Samin Nosrat, New York Times bestselling author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
Laurel is a New York Times bestselling author and two-time TED speaker, as well as the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine. She helps doctors and medical students tap into the power of storytelling, and proves that telling our own stories can help us communicate better, work through negative emotions, and build community—for healthcare workers, and for everyone else.
In her new book, What Looks Like Bravery, Laurel tells her own story of overcoming loss and learning how to live meaningfully. Laurel’s father was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was three years old. She spent her childhood learning the skills she’d need to survive without him, and inherited his conviction that denying pain is a sign of bravery. But at 36 years old, she realized she needed to stop running from her own negative feelings and finally work through the loss she endured as a child. In her memoir, she takes us on her journey of learning how to navigate change and become more resilient in the process.
In talks, Laurel shows you how to transform loss—both personal and institutional—into opportunities for growth. Whether you’re an executive looking for a path forward through instability, or an educator helping students learn how to deal with change, Laurel’s powerful story and unique perspective will help you not only survive but benefit from the disruption you’re facing. Her talks are a must-listen for anyone wondering how to move forward, develop resilience, and adapt to our new, transformed world.
Watch Laurel’s TED Talk on how telling our own stories can bring us together and improve our mental health:
Listen to Heather talk about how racism doesn’t only affect people of color—but impacts everyone. If we can come together across lines of race, we can make a positive impact on society. Heather is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us. She offers us an actionable roadmap during one of the most critical—and most troubled—periods in history.
Listen to Nita discuss the growing use of AI and neurotechnology in criminal justice and how technology could have the potential to help us transform our justice system to better serve the people it is meant to protect. Nita is the author of the newly released The Battle For Your Brain, she offers us a much-needed map to navigate today’s fast-changing technological landscape.
John Maeda talks about how Large Language Model AIs like ChatGPT are providing new hazards and opportunities for the next wave of tech products and services. John is the Microsoft VP of Design and Artificial Intelligence. He champions the necessary role that artists and designers play in the new creative economy.
Michael Casey talks about how new technologies like AI and VR are changing events and our interactions with one another. They offer new experiences and help us to engage in different ways. Michael is the Chief Content Officer of CoinDesk, an award-winning crypto media outlet. He helps leaders prepare for the coming golden age of creativity and collaborative problem-solving.
Douglas Rushkoff shared his insights on how tech elites are shaping the world in their image—and how, with collective human action, we can still fight for a society we want to live in. He is the bestselling author of Survival of The Richest, and was named one of the world’s 10 most influential thinkers by MIT.
The first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize for History, Annette Gordon-Reed played a crucial role in helping Juneteenth gain national recognition. Drawing on her acclaimed book On Juneteenth, she shows us how the legacy of this holiday continues to influence us and our fight for racial justice today, and how we can keep striving for progress together.
“Black Americans have always been foundational to the idea of American freedom,” says Nikole Hannah-Jones. She’s the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project, the hit anthology that became a #1 New York Times bestselling book and Hulu docuseries. She offers us not only a fuller understanding of our history, but also the tools to make real change today.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, award-winning author of The Condemnation of Blackness, says that Juneteenth reminds us that we all have a role to play in challenging oppression. “Juneteenth gives us a chance to look at the twin legacies of slavery and freedom, side by side,” he says, “and helps us to reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we still must go.”
Jelani Cobb has spent his whole career investigating inequality and how the past continues to affect us today. As the Dean of Columbia Journalism School, a New Yorker staff writer, and co-editor of that magazine’s anthology The Matter of Black Lives, Jelani shows us why Juneteenth still matters today, and how we can learn from history to create a better future.
Although freedom was promised to the enslaved Black people over a century ago, Michelle Coles says that Black Americans continue to be “left out of that full promise.” Michelle is the award-winning YA author of Black Was the Ink, as well as a former Department of Justice civil rights attorney. She shows us how we can make the promised freedom a reality for everyone.
Nita is the director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. She’s one of the world’s most essential and trusted voices on the rise of these technologies—she even spoke about “cognitive liberty” (the right to freedom of thought) at the recent New York Times DealBook Summit, alongside leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Volodymyr Zelensky.
A device that tracks your brainwaves can have immense advantages, Nita says. For leaders, it can signal when stress levels are high in the workplace and help you keep morale up; and for workers, it can make you more productive so you have more time for the things that really matter. But we’re at a pivotal moment for these emerging technologies. We need to act today to make sure that we can still maintain our right to freedom of thought and self-determination. “Now is the time,” Nita tells Lavin. “Neurotechnology can transform our lives. I don’t want us to run from it. I want us to figure out a way where the narrative we’re telling five years from now is not surveillance capitalism, but that that was a path we could have gone down—and we chose the other way.”
In this exclusive Lavin video, watch Nita explain how neurotech can boost workplace morale and productivity.
George M. Johnson says true freedom comes from imagination. As the New York Times bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue, their memoir of growing up Black and queer, as well as one of the 2022 TIME100 Next, George shows us how our imagination helps us resist oppression and fight for a hopeful future. “As long as I can continue to imagine a future greater than this one,” George says, “you can’t take my joy from me.”
Gabby Rivera is a queer writer on a mission to create the wildest, most fun stories ever. With her solo comic series about America Chavez, a queer Latina superhero, Gabby became the first Latina ever to write for Marvel Comics. Her story of embracing her identity inspires us to transform our differences into sources of strength, resilience, and joy.
James Kirchick is the instant New York Times bestselling author of Secret City, a sweeping history of the gay powerbrokers and politicians in 20th century Washington, D.C. James tells the story of the unsung heroes who fought tirelessly to create a world where no one has to hide, and shows that it’s in our power as ordinary citizens to make real social change.
Award-winning toy designer Cas Holman uses her queer identity to design outside the mainstream. She shows how valuing our different perspectives makes us more creative and curious, and encourages LGBTQ people to lean into their difference. “Your perspective as an outsider is an asset,” she says. “Be confident in the value of the creative work you’ve done just to be who you are.”
You can reduce prejudice with a single conversation. Dave Fleischer can show you how. He’s the pioneer behind “deep canvassing,” an empirically proven method where one 10-minute conversation reduces prejudice in a long-lasting way. He’s used it to help voters become more accepting of gay and trans people, and he can show you how to change minds, wherever you are.
Psychological safety is the often-overlooked element that allows groups to take advantage of their diversity. But how do we actually implement it in our organizations?
“Powerful ideas, generously shared. Simple, actionable, and urgent. This book is a must-read for anyone who cares enough to lead.” — Seth Godin, bestselling author of This Is Marketing
Minette Norman has the answers. Minette joined the male-dominated tech industry as a liberal arts major with no STEM background, and rose through the ranks to become Autodesk’s former VP of Engineering Practice, leading 3500 software professionals with empathy and compassion. Now, she’s condensed the lessons she learned from decades of leadership to create The Psychological Safety Playbook, along with co-author Karolin Helbig. “The world of work could be so much better for everybody,” Minette says. “But that’s only possible if people feel safe to speak up and to be themselves.”
The Psychological Safety Playbook is a simple, practical guide to the how of psychological safety. Designed to bridge the gap between research and practice, the playbook offers 25 specific tools—from normalizing failure to committing to curiosity—that you can use to lead in your work and everyday life. In talks, Minette draws from her book to give you actionable, tried-and-true strategies for becoming a better leader and building more successful teams.
Heather McGhee says that racism is profoundly damaging for us all, not only for people of color — which means that when we tackle inequality, we create a better future for everyone. In The Sum of Us, she laid out the devastating costs of inequality and charted a hopeful path towards a better future. She continued her work with her The Sum of Us podcast — produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground — in which she travelled America, uncovering stories of everyday people coming together across division to make tangible change in their communities.
Now, she’s bringing her message of solidarity to a new audience — the thinkers, activists, and leaders of tomorrow — with The Sum of Us: Adapted for Young Readers, now on shelves. This accessible book, based on her New York Times bestseller, challenges young readers to fight against inequality and dream of a world in which we can all thrive together. Condensed and equally brilliant, the Young Readers version empowers a new generation of leaders to find strength and hope in each other.
Ellen Ochoa made history as the first Latina in space—but she didn’t stop there. Instead, she became the first Hispanic director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where she transformed its company culture to welcome diverse voices like her own. Today, she uses her story to encourage young women and Latinx people to make change and reach for the stars.
Isabel Allende is a feminist icon and the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author. Her books, including The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna, have sold over 70 million copies in more than 40 languages. Her talks and advocacy work are a testament to her powerful story, through which she inspires young people to follow their passion and speak out for a better world.
We tend to think of empathy as an innate trait, but Jamil Zaki says it’s actually a skill that can be learned—and when we practice it, we become not only kinder, but also more creative and successful. As Director of the Stanford Neuroscience Lab, Jamil draws on his research to show how the Hispanic community can use empathy to build bridges and fight for true diversity.
Ellen Bennett was a 24-year-old line cook when she took her savings and started her own apron brand—which became the largest gourmet apron manufacturer in the world. Now a multi-million dollar brand, it’s beloved by the likes of Martha Stewart and has been featured in Forbes. This half-Mexican powerhouse inspires young Hispanic people to dream big.
Gabby Rivera has spent her life telling stories that celebrate queer Latinx joy. She’s the first Latina ever to write for Marvel Comics. She penned the solo series AMERICA about the superhero America Chavez: a queer Latina like herself. Through her wildly fun and dynamic projects, Gabby encourages us all to embrace our differences and tell our own unique, joyful stories.
Andrea Elliott is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Invisible Child, her decade-in-the-making masterpiece on inequality in America. Drawing on her book, a sweeping saga that follows a girl named Dasani growing up in a Brooklyn homeless shelter, Andrea reveals how we can work together to build a kinder and more just world for every child.
Molly Crabapple fights injustice with beauty. She uses her Emmy-nominated, award-winning artwork to illuminate the issues we face today, and the hopeful future we can have if we take action. She shows us how to make change by using art to shift the narratives we tell about marginalized communities, and how to use our creativity to find both joy and solidarity.
As the school year winds down, it’s the perfect time to start thinking about your events for the Fall 2023 semester. Lavin’s speakers explore topics that matter to college audiences—from pop culture to inclusion to working through your climate anxiety—and inspire people of all ages to think more deeply. Drawing on their unique expertise, our speakers make the most crucial topics of today accessible to everyone, sparking conversation and helping us look at these ideas in a new way. Â
Kwame Anthony Appiah challenges us to look beyond the boundaries that divide us, and find a common ethical ground in a world of division. Drawing on his work as The Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine, he shows us how to develop a new morality that celebrates our common humanity while still embracing our differences and diverse identities.
Chuck Klosterman is our most insightful and hilarious guide to culture—pop culture. He’s investigating the biggest pop culture phenomena of our time, showing how pop culture is actually a conversation that anyone can engage in. In his instant New York Times bestselling books and brilliant talks, Chuck both entertains and informs audiences on our unique cultural moment.Â
Britt Wray knows that our anxieties around climate change have never been more overwhelming—but she argues that they’re also the key to saving the planet. In her talks, Britt draws on her scientific research and her book Generation Dread to show us how we can work through our emotions to find purpose, avoid burnout, and fight for a more sustainable future.
Heather McGhee says that racism is profoundly damaging for us all, not only for people of color — which means that when we tackle inequality, we create a better future for everyone. Drawing on her New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us, plus her Young Readers edition and crucial podcast, she charts a hopeful path towards a better future and challenges us to fight for justice.
Steven Pinker is one of the world’s foremost thinkers, acclaimed by the likes of TIME and Bill Gates. In his latest book Rationality, he rejects the idea that humans are inherently irrational. We all possess reason, he says, which is why the world is actually getting better, not worse. He shows how we can leverage this rationality to find hope and continue creating a better future.
Megan Phelps-Roper was raised within the infamously intolerant Westboro Baptist Church. But she left when she realized another world was possible: one where empathy overcomes hate. In talks, she draws on her book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church to show how we can bridge divides and expand our worldviews through compassion.
Anthony Jack says that getting into college is only half the battle. Once students enter college, we need to make sure that they have the support and inclusion they need to really succeed. A Harvard professor and author of The Privileged Poor, Anthony shows how we can break down the barriers to success on campus and make sure everyone has the same chance to thrive.Â
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz says that for life’s biggest questions, we can’t trust our often-flawed instinct. When we look at the data instead, we can make better decisions—and even get happier. Seth is a New York Times bestselling author and former Google data scientist. He shows us how developing a data-driven mindset can help us use all the information we have at our fingertips.
Hua Hsu is the author of the hit memoir Stay True, which follows his university friendship with another Asian-American student. The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of the year, and Vulture called it “an evolutionary step for Asian-American literature.” In talks, Hua shows how we can not only accept but embrace our messy, complex cultures and identities.
Jeff Chang has long been a crucial voice for racial solidarity in AAPI circles. He’s a key commentator in the PBS series Asian Americans and the author of several books, including the highly anticipated Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America. The New Yorker calls Jeff’s quest for multiracial community both “urgent and passionate.”
Laura Huang says that although Asian-Americans face systemic biases and inaccurate perceptions, you can use even that to your advantage. A Harvard professor and the author of Edge, Laura explores the research that’s been done on AAPI experiences in the workplace, and proves that by being your authentic self, you can turn your unique background into a unique advantage.
Wajahat Ali grew up the son of Pakistani immigrants, never seeing Asian-Americans like himself as the heroes of the story. Today, in his talks and his memoir Go Back to Where You Came From, he urges the AAPI community to tell their stories and help create a multicultural coalition of the willing, where hope and true equity will ensure we can all be the heroes of the American story.
Stephanie Mehta has her finger on the pulse of the business world. She was the editor-in-chief of Fast Company, the most influential business magazine of our generation, before being promoted to CEO of its parent company. Her experience on the cutting edge of business gives her a unique perspective on discussions of diversity, leadership, and AAPI issues.
Eddie Huang is the New York Times bestselling author of Fresh Off the Boat, his memoir of growing up Asian-American that became the longest-running Asian-American sitcom ever. He’s also a celebrity chef, director, producer, and so much more! Eddie’s uproarious, inspiring talks show how you can chase your dreams by making your own rules and being fully yourself.
Mira Nair is the Oscar-nominated Indian-American director of Salaam Bombay!, whose incredible films explore culture, race, and the importance of diverse stories. From her hit film The Namesake (starring Kal Penn) to her critically acclaimed Monsoon Wedding, she proves that art can challenge stereotypes, amplify diverse voices, and bring us together.
Anand Giridharadas, New York Times bestselling author of The Persuaders, has developed a new art of persuasion. He offers tools that Asian-Americans can use to build communities of racial solidarity and make real change even in a time of deep division. By getting better at communicating and bridging divides, he says, we can find hope together and forge the future we want.
For Black History Month this February, we’d like to celebrate a few of the many Lavin speakers whose work year-round shows us how to honor the legacy and history of Black communities across America. These leading voices empower us to fight for racial justice and equality, and learn more about the history of this country.
“One of the iconic faces of Black politics in 1970s America” (Huffington Post), Angela Davis is internationally known for her ongoing work to combat all forms of oppression in the U.S. and abroad. In her work as an educator—both at the university level and in the larger public sphere—has always emphasized the importance of building communities for economic, racial, and gender equality.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of ‘The 1619 Project’ — the #1 New York Times bestseller which has now been adapted into a six-part docuseries on Hulu. She was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World for her work in uncovering the real origin story of Black Americans, and with it the true history of democracy.
George M. Johnson is a non-binary award-winning author and activist, their memoir All Boys Aren’t Bluewas a New York Times bestseller. A powerful story of growing up as a young Black queer boy, their memoir was called “an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects” by the New York Times. They’re listed as one of Out’s 100 Most Influential LGBTQ People.
An expert on the American economy, Heather McGhee is one of the most brilliant and influential thinkers on racial justice today. In her instant New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us — as well as the Young Reader’s edition and podcast of the same name — Heather reveals how racism costs everyone, and how, by fighting it, we can all prosper together.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is the co-founder of the only non-profit organization addressing the pipeline and pathway problem for Black women in fields of economics, finance, and policy. In her book The Black Agenda, Anna features Black voices across various fields, all speaking to the question “What’s next?” as it pertains to centering Black people in policy matters in our country.
Against the backdrop of a renewed push for racial justice, Columbia Journalism School Dean and Peabody Award-winning journalist Jelani Cobb emerges as a clear voice in the fight for a better America. As a long-time staff writer at the New Yorker and editor of the magazine’s anthology The Matter of Black Lives, Cobb explores the complexities of race and inequality, while offering guidance for the future.
March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate the amazing progress in women’s rights over the years, as well as the work being done today. With so many facets of gender equality to explore, Lavin can help you book the right speaker for your event to inspire leadership, growth and resilience. We’re proud to represent many of the world’s most prominent Women’s History Month speakers. The speakers below share the stories they’ve gathered and the work they’ve done around gender equality, honoring this year’s theme of Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.
Margaret Atwood has long been a literary titan. Her novels The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments and Alias Grace—plus the 15-time Emmy Award-winning Handmaid’s Tale TV series—have cemented her as a leading voice on women’s issues, not just in North America, but all over the world. Today, her sharp eye is more crucial, and more prescient, than ever.Â
Margot Lee Shetterly is the author of the massively successful Hidden Figures, the instant #1 New York Times bestseller which was adapted into the hit film that dominated box offices worldwide. Her talks show us the surprising ways that women and people of color have contributed to innovation in this country while pursuing the American Dream.
Isabel Allende is a literary legend, social activist, and feminist icon. Her powerful books—including The House of the Spirits and Daughter of Fortune—have been translated into over 40 languages and have sold over 70 million copies. She was recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., and her extraordinary life is now the subject of a three-part HBO miniseries.
Dr. Kristin Neff is the world’s leading expert on self-compassion—the first person to ever empirically study it, and the woman responsible for making it a topic of conversation in corporate America and beyond. Kristin explains how women can use fierce and tender self-compassion to succeed in the workplace, excel without burning out, and tap into deeper creativity and collaboration.Â
Laura Huang, Harvard Professor and author of Edge, teaches us how to use everything, even systemic biases, to our advantage. She explains how women can guide and redirect those very stereotypes which hold them back, sharpening them into a unique and sustainable edge.
Laurel Braitman, bestselling author and Stanford professor, helps doctors and medical students learn storytelling and integrate it into their work. She proves that the simple act of telling our own stories can help build community, improve mental health, and help make a real difference for those around us.Â
Sarah Kaplan, Director of Rotman’s Institute for Gender and the Economy, shows us that, like any problem, gender inequality should be treated like an innovation challenge. Like investing in innovation, investing in equality makes our organizations stronger, more creative, and more resilient.
As one of our foremost authorities on the Constitution and our reproductive rights, Mary argues that the effects of Roe v. Wade don’t just end at the abortion debate. Instead, Roe has taken on meanings far beyond its original purpose. Its repercussions have affected us all, in many different areas of our lives—from women’s rights to shifting political lines, and from LGBTQ+ issues to the place of religion in America. Understanding Roe’s effects helps us understand our current political climate and polarization, which equips us to fight to maintain our democracy and protect our rights. “This isn’t a women’s issue,” Mary says. “It’s a democracy issue.”
Mary is the author of six critically acclaimed books on the law, history, and politics of reproduction and healthcare. She’s widely recognized as one of our best nonpartisan experts on the legal history of Roe v. Wade and how that decision has affected many other areas of our lives. She is also the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis.
Watch this exclusive Lavin interview where Mary explains how Roe is helping people come together across dividing lines to fight polarization:
Congrats to Lavin exclusive speaker NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, whose highly anticipated 1619 Project Hulu docuseries is out today! Based on Nikole’s #1 New York Times bestselling book—which includes her Pulitzer Prize-winning essay—The 1619 Project docuseries gives us a fuller understanding of our country’s past and present, and inspires us to join the fight for racial justice and a better future.
“The release of Hulu’s The 1619 Project to highlight the landmark work of Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times could not have come at a better time.”
— Forbes
“Black Americans have always been foundational to the idea of American freedom,” says Nikole Hannah-Jones. A Pulitzer Prize-winner and one of TIME‘s most influential people in the world, Nikole has spent her career proving that when we understand the history of Black America, we understand the history and the future of all America—which makes us better equipped to fight for racial justice today.
Nikole is the creator of The 1619 Project, the hit anthology which garnered international recognition and acclaim. She turned the anthology into a #1 New York Times bestselling book, and now she’s hosting and executive producing the 1619 Project docuseries—which debuts today!
The docuseries weaves Nikole’s own story with the story of our country. Each episode is based on an essay from the original anthology, exploring concepts like democracy and music. Nikole talks to real people—from workers to musicians to mothers—whose compelling stories give us a larger picture of Black America and America as a whole. She offers us the chance to gain not only a better understanding of our past, but also the tools to make real change in the present. “The 1619 Project is not a history,” Nikole says. “It really is talking about America today.”
Watch the trailer for the 1619 Project series below:
It’s easy to give up on the fight for true diversity, but TED speaker WAJAHAT ALI says we can’t give in to cynicism — if we remain resilient and invest in hope, we can still create the future we want. His memoir Go Back to Where You Came From, a funny and deeply personal look into his experiences as a Pakistani-American Muslim, is out in paperback on January 24. In his talks, Waj merges inclusion with storytelling and laughter — “because boring an audience is a sin, I think, in all world religions!”
Wajahat Ali, a contributor to The New York Times, recognizes that diversity, equity, and inclusion can be hard to talk about, no matter how important it is. “People have seen the data and stats,” Waj says, “but storytelling, and specifically using an effective story, makes it real. It personalizes it. It connects with the audience.” Through his charismatic and thought-provoking talks, Waj offers practical advice on how leaders, organizations, and communities can create a diverse and inclusive culture that isn’t just mandatory diversity day initiatives. It’s advice that engages and demands for real, genuine connections and change. With time, he says, we can create not just a community, but a country where we can all be the superheroes of our own stories.
In this Lavin-exclusive interview, Wajahat shows why diverse stories are more important than ever in 2023.
For leaders, overthinking and negative self-talk can lead to decreased productivity. This is something that Ethan Kross, bestselling author of Chatter, is a leading expert in. He offers proven methods to take control of your inner voice, helping you transform your thinking to one that works for you, not against you. Last week, Ethan Kross, who teaches at the University of Michigan, was featured in The New Yorker article “How Should We Think About Our Different Styles of Thinking,” for his groundbreaking research on how to turn your inner critic into your inner coach.
Ethan’s national bestselling book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness it looks at how our internal conversations shape us, and how taking control of harmful thinking helps every aspect of our lives. His work continues to help leaders all over the world learn how to talk to themselves constructively, ultimately improving their physical and mental health and deepening their relationships.
In the article’s exploration of Ethan Kross book, The New Yorker sums up one of Ethan’s many methods to improve your thinking:
“Kross’s bottom line is that our inner voices are powerful tools that must be tamed. He ends his book with several dozen techniques for controlling our chatter. He advises trying “distanced self-talk”: by using “your name and the second-person ‘you’ to refer to yourself,” he writes, you can gain more command over your thinking. You might use your inner voice to pretend that you’re advising a friend about his problems; you might redirect your thoughts toward how universal your experiences are (It’s normal to feel this way) or contemplate how every new experience is a challenge you can overcome (I have to learn to trust my partner). The idea is to manage the voice that you use for self-management. Take advantage of the suppleness of dialogue. Don’t just rehearse the same old scripts; send some notes to the writers’ room.”
Nic Stone, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Dear Martin, is a long-time champion of diverse stories in the fight for racial justice. She makes her nonfiction debut this month with How to Be a (Young) Antiracist: a Young Adult adaptation of Ibram X. Kendi’s groundbreaking work, and a crucial guide to social justice for young readers.
Nic has brought her message of social justice and solidarity to young people not only across America, but across the globe. Her books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Dear Martin, have garnered widespread acclaim for their unflinching portrayal of systemic racism as well as their clear-eyed hopefulness. As an author and speaker, she brings her message of equity and equality to audiences of all ages.
Now she’s breaking into the nonfiction sphere with How to Be a (Young) Antiracist (out January 31). This brilliant and accessible guide to antiracism for young readers reframes the concepts from Ibram X. Kendi’s #1 New York Times bestseller How to Be an Antiracist, centering young adulthood. Nic empowers teen readers (and everyone else!) to dismantle inequality and create a more just society. In talks, she draws on her book to give us essential context and practical tools for the fight for racial justice, helping us to be powerful forces for real change in our school, work and everyday life.
Watch Nic explain why sharing our own stories is so crucial:
“While the world seems to counsel despair, The Persuaders is animated by a sense of possibility.”
— The New York Times
In an age of division, it seems impossible to change people’s minds—but Anand Giridharadas, New York Times bestselling author of The Persuaders, says we can persuade others without having to compromise either side’s values. Anand provides us with methods that we can use to come together as a team, find hope in an age of polarization, and save democracy. In other words, learning how to change minds is the first step to changing everything.
Anand Giridharadas is one of our foremost voices on democracy, overcoming division, and how humans make, resist and grapple with change. In his work—as an author, a journalist, and a regular political analyst for MSNBC—he points us toward real, meaningful change, wider human solidarity, and hope. Whether you’re wrestling with how to improve society or build a more cohesive team, his message has never been more crucial.
Whether it’s in the context of our workplaces, campuses, and communities, his talks are pivotal for anyone looking to become a better leader, build stronger company cultures, bring diverse people together, or protect democracy. Anand offers proven strategies that the world’s most prominent change-makers use to revolutionize entire systems and conversations — and shows us how to use these tactics in our everyday lives.
Anand explores how people and movements are changing minds by practicing a new art of persuasion for an age of extremes and refusing to write off those who don’t agree. In his talks, he shows you how to stand bravely for what you believe in while staying open to other viewpoints; how to distinguish those you can and need to win over from those you can’t and don’t; how to draw out and make use of the complexity of those who disagree with you, and many other skills in the art of persuasion.
Anand has inspired audiences around the world with his clarion call for real change and democracy in more than name only. His first New York Times bestseller Winners Take All was named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times, NPR, and Financial Times and won 1-800-CEO-READ’s Business Book of the Year Award.
Anand makes it clear that to forge a path to a brighter future, “we simply cannot give up on changing minds. We cannot give up on changing things. We cannot give up on each other.”
Happy new year from your Lavin family! Our speakers have some incredible new releases and projects lined up for 2023. You’ll be hearing about them everywhere in the culture and in the news, but for now, here’s a sneak peek at what you can expect in the next six months from the brilliant speakers we represent.
When we come to terms with the legacy of slavery, we gain a fuller understanding of our history—and become better equipped to fight for a fairer future. This eagerly-awaited Hulu docuseries is based on The 1619 Project, the phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller. Its creator, Nikole Hannah-Jones, is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and is among TIME’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Imagine a world where employers can see into your brain, your thoughts can be tracked through AI, and you can peer into your own mind to cure addictions. Neuroscience has already made all this possible today. Leading neuro-ethicist Nita Farahany offers us a map to navigate this changing technological landscape, avoiding the dangers of lost privacy and rights while taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunities.
In her poignant and evocative new memoir, New York Times bestselling author Laurel Braitman explores how working through grief can transform us into the people we want to be. As the Director of Writing and Storytelling at the Stanford School of Medicine, Laurel helps doctors and medical students—and everyone else—tap into the power of storytelling, which can help us communicate better, avoid burnout, and build community.
We all feel stuck at some points in our lives, which keeps us from tapping into our full creativity at work. But New York Times bestselling author Adam Alter has good news: there’s a formula to getting unstuck. He’s spent the last two decades studying how we get stuck, and how we can free ourselves to thrive. By tackling the three different types of friction—heart, head, and habit—we can reach our full potential, at work and in life.
With her instant New York Times bestseller The Sum of Us, Heather McGhee proved that when we fight inequality, we all win. Now, she’s bringing her crucial message to a new generation with The Sum of Us: Adapted for Young Readers.
Wajahat Ali’s brilliant and witty memoir, from one of our funniest public intellectuals, offers indispensable lessons on how we can stand up for one another, become our own superheroes, and build the America we all want to live in.
Good health, both mental and physical, isn’t just nice to have in the workplace—it’s the key to increased productivity, motivation, and creativity for workers and leaders in every context. Our TOP HAPPINESS AND WELLNESS SPEAKERS offer innovative, practical strategies that you can use to help everyone in your organization perform at their highest level, all the time. If you want your employees to develop resilience and dodge burnout, these speakers’ insights are must-haves in this year and the next.
There’s a secret superpower that can help you thrive in high-stress, high-stakes environments—and it’s as simple as being kind to yourself. Kristin Neff was the first person ever to empirically research self-compassion. A pioneering scientist in inner strength training, she has created an actionable guide that’s scientifically proven to increase motivation, boost resilience, and improve mental health. Her talks are full of practical exercises that everyone in your organization can use to tap into the power of self-compassion.
We often think we don’t have enough hours in a day. But superstar UCLA professor and bestselling author Cassie Holmes says we don’t need more time—we just need to make the most of the time we have. Drawing on her original research and her book Happier Hour, Cassie gives you practical ways to rethink and restructure your schedule, helping you find more motivation and happiness, while giving you time for the things that really matter. Her insights are vital for the busy world of 2022 and 2023.
If you’re finding yourself distracted and unfocused, Johann Hari can help. In his New York Times bestseller Stolen Focus—named Amazon’s top nonfiction title of the year—he reveals why we can’t seem to pay attention anymore, and how we can reclaim our minds and our ability to think deeply again. In his talks, Johann can show you how to take back your flow state and be more present at work and in everyday life—crucial for anyone who wants to become more focused, productive, and creative.
Work doesn’t have to be a slog. Emily Esfahani Smith says that we can find purpose in the workplace and become more motivated, engaged, and fulfilled—and it all starts with finding meaning. Drawing on her book The Power of Meaning, as well as her popular TED Talk and viral Atlantic article, Emily shows leaders how to create a culture where people find purpose in what they do, and she shows employees the tangible changes they can make to become more fulfilled at work.
In moments of crisis, we can find creative ways to spark connection, healing, and belonging. Vijay Gupta is the founder of Street Symphony, an organization bringing music and art to America’s most disadvantaged communities. He shows us how to infuse creativity into everything that we do—from leadership to teamwork—and create a culture where everyone can belong. Vijay’s unique insights can help you build creativity and innovation into your organization at every level.
More than anything else, culture is what makes organizations great. A good workplace culture empowers people at every level to learn from their mistakes, collaborate with people who are different from them, and bring their authentic selves to work. Lavin’s TOP CORPORATE CULTURE SPEAKERS—from psychologists to the C-suite—have hands-on experience in creating resilient, healthy organizations. They’ll give you the tools your company needs to achieve balance, develop adaptability, and find success.
The best indicator of success isn’t IQ or talent. It’s grit: the combination of perseverance and passion that helps us to get ahead and stay ahead in today’s fast-paced world. Angela Duckworth is the pioneering scientist who wrote the book on grit—literally! In her practical talks, she draws on her #1 New York Times bestseller Grit to prove that, unlike IQ or talent, grit can be learned. She shows you how to build a gritty company culture, developing these skills in yourself and your employees at every level.
We often try to minimize risk in our organizations, but we can never really get away from it. That means our biggest opportunity lies in getting better at taking risks. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is one of Silicon Valley’s most respected leaders. As the founder of theBoardlist and former StubHub president, she shows you how to practice your risk-taking skills and build a culture where risk isn’t something to be feared, but something to be faced and mastered for lasting success.
What does it look like to recognize—and improve—a damaging workplace? Jamie Fiore Higgins spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs, one of the most cutthroat organizations in the world. It gave her firsthand experience in what it looks like to break out of a toxic system and change it for the better. Today, as the author of Bully Market and one of Financial Times’s most influential women of 2022, Jamie shows you how to avoid toxic workplace environments, and build a healthy culture where everyone can thrive.
The past few years have offered us an unprecedented opportunity to rethink the way we work. In this new world of work, Alexandra Samuel argues that the most successful organizations will embrace hybrid work, reaping the benefits of the office and the benefits of working from home. Drawing on her crucial and practical book Remote, Inc., she shows you how to strengthen collaboration and embrace individual focus and flexibility, building a strong workplace culture and rhythms in a new era of work.
Empathy is the greatest tool leaders and changemakers have at their disposal. And it isn’t a fixed trait that you either have or don’t have—Jamil Zaki, director of Stanford’s Social Neuroscience Lab, says that we can all grow our empathy through practice. As the author of The War for Kindness, Jamil proves that empathy strengthens your company’s collaboration, inclusion, and creativity, and he gives you tried-and-true strategies for helping everyone in your organization tap into this hidden superpower.
Diverse perspectives in the workplace make your ideas better, your teams stronger, and your company far more successful. Our TOP DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION SPEAKERS don’t just show you how DEI can benefit you—they give you practical strategies for implementing true belonging in the workplace. If you’re looking to leverage the power of diversity, build a more cohesive culture, and create an environment where everyone performs to their full potential, look no further than the speakers below.
If we want to achieve a truly just future, we need to understand the long history of race relations in our country — and nobody is better equipped to help us than Nikole Hannah-Jones. As the Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of The 1619 Project, a MacArthur Genius, and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, Nikole can show you how race factors into every aspect of our lives, and empower you to take steps towards real equity and flourishing in your workplace and beyond.
Racism has a cost for everyone — which means that when we come together and take steps to fight it, we can all prosper together. Heather McGhee, the instant New York Times bestselling author of The Sum of Us, proves that diversity benefits all of us. Whether you want to build stronger teams or develop an inclusive workplace culture, Heather’s accessible talks will show you how to help everyone in your organization come together across racial, social, and cultural divides.
Diversity can be amorphous and difficult to define. But New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author Hua Hsu says that’s actually a good thing. Telling complex stories about different communities can help us figure out who we are and open up new worlds of possibility for everyone. Hua’s bestselling memoir Stay True—which turned him into a “literary phenomenon” (New York Times) — touches on the immigrant experience and Asian-Americanness, diversity, grief, and pop culture, among many other themes.
As the first Latina to ever write for Marvel Comics, Gabby Rivera proved that authenticity and joy come from embracing our lived experiences, celebrating our differences, and fighting for a world in which everyone is welcome. She wrote the solo series America about Marvel’s first queer Latina superhero, drawing on her own experiences as a queer Latina writer. Gabby will show you how to empower people of diverse backgrounds to tell their own stories — and open a radical space for creativity.
People from marginalized communities often face barriers and biases in the workplace. But Laura Huang, Harvard Business School professor and author of Edge, says that we can actually flip these biases around and use them to our advantage — that’s the “edge” that gives us an upper hand. We can use our diverse backgrounds to make a real difference in our workplace culture, at any level. In her practical talks, Laura shows you how to foster an environment where everyone can bring their unique edge to work.
We need to tell diverse, messy, complicated stories—not only to achieve crucial representation in media, but also to help us figure out who we are and what is possible. In his bestselling memoir Stay True, named a Best Book of the Year everywhere from TIME to Pitchfork, Hua Hsu explores Asian-American identity and the importance of storytelling, plus grief, pop culture, and how friendship helps us discover who we are (among many other themes).
“Both a coming-of-age story and an evolutionary step for Asian American literature.”
— Vulture
Our identities—as individuals and as communities—are ambiguous and difficult to define. But Hua, whom The New York Times called a “literary phenomenon,” says that’s actually a good thing. We need to tell diverse stories about ourselves and our communities, because storytelling broadens the scope of what we believe is possible. We can find community in people who are different from us, and open up new futures to build together.
Hua’s memoir Stay True is a national bestseller that tells the story of Hua’s university friendship with Ken, another Asian-American student. It touches on culture, the immigrant experience, and figuring out who we are. It has been named a Best Book of the Year on virtually every list that matters (TIME, Kirkus, New York Times, Pitchfork). New York Times bestselling author Jia Tolentino called it a “once-in-a-lifetime book.” In talks, Hua draws on his memoir to show us how we can embrace diversity, find community, and achieve true inclusion.
“We should all feel welcome to belong, and we should also dwell on spaces of unbelonging,” Hua tells Lavin. “But we aren’t alone, and we never have been.”
Watch Hua explain why Asian-American identity is always changing—and why that’s actually good for us:
What does it really look like to recognize—and improve—an unhealthy workplace? Jamie Fiore Higgins, author of the acclaimed memoir Bully Market, has firsthand experience from her 18 years at a toxic Wall Street company. Today, Jamie draws on her experience to show us what it takes to change our workplace cultures, promote inclusion and diversity, and ensure that everyone at our company can not only belong, but flourish.
Jamie spent almost two decades at Goldman Sachs, climbing from a nervous intern to Managing Director, a title that only 8% of employees earn and one of the most elusive roles on Wall Street. Its work environment did serious damage to her morale and health until she broke out of it. Now, she’s using her years of experience to show us what a truly healthy company cultures look like, and how we can all work together to build them.
Jamie’s memoir Bully Market is a “brave and vivid portrait” (Booklist) of her time at Goldman Sachs. She recounts in stunning detail the toxic workplace practices that she encountered, offering a look at the damage that unhealthy workplaces can do, as well as reimagining what a better future for our companies could look like. “With Goldman in my rearview mirror,” Jamie says, “I want employees to learn from my experiences, and feel empowered to help create workplaces they want to be a part of.”
Watch Jamie discuss her experience and memoir on TODAY:
Drawing on her original psychology and neuroscience research, Tracy makes the case for embracing this secret superpower. She’s the bestselling author of Future Tense: Why Anxiety is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad). In it, she argues that anxiety is our brains’ response to uncertainty: it arises when there’s potential for bad, but also great potential for good.
By embracing anxiety as a feature, rather than a bug, of being human, we can use our worries to imagine, plan, and persevere through our uncertain (but hopeful) futures. “Anxiety is actually a useful part of being human,” Tracy told Lavin. “We can build skills in a virtuous cycle of anxiety—it just takes practice.”
Watch Tracy explain three steps that we can take to leverage our anxiety:
George M. Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of All Boys Aren’t Blue, is on a mission: to confront bigotry, create a better future, and forge a path so youth around the world can “be themselves unapologetically.” George was named to the 2022 TIME100 Next list for their compelling writing and activism. As TIME’s annual compilation of rising stars, the list honors 100 inspiring individuals and their “extraordinary efforts to shape our world—and to define our future.”
In TIME, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds writes that George is urgent, “because urgency implies spark and pulse. It connotes importance and immediacy, and in George’s case, a personal constitution that propels them toward the melee of hate and censorship, not to oxygenate the fearmongering, but to stand in the love they have for the children they serve through their writing and advocacy.”
In addition to their acclaimed young adult books, All Boys Aren’t Blue and We Are Not Broken, George is an award-winning journalist who has written for Vice, Teen Vogue, Entertainment Tonight, NBC, and more. They also advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, illuminating issues of racism, homophobia, and toxic masculinity, among others, and they’re an HIV activist who raises awareness about healthcare and social justice.
Watch George speak about how imagination frees us from oppression:
There has never been a book like Secret City. Lauded as the most important work of gay history in decades, it surveys the broad sweep of 20th century American politics through a gay lens. The Washington Examiner said that “It is, in many ways, one of the most human works of history written this decade so far. Secret City has raised the bar for the genre.”
James expertly brings the era and the characters to life with vivid anecdotes and meticulous research, introducing us to ordinary people who fought for acceptance out of the public eye. He shows us how to stand up for our right to express ourselves freely, and how to use freedom of expression as “the greatest tool oppressed minorities have to secure their equal place in society.”
James is an award-winning journalist and essayist, whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, among others. He is a columnist for Tablet Magazine and a contributing writer for Air Mail.
Watch James discuss the historical contributions of LGBTQ+ Americans on Good Morning America:
In her powerful and essential book Atlas of AI, which came out in paperback last week, Kate reveals the costs that are usually hidden from public view and offers paths forward towards a more just future. For two decades, she’s been at the cutting edge of technology research—uncovering what really goes into making artificial intelligence. She’s a Professor at USC Annenberg, a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in New York, and the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Kate sat down with Lavin’s Charles Yao to explain why we need to work together towards a more equitable technological landscape. Watch here:
Nobody lives in a vacuum. Our behaviors, needs, and desires are highly influenced by the people around us. So why does so much of our innovation center solely around the individual? MIT innovation expert David Robertson knows that if we can tap into the communities we serve, we’ll be able to develop a framework of innovation that draws people in instead of shutting them out. David is a member of the Cherokee nation, a very egalitarian and communal culture, and he’s showing us how Cherokee values can help us design for what our customers really want.
Drawing from 12 of the Cherokee Values, such as finding something “sacred” to admire about a person or living in a unified way, David helps us develop a dialogue around what matters to the communities we serve. He follows in a long-standing tradition: Cherokee innovators throughout history, from Jesse Chisholm to Sequoyah, have used these values to bring people together and design new inventions that made life better not only for individuals, but also for the communities that housed them.
David is an innovation expert and a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He’s the author of Brick by Brick and The Power of Little Ideas, which provide fresh and practical approaches to innovation. Watch David discuss some of the Cherokee values—and what they can provide to your business—below.
Artificial intelligence is already playing a powerful role in our lives, whether we realize it or not—from the devices we use every day or facial-recognition software trained on internet databases. It may seem nebulous, but it’s crucial that we understand it so that we can regain control. A world-renowned scholar of AI and its social impacts, Kate Crawford knows that although AI can be used to exploit people and resources, we can still use it to lay the foundation for a better world.
Kate is the award-winning author of Atlas of AI, a uniquely grounded look at the processes and resources that give AI form. In it, she maps out the physical landscape of AI, as well as its future, to help us understand what’s at stake and how we can take control of this fast-developing technology. Like a physical atlas, the book helps us understand the landscape of AI, the pathways that connect it, and where we fit into this vast technological world.
For over two decades, Kate has been on the cutting edge of research into large-scale data systems, machine learning, and the context in which our technology operates. She’s travelled the world to investigate the places and people that make AI what it is, from lithium mines to Amazon warehouses to Jeff Bezos’s rocket base. She’s also advised policymakers from the White House to the United Nations, and has created award-winning collaborative projects with major artists around the world.
Watch Kate explain why she uses the visual of an atlas to map out the landscape of AI:
If the thought of the climate crisis fills you with dread and fear, you’re not alone. Climate anxiety is becoming more and more widespread, but Stanford Fellow Britt Wray has good news: these difficult feelings are actually the key to finding hope and fighting for the future of our planet. Britt sat down with Lavin’s Charles Yao to discuss her new book, her research, and practical steps we can take to stay sane and find purpose.
Britt has spent years researching the emotional toll of the climate crisis, and in her vital book Generation Dread, she shows us how we can work through these feelings and emerge on the other side ready to act. Naomi Klein, award-winning author of On Fire and This Changes Everything, said, “If you are ready to feel through eco-anxiety, grieve what’s lost, and imagine what comes next, read this courageous book.”
In her insightful interview with Lavin, Britt reveals the scope of climate anxiety (it’s more widespread than you think!), explains how we can make meaning out of suffering, and provides us with practical steps to find purpose in an age of anxiety. “It’s possible to develop more flexible ways of relating to the crisis that aren’t about splitting it off into doom vs. naively optimistic,” Britt says. “That gray zone is where the most strength can be mined from.”
Play isn’t just for kids. Rather, Cas Holman says it’s the spark that ignites our creativity and imagination, throughout our lives. Featured in the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design, Cas creates open-ended toys that have no set function or objective, letting kids play and create without fear of failure. And she knows that play is as valuable for adults as it is for children—it encourages us to indulge our curiosity, work together, and learn without fear of failure.
For two decades, Cas has been producing innovative toys that are designed for open-ended play. As the founder and principal designer of independent toy company Heroes Will Rise, she’s created interactive play spaces that encourage people of all ages to explore, imagine, and collaborate. And play doesn’t have to be restricted to the playroom. “Curiosity is playful; ideas can be playful; asking questions can be playful,” Cas says. “If we can play together, then we can live together.”
As a consultant, Cas has worked with the leadership and design teams at Nike, Ford, Disney Imagineering, and MIT. She helps the world’s biggest companies integrate the benefits of play, open-ended processes, and new ways of thinking into their ethos. She’s dedicated her life to challenging conventional ideas about how we learn, and reimagining our systems for play.
Watch Cas explain what it means to design for play:
What goes in must come out—but how? The wacky and wonderful processes of your digestive system are illuminated in It Takes Guts, a new children’s book by science writer and presenter Dr. Jennifer Gardy. A deputy director on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Malaria team, Jennifer reveals the secrets and quirks of the digestive system and microbiome for young readers. It Takes Guts won the International Literary Association’s 2022 award for Intermediate Nonfiction, which recognizes newly published authors with exceptional promise in children’s and young adult literature.
It Takes Guts: How Your Body Turns Food Into Fuel (and Poop) is a charming, eye-catching journey through the digestive system, bound to delight young readers with the science behind our bodies. It Takes Guts is a “lively anatomical odyssey” (Booklist) and a “fascinating, sometimes funny read that goes well beyond the scatological” (Kirkus).
Dr. Jennifer Gardy has spent her career instilling a love of science in people of all ages. She’s the deputy director of surveillance, data, and epidemiology at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and has guest-hosted CBC’s show The Nature of Things. She’s also made frequent contributions to the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet, which demystifies science news and technical advancements. Onstage and off, she’s charismatic and enthusiastic about ensuring everyone can understand and love science.
Lavin’s George M. Johnson also received an International Literary Association honor for their memoir We Are Not Broken, in the Young Adult Nonfiction category. An “intensely emotional, stunning read” (Publishers Weekly starred review) that chronicles George’s experience growing up as a Black queer boy alongside their cousins, We Are Not Broken celebrates Black boyhood and brotherhood in all forms.
Learn Jennifer Gardy’s top three facts about the gut below!
In a city grappling with poisonous water, award-winning photographer and MacArthur Genius LaToya Ruby Frazier found hope. She first travelled to Flint, Michigan in 2016 to document how the city’s water supply was contaminated and poisoning the residents. There, she teamed up with community members to document not only the injustice and environmental racism, but more importantly, the hope and resilience that Flint’s residents displayed. Six years later, her new book Flint is Family in Three Acts tells the story of a community banding together to confront inequality.
LaToya’s Flint photography was featured in The New York Times, which said, “The words, portraits and actions in this book place an ongoing disaster in broader context: American, humanitarian, human.”
This photobook is the most recent project in LaToya’s long history of ground-breaking social documentary work. Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic Jerry Saltz called her “one of the strongest artists to emerge in this country this century.” LaToya proves that creativity has power, and that we can be the architects of our own futures—even in the worst of conditions. “No matter how dark a situation may be,” she says, “a camera can extract the light and turn a negative into a positive.”
Watch LaToya’s TED Talk on the Flint water crisis, which has over two million views:
If we want to innovate and develop fresh ideas, we need to break out of the same conventional mold—but not just any rebellion will do. Psychologist and author Todd Kashdan has a scientific manual for how to rebel the right way: with principle and conviction. His new book The Art of Insubordination is a guide to using principled dissent for creativity and new ideas. Kirkus called it “a useful primer for those determined to make waves for a good cause.”
Todd is an award-winning psychology expert whose work has been cited more than 35,000 times. With over 200 published scientific articles, he received the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology. His writing has appeared in the Harvard Business Review and National Geographic, among others, and his research is featured regularly in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and TIME.
Todd is also the author of four other books in addition to The Art of Insubordination, including The Upside of Your Dark Side and Curious?, which Arianna Huffington called “one of those rare books that can make you rethink how you see the world.”
Watch this exclusive interview with Todd, where he outlines how the principled dissent of the 1960s/70s gay rights movement made them effective activists, and how we can learn from their example to make real change.
How do we stay sane and find purpose in the climate crisis? Dynamic TED Speaker and New Yorker-acclaimed science writer Britt Wray has the answer. Her revolutionary scientific research, outlined in her brilliant new book Generation Dread, reveals that wrestling through our climate emotions helps us find purpose and fight for the future of our planet.
Britt shows us how the grief we face daily can mobilize us to take action, fortify our mental fitness, and collectively build the world we want. With critical scientific research and insights from therapists and activists, she moves us from anxious stasis to sustainable flourishing. In the context of the climate catastrophe (not to mention Covid, war, bitter political division, economic uncertainty, and mass violence), she sees a way forward to the other side. “Hope is very much about rolling up your sleeves, getting clear-eyed, being convicted and courageous and doing something with others,” Britt says. “And once you do that, you create the conditions to have real hope.”
Britt is a writer, broadcaster, and creator of the weekly climate newsletter “Gen Dread,” whose original research focuses on the mental health impacts of the climate crisis. She’s also a TED Resident and Stanford Human and Planetary Health Fellow.
Britt joined us at the Lavin Agency to provide us with practical steps that we can take to find purpose and meaning in an age of anxiety. Watch this exclusive interview here:
Roe v. Wade was overturned last week — and the ripple effects will be enormous for the country, the justice system, and democracy as a whole. “I can’t think of anything bigger than this Supreme Court decision in my lifetime,” Mary Ziegler says. As one of the foremost nonpartisan authorities on the Constitution and our reproductive rights, Mary is uniquely positioned to make sense of this moment of great uncertainty, and give us a realistic way out of deepening polarization.
Mary is a law professor at the University of California, Davis, as well as the author of four books on the history of Roe v. Wade, and how it’s affected our laws, our justice system, and our politics. She has a thorough understanding of the tangible consequences of the fall of Roe, like inter-state politics and data privacy concerns, as well as the intangible consequences such as how Americans view our institutions.
Mary believes we can still move beyond polarization to build a kinder, more nuanced dialogue around our democracy. “More people are talking across differences on this issue,” she says. “That’s often the way you begin to get to a less polarized, potentially more promising, solution.”
Watch Mary discuss how this moment of instability is pushing people to create a better dialogue for us and our future:
Humanity’s impact on the planet, the urgency of the climate crisis, and our quest for positive change: award-winning photographer Edward Burtynsky has spent more than 40 years documenting and bearing witness to our legacy on the earth. In his most ambitious project yet, he invites audiences to journey through images and films from his acclaimed career, enveloped by 30-foot screens and accompanied by a striking original soundtrack.
In the Wake of Progress, Edward’s epic half-hour career retrospective, premiered outdoors at the Luminato Festival on June 11. It moves indoors this weekend, and is complemented by a gallery show of Edward’s photography and augmented reality works. In the Wake of Progress reveals humanity’s stark impact on the earth, and our quest to create a better future—in the spirit of positive change, it will be accompanied by a Change Station, where audiences will be presented with simple, tangible, and engaging calls to action from organizations that are answering the question of what we can do right now.
Edward’s career has long focused on documenting large-scale social, political, and economic issues: his global industrial landscape photographs are included in the collections of over 50 major museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He challenges us to have a conversation about our legacy on this planet and the future implications of sustainable life on Earth.
The simple act of telling your story can create radical change. George M. Johnson knows that better than anyone—their powerful memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue, a New York Times bestseller about growing up as a Black queer boy, has inspired readers worldwide to “be themselves unapologetically.”
George’s powerful YA memoir sits alongside titles by Toni Morrison and Lavin speaker Angie Thomas as among the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2021. Called “an exuberant, unapologetic memoir infused with a deep but cleareyed love for its subjects” by The New York Times, All Boys Aren’t Blue confronts bigotry and celebrates love of all kinds.
Through their writing and activism, George proves that even in the midst of oppression, we can still find pockets of beauty and joy. “As long as we can continue to imagine a future greater than this, I’m going to find a way to find happiness, even in the midst of my worst moments,” George says. With honesty and deep love, they encourage young people to find their identity, embrace their joy, and tell their own stories.
Watch George speak on the power of imagination here:
Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal—and yet this is the central goal of democracies around the world today. At a time of rising political tensions, Yascha Mounk’s crucial new book The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure reveals the key to building democracies that work.
As an author, Johns Hopkins professor, and Atlantic contributing editor, Yascha enables us to create connections and work toward a society for all to feel safe and seen. “That scenario is not easy to achieve,” he says, “but democracy is never easy to achieve—something our Founding Fathers were very aware of—so I think it’s within our power to fight for that.” With his international expertise and unwavering optimism, he brings new insight to an age-old problem, giving us fresh hope for the greatest experiment of our time. From the rise of populism to the powerful role of diversity in strengthening democracy, Yascha is “a convincing, humane, and hopeful guide” (bestselling author George Packer).
Watch Yascha explain the path to a better democracy here:
During his decades-long career at Nike, Greg Hoffman defined the brand’s identity through innovative storytelling.
As Nike’s former Chief Marketing Officer, Greg pulled from his personal life to create strong emotional attachments between people and products. Named one of Business Insider’s most innovative CMOs, he refused to stay within his comfort zone—instead, embracing creativity and innovation. Now, he’s showing us how to do the same.
Greg recently spoke to Steven Bartlett on the podcast Diary of a CEO, revealing key marketing strategies from his almost three decades at Nike. Steven said, “Greg’s knowledge, experience, and wisdom in this area are second to none.”
Like so many Americans, Bill McKibben—activist and bestselling author of the first book to introduce climate change to general audiences—grew up fully believing that the United States was the greatest country on earth. But fifty years later, he found himself in a nation and on a planet strained by overlapping crises. What happened? And how do we recover?
In The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, Bill takes an incisive look at the tumultuous America of his past and present, and charts a course towards a fairer future. With his trademark honesty and clarity, he combines his personal memoir with the story of a nation at war with itself. He reflects on the most important dynamics and crises in our history, which are playing out on a national and even international scale, to show us how to hope and act fiercely for a better world. Heather McGhee, bestselling author of The Sum of Us, calls the book “a clarion call for a generation to understand what happened to their American Dream, and to fight for our common future.”
Watch Bill discuss The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon here:
How do we find happiness? We tend to follow our gut, which often leads us astray, but Seth Stephens-Davidowitz—New York Times bestselling author and former Google data scientist—says we can use data to choose more wisely and get happier.
When we make big personal decisions, we consult friends, Google it, or just do what feels right. But Seth says we should instead be following the numbers. In his new book Don’t Trust Your Gut, Seth provides us with science-backed answers for some of life’s biggest questions. Among many other things, he proves that we’re looking for the wrong traits in our romantic partners, that the fanciest schools don’t matter much in raising kids, and that the most boring-sounding jobs are often the most lucrative. With his much-lauded research skills and trademark deadpan humor, Seth shows us how data is the key to making our lives better, more decisive, and happier. “When you know the data on how the world really works,” Seth says, “you are prepared to make better life decisions.”
Watch Seth talk about living the perfect data-driven life here:
As we grapple with big questions about inequality, and racial justice, Michelle Coles says we can find strength, inspiration, and answers from the heroes who’ve come before us.
Michelle is both an accomplished civil rights attorney with a focus on social justice and the author of an award-winning YA novel on the forgotten heroism of Black Americans after the Civil War—she knows better than anyone how coming to terms with our past will help us to understand our present and fight for a better future. In her eye-opening talks, Michelle gives us a larger awareness of how oppressive systems are created and upheld, and inspires us to fight for justice no matter who we are.
Michelle is the author of Black Was the Ink, which Kirkus calls “a dynamic look at how the past informs the future.” The book follows a Black teenager who travels back in time to Reconstruction-era America and witnesses the achievements of Black statesmen fighting for freedom, after a traumatic experience of being racially profiled in the present day. Michelle wrote the novel to help her young sons make sense of the America they’re growing up in, and to show us that when we take ownership of our actions, we have the ability to be a powerful force for change.
Watch Michelle explain how forgotten heroes leave their mark here:
At the event, Edward said: “As a Canadian-Ukrainian, I would like to share this award with the artists of Ukraine, many of whom are bravely documenting the desecration of both their people and lands. Photography embodies truth in a way that transcends language, culture, borders, and time. In the face of fake news and Putin’s vicious disinformation campaign, Ukrainian photographers are using this moment to show the world the truth.”
Edward—who is also the winner of the TED prize for his brilliant, timely and eye-opening talks about the relationships between humanity, art, and climate change—studies the environmental implications of this new era through the lens of his camera. The Guardian calls him “the great chronicler of eco-atrocities”: his remarkable photographs of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
His life and work are the subjects of numerous magazine profiles, including The New Yorker, and the award-winning documentaries Watermark, Manufactured Landscapes, and Anthropocene, all of which he co-directed. Anthropocene was recognized by Variety as one of the Best Documentaries of the Year, and Watermark was awarded the Best Canadian Film Award from the Toronto Film Critics Association.
It’s the latest prestigious honor for the powerful true story of a strong and remarkable young girl, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and dynamic Lavin speaker.
Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City is the winner of the coveted J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for an outstanding nonfiction work of “American political or social concern.” Invisible Child is an incredible saga of survival and hope. It follows young Dasani Coates in New York City, as she leads her seven siblings through the struggles of hunger, drug addiction, and poverty. Dasani faces an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning the family you love? The New York Times called Invisible Child one of the best ten books of 2021 and a “vivid and devastating” true story.
Andrea’s brilliant fellow Lavin speaker Jessica Nordell was also shortlisted for the Lukas Prize; her book The End of Bias is a groundbreaking and deeply researched exploration into how we can eliminate bias—even the unconscious and unexamined biases that we don’t realize we have. New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant called the book a “breakthrough” in how we confront bias and prejudice.
We’re so proud of Andrea’s award and Jessica’s nomination, and honored to represent them and their incredible achievements.
The legendary South By Southwest conference—an essential collection of film fests, conferences, sessions, and networking opportunities that spotlight creativity globally—is back for 2022, and Lavin’s speakers are showing up in a big way. Here’s a who’s who of the groundbreaking Lavin talent you’ll find on the SXSW stage:
Jessica Nordell’s brilliant career as a science and culture journalist led her to tackle one of the biggest issues that divides us today: bias and all the ways that it keeps us from living in a fair, just society. Her work in The End of Bias was shortlisted for the Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and it was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and Inc.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is the head editor of The Black Agenda, the first book of its kind: it brings together three dozen Black experts in disciplines from economics and climate change to education, fighting for bold solutions to our big problems. Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be Antiracist, lauded that Anna’s book “will challenge what you think is possible.”
Wajahat Ali is the warm, funny, bitingly incisive New York Times writer, TED Talk hero, and author of Go Back to Where You Came From—his heartful, honest, uproarious memoir that bestselling author Timothy Snyder said “belongs on your bookshelf next to Mark Twain and James Baldwin.”
Deepa Purushothaman was the first Indian-American woman to make partner at Deloitte and she knows what it means to be the rare woman of color in a team or company. Now she’s teaching us what she learned from her journey in The First, the Few, the Only, an urgent, warm guidebook for women of color who want to rediscover their unique power in the workplace.
Alexandra Samuel wrote the book about hybrid work—some days at the office, some days remote—giving us a prophetic road map to the future of professional life. Arianna Huffington called Alex’s brilliant and practical strategies in Remote Inc. a “timely guide to how we can recharge, reset, and bring our full attention to work”, no matter where we are.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is the editor of The Black Agenda: the first ever book to bring together dozens of Black writers, scholars, and leaders to solve today’s most pressing social issues, from economics to education to climate change. The Black Agenda “will challenge what you think is possible” (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author).
America needs help. We’re confronting police brutality, the resurgence of white supremacy, and COVID’s disproportionate effect on Black communities. What’s next? How do we fix this?
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman decided to bring together some of the country’s brightest, most engaged Black voices to figure out the solutions. The result is The Black Agenda (out now!), a profound and fearless vision for how we can reckon with and root out centuries of oppression.
Anna’s book tackles the big problems we face today, from economics and healthcare, to education and climate action: she asks radical questions and draws out dramatic and courageous answers that reveal how all of these problems are related to racism—and what we need to do to solve them. It’s an “inclusive, edifying, often fiery assembly” (Kirkus Reviews) of new thoughts that point the way to a new America.
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is behind The Black Agenda: the first ever book to bring together dozens of Black writers, scholars, and leaders to solve today’s most pressing social issues, from economics to education to climate change. The Black Agenda “will challenge what you think is possible” (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author).
America needs help. We’re confronting police brutality, the resurgence of white supremacy, and COVID’s disproportionate effect on Black communities. What’s next? How do we fix this?
Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman decided to bring together some of the country’s brightest, most engaged Black voices to figure out the solutions. The result is The Black Agenda (out now!), a profound and fearless vision for how we can reckon with and root out centuries of oppression.
Anna’s book tackles the big problems we face today, from economics and healthcare, to education and climate action: she asks radical questions and draws out dramatic and courageous answers that reveal how all of these problems are related to racism—and what we need to do to solve them. It’s an “inclusive, edifying, often fiery assembly” (Kirkus Reviews) of new thoughts that point the way to a new America.
To book diversity speaker Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday and speak with one of our sales agents.
Wajahat Ali was just an ordinary Muslim kid in Husky jeans—but after 9/11, he was called a terrorist. Ali’s new book is a funny, emotional, insightful dive into what happened to America and what we need to do if we want to trust each other again.
Twenty years ago, Muslims replaced communists as America’s public enemy #1. Wajahat Ali, then a student—in love with sports, comic books, and Winona Ryder—suddenly became an “accidental spokesman and ambassador” of all things Muslim. Ali’s Go Back to Where You Came From (out now!) is the story of what happened next and where we are today, offering a deeply personal and human story alongside sharp commentary about the growing danger of Islamophobia and white supremacy we see all around us.
But more than anything, Ali wants to give us hope. We’ve all got to help each other, he says, and his book shows us the power of immigrants and people of color coming together in community. Filled with “brazen wit, rigorous analysis, and searing insight” (Suleika Jaouad, New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Kingdoms), Ali’s inspirational storytelling points the way to a brighter and more inclusive future for his beloved country.
Violetatells the epic story of a woman who bears witness to modern history’s greatest upheavals, starting with the Spanish flu and ending with the coronavirus.
Violeta is one of the most anticipated books of 2022 because Isabel Allende brings her uniquely magical voice to our most pressing modern problems—while dealing with the weight of history that we all feel on our shoulders. “My intention was to use the pandemics as bookends to the century that Violeta lives through, which is the century my mother lived [through],” explains Allende, who cites her mother’s death two years earlier as her inspiration for writing the book. “My mother was a wonderful person but she didn’t have an extraordinary life. Violeta lives in a way I wish my mother could have done.”
Violeta’s heroine is shaped by all the big events that defined the past hundred years: wars, the rise and fall of tyrants, economic depressions, the fight for women’s rights, and yes, pandemics. But Violeta refuses to be defined or defeated by the world’s ups and downs. She remains passionate and determined through it all, using her humor to ride the waves of heartbreak, joy, poverty, and loss that she faces in her inspiring journey.
Violeta is the latest masterpiece by a true literary icon, and it’s widely available January 25th.
If you’ve ever experienced the ‘mental jet-lag’ that comes from juggling too many devices, tabs, and social networks—Johann Hari’s new book Stolen Focus is for you.
Your ability to pay attention is broken—but it’s not your fault. Your attention is slipping because its profitable for powerful companies, argues New York Times bestselling author Johann Hari in his masterful book Stolen Focus. He traveled all over the world, from Miami to Moscow, interviewing the leading experts about our diminishing ability to focus, and what it means for our future. Daring and visionary, Johann’s findings reveal how we can fight back against the dangers of this attention crisis on our humanity.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant writes: “Stolen Focus won’t just capture your attention—it will keep you thinking and rethinking long after you’ve finished it.”
Stolen Focus is available everywhere you buy books on January 25th.
Upon hearing of the passing of immensely influential biologist Edward O. Wilson, Lavin joins the multitude of world leaders, prominent scientists, and distinguished environmentalists in recognizing his abundant contributions to the study of the natural world.
“A wonderful friend and client for over 30 years,” writes our founder and CEO David Lavin, “Ed was a treasure in every sense of the word. The world has lost a unique soul.”
A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, beloved Harvard professor, author of over 30 books, and one of the world’s leading authorities on natural history and conservation, Edward leaves behind a profound legacy of inspiring others to care for the natural world as he did. His significant scientific contributions made him a visionary on multiple fronts, from the study of biological diversity and entomology, to the evolution of behavior and the discovery of hundreds of new species—leading to his citation as Charles Darwin’s greatest 20th century heir. Later in life, Edward also took up the cause of environmentalism, highlighting the need to preserve our rich biodiversity.
“Ed’s holy grail was the sheer delight of the pursuit of knowledge,” shared Paula J. Ehrlich, CEO and President of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. “A relentless synthesizer of ideas, his courageous scientific focus and poetic voice transformed our way of understanding ourselves and our planet…His gift was a deep belief in people and our shared human resolve to save the natural world.”
As Edward once said, “You are capable of more than you know…Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
“Heather McGhee draws on a wealth of knowledge about the economy to show how racism is harmful to everyone in The Sum of Us. In the book, which was long-listed for a National Book Award, she uses economic data to make a cogent case that laws and practices in the U.S. that discriminate against the Black community also hurt white people, and may be the root of some of society’s most taxing issues. McGhee’s engrossing explanations come with solutions, too—she proposes that the way we can solve this inequality gap is to come together in solidarity, across racial lines, to accomplish what we can’t achieve alone.”
Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
“In Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott’s first book, a family is tested by poverty, housing and food insecurity, racism and addiction as they attempt to survive in New York City. The book centers on Dasani, a brilliant young girl—who, when we meet her, lives with her parents and six siblings in a Brooklyn shelter—and the challenges she encounters after she enrolls in a boarding school. Based on over a decade of reporting, Invisible Child is a heartbreaking and honest look at inequality and the power of a family’s love.”
On Juneteenth
“Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native Annette Gordon-Reed tells the origin story of Juneteenth with incredible depth and warmth in her book, On Juneteenth. Combining deep historical research with personal anecdotes, Gordon-Reed outlines the background of not only the new federal holiday, which celebrates the day the last enslaved people in Texas learned they were free, but also the broader history of Black people in the state and country, as well as the continuing fight for racial justice today.”
The editors of the New York Times Book Review select the year’s notable fiction, poetry, and non-fiction reads. This year, four Lavin speakers made the list: please join us in celebrating Andrea Elliott, George Packer, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Eyal Press.
Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal by National Book Award-winning author George Packer is a frank and bracing meditation on America’s discontents, offering a path forward to restoring unity.
On Juneteenth by Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and bestselling author Annette Gordon-Reed is the essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral importance to American history.
Congratulations to the host of Lavin speakers who have triumphed in Amazon’s best books of 2021 lists.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Childis the top pick for Best Non-Fiction Book of the year. This is a riveting, unforgettable story of a girl whose indomitable spirit is tested by homelessness, poverty, and racism in an unequal America.
Also recognized in this category:
Award-winning psychologist Ethan Kross for Chatter—helping us change the most important conversation we have each day: the one we have with ourselves.
Acclaimed author Steven Pinker’s Rationality is one of the Best Science Books—promoting “…better thinking through the cultivation of that rarest of rarities: a sound argument.” (Kirkus Reviews).
Award-winning chef and food justice activist Bryant Terry’s Black Foodis one of Amazon’s Best Cookbooks—offering a heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity.
New York Times bestselling author Angie Thomas’ Concrete Rose is one of the Best Young Adult Books—challenging the norms of masculinity while celebrating the full humanity of Black youth.
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story is an expanded version of The New York Times’ project, with longer essays, new fiction and poetry, and writing on topics like the Haitian Revolution.
An eye-opening account of the relationship between slavery and modern capitalism, the original ‘1619 Project’ was met with praise, critical acclaim, and sold-out vendors upon its release in 2019. Nikole Hannah-Jones won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her opening essay, and the project as a whole became part of an important national conversation.
The book builds on the original series, including new contributions from historians, journalists, poets, novelists, and cultural critics. “Just like the original project, the book relies heavily on historical scholarship, but is not a conventional history,” Hannah-Jones writes. “Instead it combines history with journalism, criticism, and imaginative literature, to show how history molds, influences, and haunts us in the present.”
A Booklist starred review writes: “Readers will discover something new and redefining on every page as long-concealed incidents and individuals, causes and effects are brought to light by Hannah-Jones and seventeen other vital thinkers and clarion writers . . . each of whom sharpens our understanding of the dire influence of anti-Black racism on everything . . . and how Black Americans fighting for equality decade after decade have preserved our democracy.”
To spark a vital conversation on race and inequality at your next event, book speaker Nikole Hannah-Jones. Contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau, for more information.
Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb captured the hearts and minds of millions with her smash hit Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: a memoir revealing powerful stories from inside her therapy room. Today, she releases its groundbreaking companion guide—a step-by-step process for discovering our most authentic life stories.
“Part of getting to know yourself is to unknow yourself—to let go of the limiting stories you’ve told yourself about who you are so that you can live your life, and not the stories you’ve been telling yourself about your life,” explains Lori Gottlieb. With the release of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: The Workbook, she offers readers new concepts, thought-provoking exercises, and compelling writing prompts, all in the service of helping us become the editors of our own lives.
“An experience, a meditation, and a practical toolkit” combined into one, the Maybe You Should Talk to Someone workbook offers a revolutionary method for understanding which stories to keep and which to revise.
In Talking to Canadians,Rick Mercerfinally turns the spotlight on himself—revealing how he went from “highly unpromising schoolboy” and aspiring actor, to one of the nation’s most popular comedians and political satirists.
In turns hilarious and deeply moving, Rick Mercer’s memoir offers a glimpse into both his youth and his rise to TV fame, written in his usual and widely cherished anecdotal style. Fans will also be treated to a wealth of behind-the-scenes revelations about the origins and making of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Made in Canada, and Talking to Americans.
Margaret Atwood, the legendary author of The Handmaid’s Tale, offers her praise for this entertaining and action-packed chronicle of Mercer’s life. She writes, “Talking to Canadians [is a] funny, pitfall-strewn, no-holds-barred memoir from the ranting TV uproarist, edge-walker, envelope-pusher and pot-stirrer.”
We are only just beginning to understand the deep impacts of racial resentment—including its fatal consequences on public health. In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans were drawn to politicians who pledged to make their lives great again. But as Lavin’s newest speaker physician JONATHAN METZLshows in his explosive book Dying of Whiteness, the policies that resulted actually placed those voters at ever-greater risk of illness and even death, and harmed everyone’s well-being.
As a professor, psychiatrist, and prominent expert on gun violence and mental illness, Jonathan Metzl makes sense of the urgent issues of our time: healthcare reform, education policy, guns, politics, American race relations, and diversity. Through these lenses, he exposes the tremendous harm that racism and other forms of prejudice pose to our society’s well-being (read his latest for the Boston Reviewhere).
But why do people so often vote against their own interests? And how can we build a movement towards justice and compassion, rather than chasing false ideals of supremacy? Metzl answers these necessary questions in groundbreaking and empathetic talks—based on his critically acclaimed book—proving “that policies promising to bolster white Americans’ status have instead made life ‘sicker, harder, and shorter’ for all…” (Publishers Weekly). If we want to “build back better” in a post-pandemic world, Metzl’s insights will drive our collective efforts toward a society that’s healthier for everyone.
Discover how we can extinguish the fire of racial resentment in public health with speaker Jonathan Metzl at your next event. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, today.
In this non-fiction anthology, co-edited alongside Ramón A. Gutiérrez, Kathleen Belewreveals how the ideals of white supremacy operate in American life.
A Field Guide to White Supremacy is a remarkably far-reaching book featuring the work of brilliant writers, scholars, and commentators. It covers everything from colonialism to the patriarchy to racial violence and police brutality, Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant policies. This collection, with nuance and sophistication, connects these topics to white supremacy—arguing that it is perhaps the most dominant ideology in the history of the United States.
A leading expert in the white power movement, Kathleen Belew hopes that understanding the history of organized hate could have “a utility in confronting the present and imagining a different future.” Jelani Cobb, staff writer at the New Yorker and professor at Columbia University, writes: “A Field Guide to White Supremacy is as urgent an intervention as the problem it addresses. Incisive, erudite, and driven by a relentlessly democratic ethic, these essays are crucial to understanding a cruel, metastatic doctrine that looms among our most pressing national concerns.”
In his new book Black Paper, Teju Cole explores what it was like to be a Black man in America between 2016 and 2019, through the lenses of art, literature, politics, and activism.
How do we sustain our humanity during times of darkness? And what does it mean to bear witness to the humanity of others? These are the central questions in Teju Cole’s latest collection of essays. Searing, provocative, and written with his signature precision, Cole’s commentary strikes a balance between personal and universal; scholarly and compassionate; and honest yet hopeful. “Black Paper had a long gestation period because it includes essays from a span of many years,” explains Cole. “Ultimately, these are all essays that emerged in response to Donald Trump’s presidency. But they’re not about Trump. They’re about what you do when the world is knocked upside down.”
In their review, The Guardian writes, “To read this book is to enjoy the generosity of his thought, to be invited into a contemplation of your inner life, to embrace the complexity of others, and to see in the darkness not only despair but also understanding and even refuge.”
Black Paper is available everywhere you buy books.
To book speaker Teju Cole for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
For his sixth book, renowned chef, author, and food justice advocate Bryant Terry turned to his friends and colleagues. Black Food: Stories, Art & Recipes From Across the African Diaspora is a heartfelt celebration of Black culinary ingenuity, featuring the work of countless influential contributors.
Described by Bryant Terry as a “communal shrine,” Black Food encompasses cuisines from the Caribbean, the U.S., and across the African continent. Far from a collection of recipes, though, the book also includes essays, poems, playlists, and illustrations, all offered in loving tribute to the Black diaspora. More than 100 contributors were involved in the project, the first publication under Terry’s new imprint, 4 Color Books. Chefs, artists, scholars, activists, and journalists gracefully entwine their practical know-how with rich histories and ancestral memories passed down from generations. Beautiful and inspiring, Black Food will not only nourish you, but make you think deeply about issues such as food insecurity, community, and radical self-care.
“These pages offer up gratitude to the great chain of Black lives, and to all the sustaining ingredients and nourishing traditions they carried and remembered, through time and space, to deliver their kin into the future,” writes Terry.
Black Foodis available everywhere you buy books today.
Book chef Bryant Terry for your next event. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, for more information.
Fall is upon us, so we here at Lavin wanted to bring you a selection of our favorite reads to grace your bookshelves this season. From riveting non-fiction that will change the way you see the world, to practical guidebooks for finding success in an unpredictable climate, there’s something here for everyone.
Jessica Nordell’s The End of Bias: A Beginning
When it comes to uprooting our prejudices, we still have far to go. To help catalyze our progress comes a transformative, groundbreaking exploration by an acclaimed science journalist. This book reveals concrete steps for how to eradicate uninetentional bias and discrimination—arguably one of the greatest challenges of our age.
Jonathan Brill’s Rogue Waves: Future-Proof Your Business to Survive and Profit from Radical Change
Learn from a renowned business futurist about how to survive and thrive in times of radical disruption (caused by the convergence of economic, technological, and social change). This is a must-read business survival guide to help you take advantage of randomness, turn chaos into profit, and control your future.
Loran Nordgren’s The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas
For anyone who wants to introduce a new idea into the world, this award-winning behavioral scientist and Kellogg School professor offers an indispensable resource. Rather than rest on the power of persuasion, this book teaches us how to overcome the powerful forces of human nature that resist change in the first place.
Martin Ford’s Rule of the Robots: How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything
A technology of such scale and power that we will one day compare it to electricity—AI is set to remodel all aspects of our human experience. This bestselling author brings us today’s most compelling look at AI’s advance, its revolutionary opportunities, and its most dangerous challenges.
Andrea Elliott’s Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City
The debut from this Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist reveals an astonishing story about the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality—all through the lens of one remarkable young girl in Brooklyn.
Eyal Press’ Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America
An engrossing read that reveals the urgent and fundamental truths that are missing from our national conversation on inequality—shedding light on the jobs that society considers essential yet morally compromised, and which are often left to those most vulnerable.
Bryant Terry’s Black Food: Stories, Art, and Recipes
In a groundbreaking new cookbook, this award-winning chef, critically acclaimed author, and food justice activist offers a gorgeous and heartfelt tribute to Black culinary ingenuity, featuring contributions from 100 Black cultural luminaries from around the globe. (Forthcoming, available Oct. 19th.)
Kathleen Belew’s A Field Guide to White Supremacy
Drawing explicit lines across time and a spectrum of violent acts, this historian provides the definitive field guide for understanding and opposing white supremacy in America. This is an urgent resource for anyone who wishes to recognize and defy the cruel violence that looms among our most pressing national concerns. (Forthcoming, available Oct. 26th.)
Jelani Cobb’s The Essential Kerner Report
A woefully neglected government report shines again when we need it most. Discover what inequality could look like in the post-pandemic landscape, as one of the nation’s preeminent historians and scholars contextualizes our ongoing battles with economic inequality, race, and policing.
Steven Pinker’sRationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
The newest New York Times bestseller from this acclaimed cognitive scientist inspires and empowers us by revealing why rationality matters and how we can use it to make better choices in our lives and in the public sphere.
To book an acclaimed author for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agencyand speak with one of our knowledgable agents.
The ideas that change the world are those that reach the largest number of people, says John List: a leading economist at The University of Chicago, and the Chief Economist at ride-share giant Lyft. But how can we make sure our best ideas reach our desired audiences? Thankfully, there are vital attributes that all “scalable” ideas possess—and List is uniquely equipped to share them, as one of Lavin’s newest speakers.
In his upcoming book The Voltage Effect(Penguin Random House, 2022), John List distills years of hands-on experience in both behavioral economics and 21st century business to help us understand why some ideas take off while others fall flat. One of the foremost economists working in the world, List has had the opportunity to work with brands like Facebook, Google, and both Uber and Lyft — where he held permanent positions as the companies’ Chief Economist.
Scaling an idea is not just for tech start-ups: it’s essential for every business that wants to make an impact, explains List. The trouble is, most organizations have a vague idea of what it means and how to get there. When is a business ready to expand its geographical footprint? How can you tell whether a new product is the right fit? List answers these questions and many more, offering a unique, science-backed roadmap for how anyone can grow their next idea.
Book leading economist John List to boost innovation at your organization, today. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, for more information.
At the heart of creating change lies a deep and often destructive assumption that can thwart our best efforts at innovation: it’s the conventional belief that the best way to get people to embrace our idea, is to increase the appeal of the idea itself. However, this approach neglects the psychological “frictions” that hold us back, despite all of the benefits. Helping us demystify the forces that propel and prevent innovation isLORAN NORDGREN, professor at the Kellogg School of Management and Lavin’s newest speaker.
As an award-winning organizational psychologist,Loran Nordgrenoffers us a new way of thinking about change—helping us move from a “fuel-based mindset” that focuses on persuading our audience, to a more balanced approach that also considers how we can help them overcome their natural resistance. Friction, unchecked, is the reason why even our strongest ideas face rejection (despite their clear value). But, as Nordgren reveals, friction itself can be forecasted and transformed into a catalyst for propelling our innovation forward.
In captivating talks and his brand new book The Human Element, Nordgren teaches us to disarm the forces of resistance that act against change. His paradigm-shifting frameworks—particularly timely in a society facing momentous upheaval—will help leaders, entrepreneurs, and everyone else improve their odds of success. Fellow Lavin Speaker Francesca Gino, an award-winning Harvard Business School professor, innovation expert, and author, calls it: “Insightful and engaging, […] a must read for anyone who wants to successfully launch a project, a product, or an idea.”
Bring your best ideas to life with speaker Loran Nordgren at your next event. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, today.
An investigative reporter for The New York Times, Andrea Elliott chronicles the life of a young girl facing poverty, homelessness, and racism in this astonishing and unforgettable book.
Based on ten years of in-depth reporting, Invisible Child illuminates critical issues in America today, from structural racism to class warfare, through the remarkable coming-of-age story of Dasani Coates. Guiding her siblings through a city riddled by hunger, violence, drug addiction, and homelessness, Dasani becomes a fierce fighter to protect the ones she loves. When she finally has the opportunity to trade city life for boarding school, she comes face-to-face with an impossible question: What if leaving poverty means abandoning your family, and yourself?
Deeply moving and inspiring, Invisible Child explores the power of resilience, the importance of family, and the cost of inequality. Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies, writes, “This book is so many things: a staggering feat of reporting, an act of profound civic love, an extraordinarily moving tale about the fierceness of family love, and above all, a future American classic.”
It seems like rationality today is in short supply. On one end of the spectrum, scientists are achieving medical break-throughs—like developing the COVID vaccine—in record time. Yet on the other end, lies misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories bordering on hysteria. How can this be? And what can we do about it? Steven Pinker explores in his new book Rationality.
Human beings are not irrational. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself, explains Steven Pinker, author of Enlightenment Now (one of Bill Gates’ favorite books). Unfortunately, it also happens that rational pursuits of self-interest, sectarian solidarity, and uplifting mythology, can add up to crippling irrationality in a society—if they are not balanced by norms designed to promote objectivity and truth.
Here, Pinker helps us take advantage of the powerful tools of reason at our disposal: logic, critical thinking, probability, and correlation and causation—showing us how to use them to update our beliefs and make better choices, both personally and societally.
Brimming with Pinker’s customary insight and humor, Rationalitywill enlighten, inspire, and empower. Available everywhere you buy books September 28th.
Book science speaker Steven Pinker for your next event. Contact The Lavin Agencytoday and speak to a knowledgeable agent for more information.
We see the detrimental effects of unconscious bias and discrimination everywhere: in our schools, our workplaces, our hospitals, and beyond. Yet change is possible, says acclaimed science journalist Jessica Nordell. In her debut book The End of Bias, Lavin’s newest speaker shows us the science-based approach for uprooting our deepest prejudices.
Unconscious bias is the persistent, unintentional, and prejudiced behavior that clashes with our consciously held beliefs. Try as we might to build healthy and diverse organizations—if we don’t do the deep work of overcoming our biases first, we’re doomed to repeat past mistakes. Thankfully, Jessica Nordell’s brilliant book goes beyond lip-service, providing concrete steps for eliminating bias and helping audiences across all industries create more equitable teams, organizations, and communities. Captivating and direct, Nordell offers a combination of state-of-the-art science and real-world stories to facilitate lasting and meaningful transformations.
“Despite revolutions in our understanding of bias, we’re still much better at documenting the problem than solving it. When it comes to prevention and cure, Jessica Nordell’s powerful book is a breakthrough,” declares Adam Grant, the bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife.
The End of Bias is available everywhere you buy books today.
To book speaker Jessica Nordell for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
We’re moving towards the post-pandemic world, but the collective grief, trauma, and suffering of the last two years still lingers. New Lavin speaker John Kaag, the Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, shows us how we can process our feelings post-crisis, find hope and strength to move on, and actively pursue a life worth living.
It’s possible to live meaningfully, not in spite of suffering—but by virtue of it. In his award-winning books American Philosophy, Hiking with Nietzche, and his most recent release, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds, John Kaag introduces us to “the philosophy of everyday life”: the ideas, concepts, and therapeutic techniques that can help us flourish, even in the face of hardship. Following in the path of William James—the founder of modern psychology—and a host of other great thinkers, Kaag shows us how to respond to our challenges while staying hopeful for the future. It’s impossible to avoid struggle, explains Kaag. The key is to struggle in the right way.
Since its timely release in early 2020, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds has received tremendous praise from the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post Book Club, which writes, “This is a tough, honest book that offers no easy answers. . . . Kaag acknowledges that our passage through life is fraught with risks, but those risks always include the chance of happiness.”
Discover how to live a meaningful life by booking speaker John Kaag for your next event. Contact The Lavin Agencyfor more information.
From the smartphones in our pockets to the diagnostic tools used by doctors, AI has taken over every facet of our lives. But in his new book Rule of the Robots, New York Times bestselling author Martin Ford argues that the true revolution has yet to come.
In this sequel to his prescient New York Times bestseller Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford presents us with a striking vision of the very near future. Artificial intelligence is a powerful technology, says Ford, giving us unique capabilities to do extraordinary things, like fight climate change or the next pandemic. However, it also has the capacity to cause profound harm. From deep fake videos circulating online to authoritarian regimes, AI can be deeply biased and exploited for social control. If we are to thrive in the twenty-first century, we need to embrace AI—there’s no turning back now—but proceed with caution. Ford’s Rule of the Robots offers us an essential guide to how the technology will influence our economy, our politics, and our lives in the coming years.
James Manyika, Chairman and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, calls it “Probably the most compelling single-volume book so far on AI’s advance and the opportunities and challenges associated with its multifaceted impact on the world.”
Rule of the Robotsis available everywhere you buy books on September 14th.
To book speaker Martin Ford, an expert in artificial intelligence, for your next event,contact The Lavin Agency today.
Data in the twenty-first century is ubiquitous and essential, helping marketers learn about their customers with target precision. But what if we’re thinking about data all wrong? Having led over 2,500 engagements with the world’s biggest advertisers, Neil Hoyne shows us how to get the most out of our analytics by focusing on a long-term strategy.
What if, instead of collecting copious amounts of information on every potential customer, we used data to understand who our best customers are and then build around them? This is the central question in Neil Hoyne’s upcoming book Converted: The Data-Driven Way To Win Customers’ Hearts. Eighty percent of revenue comes from cultivating just 20% of the consumer base, says Hoyne. Unfortunately, too often leaders and organizers focus on a transactional, short-term strategy, revolving around the point-of-purchase moment, rather than the customer themselves. This approach is not only short-sighted—it’s quickly becoming obsolete, especially in a post-pandemic landscape that has seen consumers dramatically alter their shopping behavior. In sharp contrast with that approach, Hoyne shows audiences how to build stronger, more direct relationships with their 20%, putting them on a better path than their competitors.
In addition to his role as Google’s Chief Measurement Strategist, Hoyne is a senior fellow at Wharton. And though his sessions are packed with information, he has an accessible, non-technical presentation style that audiences can easily grasp and put into practice. Book him today to discover a new way to gather, interpret, and apply data to push growth in the twenty-first century.
To book speaker Neil Hoyne for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
In his new book The Power of Us, Jay Van Bavel explores the dynamics of our social identities: What causes people to develop social identities? What happens when they define themselves by the groups they belong to? And under what conditions does the human tendency to divide the world into “us” versus “them” become toxic and devastating? These questions and more are answered in The Power of Us, which offers a page-turning exploration of how we can use our shared identities to increase collaboration, performance, and social harmony.
In this provocative and well-researched book, NYU professor Jay Van Bavel and his co-author Dominic J. Packer, use a combination of social psychology and cognitive neuroscience to explain how our identity is shaped by the people around us. Groups are central to how we define ourselves, says Van Bavel. And they can have profound effects on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This can be a positive and a negative: shared identities provide the foundation for a great deal of human coordination. Yet they can also make people overly loyal to their own groups, even going as far as to harm those who don’t belong.
The Power of Us explains how identity really works, and how we can harness it for our benefit: helping us lead more effectively, boost collaboration and productivity, overcome bias, break political gridlock, foster (healthy) dissent, mobilize for change, and address persistent global problems. Charles Duhigg, bestselling author of The Power of Habit, declares it “a practical, entertaining and, above all, vital guide to human behavior.”
The Power of Us is available everywhere you buy books September 7th.
Radical changes are hitting businesses harder, faster, and more often than ever before. And though everyone will face them at some point or another, some companies will fare better than others. In Rogue Waves, Jonathan Brill, an expert in resilient growth and decision-making in times of uncertainty, reveals an actionable plan for “driving change, instead of becoming blindsighted by it.” (Adam Grant).
At this moment, rogue waves are forming under your business. Emerging technologies, changing demographics, the data economy, automation―the undercurrents of radical, systemic change―are crashing into each other. When they converge, they’ll produce sea changes that sink companies and wash away entire industries overnight. The good news is that you can future-proof your business to survive, and even profit, from radical change, says innovation expert Jonathan Brill.
The evidence-based frameworks in his new book Rogue Waves are already being used by tens of thousands of executives at organizations like HP, Zoom, Samsung, and the United States government. Safi Bacall, fellow Lavin speaker and author of the international bestseller Loonshots, calls it “an indispensable guide for staying ahead.” In his new talks based on the book, Brill teaches you The ABCs of Resilient Growth: helping you maximize foresight, risk, and opportunity in a turbulent world.
Rogue Waves is available everywhere you buy books on August 17th.
Book speaker Jonathan Brill today and learn how to turn chaos into profit. Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau, for more information.
In her deeply personal book The First, the Few, the Only (forthcoming), Deepa Purushothamanreveals her experience as an Indian-American woman in the corporate world. Joining The Lavin Agency as a new speaker, she offers this real-world experience as a guiding light for organizations looking to evolve—creating diversity, equity, and inclusion measures that actually work.
Despite being one of the fastest-growing segments in the corporate workforce, women of color remain underrepresented—often among the first, few, or only ones in a department or company. In fact, WOC make up only 18% of entry-level positions and just 3% of the corporate C-suite. The first Indian-American woman to make partner at Deloitte, Deepa Purushothaman experienced her share as a “first, few, and only.” But instead of bringing her down, it inspired her to fight for radical change in the corporate world.
For too long, corporate structures have left WOC feeling underestimated, dismissed, or pressured to conform. In her upcoming book, as well as her passionate talks, Purushothaman offers a call-to-action for women of color to find power within themselves, join together in community, and champion a new kind of corporate environment. “There’s so many things happening in our political world and in general society that this feels like a growing moment for women of color,” says Purushothaman.
It’s long overdue that we expand our definition of what a leader looks like. Audiences will walk away from Purushothaman’s talks with actionable strategies for finding, retaining, and advancing POC in the workplace—as well as learn how to unapologetically advocate for themselves at work.
Discover how work can be truly inclusive for all. Book speaker Deepa Purushothaman today by contacting The Lavin Agencytoday.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic drew attention to essential workers and our utter dependence on them, there were countless ethically troubling jobs being performed out of sight. Imprisoning criminals. Slaughtering animals. Fighting wars. In his masterful new book Dirty Work, Eyal Pressexplores jobs that are both essential and, at the same time, morally compromised.
Most citizens are shielded from seeing America’s “dirty work” because it’s performed by less privileged people: low-income workers, undocumented immigrants, women, and people of color bear the brunt of these jobs. In this beautifully probing investigation, Eyal Press explores the psychological and emotional hardships associated with them, such as stigma, shame, PTSD, and moral injury.
Celebrated author Rebecca Solnit, writes “This is a scathing and thoughtful book about labor and principles—or, rather about when the former sabotages the latter, in the brutal industries that prop up American life, from our appetite for cheap meat and fossil fuel to mass incarceration to remote killing as part of our foreign policy to the tech industry’s amoral profit seeking. Though the moral injury impacts the workers first, it belongs to us all. Eyal Press brings this home in a series of powerful portraits of workers, and through considerations of both their industries and the ways we look away or are prevented from seeing what they do. Ultimately, Dirty Work is a book about human sacrifice and the forces that disguise it.”
Dirty Work is available everywhere you buy books on August 17th.
To book speaker Eyal Press for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
A new look at a shocking 1960s government report on systemic racism, edited by Lavin Speaker Jelani Cobb, reveals how we’re tragically repeating history.
In The Essential Kerner Commission Report, Columbia professor and New Yorker correspondent Jelani Cobb, and his co-editor UC Berkeley historian Matthew Guariglia, offer a condensed version of the 1968 historic study, released shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the 53 years since its initial publication, awareness of the report’s findings have “ebbed and flowed in the public consciousness,” writes The Los Angeles Times, noting that the groundbreaking exploration of economic inequality, racism, and policing seems especially relevant after George Floyd’s murder last year. “Cobb’s and Guariglia’s edits draw attention to misconceptions regarding the key players in civil unrest then and now: police, protestors, and the media.”
As the movement for racial justice continues to grow, Cobb’s version of the report—including an enlightening introduction—contextualizes it for a new generation.
To book speaker Jelani Cobb for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
One of Silicon Valley’s most successful and well-respected leaders, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is no stranger to risk. In her upcoming book Choose Possibility, Lavin’s newest speaker reveals how the many personal and professional leaps she took along the way led her to where she is today.
In her 25-year career, Sukhinder Singh Cassidy has served as president of StubHub, helped scale companies like Google and Amazon, and founded theBoardlist: a premium talent marketplace for diverse leaders. What she’s come to realize—through countless mistakes and a lot of trial-and-error—is that success doesn’t come from making one singular “correct” or “big” decision. It comes from the willingness to face risk repeatedly in our much smaller, everyday choices.
In her book Choose Possibility, alongside her accompanying talks, Singh Cassidy shows us a risk-taking framework that can help each of us have a healthy, proactive, and ongoing relationship with risk. In a volatile, unpredictable world, it’s the best thing we can do to optimize our future success, says Singh Cassidy.
This past year has taught us that sudden, unexpected change may always be just around the corner. And although this might sound scary, success is waiting for those who can let go of protecting yesterday’s status quo. Helping us find the courage to do just that isJason Feifer—the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur Magazine and Lavin’s newest speaker. Immersed in dialogue with some of the world’s most influential change-makers, Feifer teaches us how to get out of our own way and embrace the future.
In 2022, Jason Feifer will release his first book, Build for Tomorrow, Not for Yesterday (Penguin Random House): a guide explaining how we predictably move through the stages of change, in order to help us do it better. “The future is not optional, which means we really only have two choices: We can help shape it ourselves, or we can stand still and let everyone else pass us by,” says Feifer. A storyteller by nature and profession, Feifer’s electrifying, high-impact talks will both entertain and educate us on how to pursue the benefits of change so that we don’t get left behind in a world that’s currently rethinking everything.
Feifer is also the host of two podcasts: Build For Tomorrow—a show looking to history for clues on how we can shape our future—and Problem Solvers, which invites high-profile business guests to share how they overcame unexpected challenges. With insights coming directly from some of the greatest minds in business, Feifer reframes our relationship with change and reveals how to future-proof ourselves, our teams, and our businesses.
Learn how the future can be yours with Jason Feifer.Contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau.
Long before self-compassion had become common parlance, DR. KRISTIN NEFF was leading pioneering research in the field. Countless studies have been published since her first groundbreaking book Self-Compassion, and today, she reshapes our understanding once more with her new release: Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive.
With the rise of movements like #MeToo, and the guidance of leaders like Kristin Neff, we are gradually learning to acknowledge that our self-compassion must be fierce as well as tender. “When we hold our pain with fierce, empowered truth, we can speak up and tell our stories, to protect ourselves and others from being harmed,” explains Neff. By balancing both sides of our compassion, we can unlock the rewards of lasting happiness and a healthier society.
Ensuring our own needs are met will also make us better leaders, employees, and caregivers by boosting productivity, tackling burnout, and tapping into our full potential. Although Neff’s messaging is geared toward women, Fierce Self-Compassion offers actionable insights for how everyone can celebrate their inner voice and liberate the fierceness of their true nature.
“The authoritative guide to self-compassion for women by the field’s pioneering founder and leading spokesperson. Through her science and compelling personal story, Kristin Neff shows us how and why to be kind to ourselves.” —Angela Duckworth, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Grit
The pandemic brought its share of hardships, but also enabled the most beloved writers in young adult literature to collaborate on a new novel. Blackout features six award-winning, Black, female authors—including two Lavin Speakers: New York Times bestselling authors ANGIE THOMAS and NIC STONE.
Blackout proves to be a groundbreaking book—not only thanks to the influential clout of its authors, but because of its revolutionary focus on Black joy. Standing in uplifting contrast to today’s news headlines and narratives of police brutality, both Angie Thomas and Nic Stone bring a celebratory tone to their contributions. Together, their message validates the Black youth experience—reminding young readers that they deserve to see themselves reflected in stories of joy. “We, Black people, are more than struggle or hardship,” says Thomas. Stone adds, “There is no fiercer form of rebellion than telling love stories about kids who are often told they’re unworthy of them, at a time like the one we’re living in.” In the midst of a world that inundates youth with narratives of adversity, Thomas and Stone offer a hopeful, urgent message—that life fuels art, art mirrors life, and books can change lives.
In addition to Thomas and Stone, Blackout features authors Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany D. Jackson, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon, who together, bring “a necessary elation to stories of Black love, queer love, and alternative forms of affection, all of which are all tenderly highlighted in these narratives” (Publishers Weekly, Starred Review).
Blackout is available everywhere you buy books on June 22nd.
Address social injustice with speakers Angie Thomas and Nic Stone—contact The Lavin Agencytoday.
James Ellroy is the author behind L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia, and some of the most epic crime novels of our time. In Widespread Panic, his latest novel, he weaves a dark story of 1950’s Hollywood, punctuated by secrets, blackmail, extortion, and prowlers—making it what NPR calls “the most Ellroy novel he’s ever written.”
In Widespread Panic, James Ellroy follows the fictional escapades of LA’s real-life man-about-town Freddy Otash. An infamous police officer and private investigator, Otash became known as a “Hollywood fixer” — working closely with Confidential, the premier gossip rag of its time, to report on the scandals of celebrities and politicians. (He was reportedly the inspiration for Jake Gittes, the detective played by Jack Nicholson in the film Chinatown). NPR writes, “Otash was running the show, and Widespread Panic chronicles his rise and eventual fall as he becomes an informant while following a series of plots that include finding Rock Hudson a fake wife to hide his homosexuality and covering Kennedy’s misdeeds to protect his political career.”
Anyone who’s ever been intrigued by Ellroy’s distinctive brand of noir fiction will delight in this titillating new adventure, which echoes his most iconic work while continuing to stay fresh.
Book speaker James Ellroy for your next event by contacting The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
To build an anti-racist society, we must first recognize our shared humanity, says #1 New York Times bestselling authorNic Stone. In her vivid and timely novels, Stone lays bare the systemic racism in our nation, teaches us to recognize our shared experiences, and creates the foundations necessary for dismantling oppression. The Lavin Agency is proud to welcome her as one of our newest speakers.
Called “an unforgettable tour de force of social-justice and activist literature,” Nic Stone’s debut novel Dear Justyce is taught in classrooms across the country today. She expertly balances messages of economic and racial hardship with levity—offering humor and hope alongside crucial lessons about accountability. Recently, Stone crafted a Marvel series inspired by the blockbuster hit Black Panther, and her latest book Fast Pitch is slated for release in August of this year. Her body of work is widely acclaimed, counting The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas among her many fans—she calls Stone’s debut a “must-read” and describes her writing as “honest and gut-wrenching.”
In her down-to-earth talks, Stone draws on themes from her work, revealing how empathy and human connection motivate us to act as a force for social change. Audiences will come away from her talks enlightened, empowered, and armed with the tools they need to effectively address social injustice.
Become inspired to work toward an equitable future. Book speaker Nic Stone today by contacting The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.
2020 was a year of confusion for America, but ultimately clarity—further exposing the nation’s blatant inequalities and deepening societal rifts. The year left Americans across the country in despair about what was next for their country and its democratic ideals. In his new book Last Best Hope, acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author GEORGE PACKER offers a timely diagnosis of this descent into a failed state, and illuminates a path toward overcoming these injustices, paralyses and divides.
As we move towards national renewal post-pandemic, Packer offers a vibrant and trenchant analysis of the narratives that will define our path forward. Pointing a more hopeful way forward, Packer speaks to Americans seeking to understand our current moment. Weaving together stories from the country’s centers of power, as well as its forgotten places, this book goes on to suggest a powerful equation for how we might restore unity. For a nation at war with itself, Packer challenges us to consider a new path toward equality and overcoming our divides—ultimately redefining the heart of the American experiment.
Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewalis available everywhere you buy books on June 15th.
Discover an original perspective on what it feels like to be alive and in America at this moment. Book speaker George Packer by contacting The Lavin Agency today.
There is perhaps no one more qualified to advise you on the ins-and-outs of creative leadership than new Lavin speaker Greg Hoffman. Throughout his 20+ years at Nike, Hoffman helped lead the sporting giant’s most innovative branding, marketing, and design efforts—from the Emmy Award-winning Colin Kaepernick campaign to the most remembered ad of the 2016 Olympics. His talks teach you how to use creativity to lead stronger teams, produce better work, and leave a legacy that changes the world.
Embodying values of curiosity, risk-taking, and radical collaboration is what allowed Hoffman to climb the ranks at Nike, from design intern to Chief Marketing Officer to VP of Global Brand Innovation. His unforgettable work, driving social and cultural change through the lens of sport, was informed by his position as both an African American brand leader, and a champion of the Nike Black Employee Network. Diversity is the oxygen that breathes life into the creative process, Hoffman says. A creative dream team must embrace the non-linear thinkers, the quiet introverts, and the unique lived experiences of each and every contributor. Hoffman’s presentations show you how to harness creativity at every level, building the type of brand legacy that transcends product categories and makes a positive impact on the world around us.
In his forthcoming book, Hoffman gathers insights from his decades-long career and fashions them into an actionable guidebook for the post-pandemic future. Emotion by Design promises to be a “masterclass in creativity,” from one of the most accomplished leaders in the field: Hoffman has been named one of Fast Company’s ‘Most Creative People in Business,’ one of Business Insider’s ‘50 Most Innovative CMO’s’ and one of AdAge’s Power Players.
To book speaker Greg Hoffman for your next event,contact The Lavin Agencytoday, his exclusive speakers’ bureau.
The billion-dollar question of business, politics, even the foundation of society itself—why do we want the things that we want? It is both shocking and revealing that everything we desire, do, or create is powerfully influenced by those around us. In his new book,Wanting, serial entrepreneur LUKE BURGISmakes a startling case about the hidden forces that shape our desires—mimetic theory: the truth about the human condition, your job, and your life.
Few have yet heard of mimetics—the concept that desire is a social construct—but it is simultaneously a tool to build unity and the fuel for cycles of conflict. The more we want the same things, the more we compete for them. For leadership, the key to overcoming this conflict is developing intentional, rather than blind, desire—understanding hidden rivalries and rethinking motivations to unlock innovation and collaboration.
In Wanting, Burgis also goes beyond theory to offer a valuable toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires. When we realize that desire is contagious and malleable, we gain control over the things we want, finding meaning and independence. Until we gain that insight, we are all vulnerable to mimetic’s destructive power and those who exploit it.
Wantingis available everywhere you buy books on June 1st.
In 2020, our world changed overnight—and so did our workplaces. The Lavin Agency’s 2021 WORKPLACE CULTURE REPORT explores the lessons we’ve learned since the pandemic began, and how to apply them to our organizations in a proactive way. Informed by industry-leading experts and trailblazers, this report will provide you and your team with the right tools to reinvent your work culture for the post-pandemic era.
Every business, both big and small, has been affected in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic, its severe economic fallout, and the growing, worldwide movement for racial equality happening alongside it. If last year was all about weathering the storm, this year is more about reimagining the workplace and, more specifically, management culture. Organizations can either continue as they have been, assuming their culture is “good enough” to engage and motivate their employees. Or they can build a superior employee experience from the ground up, making sure to nurture, appreciate, and uplift their teams and put them on a path towards meaningful success.
Learn how to adopt fresh practices and accelerate meaningful change within your organization by:
— Cultivating authentic employee experiences
— Investing in diversity, equity, and inclusion
— Offering opportunities for leadership and development
— Bridging the gap between remote and in-person teams
Make sure you’re taking advantage of every opportunity to grow. First, download our 2021 Workplace Culture Report. Then, check out a full list of speakers who have championed workplace culture change in some of the most established organizations in the world.
To book a culture speaker for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today and speak with a skilled agent.
We lost an essential toolkit for solving today’s challenges when most of us left geometry behind in the back of a high school classroom. In his new book, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything Else, New York Times bestselling author JORDAN ELLENBERGexplores the subject’s surprising relevance and its power to reimagine the foundations of our society.
As Jordan Ellenberg uncovers, geometry can help us better understand practically everything, both in our personal and professional lives. If we look back to its roots, we find that the term “geometry” comes from the Greek word for “measuring the world.” But, surprisingly, even this idea sells the concept short. Geometry doesn’t just measure our lives— it shapes them. The common geometry we’ve been taught only brushes the surface—upon deeper consideration, it can answer some of the most important philosophical, political, and scientific dilemmas in the world today. As Ellenberg says, “Knowing mathematics is like wearing a pair of X-ray specs that reveal hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of the world.”
Written with fresh curiosity, compelling anecdotes, and jargon-free language, Shape exposes profound truths from one of the oldest branches of mathematics. Ellenberg approaches the subject with genuine enthusiasm—deftly exposing geometry as an extension of common sense by other means. From the predictability of randomness to the nature of distance, you’ll learn how an understanding of geometry can help us tame uncertainty in today’s upside-down world.
“Serious mathematics at its intriguing, transporting best…[a] humorous, anecdotally rich dive into numerous mathematical theories.” — Kirkus
Shape is available everywhere you buy books on May 25th.
Unlock the power of geometry for yourself, your team and your business with Jordan Ellenberg—contact The Lavin Agency today.
To live in data is to be incessantly extracted from; to be classified and categorized, statisti-fied, sold and surveilled. Our data is mined and processed for profit, power and political gain. Our clicks, likes and virtual footsteps feed new digital methods of control. In his new hit book Living in Data: A Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future, Jer Thorp asks a crucial question of our time: how do we stop passively inhabiting data, and become active citizens of it?
Jer Thorp brings his work as a data artist to bear on an exploration of our current and future relationship with data, transcending facts and figures to find new, more visceral ways to engage with data. Threading a data story through hippo attacks, glaciers, and school gymnasiums; around colossal rice piles and over active minefields, Living in Data keeps humanity front and center. Thorp reminds us that the future of data is still wide open; that there are stories to be told about how data can be used, and by whom.
Living in Data not only redefines what data is, but re-imagines how it might be truly public, who gets to speak its language, and how, using its power, new institutions and spaces might be created to serve individuals and communities.
Living in Data: A Citizen’s Guide to a Better Information Future is available everywhere you buy books.
Looking for a speaker to help examine our ongoing dynamic with the data that defines us? Find out how to book Jer Thorp by contacting The Lavin Agency today.
On June 19, 1865, Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger announced the end of legalized slavery in Galveston, Texas—the state where award-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed was born and raised. In her new book On Juneteenth, she explores the holiday’s integral importance to American history, both from the perspective of a historian and a Texas native.
Annette Gordon-Reed weaves together stories of her family’s deep Texan roots into the backdrop of a much wider investigation. Poignant and searing, this book not only reveals the historical origins of Juneteenth; it also tells the horrors that African-Americans have endured in the century since—powerfully reminding us that the fight for equality is long from over.
“One of the things that makes this slender book stand out is Gordon-Reed’s ability to combine clarity with subtlety, elegantly carving a path between competing positions instead of doing as too many of us do in this age of hepped-up social-media provocations by simply reacting to them,” writes The New York Times. “In On Juneteenth she leads by example, revisiting her own experiences, questioning her own assumptions—and showing that historical understanding is a process, not an end point.”
On Juneteenthis available everywhere you buy books on May 4th.
Looking for a speaker to commemorate Juneteenth? Find out how to book Annette Gordon-Reed by contacting The Lavin Agencytoday.
After a year in which many of us plunged into remote work overnight, we finally have a chance to make thoughtful choices about how to combine remote and office work. In her new book Remote Inc., Alexandra Samuel—a tech journalist and remote work professional of 25 years—reveals how to adopt the mindset and habits of people who flourish while working outside the office.
As companies begin reopening their offices, many are deciding how to factor remote work into their long-term plans. The flexibility of the hybrid office is certainly appealing, to both employers and employees —but how to put it into practice is another story. How can leaders manage teams working in different locations? And how can employees make the most of their time at home and at the office?
Remote Inc. by Alexandra Samuel (and productivity guru Robert Pozen), offers a roadmap for this unprecedented moment in history. In it, she’ll show you clear, actionable strategies for how to overcome communication barriers and collaborate effectively online; prioritize your time to achieve a healthy work-life balance; and deliver on objectives by adopting the habits of a small business owner.
Remote work can be satisfying and productive, says Samuel. Once you craft a strategy that taps into its unique benefits.
Make remote work a valued part of your working life with speaker Alexandra Samuel by contacting The Lavin Agency today.
In her new book Dream First, Details Later(out April 27th), Ellen Bennett—the founder and CEO of multi-million-dollar kitchen wear brand Hedley & Bennett—shows you why you don’t need the perfect plan to make your next big idea a reality. You just need to start.
If you’ve ever had an idea and thought “that’s impossible” or “I wouldn’t know where to begin,” then Ellen Bennett’s debut bookis for you. Colorful, aspirational, and highly motivating, Dream First, Details Lateruses Bennett’s own journey from line cook to CEO as an inspirational guide. “Sometimes you don’t have all the details ironed out, but you have to show up anyway and figure it out,” Bennett explains. Her go-getting attitude is also what allowed her to swiftly pivot in the wake of the pandemic, manufacturing protective face masks when there was a shortage (and even donating half-a-million to essential workers).
Dream First, Details Later captures Bennett’s enthusiasm and hard-won insights, teaching you how to squash your reservations, get out of your comfort zone, and eventually, transition from the “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” stage, to the “well-oiled-machine” stage. Pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth describes it as, “the true story of a true heroine for our times–bold, brash, and entirely honest about the downs and ups of making dreams come true.”
To book motivational business speaker Ellen Bennett for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencyfor more information.
In Resurrecting Retail (OUT TODAY!), internationally renowned futurist and bestselling author Doug Stephens not only explores the massive upheaval happening in retail today; he also outlines an inspiring and actionable plan for its future in the post-pandemic world.
A gripping exploration, researched in real-time from inside the crisis, Resurrecting Retail offers a comprehensive view of how COVID-19 and its aftermath will reshape every aspect of consumer life. That includes the very essence of why we shop, explains author Doug Stephens. Those who are resilient, committed, and remember the core principle of modern business—‘Every company is an experience company’ —will find a way to thrive inside our newly transformed reality. Ian McMilan, the Global Retail Marketing Lead at Nike, declares the book, “Prophetic, inspiring, and entertaining. Paints a clear picture of the post-COVID world we are entering and how retailers must adapt to thrive.”
The Lavin Agency is giving you the opportunity to incite actionable change with behavioral scientist and Wharton professorKaty Milkman. You’ll receive FREE copies of her eagerly anticipated book How to Change, as well as special speaker pricing, when you book her for your next event.
If you’ve ever tried to change something in your life, then you know there are thousands of books, apps, and YouTube videos promising to make it happen. However, these solutions tend to rely on common-sense wisdom and universal platitudes—that is not the case with Katy Milkman’s trailblazing book How to Change. Whether you’re a manager, coach, or teacher encouraging change in others, or aiming to change yourself, Milkman’s science-based blueprint offers concrete solutions to help you achieve your goals, once and for all. Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, says, “If you want to master tailored, science-based strategies for overcoming obstacles, read this engaging book.”
How to Changefeatures a foreword by pioneering grit researcher Angela Duckworth and is available for purchase everywhere you buy books on May 4th.
To take advantage of this exclusive offer and receive special speaker pricing for Katy Milkman, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers’ bureau.
How did American colleges and universities go from being a powerful engine for social mobility, to a mighty force against it? In his explosive book The Inequality Machine,Paul Toughcombines deep, authoritative reporting with the vivid stories of students themselves, to reveal where higher education went wrong.
For a long time, the relationship between higher education and social mobility was straight forward. “Going to college was the single best way for young Americans to improve their station in life,” explains author Paul Tough. Unfortunately, there are many signs that show us this is no longer the case. In The Inequality Machine, Tough considers why higher education no longer works the way it used to, and how we can return the system to its lofty ideals.
He spent six years and travelled to twenty-one states investigating this question, from flagship state universities to community college math classes to the Ivy Leagues. Everywhere he went, Tough talked to young people, hoping to understand the lived experience of a young person trying to go to college today—especially those from families without a ton of money. “We have created immense challenges at every stage of the college process for students from working-class and low-income families,” says Tough. “They face obstacles in applying to college. They face obstacles in paying for college. If they do make it to highly selective institutions, they often experience an intense culture shock when they arrive on campus and find themselves surrounded by wealth and privilege.”
The result of his in-depth reporting is The Inequality Machine: a book that not only paints a picture of the current state of higher education, but outlines the innovative reforms we’ll need to improve. Join Tough in a live Q&A with The Lavin Agency on Thursday, April 8th where he’ll answer your questions on the future of higher education (in a post-pandemic era, no less). Register for FREE today, limited spots available.
To book education speaker Paul Tough for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
The demands of the corner office are notoriously difficult: impossible decisions, sleepless nights, the expectation to perform consistently at a high-level. It’s no wonder that the average CEO today rarely lasts longer than five years. In his new book The CEO Test, leadership expert and New York Times bestselling author Adam Bryant covers the seven key challenges that befall leaders at every level—and shows you how to conquer them to come out on top.
Before he was the managing director of executive mentoring firm Merryck & Co., Adam Bryant interviewed CEOs for his landmark New York Times column The Corner Office—over 600 of them, in fact. He shares his abundance of knowledge on leadership in his new book The CEO Test: How to Master the Challenges That Make or Break All Leaders, co-written with Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer.
Engaging, well-written, and jam-packed with insight, this guidebook covers the essential challenges of leadership, whether it’s setting a strategy, shaping a culture, or handling a crisis (a challenge that we all felt in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic). The CEO Test was selected as one of theFinancial Timesbooks to read for March. They write, “The authors practise what they preach, simplifying complexity (a leadership “superpower”), steering clear of cookie-cutter truisms, and preferring readable common sense to ideological waffle or textbook dryness.”
The CEO Test is available everywhere you buy books, and Bryant will join The Lavin Agency for a live Q&A on March 24th, answering some of your most critical leadership questions. Register for FREE today!
To book leadership expert Adam Bryant for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers’ bureau.
“The Sum of Us is a must read for everyone who wants to understand how we got here, but more importantly, where we can go from here—and how we get there, together,” says Alicia Garza, author of The Purpose of Power and co-founder of Black Lives Matter. In talks based on her highly anticipated book, economics and public policy expert Heather McGhee has crafted a blueprint for not only a more prosperous country, but also a more just, powerful, and humane one.
More advanced praise for McGhee’s newly released book comes from #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert: “The Sum of Us is a powerhouse of a book about the deep, enduring, cross-cultural, multi-generational, and real-life cost of racist policy-making in the United States. With intelligence and care (as well as with a trove of sometimes heart-breaking and sometimes heart-opening true stories) Heather McGhee shows us what racism has cost all of us, as a society. And that cost has been brutally high, across the board. This is a book for every American, and I am grateful for McGhee’s research, her humanity, and her never-more-important teachings.”
As well as Supermajority co-founder and former Planned Parenthood president Cécile Richards: “What would it be like to live in an America where we embraced diversity as our superpower? Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us challenges readers to imagine a country where we are more than the sum of our disparate parts. Through the stories of fast food workers in Missouri, community organizers in Maine, and more, McGhee illustrates the power and necessity of multi-racial organizing. Hopeful, inspiring, and timely, The Sum of Us makes the case for the radical notion that ‘we the people’ means all of us.”
The Sum of Usis out today and available wherever books are sold. To learn more about booking Heather McGhee for a speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency.
Now that the election cycle is complete, the peaceful transfer of power came to pass, and President Biden settles into his role as commander-in-chief, what happens next? And what can we expect from this new administration? These Lavin Speakers help us make sense of today’s most vital political news.
Speaking to the cautious hope he has towards the current future of America, Jelani Cobb says, “I have the optimism of a boxer going into the late rounds,” while on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.
In a message to act on behalf of the American people, Heather McGhee joined MSNBC to discuss ending the minority veto. She explains, “The best thing you can do to not be in the minority again is kill the minority veto, get things done for the American people.”
Yaël Eisenstat writes about regulating social media for The Harvard Business Review. “While the blame of Donald Trump’s incitement to insurrection lies squarely with him, the biggest social media companies—most prominently my former employer, Facebook—are absolutely complicit.”
“Healing is not just about ending the spread of this virus. It also has to be about makig the spread of the next one less likely.” Abdul El-Sayed writes in Newlines Magazine about American’s preexisting conditions and a path forward as we continue to deal with the fallout of COVID-19.
The way we breathe has changed dramatically over the course of human evolution—and not for the better. Fortunately, acclaimed science journalist James Nestorhas undertaken the task of restoring our most vital function, starting with his instant New York Times bestseller Breath.
It’s rare that we can say that a book is for everyone, but James Nestor’s spellbinding new release Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, truly is. Though it may seem simple and rather intuitive, our breathing has changed so much over the last few hundred years. Today, poor breathing habits can be linked to a laundry list of chronic health problems, from autoimmune disorders and gut issues, to anxiety and sleep apnea. Medical professionals rarely recognize or discuss the importance of proper breathing, and as a result, we tend to spend more time on things like improving our diets or getting more exercise. But none of those things matter if we’re also not breathing properly, says Nestor.
In his book—described as “part scientific quest, part historical insight, part Hero’s Journey”—Nestor takes readers through his own thrilling, years-long exploration to discover where we went wrong with our most basic biological function—and how to fix it. Upon its release, Breath became an instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, and will soon be translated into 30 languages. Kirkus Reviews has dubbed it a “welcome, invigorating user’s manual for the respiratory system.” No matter who you are, where you live, or what you do, your life will be tranformed by this page-turning scientific adventure.
Nestor has spoken about the importance of proper breathing everywhere from Stanford Medical School, to the United Nations. He is now available to book for virtual events and speaking engagements in 2021.
To book speaker James Nestor for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, his exclusive speakers bureau.
The most important conversation we have each day is the one we have with ourselves. In his debut book Chatter, acclaimed psychologist Ethan Kross explores how to make our inner voice work in our favor—helping us boost our productivity, make wiser decisions, and generally lead more satisfying lives.
When it’s at its best, our inner voice can motivate, inspire, and support us through life’s many challenges, whether that be gearing up for an important presentation at work, or having a difficult conversation with someone close to us. But when it’s at its worst, our inner voice can act as a self-saboteur—that nagging voice in the back of our head that says we can’t do it, no matter how hard we try. Pioneering psychologist Ethan Kross refers to this type of negative self-talk as “chatter,” which, if left unchecked, can have very real and damaging effects on our lives. Thankfully, in his debut book of the same name, Kross offers us a science-backed solution. A blend of cutting-edge behavioral research and real-world stories, Chatter is a cogent guide for mastering our runaway self-talk and, in the process, transforming our lives.
Kross’ accompanying talks break down the science in a way that’s both captivating and immediately applicable. The results, for readers and listeners alike, are astonishing: increased productivity, greater self-control, wiser emotional decision-making, and even an improved ability to perform under pressure (to name a few). Chatter is available everywhere you buy books on January 26th, and Kross is available to book for your upcoming virtual presentations.
Curious about booking Ethan Kross for your next virtual event?Contact The Lavin Agency today to learn more.
Concrete Rose, the prequel to Angie Thomas’ wildly popular novel The Hate U Give, will hit shelves on January 12th.
In her explosive follow-up to The Hate U Give, which has spent nearly 200 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, Angie Thomas revisits the fictionalized neighborhood of Garden Heights—seventeen years before the events of the first book. Concrete Rose tells the story of Maverick Carter, a seventeen-year-old who is taking care of his family in the only way he knows how, while his dad, a former gang legend, is in prison. But Maverick’s world is soon upended when he finds out he is a father. Now, with a young child who depends on him for everything, Maverick is forced to reevaluate his life.
While writing the book, Thomas was inspired by stories of young men. “I started talking to young, real-life Mavericks. Young men who are trying to still find their way and are often written off and seen as troublemakers,” she told PEOPLE. “They have stories and they deserve […] the opportunities to be seen as someone beyond their circumstances.”
Thomas’ third book is one of the most anticipated titles of 2021, and much like her two previous novels, it’s a lush and multi-layered story that gives voice to those who are often ignored and marginalized in our communities. Concrete Rose is currently available for pre-order, and will be widely released on January 12, 2021.
Want to book speaker Angie Thomas for your next virtual event? Contact The Lavin Agency to speak to a skilled sales representative.
Is there any better way to spend the holidays than curled up with a good book? As this year comes to a close, we’ve rounded up the reads that have inspired, motivated, challenged, and moved us. So, whether you’re shopping for a history buff or a poetry lover, or even a gift for yourself, there’s something here for everyone on your list!
Abdul El-Sayed: Abdul El Sayed’s debut Healing Politicsis an exciting blend of memoir, science, and public policy. From his unique perspective as both an epidemiologist and a rising voice in progressive politics, El-Sayed diagnoses the challenges facing America and lays out a bold path forward.
Margaret Atwood: Fans were treated with not one, but two books from the inimitable Margaret Atwood recently: the Booker Prize-winning sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments; and her first poetry collection in over a decade, Dearly. While the former speaks for itself, the latter is a beautiful and haunting selection of poems touching on love, loss, humanity, nature, and even the supernatural.
Salman Rushdie: Described as “an epic Don Quixote for the modern age,” Salman Rushdie’s 14th novel Quichotteis a brilliant, multi-layered satirical work. Though released in pre-COVID times, this sharp and wickedly funny novel—named one of the best books of the year by both TIME and NPR—somehow perfectly reflects the absurdity of 2020.
Laura Huang: One of America’s top business professors, Laura Huang knows that other people’s perceptions of us can make or break our success. In her book Edge, she reveals how we can leverage our strengths and our flaws to develop a unique “edge” that will set us apart from the rest.
Erin Meyer: While many businesses struggled during the pandemic, a few notable outliers shined. Netflix was one of them. In No Rules Rules, co-founder Reed Hastings teams up with business mastermind Erin Meyer to break down the streaming giant’s famously radical work culture. Intelligent and compulsively readable, No Rules Rules is a no-brainer gift choice for the entrepreneur in your life.
Gabby Rivera: Gabby Rivera’s queer coming-of-age story Juliet Takes a Breath occurs over one magical summer in Portland, Oregon, and explores important themes of race, identity, and self-love. Most recently, the bestselling YA book was adapted into a graphic novel that fans of comics and Rivera’s other work (which includes penning Marvel’s first queer, latinx superhero America Chavez) will love.
Peter Mansbridge: Iconic broadcaster Peter Mansbridge returns to his specialty—intimate, one-on-one interviews—for his new book Extraordinary Canadians. The inspiring collection features stories from remarkable citizens across the country, including an essential worker on the frontlines of the COVID crisis. It is a book filled with kindness, compassion, and heart, reminding us all what it really means to be Canadian.
James Nestor: One of Lavin’s newest speakers, James Nestor is an acclaimed science journalist and contributor for the likes of Scientific American, The Atlantic, and The New York Times. The last few years, he’s been investigating an often overlooked and misunderstood, but definitely essential, pillar of health: breathing! The result is his instant New York Times bestseller Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. Fascinating, funny, and intriguing, this well-researched book not only reveals how humans lost the ability to breathe properly, but how even slight adjustments to our breathing habits can profoundly improve our lives.
Lori Gottlieb: Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb’s smash hitMaybe You Should Talk to Someone is a book that every single human being could read and learn something from. Both deeply personal and universally relatable, this beautiful memoir chronicles Gottlieb’s journey as a therapist undergoing therapy. The lessons she learns about herself and her patients along the way are humorous, humbling, and touching. Beyond spending an astonishing amount of time on the New York Times bestseller list, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was named one of the 100 Must-Read Books of the year by TIME and will soon be adapted for television.
Margo Lee Shetterly: If you watched the Oscar-nominated film Hidden Figuresbut somehow missed the #1 New York Times bestselling book it was based on, now is the time to catch up. Margot Lee Shetterly tells the sweeping story of three African American women who were crucial for realizing some of America’s greatest achievements in space. The book is a triumphant (and true!) story of overcoming obstacles and challenges in the pursuit of excellence.
Jeremy Gutsche: As the CEO of the world’s largest trend-spotting platform, Jeremy Gutsche is skilled in finding patterns and moments of opportunity where others see only chaos. His latest book, Create the Future, helps us break our path dependency and innovate during one of the most unpredictable years in recent history.
Janna Levin: For the science lover in your life, there is no better book than Janna Levin’s Black Hole Survival Guide. A gifted astrophysicist and writer, Levin takes readers on a visceral tour of space, including into one of the most mysterious and popular modern phenomena: the black hole. But forget the jargon—with her poetic and absorbing prose, Levin allows even non-scientists to appreciate the never-ending magic of the cosmos.
Shoshana Zuboff: Shoshana Zuboff’s Surveillance Capitalism is less of a book, and more of a tome: a lengthy and spectacular exploration of how the modern giants of capitalism are using technology to possess, alter, and commodify human behavior. A brilliant and critical thinker, Zuboff maps out the sprawling systems that work together, often hidden in plain sight, to gradually encroach on our free will in the name of profit and consumerism. Named one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2019, Surveillance Capitalism is a must-read for anyone concerned about how their data is being used.
Interested in booking one of these talented authors for your next virtual event? Contact The Lavin Agency and speak with one of our knowledgeable sales agents.
Love it or hate it, remote work isn’t going anywhere—at least not anytime soon. So why not learn how to thrive while doing it? Lavin’s newest speaker,Alexandra Samuel, is a technology strategist, data journalist, and author who has spent the past two decades working from home. In her talks, as well as her new book Remote Inc., she reveals the secrets and habits of remote professionals that will transform the way you approach your work.
The companies and organizations that are trying to replicate the physical “office” in this new era of working from home are setting themselves up for failure. Instead, new Lavin speaker Alexandra Samuel encourages us to discover the many different benefits of remote work. Her upcoming book Remote Inc., co-written with productivity expert Robert Pozen, reveals how an entrepreneurial approach can make remote work both productive and enjoyable. By embracing the habits and independence of a small business owner, readers will learn how to focus on their goals rather than a 9-to-5 schedule; prioritize their time in an efficient way; make online meetings purposeful and engaging; and build great relationships through online collaboration.
Equal parts entertaining and actionable, Samuel’s must-listen talks synthesize years of remote work experience to help audiences find a balance between work from home, and life at home.
To book speaker Alexandra Samuel for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, her exclusive speaker’s bureau.
If we want to achieve an inclusive economy that works for all, we must begin by giving Black women a seat at the table, says Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman. An activist and emerging researcher, she specializes in data-driven solutions that address the future of work and its implications for Black people in both corporate and academic spaces. Today, Opoku-Agyeman joins The Lavin Agency as a new speaker—shining a light on the importance of structural change that centers Black experiences and voices.
In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the ensuing economic crisis, and the recent election, there has never been a more crucial time to dismantle the power structures that no longer serve us. Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman has been leading the charge in this arena for years. As the co-founder of The Sadie Collective, she is tackling the pipeline and pathway problem for Black women in fields where they have historically been absent: economics, data science, finance, and policy.
In her recent op-ed for the New York Times, Opoku-Agyeman teamed up with Dr. Lisa Cook—a former White House aide for President Obama, who is now part of Biden-Harris transition team—to explore the lack of representation of Black women in economics, and the discrimination they face within the profession. And in the latest Teen Vogue, Opoku-Agyeman reflects on why Dr. Cook’s place on Biden’s team is a huge win for Black girls everywhere. “The administration can now show how they will make good on rhetoric around centering Black women in economic policy, considering how critical we were to the Democrats’ success in the 2020 election.”
Forthright, candid, and authentic, Opoku-Agyeman’s talks touch upon many of the issues we need to urgently reform, from economic inclusion and diversity within organizations, to anti-Black racism and sexism in college campuses and corporations. She is set to release two books: THE BLACK AGENDA (St. Martin’s Press, 2022), a collection of essays featuring leading Black voices across policy, healthcare, and technology; and Knock Those Doors Down(HMH Books for Young Readers, 2023), a children’s book about Dr. Sadie T.M. Alexander, America’s First Black Economist.
To learn more about speaker Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman and how to book her for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Everything about this election—from the global pandemic ravaging the nation, to the president’s claims of voter fraud—has been unusual, to say the least. And though the peaceful transfer of power will begin, Trump continues to contest his defeat and several lawsuits remain in motion. What happens next? And what can we expect from a Biden presidency? These Lavin Speakers help us make sense of today’s most vital political news.
If Joe Biden learns one thing from Barack Obama, let it be that moderation won’t save him, says Jelani Cobb. The New Yorker writer joins MSNBC to discuss what role the former president will have in Biden’s administration, and the looming importance of Georgia’s senate race.
Curious about what Trump is really trying to achieve with all those challenges to the election? New York Times bestselling author Emily Bazelondiscusses the president’s motivation to create trouble in a special episode of Slate’s Political Gabfest.
Here’s a frightening thought: Donald Trump still has the power to launch nuclear weapons at any time! In his new piece for WIRED, journalist Garrett Graff reveals why the nation’s hair-trigger alert system—a relic from the Cold War-era—desperately needs to be reformed: “We shouldn’t have to worry whether presidential whims endanger our world and human civilization.”
Joe Biden is inheriting a very different America than his predecessor. In a segment for The Hill, The Intercept’sJeremy Scahill warns of the long-term damage Trump has already done—and why it will be difficult to undo.
After 4 years of a Trump presidency, we finally have the opportunity to move the needle on climate action again. But if activists are to get anything done, they’ll need to aggressively make their case—without alienating the people they must work with, says Bill McKibben. His latest article details the best way to push the climate agenda forward in the Biden era.
This election definitely revealed how divided America really is. But that divide has less to do with race, and more to do with where you live. Derek Thompson’s piece in The Atlantic dissects the crucial factors that influenced the election’s outcome.
“A great many people did not vote for Joe Biden, they voted against Trump, because they recognize the tremendous threat that he represents,” writes Naomi Klein in The Guardian. Her new piece outlines why Biden—the “safe” choice—still represents a risk to the country.
On a new podcast, former Demos president Heather McGhee(author of the forthcoming book The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together) discusses the racist scams that undergird the American electoral system. Listen to hear her respond to the “I voted for Trump because of my 401k” excuse.
The Lavin Agency is proud to announce its new speaker and white supremacy historian, Kathleen Belew. Author of Bring the War Home, Kathleen shows us that with a sustained attention to the white supremacist violence of our past, we can avoid future terrorist attacks designed to undermine American democracy.
The Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 was the largest deliberate mass casualty on Amercian soil between Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Yet unlike those actions, most people don’t understand what that attack was, and what it meant. It was not the work of “lone wolves,” but rather the crescendo of a string of violent attacks perpetrated by a broad, deeply networked social movement: the white power movement. This was a movement that brought together an array of Klan, neo-Nazi skinhead, and militia activists in outright war on the federal government.
We are now decades, if not generations, into this activism, which has killed Americans, damaged infrastructure, and represents the single largest terrorist threat to the United States. And we still don’t fully understand it. As a white supremacy expert, Kathleen decodes the movement’s worldview, actions, and planned attack on America, and teaches us how to prevent it from destroying the democracy we so cherish.
The United States has historically been a nation in deep denial of its own past. But today, the country—indeed, the entire world—is facing a racial reckoning of epic proportions. Between a global pandemic that disproportionately affects Black communities, the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and a growing White Power movement, the staggering depths of racial injustice in this country have never been clearer. This Black History Month, The Lavin Agency is honored to introduce ‘Liberty and Justice for All’: A virtual program featuring three incredible Lavin speakers—a civil rights legend, an award-winning academic, and a critically acclaimed novelist. Together, they’ll provide a unique perspective on the fight for racial justice, equity, and liberty for everyone.
Minnijean Brown-Trickey: On one fateful day in 1957, Minnijean Brown-Trickey changed history forever. Part of the Little Rock Nine—the first group of African-American students to attend an all-white school—Minnijean braved an onslaught of ridicule, abuse, and even death threats from angry, racists mobs, in order to exercise her right to learn. Today, Minnijean speaks about the conviction it took to take those steps and the values she learned along the way: What does it mean to stand up for civil rights? To be an activist? And how can one nurture a fierce commitment to justice over the course of a lifetime?
Anthony Jack: For low-income students, getting into an elite college is only half the battle. What happens once they’re there? In his award-winning book The Privileged Poor, named an NPR Favorite, Anthony Jack reveals the minefield these students must navigate—from insidious campus culture to institutional policies and structures that harm, rather than help. An associate professor of education at Harvard, Anthony’s book is backed by years of research, as well as shaped by his own experience as a first-generation college student.
Angie Thomas: The #1 New York Times bestselling novel The Hate U Give continues to reflect the reality of Black Americans, who are disproportionately threatened, intimidated, and killed at the hands of police. Author Angie Thomas not only helped further an important conversation around police brutality for a younger audience; she also strongly believes in the ability of books to empower the next cohort of leaders. “If my legacy is that I inspired the next generation of activists then I’m happy with that,” she revealed to TIME. “It’s an honor.”
Want to learn more about this virtual Black History Month event?Contact The Lavin Agencytoday for more information.
Psychologist Angela Duckworthis the world’s leading expert on grit—the coveted quality that’s a better indicator of success than talent, or even IQ. Defined by Duckworth as a blend of passion and perseverance over the course of long-term goals, grit has enormous benefits that go beyond just performance. Below, she shares how it can help us cope—and thrive—during COVID-19.
As we grapple with the ongoing, collective trauma of the pandemic, we could all stand to cultivate more grit. Why? Because when bad things happen unexpectedly, part of having grit is being able to navigate those stormy waters, explains #1 New York Times bestselling author Angela Duckworth. Another bonus? Really “gritty” people tend to look for opportunities to learn and grow during challenging times. That means that when the crisis is over, they won’t be where they were before it all started—they’ll actually be better off. Best of all, it’s never too late to develop grit, or gritty qualities like self-control, tenacity, and stamina, because people never stop developing.
So while the future is uncertain, and things are to a large extent outside of our control, we can take a cue from those gritty people, and frame our adversity in what Duckworth refers to as an “optimistic, resilient way.” Meaning that we can choose to focus on the things we can change, and the elements of our situation that are temporary. In her engaging, inspirational, and actionable talks, Duckworth reminds us that there are still things in our life we do have control over, and that it’s in our best interest to spend the majority of our time on those things as we continue to weather this storm.
This year has been an unforgettable one, to say the least. Marked by a global pandemic, a worldwide call for racial justice, and the worst economic recession we’ve seen since the Great Depression, 2020 also happens to fall on an election year. Soon, we will decide on the next President of the United States—a decision that will no doubt impact all of our futures. With less than a week to go, we’ve rounded up what our brilliant Lavin Speakers have been saying, writing, and doing to prepare for arguably the most important election of our lifetimes.
Heather McGhee: Recently, public policy expert and political commentator Heather McGhee sat down with Complex and Vote Save America for a segment called “How Your Vote Will Impact Your Money.” Listen in for a clear and open discussion about the election and the economy.
Jelani Cobb: Journalist, historian and New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb examines whose vote counts—and whose might not—in a new Frontline documentary. The film focuses on voter disenfranchisement characterized by long lines, unfounded claims of voter fraud, and the legal fights over mail-in ballots during the pandemic, particularly in the State of Wisconsin—the state in which the last presidency was essentially decided, says Cobb, who describes voter suppression as “a fire that has spread across the country.”
Annie Lowrey: “The election may determine whether states and cities need to raise additional revenue at all: Democrats and Republicans have been squabbling for months over whether Uncle Sam should keep filling local budget gaps.” A staff writer for The Atlantic who covers economic policy, Annie Lowrey has written many articles leading up to the election, including her most recent ‘If You Soak the Rich, Will They Leave?’—an exploration of how the pandemic recession is affecting local governments.
David Wallace-Wells: Climate columnist David Wallace-Wells (author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth) has spent considerable time vetting each candidate’s policies on climate. He notes that, at $2 trillion, Biden’s plan “would mark by far the biggest commitment ever proposed not just by a presidential nominee but any major political figure in the country’s history until about a year ago.”
Daron Acemoglu: In his landmark book Why Nations Fail, MIT economist Daron Acemoglu uses the framework of our political and economic institutions to help us understand prosperity and success. Leading up to the election, he’s also offered some healthy critique on how those institutions have been operating under the Trump administration. Read his latest, ‘The Democrats Should Fight Fire with Water,’ on Project Syndicate.
Yaël Eisenstat: As a former CIA officer, U.S. Diplomat, and special advisor to Vice President Biden, Yaël Eisenstat has over two decades of experience in national security and government. But after noticing that it was easier to talk to suspected terrorists than it was to talk to fellow Americans, she became concerned about the role platforms like Facebook were playing in our democracy. Eisenstat even took a job as the Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations at Facebook, a post that lasted only 6 months when she discovered that change would not come from within. This wild journey is chronicled in Eisenstat’s new TED Talk, a must-listen as the election looms nearer.
If you’ve landed on this page, it’s probably because you’re a thinker, a reader, and a do-er who cares about making the world a better place. We do too. That’s why we’re proud to introduce the Lavin Book Club: an online community for people who never want to stop learning, powered by ideas that change the world.
Last month, we invited Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman for a live Q&A to celebrate the launch of his most recent bookLivewired. For those of you who missed it (or those of you who wanted more!) we’re happy to announce that Livewired will also be our first book club pick for the month of October.
About the book: “The magic of the brain is not found in the parts it’s made of but in the way those parts unceasingly reweave themselves in an electric, living fabric.” — In Livewired, Eagleman tells the story of how our brains constantly adapt to the world around us, and answers some pretty mind-blowing questions along the way: from the surprising reason we dream at night, to the likelihood that we might some day control a robot with our thoughts.
About the Author: David Eagleman is not only one of the most influential neuroscientists alive today—he’s also one of our generation’s best scientific teachers, demystifying concepts from sensory substitution and time perception, to brain plasticity. Dubbed “the kind of guy who really does make being a neuroscientist look like fun” by the New York Times, Eagleman has served as an advisor on HBO’s Westworld, hosted the Netflix documentary The Creative Brain, and written several New York Times bestselling books.
Join the conversation onInstagram, Facebook, or Goodreads, and use the hashtag #LavinBookClub as you follow along with us.
To book speaker David Eagleman for your next virtual event,contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
What will become of in-person events, now that the business world is acclimating to the affordability and accessibility of virtual events? The Lavin Agency’s Founder and CEO David Lavin considers the future of the industry he’s so passionate about.
There’s an interesting parallel between what’s happening in the events industry today, and the digital disruption the music industry faced in the early 2000s. “Back then, Napster was the early adopter. It may not be in business today, but it certainly changed everything about the industry, from the way music was consumed, to the way it was distributed, marketed, and sold,” writes David Lavin in his latest Linked In article.
Today, Zoom is the early adopter when it comes to event tech. Whether it will be around in another 15 years is hard to say, but what’s truly significant is the way it’s changing the landscape of the global events industry right now. It helps companies offer free or very cheap virtual events; allows for precise online targeting; and cuts down on business travel. Some might argue, because of this, the events industry is toast.
“The incumbents of an industry historically resist its digital transformation and oftentimes, even go as far as to mock the insurgents. They do this because they hope for a return to normal, or a shift to back to the status quo. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it never goes back in,” David notes. Still, asking whether the events industry is past its peak is the wrong question to be asking. In-person events will always have a place in the industry, because of the social nature of business itself. “The right question is how can we adapt and innovate to include this new knowledge of what’s possible into our current offerings? How can we, as event professionals, imagine a hybrid future?”
No matter what side of the events industry you’re in, constant reinvention will be key for survival. Check out David’s full Linked In article for some questions to ask yourself — guaranteed to kickstart creativity and innovation for navigating the transition ahead.
Interested in booking a speaker for a virtual event? Contact The Lavin Agency today and speak with a skilled sales agent.
The Lavin Agency is proud to announce its new speaker and one of the most masterful science storytellers of our time, Sean B. Carroll. An internationally recognized Evolutionary Biologist and award-winning writer, film producer, and educator, he is a thriller raconteur and renowned scientist.
Carroll’s pioneering scientific research centers on the genes that control animal body patterns and play major roles in the evolution of animal diversity. Author of the hotly anticipated new book A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You (release date October 6th, 2020), Carroll explores the awe-inspiring science behind the power of chance in our lives and world.
Why is the planet the way it is? Does everything happen for a reason or are some things left to chance? Philosophers and theologians have pondered these questions for a millennia, but were it not for the most improbable collision—of one unique sperm with one unique egg, you would not be here. In his thrilling and illuminating talks, Sean B. Carroll speaks to the mother of all accidents, the accident of all mothers, and much more on the surprising power of chance in our lives.
To book Sean B. Carroll for a keynote on Biology, Chance, and his fascinating new book A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You, contact The Lavin Agency today.
In her latest book No Rules Rules, Erin Meyer teams up with Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to reveal, for the first time ever, the unorthodox culture that made the streaming giant what it is today.
We’re all familiar with the story. In the year 2000, Blockbuster turned down the chance to purchase a fledgling DVD rental company with its sights set on the future. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, that unknown upstart grew to become the streaming giant we all know and love: Netflix. What’s less obvious is how a plucky start-up like Netflix transformed itself into a billion-dollar company—one that revolutionized the entertainment industry, and captured the hearts and imaginations of millions across the globe.
In No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, co-founder Reed Hastings joins forces with influential business professor Erin Meyer to answer that question. Together, they break down the unorthodox principles—then unknown and untested—that propelled Netflix to such extraordinary heights. This is a company with no vacation or expense policies. A company that values performance above hard work, and rewards it accordingly. A place where employees don’t try to please their boss, but instead feel empowered to give their candid feedback. Needless to say, it’s not your average organization.
Once named one of the top 30 HR professionals in the world, Meyer lays out the controversial ideologies learned at Netflix for leaders hoping to generate more speed, agility, and innovation in their own organizations.
To book speaker Erin Meyer for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history. Not only that, but this crisis is exacerbating pre-existing education disparities for many of the most vulnerable students. How are higher education institutions carrying on with teaching during this socio-economic, cultural and health crisis, and what do we know about the future of education?
Luckily, The Lavin Agency’s Education Speakers are here to highlight up-to-the-minute innovations within the education sector. As schools develop innovative approaches in support of education and distance learning solutions, these experts are on the frontline of the current challenges facing our students and educators.
With more and more diverse and disadvantaged students accepted into elite colleges, Assistant Professor at Harvard and author of The Privileged Poor, Anthony Jack explores how poor students are often failed by the top schools that admit them. In fascinating and critical talks, he details how class divides on campus create barriers to academic success—and shares what schools can do in-step with their COVID-19 strategies to truly level the playing field.
In his illuminating talks, leading expert in the psychology of persistence David Yeager goes beyond typical “student success” programs, and instead takes a social-psychological perspective during a crisis, asking: what does it look and feel like to worry about whether you belong? David shows us a framework for engaging in continuous improvement of the psychological environment that supports student persistence during the pandemic.
In a constantly shifting educational landscape, who gets to thrive, and what are the deciding factors? New York Times bestselling author Paul Tough makes a mind-changing inquiry into modern higher education. Will colleges provide real opportunity for young people to improve their prospects and social mobility during the pandemic? In talks drawn from his years of research, Paul challenges the status quo, revealing how higher education and social mobility really work, and what we can do to make it more equitable for all.
Acclaimed photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier took portraits of Breonna Taylor’s family for the cover story of Vanity Fair’s September issue (guest-edited by Ta-Nehisi Coates, with words by Breonna’s mother Tamika Palmer). Below is LaToya’s powerfully moving statement on the project.
I can’t stop thinking about Breonna Taylor, her murder and unjust criminalization made me so upset that I risked my life and broke quarantine, knowing I am highly susceptible to COVID-19 due to having Lupus, an autoimmune disorder. This is how much it meant to me to reclaim a visual justice and humane dignified representations of Breonna and her family members. My mother was a nurse, my niece is an aspiring nurse, Breonna Taylor wanted to be a nurse, not a piece of legislation or another slain statistic at the hands of law enforcement in America. Since Breonna worked as an EMT this would mean that the LMPD are her colleagues. To be brutally murdered at home, in the middle of the night, by the very people you work with within your community is the most offensive and heinous crime against humanity.
If you look up the very definition of the characteristics and attributes of an EMT worker or a nurse, it provides the proof and evidence of Breonna’s character. My portraits are a call for justice and the unwavering steadfast endurance of Black women in America regardless of the persecution we face on a daily basis. Breonna Taylor is a hero, a frontline essential worker, and I demand justice now. Lastly, the way the LMPD portrayed her loving boyfriend and fiancé Kenneth Walker was inexcusable. These portraits serve to restore Kenneth's humanity and to honor his love for Breonna, as he was about to propose to her. It is abundantly clear that as time goes on and more details are revealed and there are still no arrests of the police officers and detective that murdered Breonna, that in America Black people have no constitutional rights, and therefore all lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter!
On August 26th, world-renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman will join The Lavin Agency for a stimulating Q&A session discussing his latest book Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain.
How can a child function with only one half of his brain? What does drug withdrawal have to do with a broken heart? And can a blind person really learn how to see using his tongue? The answer to those questions—and many more—lie in David Eagleman’s hotly anticipated book Livewired. Combining decades of research on brain plasticity with new scientific discoveries coming from his own lab, Eagleman shatters the text-book model of the brain we’ve all been taught to reveal a system that is dynamic, interwoven, and most importantly, self-modifying.
As one of the world’s best scientific translators, Eagleman masterfully takes readers and audiences alike through the leading edge of neuroscience—and best of all—applies his insights to our own lives. Join us on Wednesday, August 26th from 1pm—2pm EST (10am—11am PST) to learn more! You’ll never think about your brain the same way again.
Register for this one-time session HERE and you’ll immediately be entered to win a copy of the book!
To book speaker David Eagleman for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau.
We, as a society, haven’t been the same since the horrifying video of George Floyd’s death circulated the Internet earlier this year. Beyond the international protests against police brutality, this tragic incident has sparked a wider conversation about racial bias in all areas of our lives—including at work.
A new report by The Society for Human Resource Management finds that 49% of Black professionals feel that discrimination based on race or ethnicity exists in their workplace. They write, “Despite years of financial and strategic investments in diversity, equity, and inclusion, U.S. companies have notable numbers of workers who express concerns and discomfort about fundamental issues of racial equality in the workplace.”
Good intentions aside, it’s clear that diversity initiatives are lacking. They fail to create real change that translates into the lived experience of employees. What’s missing? And how can we change it? Below are a few resources from Lavin exclusive speakers who have been spearheading real change in this arena for years.
Gain a Clear Understanding of the Concepts
The words equity, inclusion, and diversity are often used interchangeably. But what do they really mean? Lavin Speaker Ritu Bhasin has been teaching these concepts for decades in an effort to help nurture people’s authentic selves at work. In this short video, she helpfully explains the differences between these terms as a starting point for having truly informed conversations about race at work.
Be Willing to Have Difficult Conversations About Race (No Matter Your Race)
The SHRM report found that “more than one-third of U.S. workers don’t feel comfortable engaging in candid conversations about race at work.” But for real change to occur, having a hands-on experience that involves everyone—especially white people—is absolutely vital. It’s not enough to invite an expert to lecture your team on the importance of diversity as an abstract concept. In this CSPAN video, watch as Heather McGhee takes a question from a caller who openly admits his own prejudice. What ensues is a fruitful and powerful conversation about race in America. It’s conversations like these that are most uncomfortable, but are most essential for transformation.
Acknowledge Systemic Racism
Leaders need to acknowledge the racism happening both inside and outside of work on a deep and systemic level. This free, downloadable book released by Harvard University Press is not only for college students. It’s a fantastic resource for everyone who wishes to learn more about anti-black racism in this country, featuring work by Lavin speakers Anthony Jack, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Kwame Anthony Appiah. Historian Annette Gordon Reed—recently named a Harvard University professor—wrote the book’s forward: “The United States is, apparently, living through one of those punctuation points in history that, seemingly out of the blue, arrive to spur societal change.”
In Always Day One, tech reporter Alex Kantrowitzexplores the industry’s unique culture of innovation. More than just a catchy slogan, the book’s title refers to the bedrock principle employed by one of the largest, most successful companies in the world: Amazon. The logic being that failure to invent like a start-up will eventually lead to irrelevance and decline. Kantrowitz builds upon this principle, along with other tools and tactics, used by the tech giants to propel their growth and dominance at the stage when most big companies begin to fail.
Though these companies do receive a fair amount of criticism, Kantrowitz argues that we must extract the most useful tactics in their playbook in order to level the playing field. “The tech giants are successful largely because they’ve reimagined how we approach work. With the assistance of automation and collaboration software, they’ve figured out how to maximize the time their employees spend coming up with new ideas and minimize the time they spend supporting existing products,” Kantrowitz says. In other words, by not becoming overly attached to their flagship products, companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are able to continually reinvent. And it’s time that other organizations started taking note. The economic hardship presented by COVID-19 leaves no other choice.
In a post-pandemic world, the leaders who cling to their legacy assets and protect them at all costs won’t get very far. But the leaders who build cultures like the ones modelled by the tech giants—cultures that prioritize invention and reinvention—will have more than a fighting chance.
Always Day One: How the Tech Titans Stay on Top (2:03)
To book speaker Alex Kantrowitz for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
Lavin’s Top 10 Social Activist Speakers are the thought-leaders and advocates pushing for a better world. Whether it’s through art, history, education, or humanitarian efforts, these speakers are not only calling for change, but actively making it happen.
LaToya Ruby Frazier: LaToya Ruby Frazier treats art as activism. With her powerful images of post-industrial towns and cities across America, the acclaimed photographer and MacArthur “Genius” shows us the troubling reality of life for working-class Black families. Whether it’s the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or the effects of plant closures in her native Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier’s work shines a light on the racism, economic erosion, and environmental degradation that make the American dream unattainable for Black people.
Titus Kaphar: In his work, Titus Kaphar explores the intersection of art and history as a way to propel social change. During the Ferguson protests, Kaphar created a powerful oil painting titled, ‘Yet Another Fight for Remembrance,’ which appeared in a 2014 issue of TIME. Six years later, and Kaphar’s work is once again featured—this time, following the death of George Floyd, another unarmed black man, at the hands of police. Titled ‘Analogous Colors,’ the new painting, which graces the magazine’s cover, depicts an African-American mother holding her child—who has been cut out of the canvas. “In her expression, I see the black mothers who are unseen, and rendered helpless in this fury against their babies,” writes Kaphar. “As I listlessly wade through another cycle of violence against black people, I paint a black mother … eyes closed, furrowed brow, holding the contour of her loss.”
Marcus Bullock: Marcus Bullock knows the painful, isolating, often hopeless experience of being incarcerated first-hand. At the age of 15, he was sentenced to eight years in an adult maximum security prison for stealing a car. After his release, Bullock began his own entrepreneurial venture—an app called Flikshop—as a way to help prisoners stay connected with their loved ones throughout their sentence. Today, more than 140,000 inmates use the app, not only to keep in touch with family and friends, but also get assistance from nonprofits.
Angela Davis: A political activist, scholar, author, and leader in the civil rights movement, Angela Davis has been fighting injustice in the United States her entire life. As a young person, she spent eighteen months in jail after being placed on the FBI’s ‘Ten Most Wanted List’ for a crime she did not commit. Today, 76-year-old Davis continues to speak out about systemic racism, intersectional feminism, and topics that were once considered too radical, such as defunding the police or prison abolition, which have now been pushed to the mainstream thanks to renewed mobilization of the Black Lives Matter movement. The size and scope of the movement may be unprecedented, but the struggles themselves are not new. “The struggles have been unfolding for a long time,” Davis reminds us. “What we are seeing now bears witness to the work that people have been doing that has not necessarily received media attention.”
Minnijean Brown-Trickey: Minnijean Brown-Trickey is a pivotal figure in the civil rights movement. In 1957, she made history when she took her place in what had previously been a whites-only public school in Little Rock, Arkansas. Television crews documented Brown-Trickey as she walked past armed guards, not to mention an angry mob, in order to enter the school—and kick off America’s journey towards desegregation in education. Today, the lifelong activist speaks about her experience from that fateful day in 1957, to her appointment as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior for diversity, and beyond.
Gabby Rivera: Queer activist and creative Gabby Rivera is smashing stereotypes with her incredible, boundary-pushing work. The author of Juliet Takes a Breath, a critically acclaimed coming-of-age story starring a queer puertorriqueña, she’s also responsible for creating Marvel’s America Chavez: a comic featuring the franchise’s first queer, Latinx teen-girl superhero. Beyond representing—and empowering—marginalized communities through her work, Rivera serves as a Youth Programs Manager at GLSEN, a leading education organization focused on providing LGBTQ students with a safe experience at school.
Negin Farsad: Negin Farsad has an unusual career as a “social justice comedian.” What does it mean? Well, essentially, she uses her wicked sense of humor to bridge the racial, religious, social, and cultural gaps that divide our society. Farsad is the acclaimed writer, director, and star of The Muslims are Coming!, a documentary that followed American-Muslim comics on a tour around the nation in an effort to combat prejudice and islamophobia. She is also the author of How to Make White People Laugh, a memoir revealing what it was like growing up Iranian-American in a post-9/11 world. As intelligent as it is funny, Farsad’s body of work is a glowing testament to how laughter can change the world.
Ashton Applewhite: What makes getting older so difficult? Well, it’s not necessarily the passage of time, says age activist Ashton Applewhite. Instead, it has more to do with how we view aging as a society: something to be dreaded, feared, and avoided at all costs. In her work, Applewhite imagines a different reality; one where we embrace aging and take advantage of the untapped possibilities of later life. “Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured,” she says. “It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process that unites us all.” Her book This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, as well as her social activism talks, offer a powerful guide for dismantling what she calls the “last acceptable prejudice.”
Bill McKibben: Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature—published in 1989—is widely regarded as the first book on global warming. Since then, McKibben hasn’t stopped fighting to save our planet from the cataclysmic effects of climate change. He founded the grassroots climate movement 350.org—now the biggest in the world—to secure a better future for us all. And in his latest book, McKibben, who has been called “perhaps the planet’s best green journalist,” by TIME, offers a rousing call-to-arms, thirty years after his earliest warning.
Kimberley Motley: Kimberley Motley is an advocate for global justice. She is the first and only Western litigator to work in Afghanistan, where she spends nine months out of the year navigating a punishing legal system and fighting for the freedom of its countless victims—whether that be a six-year-old child bride, or a foreign soldier falsely accused of a crime. In her talks around the world, including one at TEDGlobal, Motley shares her knowledge and expertise on international law, as well as her hands-on experience approaching criminal, commercial, civil, and human rights issues.
To book one of our Social Activist Speakers for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agency today, and speak with a representative.
In her mission to create a safe and secure Internet for everyone, cybersecurity expert Tarah Wheeler has won the US/UK Fulbright Cyber Security Scholar Award.
The Internet has undoubtedly improved the lives of people all over the world; however, as it’s grown, its vulnerabilities have also become more obvious. Today, corporations, government agencies, and individuals all run the risk of being cyberattacked. Tarah Wheeler, who joined New America as a Cybersecurity Policy Fellow in 2017, is set to embark on a new research appointment at Oxford University to explore the dangers of cyber war crimes. Supported by Fulbright, Wheeler will conduct research in conjunction with the UK National Health Service on defining cyber war crimes, and mitigating civilization bystander harms in nation-state sponsored cyberattacks.
“I’m elated to have been selected for the US Fulbright Scholarship,” Wheeler said. “Often, the hidden victims of cyberwarfare are civilians, uncounted in the toll taken by state-sponsored cyberconflict, and it will be an honor to help shine a light on how ordinary people are personally affected by distant conflict unexpectedly spilling over into their jobs, healthcare, homes, food supply, and even lives.”
Peter Bergen, the Vice President of Global Studies and Fellows at New America, congratulated Wheeler on her “greatly deserved” Fulbright Cyber Security Award on behalf of everyone at the organization. He said, “[Wheeler’s] contributions to cyber attack mitigation research has the potential to prevent real harm in the future.”
Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Cyber Security Oxford Katherine Fletcher, welcomed Wheeler, saying, “We are looking forward to hosting Tarah, as her work will nicely complement ongoing projects looking at cyber harm and resilience from a variety of angles—legal, sociological, economic, et. cetera—which we hope might lead to further collaborations.”
To book speaker Tarah Wheeler for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
If business owners can learn to embrace two certainties, they’ll be able to get through anything, says David Sax. In his new piece for Entrepreneur, he considers how the challenges presented by COVID-19 are showing us what we’re capable of.
“The only way entrepreneurs will get through this is by embracing our two core truths — the only two certainties in an entrepreneur’s life,” writes David Sax in Entrepreneur. “They’re not money, fame, innovation or disruption. They are this: risk and freedom. You cannot have one without the other, and so an entrepreneur must have both.”
Sax has been interested in entrepreneurship for a long time. Not just the celebrated Silicon Valley archetype of an entrepreneur, either, but business owners of all stripes—the ones who truly make up our economy. In his new book, The Soul of an Entrepreneur, Sax examines how we can move beyond this narrow definition and get back to the core of entrepreneurship. He showcases stories from business owners across all industries and demographics, so that we might celebrate entrepreneurship in all of its diversity, and make it truly accessible to all. And though the appearance of the coronavirus is understandably omitted from the book, the subject matter remains relevant as ever.
Today, the inherent risk in entrepreneurship is being laid bare by this invisible enemy we’re all fighting. And the government response has, in many cases, left much to be desired. But that’s where the freedom part of the entrepreneur’s bargain comes in. “To get through this crisis, we now have to double down on that freedom. We have to try new things, create opportunities, pivot, shift, experiment and swing for the fences. We need to find a way to move forward. And from what I’ve seen so far this past month, that is exactly what we are doing.”
From a Tropical Space is the latest series from Titus Kaphar, the award-winning painter, sculptor, and MacArthur “Genius.” Although the New York exhibition of this work has been postponed, Kaphar is currently the focus of Gagosian’s latest “Artist Spotlight.” In a new interview with Vulture, the artist speaks candidly about the project he describes as a “surrealist, fictional Afro-futuristic narrative” about black mothers and the disappearance of their children.
Much of Titus Kaphar’s past work is rooted in art history. At first glance, From a Tropical Space seems to be a departure from that focus. “We don’t see very many pictures of black women in art history, period. They are not our Madonnas. They’re not our Venuses. They are not our odalisque,” Kaphar tells Vulture. “What we have is the depiction of black folks in general, and black women specifically, as enslaved and [in] servitude.”
Yet upon closer inspection, the work has more to do with the canon than first meets the eye. “When I looked at the compositions themselves, I realized that this [series] is a conversation about the Madonna. This is a conversation about the Pietà. These are mothers mourning the loss of their children. So in that way, the relationship to art history is there. It’s just, the expression has changed.”
The series depicts portraits of black mothers with their children erased from the canvas, leaving a blank cut-out where there bodies should be. Kaphar explains that they were removed very precisely with a razor blade, and that the work relates to the trauma these mothers are experiencing. “That kind of anxiety, that kind of fear in these paintings, culminates into this moment of absence.”
Raj Chetty is the Director of Opportunity Insights, a small organization of Harvard-based researchers and policy analysts. In the wake of the current crisis, he and his team have partnered with Womply to launch the first and only tool able to track the economic impacts of COVID-19 on people, businesses, and communities in real time.
Up until now, federal, state, and local leaders have been forced to rely on survey-based data and government statistics for their planning and policy-making. And though this data is certainly valuable, the lag in accumulating it makes it harder to assess sudden economic shocks, such as the one reverberating from COVID-19.
That’s what makes the OI Economic tracker, powered by Womply’s software and data points, so revolutionary. The company has been tracking economic activity and consumer spending for years, offering live information that can meet the immediate and urgent needs of this downturn. The data will be undergoing rigorous academic analysis by economist Raj Chetty and his team at Opportunity Insights.
“The OI Economic Tracker will provide government leaders, policymakers, non-profits, and the public with the tools they need to tackle an economic crisis,” says Chetty. “Rather than waiting weeks to see where the economy is falling and playing catch-up, the new data assembled in this tool offers the capacity to spot economic problems as they emerge and to consider a more targeted policy response.”
Creator Nikole Hannah-Jones reexamined the legacy of slavery in America in the ambitious project, which recognized the 400th anniversary of the first enslaved Africans arriving in Virginia. For her introductory essay, Hannah-Jones has been awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
New York Times Magazine’s ‘The 1619 Project’ was perhaps the most talked about piece of journalism of the year, featuring inspiring work from Black authors, journalists, activists, and artists. Nikole Hannah-Jones, the creator and lead writer on the project, penned the introductory essay under the powerful headline ‘Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True.’
In it, she writes, “But it would be historically inaccurate to reduce the contributions of black people to the vast material wealth created by our bondage. Black Americans have also been, and continue to be, foundational to the idea of American freedom. More than any other group in this country’s history, we have served, generation after generation, in an overlooked but vital role: It is we who have been the perfecters of this democracy.”
Thought-provoking and beautifully written, Hannah-Jones’ essay will be remembered for being one of the most impactful modern pieces on the subject of race and slavery. Upon learning of her Pulitzer win, she called the project “the most important work of my life.”
Join Naomi Klein, Angela Duckworth,Wajahat Ali, and many more of the world’s top thinkers at What’s the Future @ Lavin Live—a free virtual event diving into the enormous challenges we’re all facing as a result of COVID-19.
The longer we stay under lockdown, the less likely we are to return to a world that feels familiar. From the devastation of the economy, to the newfound apprehension we experience every time we leave the house, it’s clear that there will be significant—and lasting—changes to our lives.
What’s the Future @ Lavin Live is a free virtual event designed to ease some of that uncertainty. No one knows for sure what tomorrow will bring, but we’ve gathered some of the world’s brightest thinkers to help us envision the legacy the pandemic will leave in its wake. Join host Misha Glouberman as he talks to the world’s leading scientists, journalists, economists, and public intellectuals on April 27th—29th, from 3PM to 5PM EST every day.
Check out our full line-up below and make sure to register so that we know you’re coming!
Event Breakdown
April 27th: Personal
How do we cope with the new “normal” of self-isolation—and the fear, anxiety, and loneliness that comes with it? Offering hope and compassion, the Lavin speakers on Day 1 will help us navigate the ups and downs of our mental health.
Dan Lerner—Professor of NYU’s Most Popular Elective, The Science of Happiness Steven Pinker—New York Times Bestselling Author of Enlightenment Now
Eric Klinenberg—New York Times Bestselling Author of Palaces for the People and Co-Author of the #1 NYT Bestseller Modern Romance
Lori Gottlieb—New York Times Bestselling Author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone and The Atlantic’s “Dear Therapist” Columnist
April 28th: Business
The novel coronavirus is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced, and its impact on business will be felt for years to come. The Lavin speakers on Day 2 show us how we can adapt to uncertainty, foster resiliency, and innovate our way through to the other side.
Chris Clearfield—Co-Author of Meltdown, Winner of the Thinkers50 Strategy Award
Jeremy Gutsche—New York Times Bestselling Author of Create the Future Stephanie Mehta—Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company
April 29th: Society
How we respond to the pandemic now will influence the society we will have in the future. What kind of world do we want to live in? The choice is ours. The Lavin speakers on Day 3 help us understand this disruption through the lens of our political and economic institutions.
Naomi Klein—Bestselling Author of The Shock Doctrine in conversation with Shoshana Zuboff—Bestselling Author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Jelani Cobb—Staff Writer at The New Yorker in conversation with Wajahat Ali—New York Times and CNN Contributor
Daron Acemoglu—MIT Economist and Co-Author of The Narrow Corridor
Margaret Atwood—Booker Prize-Winning Author of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments
To book one of these talented speakers for your next virtual event, contact The Lavin Agency today and connect with a member of our sales team.
In an eye-opening talk for TED, Heather McGheereveals how a surprising on-air confrontation around racial prejudice helped her make a stunning realization about our current economic landscape.
It turns out, racism isn’t just bad for people of color. It’s bad for everyone. As Heather McGhee declares in her TEDWomen talk: “Racism leads to bad policy-making. [And] it’s making our economy worse.”
After an exchange with a prejudiced C-Span caller went viral, McGhee began to rethink the economic problems plaguing the nation. “I wondered, is it possible that our society's racism has likewise been backfiring on the very same people set up to benefit from privilege?” This question took her on a journey writing, researching, and traveling around the country, where she came to the conclusion that many of our economic issues, from the 2008 financial crisis to our gutted social safety net, can be attributed to racist ideologies and institutions. In other words, the status quo isn’t working for us. But in her captivating talk, McGhee offers historical examples and personal anecdotes to show us that a new reality is possible.
When it comes to loss of life, the coronavirus is no doubt a human tragedy of epic proportions. But when it comes to the future of our economy? It’s not necessarily all doom and gloom. In his latest LinkedIn article, Public Sapient’s John Maeda explains why this crisis is different from those we have previously experienced.
“Experts make provocative claims by comparing what happened in the past with what is to come for our future,” writes John Maeda, referencing the horde of opinion pieces and articles prosetalyzing the collapse of our economy. There’s just one problem with this method: we can’t compare this crisis to any other financial crisis we’ve experienced in the past. Why? Because, as Maeda argues, “we’re now inter-connected computationally.”
This shift will have dramatic effects for the state of the Internet, artificial intelligence, and business in general. “The sudden migration from smartphones back to desktops [and] laptops is amassing large amounts of data for the tech companies to take an even greater advantage,” Maeda notes. “People of all ages and walks of life have been forced to shift to an all-digital lifestyle. Forced evolution is now happening.” For AI, having access to more data is especially crucial to its evolution—helping it become smarter, as well as more inclusive.
We can’t rely on experts basing their opinions on how things used to be, because these are unprecedented times, and digital natives differ intrinsically from digital immigrants. If we listen to their voices, we’ll be less likely to fall victim to doom and gloom, and more likely to see the potential for business in a post-COVID world.
Manjit Minhas is well-known for her role as a judge on the critically acclaimed program Dragons’ Den. She also runs one the world’s largest breweries—worth a whopping $187 million dollars. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Minhas shows us how it’s possible to repurpose your business and respond to the crucial needs of our communities.
Minhas Micro Brewery and Distillery has begun fulltime production of hand sanitizer to fulfill a growing need for supplies that reduce the transmission of COVID-19. “We started investigating the process the moment we took our first call from a regional health authority. It took a couple of days to get all Health Canada and FDA approvals and gather ingredients but we’re relieved to be up and running,” says CEO Manjit Minhas, who notes that their finished product will follow the formulation recommended by the World Health Organization.
Over the next few weeks, the company is expected to produce over 1,000,000 bottles of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, which will be given to vulnerable segments of the population, from those living in shelters to essential workers on the front line. It will also be made available to the general public through the company’s headquarters as well as several grocery chains.
“We’re all so grateful for our staff’s hard work to reposition the facility and grateful that we are in a position to be able to do whatever we can to respond to this crisis,” says Manjit. Her example reminds us that companies need to be social as well as commercial actors, especially as we reckon with a public health emergency of this magnitude.
To book speaker Manjit Minhas for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
How can we protect our mental health during a global pandemic? Emily Esfahani Smith, author of the critically acclaimed The Power of Meaning, argues that the answer lies not in a quest for happiness, but a search for meaning.
“When researchers and clinicians look at who copes well in crisis and even grows through it, it’s not those who focus on pursuing happiness to feel better; it’s those who cultivate an attitude of tragic optimism,” Emily Esfahani Smith writes in her latest op-ed for The New York Times. Coined by psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankel, the term refers to an “ability to maintain hope and find meaning in life despite its inescapable pain, loss, and suffering.”
To illustrate the effectiveness of tragic optimism, Smith points to a study conducted after the events of 9/11. In general, people reported higher instances of fear, anxiety, or hopelessness—but the emotions were more debilitating for some than others. “What set those resilient students apart was their ability to find the good. Unlike the less resilient students, the resilient reported experiencing more positive emotions, like love and gratitude,” Smith writes. It didn’t mean they denied horror of the attack, but that they were able to find hope despite it.
Pursuing things that make us happy—whether it be taking time to exercise, or spending time with a loved one—does make us feel better, albeit temporarily. But when it comes to coping, happiness does not penetrate the psyche as deeply as meaning does, Smith notes. “The things that make our lives meaningful, like volunteering or working, are stressful and require effort.” Yet they also inspire and enrich our lives, connecting us to something bigger than ourselves. By searching for meaning and adopting the spirit of tragic optimism, people will be able to actually grow through adversity.
There is no real substitute for in-person contact. That’s true. But it doesn’t mean that our video conferencing and telework has to be completely alienating, either. In his latest article, futurist and author Douglas Rushkoff offers practical tips for making our work-from-home feel engaging.
Over the last few years, Douglas Rushkoff has been steadily increasing the number of appearances he does over the internet. “It’s better for the environment, there’s less wear and tear on my body, it saves money, and I don’t have to block out as many dates on my Google Calendar,” he says. “What I didn’t realize is how much my work refining the style, format, and content of these remote appearances would prepare me for the era of social distancing.” As a result, he’s the perfect person to walk us through creating an engaging virtual presence.
In person, a 60-minute presentation can be captivating from start to finish—but in our new virtual reality, where our physical form is absent and our disembodied voices emerge from a screen, the attention of the crowd is harder to capture. To start, Rushkoff recommends cutting down your speaking time, taking questions from the host—helping to ground your presentation in the here and now—and provoking audience involvement. And wherever you’re broadcasting from, ensure it’s not a sterile environment, Rushkoff says. “Video is visual, and every pixel is a chance to share information about your process and proclivities.” This includes showing audiences your authentic space.
“And remember, no matter how virtual you think you are, you are still a living body. Use it. Don’t be afraid to sip a cup of coffee, jot something down, and move around within reason.”
Though some shoppers have been panic-buying toilet paper and sanitizer against expert advice, there’s a much bigger trend happening during this pandemic—empathy. In his latest op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Stanford psychologist Jamil Zaki explores how COVID-19 has sparked a “global epidemic of kindness.”
For every news story there is about toilet paper hoarding, there are about 10 more that describe people supporting one another during the coronavirus—heartwarming stories of people delivering groceries to their elderly neighbors, or restaurants pivoting to food relief efforts. “Disasters rip away the tidy fallacy of self-reliance and lay bare our utter dependence on each other,” writes Jamil Zaki, author of The War for Kindness. “They shock us into seeing our shared fragility, which is also our shared humanity. That’s why, in times of crisis, we are usually eager to help strangers, in what the essayist Rebecca Solnit has called a ‘carnival of compassion.’”
This type of altruism isn’t just helpful to our communities. It’s also beneficial for our individual health. Zaki writes, “We often think of altruism as a transfer, in which one person sacrifices to benefit another. But well-being is not a zero-sum game: When we devote our time and money to other people, we feel happier.” In other words, kindness can relieve stress, soothe pain, improve our mood, and generally keep us healthier.
Few CEOs navigated the Great Recession as skillfully as David Cote. In a new interview with Fortune, the inspiring corporate leader offers guidance for businesses managing the coronavirus crisis today.
When David Cote inherited Honeywell in 2002, the company was teetering on the brink of failure thanks to a mishandled merger with GE. Yet Cote was unfazed. During his 15 years as CEO, he not only navigated the Great Recession, but managed to increase the company’s capitalization to the tune of $100 billion dollars. Now the executive chairman of Vertiv Holdings, and the author of the upcoming Winning Now, Winning Later, Cote reveals the strategies that set Honeywell apart from irs competitors—and helped them emerge from crisis unscathed.
His first piece of advice focuses on leadership. “It’s surprising how often a leader will panic,” Cote tells Fortune. “A CEO who panics will just sit there, not knowing what to do, and try to build consensus.” But rather than striving for unanimity, Cote recommends hearing from your entire team and then making a decision yourself. “Independent thinking is a lot more rare than being smart.”
Cote also warns leaders against putting on their rose-colored glasses during times of crisis. Though they might not want to believe the worst-case scenarios, a lack of preparation will put them at risk of failure. “My credo is to hope for the best but plan for the worst. Pick a plan and start executing it as if you expect the worst to happen,” Cote advises.
This doesn’t necessarily mean cutting all costs, either. Cote says, “It’s also critical in turbulent times to keep investing for the future. Among the first things to get cut in a recession is usually investment in new products. But it’s those products that create a growing and vibrant company, and they need to be protected. Honeywell roared out of the Great Recession because we kept investing.”
As new coronavirus cases surge and more and more people self-isolate to flatten the curve, the nation’s economy continues to plummet. On Twitter, the suggestion that older people should sacrifice themselves for the sake of the economy is only one indication of how ageism and ableism are being laid bare during this pandemic. Ashton Applewhite tackles the issue in her latest op-ed.
“The pandemic has exposed our shredded social safety net as never before, and a hospital system crippled by decades of cost-cutting, underfunding, and chronic understaffing by underpaid workers to benefit profiteering corporations,” writes Ashton Applewhite. Under such circumstances, America will likely soon follow in the footsteps of countries like Italy and Spain, who are having to make heartbreaking decisions about who to treat in the midst of this public health emergency.
Applewhite contends that while these complex ethical decisions are necessary, allocating resources by age is a lethal form of discrimination. “The most dangerous manifestation of ageism during the pandemic is the suggestion of an age limit for medical treatment, so it won’t be ‘wasted,’ she writes. And though it is true that older people are at more risk, underlying conditions play a far bigger role than age when it comes to recovering from the illness. Unfortunately, age is much quicker to assess than a full medical history—a disadvantage when life-or-death decisions must be made instantly.
“In every other context, it’s up to the rest of us to push back against every form of social bias,” writes Applewhite. “We are engaged in a massive collective experiment to protect the vulnerable, whoever they turn out to be. It’s high stakes, and it’s as intersectional as it can get. We are truly all in this together.”
Jay Van Bavel is a professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University. He speaks frequently about political polarization and ‘the partisan brain,’ exploring why so many people are willing to put party over policy, and oftentimes, even over truth. In his latest for The Washington Post, Van Bavel explains why polarization becomes more dangerous during a pandemic.
“There are many reasons people might not be heeding experts’ advice [about the coronavirus], from the overconfidence of youth to psychological denial to exposure to misinformation,” writes Jay Van Bavel. “But several polls released over the past few weeks suggest that a partisan divide might be partly to blame.”
Democrats appear to be preparing for the worst, with 68% reporting they’re worried about someone in their family catching the virus, compared to just 40% of Republicans. And while Google searches on the pandemic are on the rise—regardless of political affiliation—the rampant misinformation from outlets such as FOX news, has impacted public response. According to studies, there has been “stark partisan differences on hand washing, social distancing, travel, and other pandemic-related behavior.”
Fortunately, it appears that the deadly reality of COVID-19 will soon puncture the partisan divide. Van Bavel writes, “As the pandemic bears down on America and people start to see their friends and family hospitalized with life-threatening illness, you can expect to see the partisan-colored lenses start to clear up. You’ll likely see Republicans heed the advice of experts and hunker down to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
Citizens around the globe are glued to the news as the coronavirus continues to silently spread. But Jonathan Brill, a gifted futurist who has helped some of the world's leading companies navigate uncertainty, suggests that what we really need to focus on is life after the pandemic.
While globalization has improved quality of life for billions, its speed and efficiency also “increases the impact of synchronous economic shocks,” writes Jonathan Brill. Essentially, this is what we’re seeing with the coronavirus now. Many of the hardest hit countries, like Italy and Spain, have placed a hard stop on their economies, likely forcing their trading partners to take action as well. What kind of implications will these drastic measures have on our economy on the long-term?
“We are about to discover that the technological and economic foundations we have built to handle asynchronous shocks don't work when the whole world slows simultaneously,” says Brill. “A number of economically critical systems will be pushed to the edge, if not over.” Those include supply chain systems, health care, transportation, corporations, governments, and even digital sales channels. The effect, as debt services will soon eat into social services, will be a cry from citizens to restructure the social contract.
Despite the new economic reality we will soon face, Brill cautions that we can’t afford a weak response from world leaders. “It would be a game of economic dominoes,” he says. Moving forward, we need to continue to grow the global economy by building resilient, proactive systems. “These systems will involve emerging technologies and inevitably challenge many of the privileges and rights that we hold most dear.”
In the end, Brill maintains we will have ourselves a radically transformed world—for the better.
“A pandemic is war,” writes Derek Thompson in his latest article for The Atlantic. And our response to the biological enemy is a shut-down of public life, from schools to restaurants. Unfortunately, the latter closure especially will have profound effects on the nation’s economy. What we do to support the restaurant industry, then, is crucial for how we repair our economic life.
Restaurant closures may not seem like an enormous deal at first, but if you consider the fact that restaurant spending in America surpassed grocery store spending for the first time ever, things begin to look a bit more grim. “This modern dining revolution has made restaurants one of the country’s most important sources of work. In 1990, manufacturing employment was almost three times larger than the food-service industry, but today there are about as many jobs in food service as in manufacturing,” writes Derek Thompson. “Restaurants are the new factories, and without them state and local economies across the country would fall to pieces.”
So what happens now, in a pandemic, when we are forced to do without them? It’s definitely uncharted territory, with no clear understanding of how long the closures will last. “Already operating at paper-thin margins, restaurants face the loss of their entire dine-in business, but they will still have to make rent,” explains Thompson. The current crisis in a nutshell is that the pre-pandemic financial obligations have not disappeared. According to Thompson, there is only one solution to the problem: “The public sector must step in and play consumer for several months, until the virus passes.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, it’s no wonder that anxiety and fear are on the rise. What if a loved one falls ill? How will we deal with the potential financial fallout? And what happens if we find ourselves in another global recession? Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb—also the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone—reveals what we can do to deal with the stress in GQ.
During a global pandemic, one thing is for certain: the news coverage is nonstop. But constantly refreshing your Twitter feed and obsessively wondering what will happen next isn’t necessarily the best approach for our mental health. Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb explains, “Humans don’t do well with uncertainty, so what they do is make up stories about the future, and usually what they do is they’re catastrophizing. They don’t make up happy stories.” Instead of playing a game of “what-if” that could spiral out of control, she encourages us to limit the amount we check the news, suggesting that a constant obsession will create an “emotional overload.”
“It’s really important to stay present and not imagine something that hasn’t happened,” Gottlieb explains.
In Create the Future, Trend Hunter CEO and New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Gutschereveals the frameworks that have helped 700 of the world’s most powerful brands, billionaires, and CEOs, accelerate real change.
Through his consulting work with Trend Hunter—not to mention his experience hosting the world’s #1 innovation conference, Future Festival—Jeremy Gutsche has helped countless brands realize their full potential. In his new book Create the Future, he aims to help readers do the same.
“You likely already realize that survival in business today requires grabbing hold of tomorrow's opportunities with disruptive innovation, before your competition or a new startup gets there,” writes Martin Zwilling in his review of the book for Inc. “The challenge is to create a culture of forward thinking in your company, and avoid the traps of following the paths of least resistance that often appear in mature companies.”
With his captivating writing, Gutsche shows readers how to avoid these common traps that prevent progress. Create the Future is a tactical guidebook chock-full of strategies tested by leaders at Disney, Starbucks, Google, and even NASA. Better yet, the book is paired with a revised edition of Gutsche’s first book Exploiting Chaos—an Inc Best Book for Business Owners, an Axiom International Book Award Winner, and a #1 CEO Read.
In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re shining the spotlight on our Top Women & Leadership Speakers. These women are all powerhouses in their fields—from business and law to STEM and sports. They’re reshaping the worlds they work in, and as speakers, their stories and expertise empower other women to do the same.
Manjit Minhas is demolishing outdated stereotypes in business one boardroom—and brewery—at a time. You might recognize her as one of the venture capitalist “Dragons” on Canada’s Dragon’s Den, but what you might not know is just how fascinating her journey to success has been. At nineteen years old, and with no experience or investment, Manjit and her brother founded Minhas Brewery. What started as a small business making a bold break into the notoriously male-dominated beer industry became a multi-million dollar enterprise—and the tenth largest brewery in the world. Manjit’s powerful talks cover her unique story, her success as a woman in business, and real tips on chasing innovation, growing your business, and adapting to rapid change in the business world.
Kimberley Motleyis an indomitable force for good in the world of international human rights law—there’s even an award-winning feature documentary about her work, Motley’s Law. Taking on high-profile, heartbreaking cases such as that of a six-year-old child bride, or a teenage girl sold into slavery over an app, Motley fights to hold complex legal systems accountable to all citizens; and overturning sentences for people subjected to appalling miscarriages of justice in the process. A registered attorney for more than 20 embassies, she was also the first foreign litigator working in Afghanistan. Around the world, Motley empowers women to access the human rights owed to them; countering corruption and tradition by expertly navigating the justice system with hard facts and human rights on her side.
Margot Lee Shetterly wrote Hidden Figures:The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race—the #1 NYT bestseller that inspired a #1 movie in America. She tells the incredible true story of the black women mathematicians at NASA who helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Margot is also a researcher and entrepreneur, as well as the founder of the Human Computer Project. It’s a digital archive telling the stories all of NASA’s “Human Computers”: women from all backgrounds whose work tipped the balance in favor of the United States in WWII, the Cold War, and the Space Race. With a wealth of knowledge on remarkable women in history, Shetterly places their accomplishments and legacies firmly in the context of modern American society: where we’ve been, where we are today—and where we’ll be tomorrow.
Waneek Horn-Miller is a lifelong Indigenous Activist and Olympic Athlete who first drew national attention at fourteen when, while protesting the infamous Oka Crisis, she was stabbed in the heart by a Canadian soldier: and almost died. She fought for recovery and emerged with a mission—and PTSD—to fight for what’s right and be a leader not only for her community, but for the world. Waneek became a champion swimmer, representing Canada at the Olympics, and taking home the gold at the 1999 PanAm Games. Now she channels this remarkable spirit of perseverance and resilience into her advocacy. In her inspiring keynotes, Waneek traces her incredible path and shows how fighting for justice in an unjust world can unlock your full potential.
Ellen Ochoamade history as the first Hispanic woman in space—and didn’t stop there. Also the former Director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, she’s a true trailblazer who knows that of empowering and celebrating women in predominantly male fields is incredibly important. An active astronaut since 1991, she has flown in space four times, logging nearly 1,000 hours, and has even won one of NASA's highest awards, the Distinguished Service Medal and the Presidential Distinguished Rank of the Senior Executive Service. Drawing on her remarkable career at NASA, Ellen shares just how diversity and social justice initiatives enhance creativity, and allow people to take control of their lives in profound ways.
Maureen Chiquetis a legendary leader in the retail world. Most recently the former CEO of Chanel, she’s had a hand in growing major brands like The Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy—and, along the way has been named one of Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women. What was the secret to her success? In her tremendously compelling talks—as well as her book Beyond the Label—Maureen shares the surprising secret to her remarkable success: she injected the traditionally “feminine” values of empathy, authenticity, and communication into her organizations. She found a way to harness what people in the business world too often see as weaknesses to build a truly collaborative corporate culture from the ground up—and proved herself a transformational leader along the way.
Soraya Chemaly is an award-winning journalist, media critic, and the co-founder and director of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project. Her book, Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger explores the socially constructed, repressed relationship between women and their anger, offering a comprehensive look at how identity and emotional expression affect men and women’s personal, professional, and political lives. What does it take to amplify women’s voices in the workplace, at home, and in the world at large? Soraya’s empowering, practical talks pull from the many successful campaigns she’s spearheaded, and challenge corporations to address inclusivity, harassment, and algorithmic bias: providing clear takeaways on how to turn talk into action.
Tarah Wheeler is a cybersecurity expert and the author of Women in Tech, whose incredible career has been dedicated to keeping people safe from cyberattacks and security breaches—and combatting unconscious social bias to champion women in STEM. It’s not that women need more inspiration to get into STEM—they already love science! But they do need help dismantling widespread and insidious discrimination: forces that mean ‘diversity’ looks like one token woman amid scores of men. Recently named the #1 top female cybersecurity influencer by onalytica, Tarah asks the important questions: how can everyone do their part to fight for gender equality across the STEM fields? With anecdotes, personal examples, and a dash of humor, Tarah offers a comprehensive guide creating real change in STEM.
Yaël Eisenstatis a former CIA Officer and National Security expert in the White House—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. She was alarmed to find that, as an Intelligence Officer, she could have easier conversations with suspected terrorists than her average fellow Americans. With political polarization on the rise, she decided to pivot her career and took a job as the Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations at Facebook. There, she spent an eye-opening six months inside a company that she felt contributed directly to democracy’s “biggest existential threat.” Today, as a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech, Yaël uses her experience in the public and private sector to explore technology’s effect on society—answering the difficult, and necessary, ethical questions our future depends on.
Danielle Wood is a renowned space engineer and director of the MIT Media Lab’s Space Enabled program. As humankind continues to make giants leaps in technological advancements used in space, development scholar Danielle explores the terrestrial implications of cutting-edge tech. Using revolutionary cosmic technology to tackle complex social issues like improving relied upon water sources and expanding sustainable development for generations to come, Danielle shares how satellites can be instruments of social justice. Equal parts inspirational and aspirational, she explores how out-of-this-world tools are building a better future for everyone here on Earth.
Once the stuff of dystopian nightmares, artificial intelligence has become an essential part of our daily lives. Today, AI recommends our products, routes our taxis, predicts our Internet searches. Tomorrow? It will be a tool as fundamental as electricity. Lavin’s Top 10 artificial intelligence speakers help us navigate the changes to come.
Radhika Dirks: There are so many opportunities for AI to empower us, says Radhika Dirks. A quantum physicist by training, Dirks now runs the world’s first “moonshot” factory for AI, where she creates the kind of technology that will enhance human potential beyond our wildest dreams. For her innovative work, she was recently named one of the top 30 women advancing the field.
Ajay Agrawal: What is artificial intelligence, really, if not cheap prediction, says Rotman professor Ajay Agrawal. In his book Prediction Machines, he breaks down the AI revolution in simple, economic terms—providing investors, CEOs, policy makers, and entrepreneurs with the actionable insights they need to take advantage. And Agrawal certainly knows what he’s talking about: as the founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, he runs the program with the highest concentration of AI start-ups in the world.
Amber Mac: In the award-winning Accenture podcast The AI Effect, technology reporter Amber Mac investigates how artificial intelligence is transforming entire industries. How might AI help us overcome challenges in food production? What is its evolving role in financial services? And will AI-powered advancements in healthcare eventually augment our human potential? Mac thoughtfully dives into the questions, interviewing global leaders in a thriving AI ecosystem.
Jeremy Gutsche: Trend Hunter CEO Jeremy Gutsche is a master of disruptive thinking. And what has disrupted the world more, in recent years, than artificial intelligence? Using his wit, magnetism, and unparalleled business insight, Gutsche makes sense of how this new technology will shake up every industry.
Martin Ford: Martin Ford considers some of the most pressing questions emerging from the robotics revolution. His first book, the McKinsey award-winning Rise of the Robots, contemplated the jobs we will have in the future, while his newest release, Architects of Intelligence, interviews leaders on the front-lines of AI development. Reliable and sincere, Ford has become one of the leading voices in AI precisely because of his willingness to investigate the hard questions.
Nicholas Thompson: Technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it affects our culture, politics, the economy, and society at large. Documenting the impact is WIRED editor Nicholas Thompson. Though he is a tech optimist, he thoughtfully examines the developments and repercussions of artificial intelligence from every angle.
Nita Farahany: Neuro-ethicist and scholar Nita Farahany considers the ethical implications of “mind-reading” tech that blends neuroscience and artificial intelligence. She asks, what is our neurological data worth? And what will it mean when it becomes readily available to the public? If we are to make the most of this next frontier, we’ll need the transparency and guidance offered by leaders like Farahany.
Jonathan Brill: The most invaluable asset an organization can have? A strategy in place for making sense of the future, says Jonathan Brill. As the Global Futurist at HP, Brill thinks about the social, economic, and technological shifts of tomorrow—and how we can best prepare for them. His understanding of artificial intelligence is broad and far-reaching, touching on how the technology will influence everything from our workplaces to the global supply chain to the environment.
David Rose: The power of AI is exponential, and it’s disrupting just about every industry. MIT lecturer, futurist, and AI product designer David Rose works tirelessly to make technology dissolve easily into the fabric of our daily living. Whether it’s restoring our physical abilities, or ensuring the safety of our streets, he maintains that AI offers us a new organizing principle for modern life.
Tom Wujec: In his rousing innovation talks, Tom Wujec—the former ‘Chief Disruptor’ at Autodesk—reveals how artificial intelligence has transformed design and manufacturing. From machines that learn in ways no human ever could, to printers that create three-dimensional objects out of fascinating new materials, disruptive technologies are permanently changing the way we make things.
To book one of these Artificial Intelligence Speakers for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today.
The Zo is a groundbreaking new video project exploring the twisted realities of prison life, illustrated by superstar artist Molly Crabapple and narrated by The Wire’s Emmy-Award winning actor Michael K. Williams.
Based on the essay by Yale student Patrick Doolittle and the archive of prison writings compiled in an open-source database invented by Professor Doran Larson of Hamilton College, The Zo (Zo is prison lingo for The Twilight Zone) showcases Molly Crabapple’s disorienting visualization of life—or something like it—behind bars. It’s a world where guards’ favorite past time is messing with prisoner’s heads, creating deliberately disorienting rules and assigning impossible, contradictory tasks at whim. It’s an intricate struggle between the powerless and those with the power, and Crabapple’s illustrations perfectly capture that destructive dance.
Williams’ compelling narration tells of inmates forced to adapt to intentionally erratic schedules or face the consequences, submit to arbitrary punishments, and try to figure out deliberately unpredictable “routines”—all while we see Crabapple literally paint a picture of the precariousness of the dignity, safety, and humanity of the prisoners. The Zo is produced by First Look Media’s new streaming service Topic, who offer curated, provocative, meaningful content on topical issues.
Crabapple has been called “equal parts Hieronymus Bosch, William S. Burroughs and Cirque du Soleil,” by The Guardian. She regularly speaks to audiences around the world, at institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, The London School of Economics, and Harvard and Columbia Universities. Her works are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and The New York Historical Society.
Retail veteran Joe Jackman has helped revive countless ailing retailers—from Old Navy to Duane Reade—back to growth and relevance in the 21st century. His new book, The Reinventionist Mindset, crystallizes his decades of experience into a guidebook for leaders grappling with tremendous change.
The status quo is the “serial killer” of great companies, Joe Jackman writes in the first few pages of The Reinventionist Mindset. Though it’s human nature to do what we know, Jackman maintains that we must overcome our evolutionary impulses and embrace uncertainty. His book offers five essential principles to do just that—framed by high-profile case studies of brands who have undergone transformation. “The principles are people-powered, and include ‘digging deep’ into one’s business while looking beyond, and into other business categories for inspiration,” writes WWD, noting that the most valuable part of the book lies in its pink pages, “which include a reinvention framework worksheet and action steps for putting it all into practice.”
Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet is an example of how the Internet can still bring joy, wonder, and meaning into our lives. The beloved comic (and New York Times bestselling book) follows the misadventures of adorable aliens as they navigate life on a planet strikingly similar to Earth—and in the process, reveals the absurdity of our own behavior.
“I think that so much of what we are doing here is meaningful and absurd simultaneously,” says writer and illustrator Nathan Pyle. And though his latest project, Strange Planet, doesn’t take place on Earth, the quirky comic does make a compelling case that life on other planets may not be all that different from our own. “I love to imagine a planet where they are about as technologically advanced as we are but they are more emotionally advanced,” explains Pyle.
Indeed, his blue extraterrestrials find themselves in situations that echo our own challenges and triumphs. But what makes Strange Planet so intoxicating is not its ability to replicate human life, but its ability to offer us a fresh perspective on the world we live in every day. The same goes for Pyle’s talks, which teach us how to harness the power of creative energy—finding inspiration in the most unlikely of places.
To book speaker Nathan Pyle for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency and connect with one of our knowledgeable sales agents.
We tend to reduce our political opponents to caricatures and stereotypes, a practice that is further reinforced by social media. And though it may feel satisfying to call one another out publicly, the effects could be dangerous. Psychology professors Jay Van Bavel and Dominic Packer investigate for the BBC.
Political polarization may increase voter turnout, but unfortunately, it also leaves us with two deeply disconnected factions of society. In a new article for the BBC, Lavin speaker Jay Van Bavel joins forces with psychology professor Dominic Packer, to explore the effects of this division. First and foremost, we’re not as different as we think we are. Many people, despite their political affiliation, share common values on issues such as child rearing, healthcare, or civic responsibilities. Unfortunately, the similarities are obscured by polarization. We tend to overestimate the proportion of opponents who hold more extreme and unflattering views.
“People can be reluctant to mix with those they assume to be different from themselves. But without these interactions, we lose the capacity for reality checks and to see the humanity in others,” write the authors. “Democracy is built upon on our ability to vigorously disagree but ultimately find sufficient common ground to forge a consensus. If left and right co-operated, societies might be better placed to address challenges in areas like health care, the climate, education, or terrorism.”
Psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb made waves when she released Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, a poignant memoir that’s spent week after week on the bestseller lists. Now, she joins fellow Lavin Speaker Scott Barry Kaufman on The Psychology Podcast to discuss the book, some misconceptions about therapy, and why searching for “happiness” may be the wrong goal.
Therapy and looking after our emotional health is becoming more mainstream, in part due to the success of books like psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. In it, she examines the lives of her clients, as well as the experience she had going to therapy herself. The book has struck a massive chord with readers around the world (it will soon be adapted into a television series with Eva Longoria), painting a revealing picture of what therapy can look like for the uninitiated.
“The relationship that happens in therapy is so important,” Gottlieb tells Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. “Study after study shows that the most important factor in the success of your therapy isn't the person’s training, or the modality they’re using, or the number of years of experience…it’s the relationship.” Though credentials and experience do matter, evidence shows they don’t matter nearly as much as the person-to-person contact. “When you can go and have a relationship with somebody and be vulnerable, and be authentic, and show the truth of who you are […] that’s life-changing.”
Watch their full conversation below.
To book speakers Lori Gottlieb or Scott Barry Kaufman for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today and speak with someone on our sales team.
Diversity is good for the workplace. The so-called “business case for diversity,” isn’t. Popular as it may be—trumpeted everywhere from the Wall Street Journal to the Financial Times—the “business case” is ultimately a failed strategy. Here to explain why is Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan in Fast Company.
Despite its popularity, the “business case” for diversity isn’t making any strides in terms of actual equality, says Sarah Kaplan, a business professor who runs the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the Rotman School. According to the 2020 Global Gender Gap report by the World Economic Forum, we’re still 50 years off of achieving gender parity in Europe, and more than double that in North America. “Corporate leaders would be better served if they stopped trying to justify diversity with profit margins and stock charts—a mentality that can ultimately hurt the very groups these policies are meant to help—and instead embrace diversity because it is the right thing to do,” Kaplan writes in her new op-ed for Fast Company.
Kaplan outlines where this business case argument originated, why it’s built on false promises, and why it has the unintended consequence of hurting those it claims to champion. “The business case language has a way of making people feel ‘othered’ and devalued,” notes Kaplan. Instead, she offers a blueprint for what leaders and organizations can do, starting with the principled action being modeled by progressive organizations.
Beloved pop culture philosopher and author Chuck Klostermanis taking his sharp wit and wry observational humor off the page and onto the airwaves, with his new 12-week music podcast on Spotify.
With co-host Chris Ryan of The Ringer, Klosterman will delve deep into his love of music, and the power music has to elicit emotions, memories and feelings. But the new Spotify series won’t be one to tell listeners what to listen to, examine what’s happening on the scene right now, or predict tomorrow’s next big thing. As Klosterman puts it: “This is a podcast about thinking about music even when it’s not playing.”
Discussing artists from Drake to Pavement and CCR to Billie Eilish, the first three episode topics have already been announced. The first is, “Do Opinions Matter?” followed by “What’s the Point of Live Music?” and “Does Music Sound Like a Place?”. Sure to be true to Klosterman’s fun, philosophical tone as an essayist and writer, these episodes will drop February 19th.
The Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs author’s most recent written offering, the short story collection Raised in Captivity: Fictional Nonfiction, was called “The kind of strange, sharply detailed and often slyly funny examination of cultural behavior and norms [Klosterman] does unlike anyone else” by the LA Times, and “An engagingly sardonic collection” by The Washington Post.
On the latest Democracy Now, Molly Crabapple sat down with Amy Goodman and Juan González to discuss her time on the campaign trail with Bernie Sanders, the Electoral College system and the Democratic primaries—and how she is using her art and activism to fight for change.
“I was doing these illustrations from life, packed into these high school gyms, these breweries full of working people, with my sketchbook on my knees, trying to not just capture Bernie, but also capture the massive movement behind him,” says Molly Crabapple. She’s talking about her process creating the art showcased in her recent piece in The Nation magazine, headlined “A Sanders Campaign Sketchbook.” There’s something extra special about the experience, for Crabapple. “It’s hard to explain. But when you’re there and when Bernie or when AOC walks into the room, the energy in those rooms is like nothing that I have ever seen. And I have drawn a lot of political rallies for a lot of people.”
Crabapple also uses the opportunity to dispel a common myth about Sanders: that he doesn’t have support among people of color. “Bernie is the most popular candidate with Latinos in America. And there were six times as many Latinos who caucused for him in Iowa as there were to his rival, Biden,” she explained. And she knows firsthand the kind of support out there: Crabapple organized phone banks with David Galarza Santa and Jasmin Sanchez, where Spanish-speaking Latinos called other Spanish-speaking Latinos in Iowa right before the caucuses, which were met with incredible support.
When asked about Bloomberg—of whom some recordings of racist comments have recently resurfaced—Crabapple pulled no punches. “Mike Bloomberg is a billionaire Republican who purged the city of the working class, who sold it out to foreign oligarchs and who terrorized black and Latino youth,” she told Goodman and Juan González. “That’s Mike Bloomberg’s legacy in New York. And that is not someone who should be anywhere near the presidency.”
To watch the full interview of Molly Crabapple on NPR’s Democracy Now, click here.
In just a couple of months the Coronavirus that emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan has spread around the world, sparking a race to find treatments and vaccines against it. Zeroing in on how this deadly virus is spreading and what everyone can do to take preventative measures are The Lavin Agency’s Top Pandemic Speakers—letting you know what this, and the spread of other infectious diseases, means for you and your community.
Nathan Wolfe is the world authority on how infectious diseases spread and how to prevent pandemics before they strike. Just as we discovered in the 1960s that it is better to prevent heart attacks then try to treat them, over the next 50 years we will realize that it is better to stop pandemics before they spread and that effort should increasingly be focused on viral forecasting and pandemic prevention. In his urgent talks, Wolfe discusses how novel viruses enter into the human population from animals and go on to become pandemics. He then explains attempts by his own research group to study this process and attempt to control viruses that have only recently emerged. By creating a global network at the interface of humans and animals, Wolfe is working to move viral forecasting from a theoretical possibility to a reality.
Gina Kolata is the New York Times Reporter for Science and Medicine, and demystifies the science of personal health in the face of spreading pandemics. In her talk based on her book Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918, Kolata recounts the fascinating story of the world’s deadliest disease. The Great Influenza Pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people, and infected 500 million around the globe—making it one of the deadliest disasters in our history. But what’s most amazing about that epidemic is how scientists solved the mystery of what that the virus looked like: by finding fragments in corpses and tissues stored in a vast government warehouse. Drawing from her extensive research, and relating it back to current diseases, Kolata tells the story of this discovery, and explains what it revealed about the 1918 flu—and what made it so destructive.
Dr. Jennifer Gardy is the expert champion of science that we need in the face of a spreading global pandemic. In a globally connected world with a rapidly expanding population, identifying and stopping pandemics before they spread is more important than ever. In her talks, Gardy outlines her vision of a 21st century form of public health, or “public health 2.0.” We must ensure that the outbreaks of the future are “open source outbreaks,” where researches around the world create and share vital information in real time. Through the lens of recent outbreaks, she explores how “open source outbreaks” unfold, from the technology that enables them, to what the future of public health collaboration could mean for our species.
To book one of these Pandemic Speakers for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with an agent from our sales team.
Scientific study was born out of a desire to answer big, philosophical questions on the meaning of life. When scientists and technologists forget this nascent connection, says Radhika Dirks, they run the risk of creating without considering the ethical implications of their work. In her TEDx talk, Dirks reminds us why relating technology back to our humanity is of the utmost importance.
“Physics has seen some of its greatest breakthroughs result in some of our greatest tragedies,” says Radhika Dirks. And while carrying the burden of a post-nuclear physicist may be heavy, it’s not without its advantages. Namely, it allows Dirks to see things a little bit differently: “Unlike most people in [artificial intelligence], when I’m building AI, or quantum, or biotech, I dwell in these really difficult questions,” she explains, noting that it helps her identify where things are missing.
The way Dirks sees it, we have lost the link between physics and philosophy, and it's showing up in the technology we’re building today. “Science is nothing but applied philosophy,” Dirks says. Yet nearly all the innovations we’re seeing emerge from Silicon Valley have been made without a consideration of the big questions; without a consideration of meaning. It’s no wonder the dissonance between tech and humanity is so pronounced. As Dirks says, when science left the humanities, it appears to have left humanity too. With captivating storytelling, historical examples, and real-life parallels to today’s tech industry, Dirks shows us why it's so necessary to shift our thinking—for our progress, our well-being, and our society as a whole.
Watch her full talk below.
To book speaker Radhika Dirks for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency and connect with a knowledgeable member of our sales team.
The viral, groundbreaking sensation of the New York Times Magazine’s “The 1619 Project” is still going strong, with its lead writer, Nikole Hannah-Jones appearing on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah to discuss the message and history behind the landmark project observing the 400th anniversary of slavery in America.
“History seems like it has been written, so why try and write it again?” That’s the first question Trevor Noah asks Nikole Hannah-Jones after she sits down on his hit Comedy Central show. And, true to form, Hannah-Jones has a comprehensive, complex answer at the ready. “History has been written, but it’s been written to tell us a certain story. The 1619 Project is trying to reframe that story,” she explains. “It’s really about the ongoing legacy of slavery. We’ve been taught that slavery was a long time ago, get over it, which is something every black person in this country hears at some point. And “The 1619 Project” is really saying that slavery was so foundational to America and its institutions that we are still suffering from that legacy now—and it’s exploring the many ways that we still are.”
Apparently a point of contention about the project, that Noah brings up, is that the year in question predates the formation of America. “It’s funny because this is year also the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower, yet no one argues that we shouldn’t learn about the Mayflower because it predates the United States,” says Hannah-Jones. She then goes onto discuss her own American identity, and her very patriotic father. Incredibly proud to be American, he had a large American flag on display—making him one of the only Black people she knew to do so, much to her shame. However, she goes on to explain, “As I started researching for this project, I got that he understood something I didn’t: that no one has the right to take away our citizenship and our rights to think of ourselves as American, because so much of what Black people have done is what has built this very country that we get to live in today.”
Despite all the difficult truths “The 1619 Project” grapples with, Hannah-Jones is ultimately hopeful for the future of the nation. “We said we were founded as a democratic republic, but most Americans could not vote at the time of the Constitution. But thanks largely to Black resistance and freedom struggles, we are as close to a multiracial democracy as we’ve ever been,” she tells Noah. While it’s still true that the harm that was done has never truly been dealt with and addressed, it’s her hope that “The 1619 Project” can, by confronting these truths, urge Americans to “…finally start to repair the harm that was done, and then finally start to live up to be the country of our ideals.”
You can watch the full interview here. If you are in Canada, click here.
Can someone’s political identity influence their ability to process information? It appears so. In the cognitive phenomenon known as partisanship, identification with a social group becomes so important, it can override reality. Psychology professor Jay Van Bavel shares strategies to combat this problem in a new TED-Ed video.
Imagine you’re watching your favorite sports team play. You see them commit a foul, but the fans around you cheer them on anyway. The tension between these two things—love for your team, and your understanding of the rules—creates cognitive dissonance. This feeling can be so uncomfortable, you might start to blame the referee or insist there was no foul in the first place, as a way to alleviate the tension. Now imagine the same behavior in politics, and it becomes even more dangerous. “Partisan-based cognitive dissonance can lead people to reject evidence that’s inconsistent with the party line or discredits party leaders. And when entire groups of people revise the facts in service of partisan beliefs, it can lead to policies that aren’t grounded in truth or reason.”
Jay Van Bavel, a professor of psychology and neural science at NYU, encourages us to remember that we’re all more biased than we think we are. To combat the partisanship problem, he suggests making fact-facing and questioning assumptions a valued part of the culture.
When it comes to making a first impression, whether it be a job interview, a networking event, or a pitch, many people tend to cater to the other person’s interests, rather than behave according to their own. But does this approach help or harm our chances of getting what we want? Harvard professors and fellow Lavin Speakers Laura Huang and Francesca Gino explore in their new research.
It turns out, laughing at your job interviewer’s jokes or pretending to adopt an interest in their hobbies won’t necessarily land you a job. New research by Laura Huang, Francesca Gino, and Ovul Sezer suggests that catering to someone else’s interests can actually increase anxiety and, as a result, hinder, instead of improve, performance. Why? In a field study where entrepreneurs pitched their ideas to potential investors, the researchers found that anxiety was heightened by trying to anticipate what another person wants to hear. Against conventional wisdom, it appears that catering to someone else, rather than behaving authentically, will hurt our chances of success.
The Gotham Group recently announced their latest film project, The Black Kids, and it’s set to be directed by Rafiki filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu.
Kahiu—who gained international attention for her critically acclaimed film Rafiki—will helm the production, based on the upcoming YA novel of the same name. The Black Kids follows the story of a wealthy African-American teen, whose family gets caught up in the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Sure to have a busy year, Kahiu is also set to direct Millie Bobby Brown in The Thing About Jellyfish, and is adapting Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed for the silver screen as well. Her previous film Rafiki made its world premiere at Cannes in 2018, and was banned in Kenya.
Kahiu is the co-founder of AFROBUBBLEGUM, a media company that creates “fun, fierce and frivolous African art.” In talks, she shows why this is a political act: seeing African citizens as healthy, financially stable, and fun-loving shows their humanity in refreshing, necessary ways. In 2019, Kahiu was named one of TIME’s “100 Next”, the magazine’s inaugural list putting a spotlight on rising stars shaping the future.
Though there has been a significant improvement for women in the sciences over the past few decades, men continue to dominate leadership positions, especially in the biotech sphere. Lavin Speaker and former President of MIT Susan Hockfield teamed up with entrepreneur Sangeeta Bhatia and biologist Nancy Hopkins to push for change.
Susan Hockfield, Sangeeta Bhatia, and Nancy Hopkins—a biologist who uncovered discrimination at MIT in the 1990s—joined forces to quantify gender bias in the biotech industry, starting with the university. They found that out of 250 start-ups by MIT faculty, less than 10% of were founded by women—despite the fact that women make up 22% of the institution. “We were roughly aware, [even] without data, that women were not participating at the rate that men were, and that, to us, represents a missed opportunity,” Hockfield said. In this specific case, the missed opportunity translates into 40 biotech companies that do not exist today.
Wanting more than just to illustrate the problem, the trio have convened the Boston biotech working group—including the investor community and leaders at MIT—to make sure something changes. MIT is now working on a fellowship that offers tenured female faculty the opportunity to take a semester off to work at a venture capital firm, a practice they hope will continue at other universities.
In her debut book Edge, Harvard Business School professor Laura Huang busts the myth that hard work alone will get us to our goals. Instead, she teaches us how to find our “edge”—the unique qualities that set us apart—and open doors to money, time, and connections.
Wouldn’t it be nice if career advancement was directly linked to how hard we work, or the skills we possess? Unfortunately, the reality is more complicated than that. Biases, stereotypes, and perceptions of who we are often get in the way of our success—even if we’re the most qualified for the job.
As a business professor who studies early entrepreneurship, Laura Huang has seen her fair share of failure. But we needn’t give up because the obstacles are stacked against us, she says. Instead of letting other people’s perceptions limit us, we can actively shape those beliefs—in part by recognizing our own strengths and flaws—into a competitive edge. “Life isn’t fair. We can’t just wait around for people to make the right decisions for us,” Huang explains. “So how do we take all the disadvantages stacked against us and flip them in our favor to succeed within an imperfect system?”
Huang’s book Edge: Turning Adversity Into Advantage (Out Today!) draws from award-winning research on entrepreneurial intuition, persuasion, and implicit decision-making to show us how to strategically turn our shortcomings into assets.
To book speaker Laura Huang for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, and speak to a knowledgeable member of our sales team.
What if, instead of fearing, resisting, and hiding from change, we ran towards it with open arms? How might our lives and our businesses transform? How might we become better positioned to thrive in an era of disruption? In The Reinventionist Mindset, CEO and world-renowned Reinventonist Joe Jackman shows us how to overcome our instinct for the status quo.
Joe Jackman is a master of creating lasting, meaningful change—in a distinctly human way. In his debut bookThe Reinventonist Mindset, he offers readers a behind-the-scenes glimpse at some of the most remarkable reinventions he’s spearheaded throughout his career, from the seismic turn-around of Dave & Busters to Duane Reade’s total revamp. Jackman’s human-centric approach, now translated into this savvy how-to book, has been praised as both “an invaluable aid to those in pursuit of redefining and growing their business” (Jill Soltau, CEO, J.C. Penney) and “an indispensable resource for today’s leaders in our fast-paced, ever-changing world” (John Lederer, Executive Chairman, Staples). The book is available everywhere tomorrow.
To book speaker Joe Jackman for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, his exclusive speakers bureau.
The author, philosopher and futurist Douglas Rushkoff just announced his latest project: a four-part docuseries called Exponential, where he will lead viewers on a journey from the beginning of the digital age through to its manifestation today—and what it could look like tomorrow.
The series, ordered by European culture broadcaster Arte, will focus on the transformation of the digital economy. Host Rushkoff will share how big business is changing the digital world and how we interact with it—and each other. Starting with the inception of the internet, he’ll explore how our increased connectivity has impacted consumerism, and what we can do to get back on course to a more human-centric future.
Of the project, Rushkoff says, “For the past 25 years, I’ve watched as the tremendous potential of the digital age was surrendered to the mindless pursuit of exponential growth. Everyone–and I mean everyone from cab drivers to parents to journalists to teenagers–is ready to see the story of how this unfolded, who is responsible, and what we can still do about it.”
Rushkoff is the author of fifteen bestselling books, including Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus, Program Or Be Programmed, and Team Human. He is also the host of popular podcast Team Human, and was named one of the world’s 10 most influential thinkers by MIT.
Exponential will be produced and represented for international distribution by LA’s Submarine, and France’s Pumpernickel Films.
Margaret Atwood’s already incredible career was absolutely on fire ilast year, with The Testaments—the hotly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale— breaking sales records and taking home the Booker Prize. And her 2020 shows no signs of slowing down, with today’s announcement of her upcoming poetry collection, Dearly.
Her first collection of poems since 2007’s The Door, Dearly will distill many of her most famous themes, like perfect, precise descriptions of the natural world—and it’s damaged state—and exploring pressing political issues. And of course, the supernatural and subconscious will make appearances. Werewolves, aliens, mythology, and dreams provide different ways for Atwood to explore not only contemplative themes like ageing, reflection, and endings; but also, how our present-day bodies, minds, and world are in unprecedented transition. In her classic fashion, Atwood deftly moves between playful and wise, while intricately intertwining moving retrospection.
Set to be published by McClelland & Stewart November 10th, 2020, Dearly is sure to delight new and loyal Atwood readers alike. With her unique insights, uncommon empathy, and unexpected humor, Dearly’s poems aren’t so much a departure from her most recent, award-winning novels like The Testaments, and the Oryx and Crake trilogy, as a return to her roots as a poet.
More than just a modern-day business buzzword, corporate culture plays an integral role in a company’s success. Whether it’s innovation, collaboration, diversity, or a commitment to taking risks, Lavin’s Top Corporate Culture Speakers will help you elevate your organization by championing strong values and putting people first.
Stephanie Mehta: Few people know what makes an award-winning culture of innovation like Stephanie Mehta. Fast Company’s editor-in-chief, she regularly finds, interviews, and profiles the leaders and organizations changing the future of work.
Safi Bahcall: You’ve heard the phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” but what about “structure eats culture for lunch?” These iconic words are spoken by biotech entrepreneur and bestselling author Safi Bahcall. In his WSJ bestseller Loonshots, he explains how even the smallest changes in a company’s structure can transform the culture in the most effective and rewarding ways.
Sarah Kaplan: Modern business is defined by an increasing number of stakeholders jostling to have their voices heard, from employees who want meaningful work, to consumers searching for socially conscious products. How can organizations deliver on these demands—without compromising their bottom line? Getting close to your stakeholders—and truly engaging with them—is what will generate solutions, says Rotman professor and author of The 360 Corporation, Sarah Kaplan.
David Cote: The former CEO and Chairman of Honeywell, David Cote pulled off one of the greatest turn-arounds in the manufacturing industry. Rather than fixating on either long-term strategies or quarterly results, Cote empowered his organization to pursue both simultaneously—leading to historic results. His upcoming book Winning Now, Winning Later will expand on his pivotal leadership, and how it set the stage for a high-performing culture.
Mark Johnson: Visionary thinking isn’t an elusive trait belonging to a charismatic few—it’s a way of life that can be embedded into an organization and accessed by all. As the co-founder of innovation consultancy Innosight—alongside Clayton M. Christensen—Mark Johnson shows us how to manage company-wide cultures of transformation that lead to break-through growth.
Lori Gottlieb: In her critically acclaimed memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, psychotherapist Lori Gottlieb opens up about what it’s like to be a therapist seeking therapy. Honest, unflinching, and remarkably funny, Gottlieb finds a way to talk about our emotional lives—whether it be at work or at home—in a way that’s approachable, enriching, and productive.
Luke Burgis: What could a Silicon Valley founder teach us about philosophy? Turns out, quite a lot. In his upcoming book Wanting, serial entrepreneur Luke Burgis builds upon René Girard’s mimetic theory—the idea that desire is a social construct—to reveal a new framework for understanding rivalry, conflict, and the collective will of our organizations.
Valorie Kondos Field: There’s a win-at-all-cost mentality that rules elite sports—and damages its brightest stars. The same goes for the boardroom. No one knows this better than Valorie Kondos Field, the legendary, 7-time champion coach of the UCLA women’s gymnastics team. In her corporate culture talks—as well as her viral new TED talk—she calls for radical change for how we define success.
Wayne Baker: “Wayne has taught me one of the most important lessons of my career: the biggest barrier to generosity is not that others are unwilling to give, but that we’re afraid to ask,” writes psychologist Adam Grant. He’s chosen Wayne Baker’s groundbreaking book All You Have To Do Is Ask as a Top Leadership Book for 2020. And for good reason—Baker is one of the most prominent sociologists specializing in organizational networks today. His research reveals how we can become more comfortable asking and receiving help, which in turn improves employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity.
Dan Lerner: Happiness and success are not mutually exclusive, says positive psychologist Dan Lerner. With his signature charisma and electrifying storytelling, Lerner helps us transcend what we believe is possible at work and at home. With grit, passion and determination, we can each find our unique potential and elevate ourselves, and our organizations, in the process.
To learn more about booking a Corporate Culture Speaker for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today and speak to a talented member of our sales team.
The Forbes Under 30 Voter Survey, powered by Zogby, polled 1,014 young American voters on the upcoming election—revealing somewhat unexpected results. Chief Content Officer Randall Laneweighs in on the younger generation’s attitude towards the presidential race.
Though Bernie Sanders remains the obvious favorite for voters aged 18-to-29, he was surprisingly followed by former Vice President Joe Biden in this poll—a candidate whose widely rumored to be lacking support among the younger segment. Forbes’ Chief Content Officer Randall Lane explains, “Millennials and Generation Z are defining the issues that are shaping this year’s presidential contest, but they also appear to back candidates who they think have the most-realistic chance of ousting President Donald Trump in November.”
Rounding out the top five candidates were Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg, both tied for 9%, and Silicon Valley’s Andrew Yang. Notably absent from the leading candidates was Pete Buttigieg. “[T]he former South Bend, Indiana, mayor [and] the youngest candidate, has practically no support among Millennials or Generation Z,” writes Lane. “He generates just over 3% support among likely Democratic primary voters under 30, which places him in a virtual tie at the absolute bottom, with Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and his fellow Millennial, Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard.”
World leaders and dignitaries from every sphere of influence will gather in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. Topics to be discussed range from climate change to political polarization—but are the elite guests missing the point? InMichael Casey’s latest article for CoinDesk, he makes a compelling argument that today’s most important issues are being overlooked.
“The disintermediating, fragmenting and decentralizing impact of the internet has made the 21st century’s political and economic structure profoundly different from the previous one,” writes Michael Casey. “But the Baby Boomers who run our governments and companies still tend to apply 20th century assumptions about centralized money and power. They fail to see how our outdated political and economic institutions are out of touch with this new reality, and how that explains society’s ever-waning trust in them. It’s a myopia that also means they often fail to recognize, much less understand, the alternative decentralized models quietly emerging from the developers building cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital identity technologies.”
From rumors of China launching its own digital currency, and the impact that will have on the “dollar-centric” global economy, to the culminating fears around digital privacy and disinformation, there are many issues that are either poorly understood by the Davos crowd, or worse, being completely ignored.
David Wallace-Wells’ instant #1 New York Times bestseller The Uninhabitable Earth has been making waves and waking up the world to the realities of climate change since it was published. And now, HBO Max has just greenlit an anthology series of the same name, using his book as inspiration and source material.
Comprised of fictional, stand-alone stories envisioning many possible futures that could result from our planet’s rapid warming, The Uninhabitable Earth series will enlist top writers and directors to showcase the realities of human life in the future Wallace-Wells painted so vividly. Stories will be told in a wide-range of genres, and cover all kinds of situations Wallace-Wells forecast, from rising sea levels and refugee emergencies, to food shortages and economic devastation.
Wallace-Wells himself will be serving as a consulting producer, with Oscar- and Emmy-winning writer and Hyperobject Industries’ Adam MacKay (The Big Short, Ant-Man, Anchorman) set to helm the project. Other executive producers include Kevin Messick (Succession), wiip’s Mark Roybal (No Country for Old Men), and Animal Kingdom’s David Kaplan (It Follows).
Sure to be provocative, entertaining, and disconcerting, this is but the latest development in a very busy year for Wallace-Wells, whose books was also named to the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019, GQ's Best Books of 2019, the New Yorker's Favorite Books of 2019, and was chosen as one of TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2019. Wallace-Wells is the Deputy Editor at New York magazine, and a National Fellow at the New America Foundation.
There are millions of people who want to interact with others in a more productive way online—but how can we empower them to do so? Jamil Zaki, author of The War for Kindness talks to NPR’s Here & Now about technology and empathy, and how to intertwine them, to make a better, and more human, future for us all.
“Technology platforms don't help their shareholders by making users feel happy or socially connected, but by keeping them online,” said Jamil Zaki in a recent interview for NPR’s popular program Here & Now. And when keeping people online is prioritized at all costs, it’s easy for social media companies to see all engagement as good engagement—even though things like anger, vanity, and drama are a huge pull to keep people coming back. How can we turn that around and use social platforms to promote social goods, real connection, and supportive communities?
Zaki, the Director of Stanford’s Social Neuroscience Lab, mentions apps like KoKo, where people can go to ask for, or give, emotional support. Studies show that the users of this platform who found it the most rewarding weren’t who you’d necessarily think: “Believe it or not, the ones who had the sort of most positive outcome were not those who were receiving help, but the ones who were giving help to others,” Zaki explains. “Oftentimes we think of kindness to others as something that sort of will, deplete us. But instead, it turns out being kind to others helps us as well.”
As it stands right now, the world wide web can be a dark and even dangerous place—but it’s not without hope. As individuals and companies alike start to better understand the true value of empathy—something Zaki explores in detail in The War for Kindness—the internet can evolve to better integrate it. “I think if you rewind to 10 years ago and look at an old issue of Wired, people were breathless thinking about the wonderful global community that we'd be able to have through the internet,” said Zaki. “And I think that that potential remains.”
This week, BlackRock—the world’s largest money manager—announced that it will begin adjusting its investment strategies with climate change in mind. Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan joined CBC’s Front Burner to discuss how this move will impact the company’s bottom line.
In his letter to CEOs, BlackRock’s Larry Fink wrote that “we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” Citing research from the UN, McKinsey, and the company’s own investment institute, Finks makes a compelling argument that climate risk is investment risk, and thus, cannot be ignored. While BlackRock won’t immediately pull out of natural resource companies such as Suncor or ExxonMobil, it will begin transitioning its portfolios to other companies—a move that Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan says will have huge implications. “If 7 trillion dollars is not going to be accessible to [natural resource companies], then the cost of capital for them is going to go up. It’s going to make their operations more expensive,” she explains. “Which, by the way, is a way that the marketplace is actually sanctioning these behaviors—because if their cost of capital goes up, then it means that taking fossil fuels out of the ground is going to be more expensive than wind energy or other renewables. […] It's a way of getting the market to invest in renewables, in a way.”
Whether it be from consumers, employees, or investors, companies today are facing intense pressure from a variety of stakeholders, with the environment emerging as a key concern. In her book The 360 CorporationKaplan explores what organizations can do to respond to these concerns—without “greenwashing”—and continue to deliver shareholder value.
Fledgling venture firm Felix Capital has announced it’s raised an additional $300 million in funding to continue to invest in digital lifestyle brands—such as Goop, Highsnobiety, and Peleton, reports Fast Company’s Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta. Her latest piece investigates the company’s digital strategy and what makes their portfolio unique.
“The growth of Felix underscores just how far venture investing has journeyed from Silicon Valley,” writes Stephanie Mehta, noting that North America’s tech hub is largely responsible for “canonizing” the funding mechanism. “Just a few decades ago, many of the companies in Felix’s portfolio, such as jewelry maker Mejuri or stationery brand Papier, would not have qualified for venture capital, which favored fast-growing—and risky—biotech or information tech companies capable of huge returns to private investors through a public offering or a blockbuster merger.”
Rather than set out to invest in deep tech, Felix founder Frederic Court explains he looks for companies that are using technology to “build communities and brands or to operate their businesses more efficiently,” Mehta reports. He’s especially interested in communities, such as Highsnobiety, that are not actively seeking investors, and that have been built authentically.
Technology has undoubtedly transformed our lives—for better and for worse. In his latest essay, WIRED Editor-in-Chief Nicholas Thompson investigates the mistakes we’ve made in the name of tech, and how we can push forward and rebuild what we broke.
“For several years now, we've been living in a time of intense backlash against the technology industry,” writes Nicholas Thompson. The Cambridge Analytica scandal rocked a nation and raised difficult ethical questions, some coming from within the tech organizations themselves. Suddenly, everything was chaos, and Silicon Valley was to blame. “Antitrust law, disdained for decades, suddenly became exciting. Worries that had been playing as background music in society for years—online privacy, the fears of artificial intelligence taking jobs—began to crescendo. Ad targeting was redefined as surveillance capitalism. […] The reputation of an entire industry tanked, just as had happened eight years earlier to finance.”
It’s been a murky few years for software companies, to say the least. Because though they might operate in the digital realm, their actions still have consequences in the physical world, says Thompson. In order to move forward, we’ll have to come together—builders, users, people inside Silicon Valley—to fix the mess we’re in. “And that's what this issue is about: the builders who understand the consequences of their choices. It's about people who recognize the awesome responsibility of the technological powers bequeathed to us by our predecessors.”
In her book The Village Effect, award-winning author and psychologistSusan Pinker wrote about the undeniable, life-affirming benefits of social bonds and face-to-face connection. More recently, she spoke to CBC about why an increasing number of seniors—particularly women— are enjoying living alone.
Whether it be in a retirement home or on their own property, more Canadian women over the age of 65 are making a conscious decision to live by themselves—and enjoying it. Susan Pinker, an esteemed psychologist and author, explains that the recent phenomenon has to do with the close, long-term friendships that women form throughout their lives. “Women, much more than men, tend to have […] more intimate, more tightly connected networks of friends and relatives that they keep connected with,” she explains.
Women living on their own report higher satisfaction than men who live alone in the same age group, says to Statistics Canada, a result that Pinker believes is caused by a difference in the strength and number of social ties between genders. “I think it really requires some kind of policy discussion about what's going to happen to these men now because they're cut loose, frankly, and many of them are not at the moment, capable of generating the social contacts that they need to be healthy,” Pinker says.
Hypocrisy in politics is not, by any means, a new concept. But it does seem to be escalating—especially in an Internet age, where every tweet and video clip can be captured and circulated indefinitely. As the 2020 election approaches, NYU’s Associate Professor of Psychology Jay Van Bavelexplores how we got here.
“It is pragmatic for politicians to act like hypocrites during periods of hyperpartisanship, since they otherwise might be harassed or expelled from their group for disloyalty,” explains Jay Van Bavel in an article for The Christian Science Monitor. An example of this occurred earlier this year, when Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan was so heavily ostracized by his fellow Republicans for supporting impeachment, that he quit the party and became Independent.
Presenting evidence of a politician’s hypocrisy does little to change behavior, and in fact can be counterproductive. In an effort to reduce cognitive discomfort, people will often “double down on their beliefs or ignore evidence that their behavior is inconsistent with the past,” Van Bavel says.
During his first term in office, Trump has not shied away from being aggressively partisan—a move that got him elected in the first place—maintaining fierce Republican support, while denouncing any potential sway with Democrats or Independents. Van Bavel explains that today, “We are in a vicious cycle of hyperpartisanship that is self-reinforcing.”
INSEAD professor Erin Meyer’s groundbreaking book The Culture Map may have been published in 2014, but it remains an enduring staple for anyone doing business around the world. What makes the book so timely and relevant? Meyer sits down with Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and President of Global Sales to discuss her insights—and why they’ve stood the test of time.
Each and every one of us brings our cultural background into the workplace. So how can we be inclusive and mindful of our differences—especially when we’re doing business globally? It’s a question that Erin Meyer seeks to answer in her landmark book The Culture Map. In it, she charts where different cultures sit along a spectrum, through the lens of seven behaviors: communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, and scheduling. Meyer’s work demonstrates it’s not necessarily where we sit on the spectrum, but where we sit in relation to another culture that truly matters.
Jean-Phillip Courtois—Executive Vice President and President, Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing and Operations—recently sat down with Meyer to discuss how we can leverage her research in our organizations, building stronger relationships and more inclusive teams. “One of the biggest things that I've learned from this, is that no matter how well you think you know the different world cultures, you never know enough,” says Meyer. “If anyone tells you I’ve really learnt everything, you know they don’t understand anything right, because the world is so advanced.”
Meyer’s upcoming book will once again look at culture, only this time, at one of the most successful global organizations in the world: Netflix. Written alongside company co-founder Reed Hastings, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention will be published by Penguin Random House in May 2020.
Watch the first clip from Meyer’s fireside chat here.
To book speaker Erin Meyer for your next speaking event, contact her exclusive speaker’s bureau The Lavin Agency, and speak to a representative.
In the not-so-distant past, citizens have rallied around their president in moments of terror and distress. The crisis in Iran feels different. Taking place in the shadow of Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, the current political moment is inspiring more fear than faith. Globe and Mail alum John Ibbitson considers what might happen next.
“No one knows what game Mr. Trump is truly playing,” writes John Ibbitson. The President’s questionable character—exemplified by his disparaging tweets, unabashed hostility towards U.S. allies, and his controversial friendships with despots—has shaken the American public, and polarized his Republican base. NAFTA is joining citizens in calling for restraint and de-escalation, but no one knows what could happen next. Is Trump looking for an excuse to go to war? Or will he begin to wind this crisis down, seeing as there are so few American casualties, if any?
Ibbitson writes, “Mr. Trump has fired or forced the resignation of many of the advisers who were respected by those beyond the ideological inner circle of this administration. What are the true motivations of people such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo? What are the military leaders counselling? Is Mr. Trump listening to them?” While early indications—no televised address has yet been made by the President—are good, the future remains shaky.
Lori Gottlieb’s critically acclaimed memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is Wal-Mart’s favorite read this month. The psychotherapist and bestselling author sat down with the company to discuss why the book has struck a chord with so many, and what else we can expect from her in 2020.
In Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb effortlessly shifts between narrating her personal experience in therapy, to discussing her own clinical work with clients. She explains, “It was critical that the voice of me as the expert was the same voice as me as a person, because what I’m trying to show in the book is our shared humanity—that we’re all more the same than we are different.”
Gottlieb contends that the book’s success—it jumped back to number 3 on the New York Times bestseller list at the start of the year—is partially due to an ongoing crisis of connection. “Right now in our culture we’re disconnected in so many ways. We’re clinging to our phones, our devices—I have nothing against technology, but I feel like we also need that face-to-face interaction […] the ability to just be with another person,” she says. “The experience of reading the book feels a lot like that for people and also encourages them to make time to prioritize relationships with the people that they love, the people who matter to them.”
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone will soon be adapted into a television series, and Gottlieb is also in the process of creating an iHeart Radio podcast produced by Katie Couric. Similar to her advice column in The Atlantic, the show’s format will see Gottlieb and TED’s Guy Winch help people with their dilemma’s.
As we enter a new decade, there’s a lot to look forward to—and a lot left to fight for. And unfortunately, racism isn’t a relic of shameful times past—it’s still very much alive today. Here at The Lavin Agency, our Top Race Speakers tackle this tough topic from all angles—public policy, pop culture, education, and art, to name a few—and offer insightful, informed analyses of where we stand now, and where we’re going.
Heather McGheeis the social policy and racial healing expert on whom Starbucks called to tackle challenging racism within the company after a damning video went viral. As the former President of Demos, a public policy organization, she spent several years drafting legislation aimed at creating an America where everyone has an equal chance in the economy, and an equal say in democracy. McGhee knows firsthand that bridging racial divides is not only a possibility, but a necessity that we all need to work toward. With profound truth and grace, she demonstrates how harnessing the potential of embracing diversity in concrete ways can strengthen democracy, equity and equality in society.
Jeff Chang is a social historian and the author of We Gon’ Be Alright, which offers critical essays addressing re-segregation, diversity, and equality—which was recently adapted into a digital series. The former Executive Director of the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, he explores the intersection of art, racial progress and multiculturalism. Chang understands contemporary American society— everything from social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, to Beyoncé’s “Lemonade”—and our social progress like few others.
Nikole Hannah-Jones is an investigative reporter for The New York Times Magazine, a MacArthur ‘Genius’, and a winner of the National Magazine Award for her work exploring how modern segregation is playing out across schools. Her recent, award-winning major multimedia initiative, The 1619 Project—named after the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in America—explores the lasting, pervasive legacy of slavery on our nation. Hannah-Jones has also been awarded a Peabody Award, a George Polk Award for radio reporting, was named Journalist of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists, and co-founded the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. Brilliant, hyper-informed, and insightful, Hannah Jones provides powerful reminders that, despite our progress, we must remain vigilant in the vital fight against racial inequality.
Gabby Rivera is the real-life superhero behind America, Marvel’s first Latin-American LGBTQ character to star in an ongoing series. Also the author of the celebrated novel Juliet Takes a Breath, Rivera draws inspiration from her own background as a queer Latinx to bring her vibrant characters to life. Delving into the importance of diversity, and the importance of encouraging young people develop their creativity, Rivera explores just how vital it is to enable diverse voices—especially those of young people—to reclaim power in the media. Speaking to her work, her role as an activist, and her inspiring life experiences, Rivera shares just how art and writing can disrupt the status quo in powerful, beautiful ways.
Jelani Cobb is one of the most prominent voices in today’s conversations around race issues. A staff writer for The New Yorker, and an expert on how race, politics, and popular culture intersect in America, he’s got wit, style, and pop culture cred to boot. Also the author of the highly-acclaimed The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress, Cobb also writes on pressing issues like mass incarceration, police shootings and the subsequent riots, and the public response. As a preeminent authority on race and injustice, Jelani explores the complex web of racism in America—and how to push towards equity.
Negin Farsadis a self-described “social justice comedian”, harnessing the power of laughter to change minds. She directed and starred in The Muslims Are Coming!, acomedy-meets-documentary, in which she brought Muslim comedians on a cross-country tour of small town America. It’s a kind of activism-in-disguise, which had the profound effect of opening previously-closed minds. Righting inequality is a serious task, but as Farsad’s work shows, social justice and activism can be a fun (and funny) experience.
Waneek Horn-Miller is a truly remarkable force. An Indigenous activist and Olympic athlete with an incredible story, she’s a champion both in the athletic sense, and a champion for human rights. While protesting the infamous Oka Crisis, a teenage Horn-Miller was stabbed in the heart by a Canadian soldier: and almost died. She emerged from recovery with a mission—and PTSD—to become a leader not only for her community, but for the world. As a champion swimmer, she’s represented Canada at the Olympics, and taken home the gold at the PanAm Games. And now, she channels this spirit of perseverance and resilience into advocacy: once again turning trials into triumphs.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad is a diversity expert and the author of The Condemnation of Blackness. As a Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at Harvard, he’s uniquely knowledgeable on American race relations: where we’ve come from, and just how far we have to go. Even in a society that professes “opportunity for all”, there is still a very large gap in power distribution between white people and people of color, and Muhammed explores the next steps necessary to fight racism, offering practical solutions for a more equitable future for all our children, regardless of the color of their skin.
Sarah Lewis is a Harvard professor who has worked with everyone from Obama to Oprah. Also a renowned art curator known for her powerful views on the intersection of racial justice and art, Lewis sparked a national conversation with her “Vision & Justice”—the landmark issue of Aperture dedicated to photography of the black experience. Can art today bring about the catalytic social change that it has in the past? Lewis explores these kinds of powerful question with warmth, depth, and hope.
Angela Davis is a legendary human rights activist and icon of her generation: an outspoken powerhouse who was at the vanguard of the Black Power movement, prison reform, and feminist scholarship. Offering a firsthand account of the most powerful social movements in the latter half of the twentieth century, she shares her past and focuses on the present: how far have we come, and what current injustices do we need to address? With a nuanced and passionate look at America's problems with racism and injustice, Davis offers an incredibly informed forecast on the future of equality, and analysis of where we stand today.
To book one of these inspiring Race Speakers for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with an agent from our sales team.
Looking back on the decade, it’s easy to pinpoint key tech developments that sparked a massive shift in society and the economy—not the least of which is social media. And leading business publication Fast Company knows better than most what those changes mean—so naturally, they chose Andrew Marantz’s Antisocial and Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism for their list of must-read books about tech for 2020.
In his search to uncover exactly what the internet has been doing to us, Andrew Marantz exposed himself to some of the darkest corners of social media for the sake of Antisocial. Immersing himself for years in the world of trolls, the alt-right, and conspiracy theorists, he spent plenty of one-on-one time with the perpetrators of fake news and racist propaganda, trying to understand their world and how they’ve been able to successfully harness the power of social media to push those views further into the mainstream. Writes the Guardian, “Marantz has written what may be the definitive book on the nexus of internet culture and the new far right.” Antisocial was named to both the New York Times Critics’ Top Books of 2019, and their 100 Notable Books of 2019as well.
Barack Obama named The Age of Surveillance Capitalism one of his favorite books of 2019. It’s been called “an epoch-defining international bestseller,” (Guardian) and “…the rare book that we should trust to lead us down the long hard road of understanding,” (New York Times Book Review). Shoshana Zuboff’s international bestseller is also one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019, one of both the New Yorker’s and Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2019, and one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019. Zuboff explores the dangerous era we’ve entered, where the price on private data is a serious threat to democracy, and ultimately, our shared humanity.
All of the books on Fast Company’s list “provide an opportunity to reflect on living life online and how this grand experiment has failed,” and perhaps none moreso than Zuboff’s and Marantz’s compelling, urgent, and timely contributions.
Rebels get a bad rap, says Harvard professor Francesca Gino, but in fact, there’s much we can learn from the people willing to challenge the status quo. In a new interview with Forbes India, Gino opens up about why it pays to encourage the right kind of rule-breaking in an organization.
Francesca Gino has spent the better part of a decade studying rebels in the workplace. Rather than causing unnecessary trouble or chaos, rebels proved to be the drivers of positive change and creativity, oftentimes breathing life into otherwise stagnant organizations. “From an early age, we are taught to follow the rules, and the pressure to fit in only increases over time. But when we mindlessly accept norms rather than questioning and constructively rebelling against them, we ultimately end up stuck and unfulfilled,” Gino warns. “Rebels—those who practice ‘positive deviance’ at work and in life—might be harder to manage, but they are good for the bottom line: their passion, drive, curiosity, and creativity can raise an entire organization to a new level.”
In the interview, Gino reveals what the five core characteristics that make up a rebel are; when it’s the right time to push boundaries, and when it’s better to hold back; and how leaders themselves can embrace rebellion and foster a sense of curiosity throughout their teams.
As the co-founder and CEO of XLabs, Radhika Dirks runs the one and only “moonshot factory” for AI. She truly believes in the technology’s power to elevate our human capabilities, and works hard to make that vision a reality. For her radical and tireless efforts, she has been named one of the Top 30 inspirational women advancing AI this year by ReWork.
Since graduating with her PhD in Quantum Computing, Radhika Dirks has been involved in many AI projects. First, as CEO of Seldn.ai, an AI start-up that predicts global socio-economic disruptions, and then as an advisor of Katapult accelerator, alderan, and dashboard earth. Now, she runs what she calls “a new kind of Bell Labs,” ushering in The Intelligent Age with inventive applications of AI, quantum computing, and neurotech. In her passionate talks, Dirks explains both moonshot thinking—going beyond the realm of possibility—and the fundamentals of artificial intelligence.
“In 2020, from a few corners of the world, we will start to see AI built to tackle hard, meaningful problems,” Dirks explains in Forbes. “AI built to help us humans do what we cannot, as opposed to simply attempting to mimic our abilities. ‘Amplified Intelligence’ is what we call this next-era AI.”
Everyone wants to be happy and healthy—but it doesn’t come easy. The pressure of performing well at work and having a fulfilling personal life can often be hard to manage—and that’s where Lavin’s Top Happiness & Wellness Speakers come in. Experts in how to actively enhance our inner lives and outer selves, they inspire audiences to take charge of their own lives, engage with their environment, explore the myriad of factors that affect happiness and mental health, and get the most out of life.
Valorie Kondos Field is the former UCLA Women’s Gymnastics Coach who breathed life into the sport by shifting away from a win-at-all-costs mentality, to considering her students as whole people, rather than just athletes, instead. Her unorthodox leadership style centered around practicing gratitude, taking personal ownership, and recognizing joy. And it paid off: she became a seven-time NCAA champion coach, and a UCLA Hall of Fame inductee. Candid and inspiring, Kondos Field uses her experience from the world of elite sports—as well as her experience as a breast cancer survivor—to show how to motivate positive change and rise above challenges to reach high-performance success.
Charles Montgomery is an urban design consultant and the author of Happy City. His work uses psychology to create urban experiments that help us understand our surroundings—and ourselves—better than ever. To Montgomery, our cities aren’t simply places where we live and work: they’re behavioral devices whose shapes and systems alter our mental, emotional and physical health. Drawing from his own research, experiments, and careful observation, he gets people thinking about how urban development and design should take happiness into consideration, and highlights the best setups and strategies from around the world where happier, healthier spaces exist.
Emily Esfahani Smith offers us a more fulfilling alternative to the endless pursuit of the ever-elusive concept of happiness: purpose. Combining storytelling with years of research into psychology, philosophy and neuroscience, she explores how, instead of valuing happiness alone, we should engage with a lifelong search for meaning. Drawing from her book, The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters, Smith offers methods to let go of our harmful ideas of happiness, pursue healthier goals that are truly rewarding, and enrich our lives both at work and at home.
Lori Gottlieb was a Hollywood film executive and a nationally recognized journalist, before she became a psychotherapist, and now, a bestselling author. Her book, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, is a candid, absorbing memoir about being both a patient and a clinician. Through her clinical work, she discovered that stories make up the core of our lives and give them deeper meaning—but that we’re not always telling ourselves the right ones. Funny and compassionate, she shares how revising our well-worn narratives is the key to moving forward, healing, finding happiness, and creating lives of deep fulfillment.
Anthony Tjan knows that a company is only as good as its people. But how do we attract good people? Drawing from his aptly titled book Good People, Tjan shows leaders how to put goodness into practice: a way to deepen relationships and revive the purpose of our work. He shares his five common sense principals for leadership and communication, and show you how prioritizing and fostering goodness and compassion in yourself and others drives positive and progressive change.
Karl Subban has more than a few accomplishments under his belt—like his 30 plus years as an educator and former principal—but perhaps his proudest is being a hockey dad to P.K., Jordan, and Malcolm Subban. Raising one NHL player is impressive, but raising three is extraordinary: it’s proof that Subban knows how to bring out the best in people. Drawing on his experience as both a father and a teacher, Karl explores the importance of strong leadership, and encourages others to reach their full potential. With a commanding, inspiring presence, Subban reinvigorates audiences, and remind them of the true power of believing in oneself.
Dan Lerner knows that in such a competitive society it feels like finding success at work comes at the cost of finding true happiness and authentic connection—and that that doesn’t have to be the case. A psychology professor at New York University, where he teaches their most popular elective “The Science of Happiness”, Lerner reveals how passion, grit, and happiness play an integral role in unlocking our true potential and making the most of our ambition. Also the author of U Thrive: How to Succeed in College and in Life, Lernerhas made a remarkable career out of helping people achieve excellence, at work and at home. If we can pursue our passions in the right way, we can avoid burnout, thrive under pressure, and come out happy and accomplished.
Ritu Bhasin is a leadership consultant who discovered an undeniable relationship between inclusion and authenticity. Her book, The Authenticity Principle, explores this connection, as well as insights from her work as a yoga and mindfulness instructor—a practice she credits as being a key pillar of building personal and professional joy. When workplaces are more inclusive and diverse, and employees are encouraged to express their individuality, they become more productive and feel more connected to a shared purpose.
Scott Barry Kaufman is the bestselling author of Ungifted and Wired to Create, and he uses science to understand how we can cultivate meaning and creativity in our lives. In his upcoming book Transcend, the renowned professor reimagines Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs by weaving in the latest contemporary research on connection, creativity, love, and purpose. Becoming the best version of ourselves, or achieving self-actualization, is often thought of as a purely individual pursuit. Kaufman shows us that it involves a merging between the self and the world around us. Insightful and empowering, he reveals that we don’t have to choose either self-actualization or self-transcendence: finding fulfillment in our lives comes from nurturing both.
David Yeager, an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford, and Carol Dweck’s protégé, is a pro at making people feel respected. His research examines the intersection of social, economic and physiological factors, and how they combine to create positive or negative environments. He shares the latest data and discoveries on traits like grit and a growth mindset—and how harnessing these qualities can compensate for disadvantages. A sense of belonging is important to any successful team, and backed by large-scale behavioral research, Yeager provides the tools to develop workplaces that promote skill-sharing, and empower everyone to achieve excellence.
The last decade has seen a complete transformation in the way we do business. Lavin’s Top 10 Marketing Speakers expertly navigate us through the changing tides, and help leaders and organizations win the hearts of tomorrow’s consumer.
Sarah Kaplan
Corporate social responsibility has morphed from a nice-to-have into an absolute must-have. In her talks, as well as her book The 360 Corporation, Rotman professor Sarah Kaplan considers not only how companies can incorporate ethical, sustainable, and diverse practices into their organization, but how they can communicate their mission to a wide array of stakeholders, each wanting different outcomes.
Stephanie Mehta Fast Company’s editor-in-chief Stephanie Mehta is dismantling the old guard of business and reinventing the future. Her world-class marketing talks distill a lifetime of knowledge—gained from working alongside the world’s most innovative companies and people—into an action-packed, anecdote-filled roadmap for success.
Steve Martin
World-renowned behavioral science expert Steve Martin uses the power of persuasion to capture attention and influence behavior. His most recent book Messengers, co-authored with Joseph Marks, uses behavioral psychology to explain why we listen to and trust some people over others—oftentimes, at the cost of the truth. In his rousing marketing talks he considers the question: what are the implications for business when the messenger becomes the message?
Joseph Marks
Though we like to consider ourselves arbiters of logic and rational thought, the truth is that many of our decisions come from snap-judgements. That’s what makes Joseph Mark’s book Messengers (co-authored with Steve Martin) a particularly thrilling read. In it, the psychological scientist deep dives into how society’s messengers can influence, persuade, and change behavior, as well as shape collective beliefs.
Luke Burgis
Why do we want what we want? According to French philosopher René Girard, we discover what we want in relation to what others have. Now, his upcoming book Wanting, entrepreneur Luke Burgis builds upon Girard’s theory to uncover the powerful, hidden forces that shape our desires—and reveals how to harness them for good.
Markus Giesler
Named one of the best business professors under 40, Markus Giesler is doing groundbreaking work in the field of marketing. His Customer Experience Design course at the Schulich School of Business is the world’s first MBA course on consumer experience, and the only one to be endorsed by the American Marketing Association. A sought-after and highly original marketing speaker, Gielser takes a sociological approach to his work, showing us how to create a captivating customer journey from start to finish.
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
In his astonishing book Everybody Lies, former Google data scientist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz offers us a peek into the motivations behind human behavior and decision-making. In talks, he draws upon a wealth of information to show us a more accurate picture of the world—ultimately helping to deliver what consumers really want.
Amber Mac
Innovation is overrated, says marketing expert Amber Mac. The real winners in today’s ever evolving marketplace are actually masters of adaptation. In her award-winning podcasts, as well as her highly prized talks, Mac helps companies and business leaders navigate the age of disruption with speed and ease.
David Sax
The digital revolution changed the world, but the desire for real things persists, perhaps even more forcefully than before. In his book The Revenge of the Analog, David Sax shows how a one-size-fits-all approach to digital transformation is a lopsided strategy. Instead, the consumer analyst reveals how retailers and businesses can fuse the digital with the analog to achieve greater creativity, connection, and success.
Doug Stephens
Internationally renowned retail futurist Doug Stephens has helped legendary brands redefine their strategy in a post-digital world. His strategic marketing talks draw from his decades of experience, as well as compelling research from his latest book Reengineering Retail, to show how smart brands can secure a place in the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s consumer.
In his year-end celebration of his favorite books of 2019, Barack Obama names Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism—a groundbreaking analysis of the intersection of the monetization of private data, big tech, the economy, and society—one of his top books.
Not only has Zuboff’s in-depth exploration of a growing phenomenon—the titular surveillance capitalism—captured the imagination of the 44th President of the United States, it’s also earned a place among many other notable year-end lists: think, TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019, Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2019, and one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019, and more.
Drawing frequent comparison to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) for its shocking insight into a developing, widespread issue not yet common knowledge to the general public, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism took both the literary and tech communities by storm this year. Called “epoch-defining” by the Guardian, and an “unmissable classic that everyone should read” by the Financial Times, Zuboff deftly explores how our individual choices are becoming not only predicted, but controlled, by the companies to which we are ceding exorbitant power. As a society, we’re opting to concede our privacy in exchange for increased connection and convenience. It’s not just a new trend—it has real, dangerous ramifications for the economy, and democracy as a whole. Zuboff pulls no punches; but is still optimistic that we can turn the tide toward surveillance capitalism back around.
You can read the Barack Obama’s full list of his favorite books of 2019 here.
The most recent novels from bestselling authors Margaret Atwood (The Testaments), Lori Gottlieb (Maybe You Should Talk to Someone) and Angie Thomas (On the Come Up) all were named to Variety’s list of the Best Books of 2019.
Margaret Atwood’s hotly anticipated sequel to 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, was able to intertwine her original story with elements of the Emmy Award-winning Hulu adaptation, leading both Handmaid’s and The Testaments to “all feel of one larger world” (Variety). Having already won this year’s Booker Prize, Atwood’s work had an incredible year with accolades from all over the globe—even breaking the record for best first-day sales of any Penguin Random House title in 2019.
“This book is inception, therapy style,” Variety aptly states of Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone. Gottlieb started her career as a film and TV executive, then became a nationally recognized journalist—and today, she’s a psychotherapist and bestselling author. Her fascinating life and personal crisis weaves in and out of a much broader conversation on mental health and fulfilment—resulting in, as Variety puts it, “a kaleidoscope of stories about the human condition, love, loss, and how we can all learn from each other.”
Heartfelt, heartbreaking and full of hard truths, Angie Thomas’ debut novel, The Hate U Give made waves immediately—and her second novel, On the Come Up has proved to be just as much of a success. It follows the story of Bri, a talented young rapper fighting for her dreams—and her identity—against the odds. Already set to be adapted into a major motion picture, On the Come Up offers Thomas’ signature blend of authenticity, insight, and hope in especially turbulent times. “Thomas always paints a deeply emotional and intricate picture of race and class in her work,” Variety says, “But she also proves she deeply understands the issues young people face when it comes to social media and cultural pressures.”
You can read all of Variety’s Top Books of 2019 picks here.
Angie Thomas’s breakthrough debut novel, The Hate U Give, was not only an incredible success, but a compelling, timely social commentary on race and police violence. Now, CNN has named it one of the ten most influential books of the decade.
The Hate U Give remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 80 weeks, and was quickly adapted into a critically acclaimed and commercially successful film, starring Amandla Stenberg. It follows the story of Starr, a 16-year old black girl who witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her unarmed black friend. Starr must then navigate the justice system, as well as her identity as both a member of her black Garden Heights neighborhood community, and the predominately white prep school she attends.
The novel, which also aimed to expand readers’ understanding of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the challenges black Americans encounter with code switching, is often studied in school curriculum. It was also one of the most challenged novels of 2017 and 2018, according to the American Library Association—often the mark of a vital, urgently relevant piece of literature.
You can see the full list of CNN’s Most Influential Books of the Decade here.
The Age of AI is an 8-part documentary series exploring the newest, most innovative applications of artificial intelligence and machine-learning. Lavin speaker Martin Ford—the bestselling author of Rise of the Robots—joins superstar host Robert Downey Jr. in the brand-new Youtube Original production.
There is no doubt about it: artificial intelligence will change the world in the coming decades. In fact, the transformation has already begun. The Age of AI, a new docuseries narrated by Robert Downey Jr., examines the powerful reverberations the technology has already had around the world, its nascent potential to advance the human race, and the difficult questions that arise from its profound progress. For instance, is AI capable of making art? Could it heal, enhance, or even superpower our fallible human bodies? And could there be a world in which a robot is considered a romantic companion?
As a McKinsey-award winning author, software entrepreneur, and TED mainstage speaker, Martin Ford has a unique perspective on the evolution of artificial intelligence. He lends his expertise to the series as a consultant behind-the-scenes, and steps in front of the camera for an on-air interview as well. Check out the trailer below, and watch the full episodes here.
To book speaker Martin Ford for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with a knowledgeable member of our sales team.
New Year’s resolutions like changing your diet, fitness, and lifestyle can often be fleeting. So why not take a page from leadership expert Adam Bryant’s book and tackle something at work that’s well within your control? In his latest article for Strategy+Business, Bryant makes a compelling argument for turning January into a “Simplification Month.”
“A simplification month is a smart approach to focus everyone’s attention on one of the greatest challenges for companies of any size: complexity,” writes Adam Bryant. “In business, as in nature, complexity inevitably creeps into any ecosystem.” Initiatives that are introduced and quickly forgotten; departments—hungry for growth—lobbying for more resources; and strategy decks that “grow longer and busier, adding bullet points, tiered pyramids, and corkscrew arrows to describe where the company is going.” Complexity is not hard to accrue, and in fact, it has become the default.
But complexity will undoubtedly lead to entropy if left unchecked. To simplify your organization, Bryant proposes taking stock of everything you’re currently doing and culling whatever is unnecessary: “be ruthless,” he advises. In addition, Bryant suggests shifting your focus from priorities to outcomes by asking yourself what you really want to achieve over the next 12 months.
The hotly anticipated annual list of The New Yorker’s dropped, and Lavin speakers Shoshana Zuboff and David Wallace-Wells are top of the list.
Featured first on The New Yorker’s list, Jia Tolentino writes, “Shoshana Zuboff’s disturbing, galvanizing The Age of Surveillance Capitalism deserves every comparison that it’s received to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—another masterwork that laid out, with unforgettable clarity, the degradation of ordinary life held captive to profit-seeking interests.” In Zuboff’s landmark book—named one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019, one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2019, and one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019—Zuboff explores the human cost of putting a price on private data through the lens of her concept of “surveillance capitalism”. While it’s true that we’re past the point of escaping the Internet—it’s become essential to society—Zuboff shares the enlightening idea that we don’t have to tolerate the way it’s come to dictate our lives. As Tolentino notes, “The Age of Surveillance Capitalism reminds us that the Internet’s central profit model isn’t inevitable, any more than it was inevitable that we allowed our country to be permanently blanketed by pesticides. Surveillance capitalism can be curbed through sustained outrage and regulation, and it’ll have to be, or else.”
David Wallace-Wells’ book, The Uninhabitable Earth, is an in-depth follow-up to his viral, vital article in New York magazine of the same name—which was the most read article in the history of the magazine. And as Carrie Battan writes, the book is “just as potent, if infinitely more depressing…At its best, it’s perhaps the richest inventory of climate-change research yet published.” In spite of his intense research and vibrant depictions of a worst-case scenario world that could be, Wallace-Wells isn’t all doom and gloom. “There may not be a silver bullet for climate change, but, as Wallace-Wells argues, there’s still far too much potential for change for hope to be lost,” explains Battan. Also named to the New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019, GQ's Best Books of 2019, and among TIME's 100 Must-Read Books of 2019, it’s clear that The Uninhabitable Earth has had a massive impact on readers and critics worldwide.
You can check out the full list, of nine titles, here.
Being a CEO means more than having a fancy title and corner office. It means being able to lead under pressure, and in times of crisis; being able to inspire and mobilize a team; and lastly, being able to execute strategy with vision. Lavin’s Top CEO Speakers have walked the walk, and now they’re sharing their unique insights and lessons with the next generation of business leaders.
Adam Bryant: How do America’s most innovative CEOs lead? Adam Bryant has interviewed more than 500 of them in his landmark column for The New York Times. Today, Bryant—a bestselling author of two books—is the Managing Director at Merryck & Co., where he translates his insights into transformative leadership tactics for C-Suite executives and teams.
Maureen Chiquet: As the Global CEO of Chanel and Banana Republic, Maureen Chiquet forged a new leadership style—one grounded in the traditionally feminine values of empathy, communication, collaboration. Today, she empowers business leaders and top CEOs to embrace the so-called “soft skills” and revolutionize the way they do business.
Jeremy Gutsche: Smart teams consistently kill great ideas, says innovation expert Jeremy Gutsche. But it doesn’t have to be this way. As founder and CEO of Trend Hunter—the world’s #1 largest trend-spotting platform—Gutsche shows CEOs how to implement the type of disruptive thinking that leads to break-through change.
Manjit Minhas:Dragons’ Den celebrity judge Minjat Minhas is the founder, owner, and CEO of the world’s 10th largest brewery. On the show, as well as in her sought-after talks, she reveals how she succeeded as a female CEO in a male-dominated industry, and how audiences can defy expectations themselves.
Ajay Agrawal: Economist, AI expert, and all-around business visionary, Ajay Agrawal created a billion-dollar pipeline for high-tech superstars with the Creative Destruction Lab. With rigorous methodology and shrewd mentorship, he helps transform tech break-throughs into viable commercial successes.
Nina Tandon: One of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, Nina Tandon is the founder and CEO of EpiBone: a revolutionary biotech company that grows artificial hearts and bones. In her talks, she shares what it’s like to start—and grow—a business in the notoriously competitive technology sector.
Michael Katchen: “The financial services industry has historically made [investing] seem complicated for its own benefit,” explains Michael Katchen. As the founder and CEO of Wealthsimple, Michael Katchen not only redefined (and simplified) investing for the next generation—he disrupted a seemingly unshakeable industry in the process. In talks, he shares how CEOs can weave innovation into the very fabric of their organization’s DNA.
Joe Jackman: Joe Jackman is founder and CEO of the world’s first reinvention company, Jackman Reinvents. As the name would suggest, Jackman boldly and whole-heartedly believes in the power of change. Through his work, as well as in his upcoming book The Reinventionist Mindset, Jackman reveals the vanguard approach that makes him a “CEO’s secret weapon.”
Anthony Tjan: Anthony Tjan turned the venture capitalism space on its head with his company Cue Ball, a people-first investment firm operating out of a permanent pool of evergreen capital. As a founder and CEO, he lives by the adage that good people are the most competitive advantage a business can have. In talks, as well as his bestselling book, he shows what progressive leadership really looks like.
Bonnie Brooks: As the first female CEO of The Hudson’s Bay Company, Bonnie Brooks took legacy retailer on the brink of disaster, and pulled off one of the biggest turnarounds in the industry. Naysayers said the company couldn’t be saved, but Brooks powerfully demonstrated what can be accomplished under visionary leadership.
To book one of these inspiring CEO Speakers for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with an agent from our sales team.
Once upon a time, technology was lauded for its potential to bring people together and strengthen human bonds. Today, our ability to connect is being threatened by destructive online forces that profit when we’re divided into increasingly smaller, radicalized groups. Featured on CBC Radio’s Ideas with Nahlah Ayed,Douglas Rushkoff makes the case for putting humans before social media.
How do we make the world a better place to be human? Especially in a world where social media platforms and algorithms seem to have a vested interest in tearing us apart? In his latest book Team Human, prolific author and preeminent digital theorist Douglas Rushkoff makes a compelling argument for reaffirming our identity as social beings.
We are colonizing human attention, says Rushkoff, suggesting that our lives and minds have become commodities in a technological, attention-based economy. His book offers a hopeful vision for the future. “Instead of using technology to optimize human beings for the market, which is really what we're doing with digital tech today, we can optimize technology […] for the collective human flourishing.”
Team Human was named Best Management & Workplace Culture Book at Porchlight’s Business Book Awards, and is currently shortlisted for their Best Business Book of the Year for 2019.
Shoshana Zuboff’s groundbreaking The Age of Surveillance Capitalism—called “an epoch-defining international bestseller” by Guardian—is also one of Prospect’s picks for the Best Books of Bold Ideas. And it’s no wonder— it’s already named one of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2019 and one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2019. Zuboff created the new term—surveillance capitalism—to describe our current era where private data has a price, and we’ve fallen behind on protecting ourselves from the corporations that aim to control our spending and social habits. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism is a fascinating, frightening, and powerful read. Zuboff urges leaders to pay attention, compels citizens to resist habituation, and explores how together, we can come up with innovative responses to an invasive new era.
Pulitzer Prize winning author Jared Diamond’s newest book, Upheaval, explores why some nations fail and others recover in the face of conflict. Connecting coping mechanisms more commonly associated with personal trauma to show how successful nations recover from crisis; his work offers a refreshing take on some of the most profound evolutionary questions of our time. Also on Prospect’s picks for Best Books of Bold Ideas, Diamond’s work explores how we can improve modern society from looking to the past, and interrogates the collective strides necessary to do so—before it’s too late.
Making their list of Best Science Books of 2019 is The Uninhabitable Earth, by David Wallace-Wells. A sweeping, vibrant, and alarming look at “what will the world actually look like” in the not-so-distant future. Already hailed in year-end acknowledgements by the likes the New York Times, GQ, and TIME, Wallace-Wells’ work made waves around the globe this year: pulling no punches and exploring the existential fear of environmental collapse in addition to its very real inevitability if we resist large-scale socioeconomic reform.
Also featured onProspect’s year-end round up of notable science titles is the most recent offering from award-winning journalist and best-selling author Naomi Klein, On Fire. Her eye-opening writing on acute environmental decline exposes not only our past misdeeds, but our current failings leading to an unsustainable, unstable world. But it’s not all doom and gloom—Klein also explores compelling practical solutions and the fundamental realignment of the economy needed to ensure we have any future at all.
Angie Thomas became a household name with the release of her debut novel The Hate U Give, an instant YA classic that soon became a major motion picture. Her follow-up novel On the Come Up is once again getting the Hollywood treatment, in a project with some of the industry’s top talent attached.
Kay Oyegun serves as a writer and producer on NBC drama This Is Us. In addition to working on the fan favorite show, Oyegun will also write the screenplay for the film adaptation of On the Come Up, the latest YA novel by New York Times bestselling author Angie Thomas(best known for The Hate U Give). George Tillman Jr. is slated to direct the project, and Thomas herself will produce, alongside several others.
The novel, which is set in the same universe as its predecessor, tells the story of Bri: a young rapper and the daughter of a late, underground hip hop legend. Mourning her father’s untimely death, and determined to financially support her family, Bri pours everything she has into her music—ultimately becoming a viral sensation. Insightful and unflinching, On the Come Up explores deep, complex, and meaningful issues such as the intersection of class and race, the implicit misogyny of the music industry, and the modern challenge of being a teenager in the social media age.
“I think for some people who leave Westboro, losing that sense of specialness feels like you’ve lost something really valuable and important. I had the opposite experience,” former Westboro Baptist Church member and author of UnfollowMegan Phelps-Roper tells TheCut. “I was so grateful to know that I wasn’t uniquely evil. I was just a human being who had had this set of experiences that were outside of my control.”
Megan Phelps-Roper’s choice to leave the notoriously hateful Westboro Baptist Church, and her subsequent decision to share how dialogue can be used to fight extremism, makes for a fascinating profile of an incredible individual—and an insider’s take on an incendiary organization. In an insightful interview, she explores Westboro’s fixation on pop culture, how her role as their social media representative opened her eyes to the hurt they caused, and why we need to take care of each other as humans, now more than ever.
As always, Phelps-Roper’s ultimate message is one of hope and perseverance in the face of hate. “We lose if we stop having the language to articulate and defend better positions,” she says. “It sucks that anybody has to do this work, but it’s still a necessary part of living in a society, our willingness to think we are our brother’s keeper.”
Even with the success of Unfollow and the positive attention her TED Talk has received—currently it’s at over 8 million views—it’s still a difficult reality that for Phelps-Roper to live a life of compassion and unlearn a lifetime of hate, she had to leave most of her family behind. “It’s obviously really painful to think of the betrayal that they would feel reading [Unfollow]…But I also know that not saying anything doesn’t change anything,” she explains. “That’s kind of where I am now with my family: I have to talk about it or else nothing changes.”
Maintaining hope for the future—when climate change poses as an existential threat and government officials seem content with doing nothing—can be difficult. But in his latest piece for TIME Magazine, climate activist Bill McKibben shows us that hope can come from the unlikeliest sources: the world of high finance.
The Liberty Mutual insurance company became one of the first big American insurers to announce that it would stop aiding coal companies, notes Bill McKibben in his latest article for TIME. Though coal is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to fossil fuels, the pledge is significant because it reveals that “even vast sums of money can’t insulate companies from activism.”
For years, organizers directed campaigns and protests towards government with little effect. Today, activists are increasingly turning their attention to alternate sources of power: banks, insurers, and asset managers, to name a few. “Washington and Wall Street are deeply linked,” explains McKibben. “But they’re also distinct, and both need to shift dramatically.”
Since governments are historically slow to change and mired in bureaucracy, even if politicians did commit to climate reform, it would happen as a gradual shift, one nation at a time. “But if these financial giants begin to move, the effects will be both quick and global—and those are the two things most required for effective progress on the climate.”
How did a former Intelligence Officer for the United States of America become an insider at Facebook? As crazy as it sounds, this is the story of new Lavin speaker Yaël Eisenstat. In talks, she reveals why she joined the tech giant, the reason it’s so difficult for them to get elections right, and why the breakdown of civil discourse is the biggest threat our democracy has ever faced.
With the rise of a controversial political figure like Donald Trump, it’s become impossible to ignore how fractured America has become. Former U.S. government official Yaël Eisenstat—once a member of the CIA and an Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden— could no longer sit by and witness the erosion of civil discourse she saw happening throughout the country. So, she took a job as the Global Head of Elections Integrity Operations at Facebook, spending an eye-opening six months inside a company that she felt contributed directly to democracy’s “biggest existential threat.”
“Free political speech is core to our democratic principles, and it’s true that social media companies should not be the arbiters of truth,” Eisenstat says. “But the only way Facebook can prevent abuse of its platform to harm our electoral process is to end its most egregious targeting and amplification practices and provide real transparency.”
Now a Visiting Fellow at Cornell Tech’s Digital Life Initiative, Eisenstat uses her unique experience in government and tech to explore technology’s effect on our political systems. In her talks, she eloquently explains everything from information warfare to national security, offering a nuanced and ethical understanding of the future ahead.
To book speaker Yaël Eisenstat for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.
The revolutionary author of Prediction MachinesAjay Agrawal sat down with Forbes to discuss how AI functions, where it is best applied, and why we should embrace, rather than fear the technology.
As a researcher. entrepreneur, and bestselling author, Ajay Agrawal focuses on the economics of machine intelligence. He encourages leaders and CEOs looking to leverage the technology to think of it as “drop in the cost of prediction.” Agrawal explains, “When prediction, or anything else, becomes cheaper, we use more of it, and we start to use it in more ingenious ways.”
To begin integrating AI into an organization, Agrawal suggests starting with data scientists who already know the company’s prediction problems. But AI isn’t limited to the tech space, or obvious areas like sales, marketing, and manufacturing. For instance, a department that’s often overlooked when it comes to AI is human resources—the perception being that because HR is especially human-oriented, and requires a lot of emotional intelligence, that there is no room for the technology there. “That's a mistake,” cautions Agrawal. “People can leverage AI by converting HR functions, such as certain aspects of recruitment and skills development, into a series of predictions, where humans can then apply their judgment.”
“All human prediction is susceptible to being replaced by machines. But, there are many other valuable things that humans do that are complements, not substitutes, to prediction. One area […] is judgment—humans have it, AI doesn’t.”
The Anthropocene Project—the cumulative work of a years-long exploration of humanity’s impact on the world—is embracing the future with a new VR app. A multidisciplinary endeavor combining a feature documentary (directed by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier), art photography, scientific research, and now VR, The Anthropocene Project engages viewers with its in-depth inquiry into the human influence on the future of our planet.
Now, three of the project’s short documentaries are linked up with VR apps, so curious minds can immerse themselves in a captivating narrative full of Edward Burtynsky’s staggering visuals in a full 360° experience. The three original films featured are Ivory Burn (capturing the largest ivory burn in history and its symbolic message to illegal trade syndicates, while bearing witness to the loss of the diversity of animal life it embodied); Dandora (exploring the largest landfill in Kenya and the microeconomy—and massive geological change—it enables); and Carrara (following the ecological impact of the global export economy of precious marble).
Burtynsky’s remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His exhibitions, which have all been published as books, include Manufactured Landscapes, Before the Flood, China, Oil, and Water. Burtynsky’s photos explore the complicated link between industry and nature, resulting in incredibly evocative visuals that find beauty and humanity even amid destruction.
He has spoken at the Library of Congress, was one of the first recipients of the TED Prize, and is also an Officer of the Order of Canada. He has been named one of named one of Canada’s Greatest Explorers by Canadian Geographic, and, in November 2019, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society presented him with the Gold Medal for his work in environmental photography.
The Anthropocene Project’s VR app is now available on Apple, Google Play, and Viveport; coming soon to Oculus Rift, Gear VR, and Go. Alternately, you can explore the films in 360° via the links here.
Is there anything Reza Aslan can’t do? The Harvard-educated religious scholar has published numerous books and screenplays, is adapting his New York Times bestseller Zealot into a feature film, and executive produces the new Chuck Lorre comedy on CBS. Combine that with his hilarious podcast with Rainn Wilson, and you have a bona-fide “multi-hyphenate.”
“I am a tenured professor, I host reality and talk shows, I produce and write books and screenplays, and I do political commentary because politics are stories, just like religion is stories,” Reza Aslan says. “But it’s all the same thing—no matter what the platform is—and that is the storytelling.”
Now, as the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of BoomGen Studios, Aslan tells stories by and about the people of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and North Africa. “That region is the cradle of myth, religion, and literature,” Aslan says. “The best stories in the world have been born there, so why not mine that resource?”
Brand name CEO David Cote partnered with investment bank Goldman Sachs to create GS Acquisition Holdings Corp., a publicly traded vehicle operating with Cote as its Executive Chairman. In a new and “defining” deal, the SPAC acquired Veritiv: the global leader in industrial cooling and IT infrastructure.
Vertiv sells condensers, chillers, IT racks and power distributors to data centers, helping them stay cool enough to keep running. In 2016, the industrial giant—who counts Google and Amazon as clients— was purchased by Platinum Equity Partners, a private equity firm that loaded the company with billions in debt. By 2019, the debt pile had grown to 3.6 billion and its bonds were trading below 95 cents on the dollar. “Credit analysts expected free cash flow would be negative through 2020,” Forbes reports.
This time around, Veritiv is being purchased by Goldman Sachs and one of the industrial sector’s top performing CEOs: David Cote. The legendary leader, who turned Honeywell around in a record 15 years, believes that Vertiv is operating below its potential. “This company is like two-to-three years along the 15-year path that Honeywell was on,” Cote explained. “The foundational work is done, and there is a lot of upside possible if you can get the operations right.”
In a statement, Platinum Equity billionaire Tom Gores said, “David Cote will bolster an already strong leadership team and with this transaction Vertiv is well-positioned to execute on the many opportunities ahead.”
1,400 communities across the U.S. have lost a local newspaper in the last 15 years—a statistic that reveals the severity of the crisis independent press now faces. Inspired, Lavin speaker and journalist Elizabeth Green co-founded The American Journalism Project to support the nonprofit, local publications our democracy deserves.
The American Journalism Project announced its first set of grants for non-profit publications around the country. The 11 initial winners included trusted, recognizable names like WyoFile, VTDigger, and The Connecticut Mirror—but it’s just the beginning. Elizabeth Green and her partner John Thorton, a technology investor, have lofty ambitions for the philanthropic group they founded. “They think the country needs to raise about $500 million a year in national philanthropy for local news, which could then be matched by another $500 million in membership fees, advertising, and other local revenue,” writes David Leonhardt in The New York Times. “The combined $1 billion would allow local publications to approach the size of public radio.”
“What is most needed is investment in organizations’ capacity to sustain themselves, and to grow,” says Green, who is also the co-founder of Chalkbeat, a non-profit committed to reporting on education issues in American communities. To recieve support from The American Journalism project, a publication will first have to demonstrate its value to readers, followed by a proven ability to raise money through donations and memberships.
In a recent op-ed for The New York Times, Standford’s Robb Willer and Jan Voelkel explore their thought-provoking research on how reaching across party lines can lead to considerable conservative support for progressive parties—without losing ground among their base.
Where should a Democratic nominee focus their energy to beat Trump in 2020? Should they mobilize the left— like progressive candidate Bernie Sanders—or would they be better off running a more centered campaign, as in the case of former Republican Michael Bloomberg? The answer might not be what you expect. According to Rob Willer, Co-director of the Philanthropy and Civil Society Center at Stanford, both theories neglect the fuller picture of the candidate. “We found that the most effective Democratic candidate would speak in terms of conservative values while proposing progressive economic policies — with some of our evidence suggesting that endorsing highly progressive policies would be best.”
Willer, who was recently appointed Director of Stanford’s landmark Polarization and Social Change Lab, acknowleges that progressive candidates may bristle at the idea of emplying conservative rhetoric like patriotism, family, or the American Dream. However, it makes for a great strategy. “For one thing, Democrats typically tack to the center after winning the nomination, often compromising or abandoning their most progressive policies. Wouldn’t it be preferable to stick to those popular progressive policies, making the case for them using language that would appeal to more Americans?”
Marcus Bullock is the creator of Flikshop, an ingeniously simple app that allows family members to connect with prisoners via short messages and photos. His entrepreneurial enterprise has proven so successful that he’s collaborating with Apple, as part of their Code with Apple series.
At the age of 15, Marcus Bullock was sentenced to eight years in adult maximum security prison for stealing a car. But instead of giving in to a prison system that perpetuates hopelessness, Bullock served his time and got out, determined to make a difference. While in jail, his mother sent him a letter every day, a connection to the outside world that really was his lifeline—and with his creation of Flikshop, Inc., Bullock has given that lifeline to hundreds of thousands of others. His story is the buzz of the tech world, business community, and audiences from The White House to SXSW to TED—and now Apple. The Code with Apple series is an international, week long celebration of Computer Science Education Week, and Hour of Code™; connecting average consumers and techies alike with exciting new technologies, apps, augmented reality, and more, with coding workshops and inspirational speakers like Bullock.
Over 140,000 prisoners use Flikshop to stay in touch with loved ones. People on the outside snap a photo, include a note, and Flikshop sends a physical copy to the inmate. But it’s for more than one-on-one connection, it’s also used for education; helping prisoners get ahead of the barriers they often face once released, by providing assistance with housing applications, teaching financial literacy, and developing important job interview skills.
Bullock was named one of John Legend’s Unlocked Futures business accelerators, and is a member of the Justice Policy Institute’s Board of Directors. In 2019, he was named one of The Root 100. Bullock’s inspirational story has been covered by Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and NPR.
To book speaker Marcus Bullock, contact his exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.
Picture this: the year is 2050. The world’s population is approaching the 10 billion mark, and artificial intelligence, robots, and technological “personal assistants” have saturated the workforce. On the latest segment of ABC’s This Working Life, Martin Ford discusses whether there will be enough paid work to around in the future.
“The biggest impact, at least for the foreseeable future, is going to be on anything that’s routine, repetitive, and predictable,” explains Martin Ford, a consulting expert and the bestselling author of Rise of the Robots and Architects of Intelligence. “Predictable is maybe the best word to describe it because what I’m really talking about is any type of job where another person, for example, might be able to look at a record of what you’ve done and based on that, be able to learn how to do the job.”
Though this description does not characterize all of the work humans do, it could come to comprise up to half the jobs in the economy, according to Ford. This goes beyond the factory or low-wage jobs that many people think of when it comes to automation. In fact, even extraordinarily skilled jobs—like radiologists—are already being impacted by algorithms that are proving to be better than humans in certain areas.
If this is the case, then the questions become more complex: will we create more jobs than we destroy? If so, what will the new jobs look like? And what skills will they require? Ford dives deep into the incoming economical issues that will accompany an AI-enabled workforce, including the argument that we might work less in the future.
Age no longer merely divides Republicans and Democrats. In today’s political tapestry, there exists a third party—the young leftists—who veer sharply away from both platforms. In his latest for The Atlantic, Derek Thompson dives deep into the progressive movement happening throughout the current election.
Young Americans have gradually been shifting to the left. This trend was first observed with the historic election (and re-election) of President Barack Obama, and continues today, with the rise of progressive 2020 candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. “Compared with the average American, Progressive Activists—‘young, secular, cosmopolitan, and angry’—were more likely to be under 30, college-educated, and white; twice as likely to say they never pray; and three times as likely to say they’re ‘ashamed’ of the country,” explains Derek Thompson, citing a 2018 study.
Motivated by social justice, skeptical of capitalism, and unconvinced of the American Dream, progressives differ significantly with most Americans over 40, many of whom—while supporting some measure of social justice— have a “deep aversion to anything that can be characterized as ‘political correctness’ or ‘socialism.’” So where does this leave the young party? Considering that in 2016, voters over 40 accounted for nearly three-fifths of all primary voters, Thompson writes: “It is impossible to win a national election by running a campaign of generational warfare that runs counter to, or directly indicts, a majority of the electorate. One way or another, America’s third party will have to grow up.”
Lavin’s speakers have dominated the “end-of-year” and “best-of-decade” lists circulating the Internet lately. Most recently, Variety’s Best Books of 2019 list featured works by three Lavin Speakers: YA novelist Angie Thomas, Atlantic columnist and therapist Lori Gottlieb, and literary legendMargaret Atwood.
Lori Gottlieb—Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Therapist Lori Gottlieb chronicles not only the sessions she has with her clients—but also the sessions she has with her own therapist in this refreshingly honest and heart-wrenchingly funny memoir. Variety calls it “a kaleidoscope of stories about the human condition, love, loss, and how we can all learn from each other.”
Margaret Atwood—The Testaments
After the explosive popularity of The Handmaid’s Tale TV adaptation, Canadian icon Margaret Atwood wrote a follow-up novel that weaves in key elements from the Hulu series so that “it can all feel of one larger world.” Considering Atwood’s once-cautionary tale has become scarily similar to reality, The Testaments infuses some much-needed elements of hope.
Angie Thomas—On The Come Up
An expertly rendered portrait of both class and race issues, On The Come Up also considers misogyny, censorship, and cultural pressures as it navigates the underground hip-hop scene from the perspective of a teenage MC gone viral. Thomas’ latest YA novel—which follows her smash hit The Hate U Give— weaves in powerful life lessons, “but they are always organic to her protagonist’s situation and relatable to many generations.”
While some consider religion a pillar of morality and community, others believe it to be the root cause of wars, political strife, and ideological dust-ups. With compassion, honesty, and humor, Lavin’s Top Religion Speakers shine a light on the pivotal role faith continues to play in modern-day life.
Megan Phelps-Roper
Meghan Phelps-Roper grew up in the Westboro-Baptist Church: a notoriously hostile religious group famous for picketing against the LGBTQ community and funeral services for fallen soldiers. In her new memoir Unfollow, as well as in her viral TED Talk, Phelps-Roper not only shares how she escaped her toxic faith—but how empathy and compassion can overcome even the widest of ideological gulfs.
Reza Aslan
“Whether we are aware of it or not, and regardless if we are believers or not, what the vast majority of us think about when we think about God is a divine version of ourselves.” In his New York Times bestseller God: A Human History, Reza Aslan—one of America’s most prominent voices on religion—transforms the way we think about the divine and its role in our everyday lives.
Karen Armstrong
As a former Catholic nun and bestselling religious scholar, Karen Armstrong considers faith in the context of modern life. Her latest book The Lost Art of Scripture offers a new way to read religious texts—and apply their teachings practically. A sought-after religion speaker, she says, “we must plumb our religious insights from our scriptures and let them speak to us today in new and innovative ways.”
Wajahat Ali
Wajahat Ali wrote the first major play about Muslim-Americans post-9/11, produced the critically acclaimed docu-series The Secret Life of Muslims, and was the lead author of the seminal report ‘Fear Inc., Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America.’ Today, the public intellectual speaks on the multifaceted nature of the American experience, and the growing need for religious and cultural unity.
Negin Farsad
Negin Farsad reframes persistent social issues through the lens of comedy. The author of How to Make White People Laugh, and producer of The Muslims Are Coming!, Farsad is one of a handful of Iranian-American Muslim filmmakers using humour to bridge our racial, religious, and social divides.
Matthew Vines
The author of God and The Gay Christian, Matthew Vines hopes to shatter biblical misconceptions that fuel hate and misunderstanding in his rousing religion talks. He has been called “an unlikely advocate (and lightning rod) for those straddling one of the most volatile fault lines in America’s culture war: homosexual Christians.”
Bassam Tariq
Acclaimed filmmaker Bassam Tarique explores the life of American-Muslims in his work, including the Sundance Jury Prize-Winning Ghosts of Sugarland. Intelligent, thoughtful, and brave, Tariq’s religion talks not only question the religious and social differences that divide us—but consider how to transcend them.
Interested in booking one of Lavin's Top Religion Speakers for your next event? Contact one of our knowledagable sales agents today.
In these divided times, it can often seem like empathy is difficult, if not downright impossible to find. But for Jamil Zaki, the Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, we have a unique opportunity these days to strengthen our ability to relate to and care for one another—maybe even more than at any other point in human history.
Author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World, Jamil Zaki has earned a reputation as one of the most forward-thinking speakers on empathy in the world. Today’s profile in The Washington Post explores his life’s work on expanding, increasing and implementing empathy solutions. He’s spent years developing the tools to foster what he calls a “kindness revolution”, a concept based on the fact that empathy is not, in fact, an inherent and unalterable trait—but instead, a skill that can be learned, practiced and shared.
Right now, we’re in a crisis of empathy across political and cultural lines, with trends of disconnection and polarization increasing across all age groups. But it’s far from hopeless. As Zaki tells The Washington Post, “In the three years I spent writing [my book], I discovered more and more evidence that empathy is indeed a skill that we can build, and that doing so is a crucial project for us, both as individuals and as a culture.”
Empathic people fare better at work and relationships, and are more emotionally fulfilled, Zaki says. Not only that, but cultivating kindness is contagious. His current research illustrates how we’re all responsive too witnessing others practice kindness, which spurs an avalanche effect of empathy in all kinds of communities. It’s not that there’s zero genetic component to one’s capability for compassion; but that “there’s lots of evidence that our experiences, our choices, our habits, our practices go a long way to predict how empathetic we become.”
Zaki offers five “kindness challenges”: practical yet powerful exercises designed to push us beyond our comfort zones and toward recognizing, then redirecting our instinct to empathize only with family, friends and people who think or look like us. Eventually, we can learn to apply empathy equally to strangers—even people with whom we strongly disagree. Ultimately, Zaki’s fascinating research explores exactly how we can “hack” empathy for the greater good of humanity. “We can grow our empathy if we want to,” he says. “Our emotions are not animalistic impulses.”
Among Entertainment Weekly’s top 10 non-fiction books of the decade is Patti Smith’s beloved memoir Just Kids and George Packer’s historical juggernaut The Unwinding.
Patti Smith—Just Kids
In Just Kids, bohemian rocker Patti Smith takes readers through her artistic awakening in the raw and gritty world of New York City in the late sixties and seventies. Candid and poetic, the book revolves around the defining relationship of Smith’s life: her 21-year romance-turned- friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe, the iconic photographer who died tragically from AIDS in 1989.
George Smith—The Unwinding
Journalist George Packer weaves together a frightening, yet compelling narrative of a nation in crisis in The Unwinding. Through individual biographies of powerful, often opposing figures—from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z—Packer discusses America’s mortgage crisis, the decline of the manufacturing industry, and the disheartening influence of money on politics. Published in 2013, The Unwinding reads eerily prescient about today’s issues.
Shoshana Zuboff—The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Shoshana Zuboff’s meticulously researched book has already been shortlisted for the McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, and featured in TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Reads of 2019. In it, Zuboff makes a compelling argument for how tech giants like Google and Facebook are using our personal data in dangerous, unprecedented ways.
David Wallace-Wells—The Uninhabitable Earth
Our inaction on climate change—the biggest threat humanity has ever faced—has the potential to destroy life as we know it. In The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells lays bare the work we need to do to avoid catastrophe.
Margaret Atwood—The Testaments
Iconic Canadian author Maraget Atwood returns readers to the fictional Republic of Gilead in The Testaments. The “haunting and powerful” sequel to The Handmaid's Tale earned Atwood the prestigeous Booker Prize.
George Packer—Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
Equal parts endearing and exasperating, Richard Holbrooke was an undoubtedly complex political figure. In Our Man, award-winning journalist George Packer reveals the “warts and all” picture of an idealistic America Diplomat driven by ruthless gumption.
Karen Armstrong—The Lost Art of Scripture: Rescuing the Sacred Texts
A provocative religious thinker, Karen Armstrong has authored more than 20 texts on faith and the world’s major religions, including the New York Times bestselling History of God. In her new book The Lost Art of Scripture, Armstrong makes the case that, “if approached in a flexible and evolving way,” the old word of the scriptures can very well help us solve our current problems.
In this portrait for NPR’s Latino USA, acclaimed author, activist, and artist Gabby Rivera explores the importance of representation in the arts, dealing with hate, and her remarkable work and career.
“I must remember, it's not mainstream culture that I'm a part of. I'm part of these little pockets of good people everywhere, doing their best to just love themselves, and each other.”
— Gabby Rivera
Rivera’s first novel, Juliet Takes a Breath, is an unconventional coming-of-age—and coming out—story, based on her personal experience. Called the “dopest LGBTQA YA book ever” by Latina magazine, the novel captured not only critical acclaim and international attention, but also the imagination of Marvel Comics. By 2017, Rivera was writing America, Marvel’s first comic series with a queer Latina superhero—but underrepresentation of marginalized groups was still the industry norm. And as America exploded onto the scene, Rivera found herself targeted in a campaign of mass online harassment of those involved with the comic book industry's efforts to include more creators and characters of diverse backgrounds. With great success can come great backlash, and for a time Rivera thought she wouldn’t be able to keep creating comics. Fortunately, love and strength will always conquer hate and fear, and Rivera rose above the attacks—thanks in part to the comics community itself.
“What really saved me, and what really turned all of this into big love, was when I went to individual comic book shops and did signings,” she says to NPR’s Maria Hinojosa. “It was there, and in colleges also across the country, where I met really good, good human beings, who loved America Chavez, who loved that there were women and queer people and brown people in the comics. And yes, a lot of them look like me, and you know what? A lot of them look like a regular-ass white dude at the mall, coming up to me and being like, ‘I loved America, it was so nice, it was so refreshing.’”
And now, Rivera has her first original comic series, b.b. free, which debuted this month. “What's fun about b.b. free, is that it actually comes from a short story that I wrote,” she told NPR. “I wrote about…[a] plague of imbalance put out into the world by Mother Nature that eats greed, and ends up kind of killing everyone who is essentially greedy. It starts with the one percent and then kind of trickles its way down. So, what is that world? And so we plop a beautiful, chubby little fifteen-year-old Puerto-Rican girl from the Florida Swamps [there]. And she's b.b. free, and she wants to go on an adventure, she wants to go on a road trip.”
NPR’s interfiew closes with a discussion of Rivera’s upcoming podcast, Gabby Rivera's Joy Revolution. Hitting airwaves in 2020, it will feature interviews with revolutionary QTPOC humans and allies, and explore how they find, maintain, and nurture their joy in this chaotic world. So what brings Rivera joy?, Hinojosa asks. “Number one, this is a joy that is rooted in acknowledging pain and suffering and the reality of the world around us. I don't take it for granted that ten years ago, I didn't think I was gonna live. I was having panic attacks, I had no money, I had no future…So here now, ten years later, that I am a thriving, supported artist and writer making my way in the world, that is my joy. And I love myself. And I love myself enough to be like, I don’t need to give people who don’t love me, my energy. It’s all good. I’d rather be here talking to you, you know?”
You can listen to NPR’s Portrait Of: Gabby Rivera here.
Ever since the 2016 election, American politics have seemed more like a circus than a system of government. Lavin’s top ten political speakers are some of the brightest, sharpest minds fighting anti-democractic forces and standing up for the values of free society.
Garrett M. Graff: Garret Graff has unique insight into America’s ever-shifting political landscape. An award-winning journalist, he’s spent over a decade covering the happenings in Washington D.C., including Robert Mueller’s two-year investigation into Donald Trump. Graff—a distinguished historian and political speaker—has also authored several critically acclaimed books, his most recent being a chilling account of the terrorist attacks on 9/11.
Marc Busch: Trade wards have dominated the headlines since Donald Trump took office, and the 2020 election will only continue to stoke the fire. To understand the “epic battle of free trade” happening today, look no further than trade expert and McKinsey consultant, Marc Busch. A sought-after political speaker, Busch helps businesses and industries understand how international trade will affect them—and how they can protect themselves.
Emily Bazelon: In her latest book Charged, New York Times staff writer Emily Bazelon examines how the American criminal justice system continually fails its citizens. A groundbreaking piece of investigative journalism, Charged confronts the problem of mass incarceration head-on, offering bold solutions for institutional reform. Bazelon—a lecturer at Yale Law School—is a riveting speaker and one of the leading authorities on justice in America.
Yascha Mounk: The rise of far-right groups and authoritarian leaders are threatening democracy around the world. In his book The People vs Democracy, Atlantic contributor Yascha Mounk explains how we got to this critical juncture in American history, and what we can do to fix it. His rousing political talks offer practical solutions for everyday citizens looking to do their part in protecting our rights and freedoms.
Masha Gessen: National Book Award-winning author Masha Gessan examines the Trumpian turn America has taken, and the effect its had on the country’s political system, institutions, and its media. Expanding on the landmark article “Autocracy: Rules for Survival,” Gessen reveals how together we can defend the ideals on which our country is based.
Julia Ioffe: Russia is once again largely figuring into the American political sphere. To what degree have the country’s threats to US democracy been successful, and how worried should we be? Gifted political speaker and thinker Julia Ioffe—author of the Atlantic cover story “What Putin Really Wants,” and the forthcoming Russia Girl—unpacks the geopolitical drama with piercing clarity.
George Packer: In his New York Times bestseller The Unwinding, award-winning author George Packer offers a comprehensive look at the institutional collapse, political upheaval, and troubling populism characterizing America today, while his latest book Our Man is a stunning depiction of one of the country’s most complicated political figures: Richard Holbrooke. In gripping talks drawn from his reporting, Packer unravels the shifting, diverse tapestry of the country like no other.
Matt Taibbi: Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi has written four New York Times bestselling books over the course of his career. A compelling writer, his work focuses on the most pressing issues of our time—including the demise of democracy as we know it. In the book Insane Clown President, as well as in his eye-opening political talks, Taibbi shows how we’ve arrived at a moment where spectacle triumphs over substance.
David Rohde: “I still believe that the heart of journalism must be original, fact-based reporting. And in the Trump era, journalists must operate at our fastest and most accurate and ethical rate ever,” says David Rohde. A two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the head of online news coverage at The New Yorker, Rohde speaks to the polarization and social extremism bankrupting politics today.
Schachi Kurl: As the Executive Director of the Angus Reid Institute, Shachi Kurl has a remarkable grasp on what we’re collectively thinking about society’s most pressing issues. Whether it’s opinions on affordable housing, or the public perception of our most complex political figures, Kurl looks at non-partisan polling data to paint an astute picture of the current political moment.
To book a Politics & Society speaker for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with a skilled member on our sales team.
Lavin speakers Douglas Rushkoff and Shoshana Zuboffhave both been nominated for the 13th annual Porchlight Business Book Awards. The awards recognize the best business books published this year, and look beyond traditional business titles to important works that businesses should be considering.
Douglas Rushkoff’s title, Team Human, explores how the internet has divided us into increasingly smaller, radicalized groups—and delivers a call to arms to resist these destructive forces. With wide-ranging research on human psychology, evolution, and biology, he shares how being human is really a team sport—and why we have to fight to protect this fundamental truth. Team Human is nominated in the Management & Workplace Culture Category. Witty and astute, Rushkoff has made many media appearances, from NPR and PBS, to The Colbert Report and being a correspondent on digital business and society for CNN. He is the Marshall McLuhan Award for Media Writing, as well as the Founder of the Laboratory of Digital Humanism and Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power,by Shoshana Zuboff—praised in the New York Times in three separate features—explores how our access to smart devices and social networks is developing in such a way as to both serve and manipulate us. Surveillance capitalism—a concept coined by Zuboff herself—defines the current age in which we’ve all consented to the commodification of our personal information. Optimistic but realistic, she asks, what is the real cost of putting a price on private data? How can our leaders come up with novel responses to a new era? Nominated in the Big Ideas & New Perspectives category, Harvard Business School emerita Zuboff explores how this urgent matter isn’t just about our individual lives: the modern economic order is reshaping democracy in ways that threaten our freedoms like never before.
The winners of the Porchlight Business Book Awards will be announced January 2020.
As the co-founder of innovation consultancy Innosight, Mark Johnson helps leaders envision their future, create new growth, and manage transformation. His upcoming book Lead from the Future breaks down what truly sets a visionary leader apart—and how to instill their unique approach into your own organization.
There’s no special mix of attributes that create a visionary leader like Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs. But there is a special way of thinking that makes their extraordinary successes possible. In his upcoming book Lead from the Future, Mark Johnson breaks down such visionary leadership into a process called “future-back.” Unlike present-forward thinking, which imagines an organization in the future in small increments, future-back thinking empowers leaders to make a clean break from the past and present so they can truly own the future.
A lucid thinker and an even more brilliant explainer, Johnson can transform even the most complacent company into a visionary powerhouse. In his talks, he walks organizations through the visionary fundamentals: creating a vision, connecting it to a strategy, then programming and implementing. Not only does he help companies think creatively and expansively; Johnson helps embed the revolutionary process of ‘future-back’ thinking into the very heart of an organization: its culture.
To book speaker Mark Johnson for your next corporate event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, his exclusive speakers bureau.
When did we come to the conclusion that maximizing shareholder value was the primary goal of all business? Is this belief inherent in capitalism, or did it enter our collective consciousness much later? And what can we do now that it’s clear this assumption is limiting our potential? Yancey Strickler answers these questions and more on Vanity Fair’s Inside the Hive podcast.
“There was a record-scratch moment where the way everyone thought things should operate just wasn’t working,” explains Yancey Strickler, author of This Could Be Our Future. The U.S. moved away from the gold standard, and a lot of economic reset happened around this moment. “They [were] looking for a new, simpler way. And so the idea of just maximizing for share price, something that’s rational, that’s tradeable, that you can very clearly argue for […] seemed like the obvious thing to do.”
By the early 80s, this mentality was starting to “run America,” says Strickler, citing President Raegan’s policy of deregulation and government geared towards top-level financial growth (with little consideration to how that money would be distributed). Today, we’re still feeling the effects of this economic model—but it doesn’t have to be this way, says Strickler, who outlined a powerful vision for the future in his book. “In the world we live in today, ‘Now Me’ is the only space we see as real. Everything else is emotional, hazy, nebulous,” says Strickler. His philosophy provides a way for us to consider value for our future and collective selves, in addition to our present-day selves.
With winning 2019’s Booker Prize for The Testaments, a successful television series, and a world even more enraptured by her already popular prose, it’s natural to want to know what goes on in the mind and life of one of the most beloved authors, Margaret Atwood. The new documentary, Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power does just that.
Having already been a household name for decades around the world, Atwood is truly a prolific literary figure—yet few know the private life of the author. Who is the person behind the impactful imagery and oddly prescient stories? Now, thanks a film crew with over a year of exclusive access to Atwood and her late partner Graeme Gibson, we can all share a glimpse of the woman behind the words.
Filmed as she was traveling the world for speaking engagements, and completing the final chapters of The Testaments, the documentary shows a never-before-seen side of the literary legend. We see her visiting the set of A Handmaid’s Tale, her writing process, and are privy to many personal stories shared by family, friends and Atwood herself. Her upbringing in the Canadian wilderness, and early days as a poet, are also explored with a thoughtful, intimate approach.
Throughout the film, her major works are brought into further clarity, as the personal circumstances that influenced her writing are revealed. Her poetry and prose are read by Emmy-award winning Canadian actress, Tatiana Maslany.
You can watch the trailer for Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power, here. A shorter version of the documentary will be available on CBC GEM on Thursday, November 18th. It is screening in full in Toronto at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema, until November 17th.
To book speaker Margaret Atwood, contact her exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.
Salman Rushdie—Quichotte
The prolific author’s 14th novel reimagines the famous Don Quixote character in a satirical metafiction. Quichotte is set in Donald Trump’s America and follows “pharmaceutical-product salesman who has watched so much TV that he believes he must marry a Bollywood star turned daytime talk show host.” As delightful as it is absurd, Quichotte was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Margaret Atwood—The Testaments
The highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaids Tale was released this year with as much fanfare and praise as you would expect. Atwood returns readers to the Republic of Gilead, this time through the perspectives of three new female characters. A co-winner of the Booker Prize, The Testaments “answers questions that have gnawed at readers both old and new for decades.”
Jayson Greene—Once More We Saw Stars
Jayson Greene’s world was forever changed when a freak accident claimed the life of his two-year-old daughter, Greta. Forced to reckon with a grief that “easily could have swallowed him whole,” Greene wrote Once More We Saw Stars in the aftermath of her death. Though rooted in tragedy, the memoir offers love, light, and hope in the face of unspeakable loss.
Lori Gottlieb—Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
In her stunning memoir Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb takes readers into her world as a psychotherapist. Using real patient sessions, as well as her own experience with a therapist, Gottlieb underscores the importance of the stories we tell ourselves to live. “Her blend of honesty, empathy and humor makes the book an enjoyable read—and, at a time of growing calls to destigmatize mental health issues, a valuable one.”
David Wallace-Wells—The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming New York Magazine’s Deputy Editor David Wallace-Wells has written a haunting book on the devastating effects climate change will have on our planet. Strangely enough, in painting a grim picture of what awaits us, Wallace-Wells has also inspired a heady call-to-action. TIME calls it perhaps the “most effective antidote to complacency yet.”
Shoshana Zuboff—The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Former Harvard Business School professor Shoshana Zuboff delivers “part manifesto, part deeply researched modern history” with The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. The book examines how the unchecked power of Big Tech is transforming human lives—for the worse. More than “the attention economy,” Surveillance Capitalism—a term Zuboff coined—speaks to a much larger, more menacing problem: a ubiquitous digital architecture designed to manipulate human behavior and sell it to the highest bidder.
Over the last decade, Adam Bryant has interviewed more than 500 CEOs for his landmark column in The New York Times. From brains to ambition to humility, Bryant discovered the list of qualities that make up a successful leader is long. But what is the elusive trait at the top? In a new article for Strategy + Business, Bryant reveals the most important leadership quality across the board.
The most important characteristic of a leader, beyond high IQ or confidence, is a quality called “applied curiosity.” Different from our natural, hard-wired curiosity as human beings, applied curiosity is a more specific variety. “People who have it engage in relentless questioning to understand how things work. And then they start wondering how those things could be made to work better,” explains Adam Bryant. “They approach everything with an inquiring mind-set—whether it’s making sense of shifting consumer habits or the global macroeconomic trends that are shaping their industry.”
What separates the best of the best is how much they question, probe, and process everything they’re experiencing—and then look for insights and patterns. Such a questioning mindset has to be able to look forward just as much as it looks backwards. Bryant writes, “If one old definition of wisdom is that it’s a sense that ‘I’ve seen this movie before and I know how it plays out,’ then wisdom for leaders today increasingly means unlearning what they already know in order to explore what-if scenarios for an uncertain future.”
The inaugural TIME “100 Next” list was announced today. Honoring rising stars who are “eager to defy the odds and fight for a better future,” the list includes two Lavin speakers: Wanuri Kahiu, a Cannes-winning filmmaker from Kenya, and Vijay Gupta, the MacArthur Genius violinist putting art into social justice.
Wanuri Kahiu is an artist and filmmaker shattering convention around African representation in art and media. Much of her work—including the award-winning films Pumzi (Cannes Best Short Film) and Rafiki—is centered on the often overlooked stories of Black women. Vibrant and visionary, Kahiu is creating work in her own genre, “AfroBubbleGum” (also the name of the company she founded). Think, an aesthetic mash-up of Marvel’s Black Panther and a candy store, and you’ll get AfroBubbleGum. Through her work she shows why “fun, fierce and frivolous African art” is a political act: portraying African citizens as healthy, financially stable, and fun-loving reinforces their humanity in refreshing ways. And that particular, necessary attention to fun has led her to amazing upcoming projects—like co-writing the upcoming series adaptation of sci-fi legend Olivia Butler’s Wild Seed, set to star Academy Award-winner Viola Davis.
Violinist and educator Vijay Gupta is a passionate activist for putting art at the center of social justice. He founded Street Symphony, a non-profit organization dedicated to engaging underserved communities experiencing homelessness and incarceration in Los Angeles through musical performance and dialogue. This past December, he left his position at the Los Angeles Philharmonic to dedicate himself to Street Symphony full-time. A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient and “one of the most radical thinkers in the unradical world of American classical music” (The New Yorker), Gupta is changing lives and providing hope, one performance at a time. He has been named one of six national Citizen Artist Fellows by the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He’s redefining what outreach looks like: it’s not a matter of providing aid, but providing purpose, connection, community, and a human voice to those all too often deprived of theirs.
Some bosses manage their employees through negative reinforcement, while others prefer positive reinforcement. But which managerial style is more effective? New research by Lauren Eskreis- Winkler reveals that encouraging management yields far better results than those that focus on failure.
Lauren Eskreis- Winkler and her team at the University of Chicago designed an experiment to test whether a positive or negative management style would produce better outcomes. The research—forthcoming in the journal of Psychological Science and profiled by Forbes—overwhelmingly points to positive reinforcement as the superior strategy. “Our society celebrates failure as a teachable moment,” state Eskreis-Winkler and her team. “Yet we find that failure does the opposite: it undermines learning. Failure feedback undermines learning motivation because it is ego-threatening. It causes participants to tune out and stop processing information.”
To arrive at this conclusion Eskreis-Winkler and her team provided success-oriented feedback to one set of participants, and failure-oriented feedback to another. They found that those in the former category were able to recall information and perform the activity with better accuracy. “Our key result is that people find failure feedback ego-threatening, which leads them to tune out, and miss the information it offers. Tuning out from a pursuit in the moment of failure could be the first step in a chain reaction that distances and discourages people from the goal they are pursuing.”
What do you do when conventional coaching methods aren’t getting you the optimal results? You turn to Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best, the first-ever guide to Motivational Interviewing—a proven technique for building relationships—co-authored by leading performance psychologist Jonathan Fader.
“Relationships matter in sports, and we tend to navigate them through conversation,” write Jonathan Fader, Stephen Rollnick, Jeff Breckon and Therea B. Moyers in their book Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best. The authors outline the practice of Motivational Interviewing, a technique that harnesses the power of good conversation to build trusting relationships—and helps coaches, psychologists, managers, parents and the like, nurture athletic talent. Both inspiring and practical, Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best reveals why conventional strategies for giving feedback and managing conflict often fall short, and instead replaces them with new, proven methods for boosting motivation, improving teamwork, addressing bad behavior, and enhancing overall performance.
The book has received early praise from leaders in the field, including Joe Torre, the four-time World Series champion manager of the New York Yankees. Torre writes, “The information age offers endless possibilities that can help teams and organizations succeed. But we can never forget the importance of connecting as people and building a winning culture of communication, trust, and teamwork. I appreciate the insights of Coaching Athletes to Be Their Best, and its focus on the motivational power of a common purpose.”
To book speaker Jonathan Fader for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau.
Megan Phelps-Roper’s memoir, Unfollow, explores her life as a member of the notoriously hateful Westboro Baptist Church—and how she came to the decision to leave her entire family behind. As the granddaughter of the founder, she was immersed in the Westboro since day one, and eventually became their social media manager. It ended up being this connection to the outside world, where strangers interacted with her on a human level, that she came to see just how wrong her family was. Unfollow follows her journey from lifelong indoctrination in bigotry, to a life dedicated to spreading empathy, understanding, and hope. Her powerful memoir has been called a “must-read” by Publisher’s Weekly, and was praised by Sarah Silverman as being “wildly brave and incredibly thoughtful”.
In Lori Gottlieb’s New York Times bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, she explores what happens when a therapist—someone trained to manage human behavior—experiences her own personal crisis? Her personal narrative is at once intimate and universal; offering a rare glimpse into what exactly it means to be human, through her journey as both a clinician and patient. Mental health, wellness, vulnerability, and relationships are all explored in an ““irresistibly candid and addicting” (The New York Times Book Review) way. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone was named Best Nonfiction Book of the year by O, The Oprah Magazine and is currently being adapted as a television series with actress and director Eva Longoria.
In Once More We Saw Stars, writer Jayson Greene shares the incredibly powerful and profound journey through grief and trauma after the accidental death of his young daughter, Greta. It offers a testament of his family’s unwavering strength in the face of tremendous loss. How he tells his “intensely moving, life-affirming story” (Rolling Stone), garnered universal praise, and Greene shares his grief and resilience in an affecting way. The New York Times writes that Greene “has created a narrative of grief and acceptance that is compulsively readable and never self-indulgent,” and Cheryl Strayed described the memoir as “a gripping and beautiful book about the power of love in the face of unimaginable loss.” Once More We Saw Stars is not just a story about loss; but about love, and above all, hope.
In a new op-ed, Martin Ford—acclaimed author of two books on the impact of AI on the labour market—explains why AI-driven automation should be a top-of-mind issue in the upcoming election, and why Andrew Yang is the only candidate willing to speak out about it.
“The Democratic Party’s agenda increasingly is being shaped by the ‘Social Justice Left.’ If you count yourself among this movement, you should know that AI-driven automation is not a fringe issue, nor can it be dismissed as a ‘tech bro’ concern. Rather, it is poised to amplify the types of inequality that you care most about,” writes Martin Ford, bestselling author of Rise of the Robots, in a new op-ed for The Hill. He cites a recent McKinsey study which found that automation will disproportionately impact African Americans, likely worsening the racial income and wealth gaps. “The fact is that virtually everything Democrats care about—inequality, health care, poverty, the environment, education, the prosperity of the middle class—will be deeply influenced by relentless advances in artificial intelligence.”
In Ford’s view, Yang is the only candidate willing to speak honestly about this forthcoming issue. With no previous political experience or big-name recognition, Yang’s candidacy was initially given little attention. Yet his platform has ballooned rapidly, advancing beyond many seasoned governors and senators in terms of fundraising, polling, and qualifying for the debates. Yang’s concern for the future is resonating with voters, regardless of how seriously the media has taken his campaign, and “his warnings about the impact of AI and automation should be taken seriously.”
The BBC has assembled a panel of British writers, curators, and critics to put forth a list of the books that have shaped their world. Part of thenetwork’s year-long celebration of literature, the 100-strong list features work by contemporary icons Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie.
“We asked our prestigious panel to create a list of world-changing novels that would provoke, spark debate, and inspire curiosity. It took months of enthusiastic debate and they have not disappointed. There are neglected masterpieces, irresistible romps, as well as much-loved classics,” said the Director of BBC Arts, Jonty Claypole. “It is a more diverse list than any I have seen before, recognising the extent to which the English language novel is an art form embraced way beyond British shores.”
Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie’s canonical work is included among the literary classics, children’s books, and graphic novels included in the list, which will form the basis of a digital reading resource on the BBC Arts website. Atwood’s coming-of-age work Oryx and Crake was selected, while Rushie’s genre-busting The Moor’s Last Sigh made the cut. Both authors also made international headlines earlier this year with the release of their latest works, The Testaments and Quichotte, respectively.
More than just a business buzzword, innovation has become a coveted ideal for nearly every organization on earth. The problem is, though everyone wants innovation, few know how to actually attain it. In his upcoming book Create the Future, Trend Hunter CEO and New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Gutsche offers a guide for mastering real change.
In today’s fast-paced world, there are more opportunities than ever within our reach—yet time and time again, smart and successful people miss out on the action. Why? Innovation expert Jeremy Gutsche explains that there are seven neurological traps that limit our thinking and decision-making. But fear not. In his upcoming book Create the Future: Tactics for Disruptive Thinking, Gutsche shows us how to overcome the years of evolutionary conditioning that urge us to play it safe.
Filled with Gutsche’s provocative thinking and signature flair for story-telling, Create the Future walks us through battle-tested strategies employed by innovative leaders at Disney, Starbucks, Google, and NASA. The book, which features a foreword by Malcolm Gladwell, is paired with a revised edition of Gutsche’s award-winning first book Exploiting Chaos, making it a double-sided handbook for disruptive thinking.
To book speaker Jeremy Gutsche for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency today, his exclusive speakers bureau.
As the Editor-in-Chief of WIRED, Nicholas Thompsonpublished two critical exposés on one of the world’s largest and most influential companies: Facebook. Now, in a conversation with WeTransfer’s President Damian Bradfield, Thomspon discusses the backlash the company has faced for their controversial business model—and how it affects our nation’s democracy.
Facebook invented one of the smartest business models in the history of the world—a platform that incentivizes users to give up their personal data, which is then used to target better, more effective advertising to them. “The story of Facebook, and the way that people think about privacy, and the way people worry about the targeted ad model, is that, from the beginning of Facebook, Facebook essentially expands the boundaries of what they can collect. And they often do it without the user’s knowing. And they’ll often say ‘we’re just collecting this much,’ but they actually collect a little bit further,” Nicholas Thompson explains. Initially, targeted ads were no cause for alarm; most people considered them better product recommendations and little else. But then Cambridge Analytica scandal happened. “It suddenly seemed like Facebook was selling all of our personal information to the Russians for the sake of disrupting democracy.”
And so came the backlash, coming in fresh off the heels of growing resentment towards Silicon Valley and Big Tech. How did Facebook find itself in such a position? And what is its true potential to disrupt Western democracy? Thompson notes, “[…] I’ve always wondered, on sort of a core philosophical level, whether the way the Facebook business model works, which is dividing people into ever smaller groups, helps foster a political system in which we are divided into ever smaller and more resentful groups.”
Stories are the way we make sense of our lives. But that doesn’t mean that the ones we tell ourselves are good, or even true. Instead of providing clarity, they often just keep us stuck in the same painful patterns. In her new TED Talk, which has been viewed over 600,000 times in four days, Lori Gottlieb—renowned therapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone—shows us the life-affirming power we have to change our lives through narrative.
In her years of clinical practice (not to mention years of writing The Atlantic’s Dear Therapist column), Lori Gottlieb noticed that there are thematic similarities to the stories we tell. “Our stories about freedom go like this: we believe, in general, that we have an enormous amount of freedom. Except when it comes to the problem at hand, in which case, suddenly, we feel like we have none. Many of our stories are about feeling trapped, right? We feel imprisoned by our families, our jobs, our relationships, our pasts,” Gottlieb shares.
The problem with attaining the freedom we claim to seek is that it comes with a certain sense of responsibility; responsibility for our role in the story, and the moves we need to make for it to change. “There's something oddly comforting about knowing exactly how the story is going to go every single time,” admits Gottlieb. “To write a new chapter is to venture into the unknown.”
In her funny, honest, and cathartic new talk, Gottlieb opens us up to the possibility that—no matter how scary it may seem—with the right tools, we can successfully rewrite our stories and transform the quality of our lives.
What if discrimination on the basis of age were just as unacceptable as other kinds of prejudice? Why is society’s view of aging so grim when the lived reality is so different? Author and anti-ageism activist Ashton Applewhite connected with Katie Couric on her podcast, Next Question, to discuss.
Together, they tackle tough questions about ageism, sexism, and how they interact. Applewhite, a TED mainstage speaker is a leading voice in an emerging movement dedicated to dismantling ageism and making age a part of diversity. Her funny, straight-talking approach is in full force in conversation with Couric, the former news anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent.
There are so many untapped possibilities of later life—in our communities, at work, and in ourselves, and Applewhite is a champion for the need for greater age-based diversity in our institutions. Her book, This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, was also named on of Forbes’ list of “10 Books To Help You Foster a More Diverse and Inclusive Workplace”. Her manifesto against ageism and in favor of age pride is so popular that Macmillan launched its new imprint with it in 2019.
Applewhite was named a member of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ “100” list. She was also recognized on the PBS site Next Avenue’s annual list of 50 Influencers in Aging as their Influencer of the Year. She has been acknowledged by the New Yorker and NPR, and has written for Harper’s, The New York Times, FastCompany and The Guardian. Applewhite speaks widely, at venues that have ranged from universities and community centers to the Library of Congress and the United Nations.
Founded by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School, the Creative Destruction Lab has supported over 1,500 founders from over 30 countries—generating more than 4 billion dollars in equity value. Now, in its partnership with International business school HEC Paris, the CDL is poised to “play a vital role in building the next generation of European deep tech champions.”
“At HEC Paris we embrace the concept ‘Learn to Dare.’ In CDL, HEC sees the opportunity to dare help turn today’s scientific breakthroughs into tomorrow’s world-changing businesses,” said Peter Todd, professor and dean at HEC Paris. The program, which currently operates out of five universities in Canada and Europe, will offer mentorship, technical advice, and funding opportunities in its new location.
Founder Ajay Agrawal describes the CDL as a marketplace for judgement: “The types of founders that join our program are often engineers or scientists. They have deep expertise in their technical domain, but lack business judgment. They are regularly faced with a to-do list of hundreds of things they could be doing to build their business, but don’t have the cycles to do all those things, and so they have to pick from the list. Judgment is the skill of prioritizing the list.”
The initiative will be led by L’Oreal Professor of Entrepreneurship Thomas Asebro and capital investor Micahel Jackson. “CDL has a proven track record of success in helping science-based startups scale,” said Jackson. “I’m thrilled to be part of bringing the program to Paris, where it can play a vital role in building the next generation of European deep tech champions.”
To book speaker Ajay Agrawal for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencyand speak with a sales agent today.
Cryptocurrency expert Amber Baldet joins Vox Media’s The Verge for an insightful conversation on where cryptocurrency is going, Facebook’s potential in the game, and how blockchain can dismantle skepticism and renew trust when it comes to sharing our data online.
Money is one fantastic and useful application of blockchain technology, and it has the potential to change our lives. In recent years, there has been a push towards cashless in societies, says Amber Baldet, who points out that several Scandanadvian countries are nearly entirely cashless already. Thirty years ago it might have been considered illegal not to accept cash as tender, but now it’s a possibility for any business. “Now, you can definitely go to a bistro, and they will say ‘We’re cashless’ or your farmers market where you buy asparagus for five bucks, they’d rather you use Square. And what does that mean? It means that every financial transaction, every time you buy something, you are actually asking a third-party service, ‘Is it okay that I do this?’ And you don’t really have insight into how many different providers are part of that yes or no decision that happens so quickly.”
There are plenty of reasons why we expect financial privacy, from health insurance payouts to political donations, says Baldet. “We can’t really look at ‘If you’re not doing anything wrong, then you don’t need privacy.’ It really is privacy from whom in what context. And that context is changing all the time. So what might be fine for you today might not necessarily be fine for you tomorrow, and might definitely not be fine for a vulnerable population that struggles to be financially included day-to-day anyway.”
Western society is trapped by the belief that maximizing wealth and self-interest is the right thing to do, says Yancey Strickler. In his new book This Could Be Our Future—out tomorrow—the crowdfunding mastermind explores how we can liberate ourselves by expanding our understanding of value.
Our value system is broken, operating on the assumption that financial gain is the only true good. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In his new book This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World, Yancey Strickler offers a blueprint for transforming our profit-hungry world by assigning “rational value” to non-monetary aspects of modern life, such as community, purpose, and sustainability. New York Times bestselling author Daniel Pink calls it the “the conversation starter our world needs,” while renowned psychologist Adam Grant hails Strickler’s vision as “audacious and elevating.” At a time where wealth inequality has skyrocketed to unimaginable heights, Strickler offers a lucid and ambitious plan to forge a more equitable society.
To book speaker Yancey Strickler for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, and speak with a member of our sales team.
Fresh off her Booker Prize win, prolific Canadian author Margaret Atwood received another honor recently—and an incredible career first: it was presented to her by none other than Queen Elizabeth.
As of late October 2019, Atwood is now one of the select few people granted the Companion of Honor award—given for achievements in the arts, literature, science and politics—and only the third Canadian, as it is typically given to British citizens. The royal investiture service occurred at Windsor Castle, where literary royal Atwood met literal Royal, Queen Elizabeth.
“I got a bit emotional,” Atwood said of the encounter. “You’re really looking at a lot of history and I’m old enough to remember a lot of that history. Short form, she was brilliant in the war.”
Atwood has written more than 40 books of fiction, essays and poetry. She rocketed to international attention with 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale—now a widely popular Hulu series—and since then, has consistently met with accolades and adoration for her oft prophetic prose and sharp eye for exposing some of the darker truths about human nature.
Perhaps it’s her odd prescience, in addition to her incredible stories, that has kept her in the spotlight all these years. After the Companion of Honor ceremony, the 79-year-old remarked, “At my age, it’s not the usual thing. Usually at my age you sort of fade away, and that doesn’t seem to be happening yet.”
And with her most recent novel, The Testaments (sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale) breaking sales records right out of the gate and garnering Atwood her second Booker Prize, her indominable presence on the literary scene won’t be fading away anytime soon.
Why do we want what we want? And why does it matter? It might seem like an innocent question, but the answer is far from simple. In his upcoming book Wanting, new Lavin speaker Luke Burgisexplains how mimetic, or imitative, desire is at the heart of business, relationships, and consumer behavior.
A three-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur fluent in theology, Luke Burgis makes the provocative argument that our desires are never entirely our own, but a direct result of the social fabric of our relationships. We don’t want what we want simply because we want it, but because others around us want it. In his upcoming book Wanting: The Secret Economy of Desire, Burgis expertly shows us that desire-by-contagion influences everything from our economic decision-making, to our intimate relationships—and not always for the better.
With fascinating anecdotes, interviews, and real-world examples, Burgis explains what happens when two people, companies, or countries get stuck in an escalating, destructive cycle of desire; how it can create competition, rivalry, and if left unchecked, violence. And in talks, Burgis offers a radical new framework for undersanding what drives our choices—helping us transform our organizations into a force for good, and lead more meaningful lives in the process.
To book speaker Luke Burgis for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau.
Lori Gottlieb started her career as a film and TV executive, followed by a period as a nationally recognized journalist. Today, she’s a psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author. Though her career trajectory has been anything but linear, the common thread through it all is her genuine curiosity on the human condition, and a deep belief in the power of story. Gottlieb dives into the messy realities of what it means to be human—and shows us how, despite it all, we can create lives of meaning and fulfillment.
We are all unreliable narrators of our own lives, says Lori Gottlieb. The problem is, we default to thinking that the stories we tell ourselves are accurate. True or not, these stories operate in the background of our lives, influencing the partners we pick, the jobs we choose, and the direction our lives go. When we cling to a faulty narrative, we end up living that life story—trapped and unable to grow. In her critically acclaimed book Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Gottlieb invites us into her world—as both a clinician and patient—examining the truths and fictions we tell ourselves and others.
Moving, transcendent, and deeply funny, Gottlieb offers us a realm of new possibilities. Her talks not only help us change the narratives that are no longer useful, but help us manage the painful loss inherent in change, and embrace our feelings as a guide to getting the lives we want.
To book speaker Lori Gottlieb for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Having been an inspiring athlete and Indigenous activist for decades, Waneek Horn-Miller has been breaking barriers and records her entire life. Her latest achievement is being inducted into the elite Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame—making her the first water polo player to be honoured.
The induction ceremony takes place in Toronto today, and Horn-Miller is one of only eight athletes in the class of 2019. Her incredible journey to both activism and athleticism began at a young age when, at 14, she protested during the Oka Crisis and, after nearly 80 days of stand-off with the RCMP and armed forces, she was stabbed in the chest by a Canadian soldier with a bayonet. The image of her wounded, holding her young sister, was shared across national media—and impacted Canadians to better understand, and care about Indigenous issues.
After that traumatic event, Horn-Miller had to make a choice; succumb to the PTSD and pain, or push through it all to pursue incredible new goals—goals that would eventually lead her to the Hall of Fame.
After winning gold with her water polo team at the Pan Am Games, she became the first Mohawk woman from Canada to ever compete in the Olympic games, co-captaining Team Canada in Sydney 2000. That same year, she appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, striking an iconic image of strength, power and perseverance.
A long-time advocate for the health of Indigenous communities, Horn-Miller was the host of Working It Out Together—a 13-part documentary and healthy-eating initiative with the Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network. “Sport in the Native world is more than just something to be physically active,” she said. “It’s a suicide preventer. It’s a self-esteem creator. It’s a leadership developer.”
Horn-Miller is also formerly the Director of Community Engagement for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, an incredibly important initiative: one that seeks justice, raises awareness of violence against Indigenous women, and furthers the dual tasks of healing and reconciliation.
Some people value their gut for guiding them through their biggest business decisions. Others are wary of relying on instinct, fearing it to be too reactionary and emotional. So, should leaders make decisions based on intuition, or shouldn’t they? When, if ever, is it OK to use your gut? Laura Huang discusses in Harvard Business Review.
“My recent research suggests that gut feel can in fact be useful, especially in highly uncertain circumstances where further data gathering and analysis won’t sway you one way or another,” writes Laura Huang in Harvard Business Review. Citing studies of high-risk situations—life-or-death moments in the operating room or early-stage investment decisions—Huang notes that the role of gut feel is often to inspire a leader to make a call. “In the face of information overload, mounting risks and uncertainty, and intense pressures to make the right decisions, there is often debilitating evidence that delays our decision making. We put the choice off, rather than deciding. Trusting your gut allows leaders the freedom to move forward.”
Collaboration is touted as a core value in many organizations. But oftentimes, strategies to increase the practice in the workplace come up short. Why? Behavioral scientist Francesca Gino explains in a new paper for HBR.
“One problem is that leaders think about collaboration too narrowly: as a value to cultivate but not a skill to teach,” Francesca Gino writes. From open-plan offices to naming collaboration an official corporate goal, these strategies create opportunities for collaboration, but frequently fail to deliver. What’s worse, these methods can seem heavy-handed or superficial.
Gino explains that what’s really needed is a psychological approach. “When I analyzed sustained collaborations in a wide range of industries, I found that they were marked by common mental attitudes: widespread respect for colleagues’ contributions, openness to experimenting with others’ ideas, and sensitivity to how one’s actions may affect both colleagues’ work and the mission’s outcome.”
In her Harvard Business Review article, Gino explores the organizations who have cracked the code—and distills the winning formula. Read the full paper here.
To book speaker Francesca Gino for your next speaking event,contact The Lavin Agencytoday and speak with a knowledgeable representative.
The new TED Talk from Marcus Bullock—founder and CEO of Flikshop, a tech startup with heart and a personal history—has already surpassed the 500k mark, in less than a week of being live. Bullock’s dramatic, inspiring story takes audiences on his incredible journey from behind bars to venture-backed; a man who made good and is doing good.
At the age of 15, he was sentenced to eight years in adult maximum security prison—for stealing a car. After serving his sentence, he got out and got busy creating Flikshop, an app that allows family members to connect with their incarcerated loved ones in an affordable, personal way. And it comes from a deeply personal place—if it hadn’t been for his mother sending him a letter every day he was behind bars, Bullock knows he could have totally lost contact with the outside world—and that’s a recipe for a difficult transition back into society. That’s a big part of what makes Flikshop so powerful—not only is it valuable for maintaining one-on-one connection, but it doubly serves an educational purpose by enabling non-profits to teach key transitional skills like applying for housing and jobs—before returning citizens are thrust back into society.
Now a rising star in the tech community, Bullock has been named one of John Legend’s Unlocked Futures business accelerators, and is a member of the Justice Policy Institute’s board of directors. He also serves as an advisor to the Aspen Institute’s Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund, and his inspirational story has been covered by Forbes, CNN, Black Enterprise, and NPR.
In his hit TED Talk, Bullock shares his deeply personal experience of how those letters from his mother were his lifeline—and how, with his creation of Flikshop, Inc., he’s given that lifeline to hundreds of thousands of others. A charismatic, compelling speaker with infectious optimism, Bullock is truly beacon of resilience, and of how to use entrepreneurship for social change.
Based on professor Sarah Kaplan’s Rotman business school course, The 360° Corporation offers us a new way of understanding modern business. Trade-offs can’t be avoided, especially in today’s socially conscious environment—so how do we deal with them?
Different stakeholders want different things. Millennials want to work for companies that share their social values. Investors want to support environmentally conscious companies. And consumers want products that are both ethically made and inexpensive. So how do organizations deal with these pressures—especially when they conflict with financial performance?
“Addressing these paradoxes is at the heart of [Sarah] Kaplan’s book, a guide that aims to topple economist Milton Friedman’s dictum that ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits,’” writes The Financial Times. “Instead, Kaplan urges us ‘to look at the stakeholders that surround companies from all directions, all 360 degrees,’ from the workers in a clothes factory to the community exposed to its waste products. Only then, Kaplan argues, will companies be able to consider innovative ways to respond to these seemingly intractable trade-offs.”
With a solid structure, thorough research, and rich case studies, Kaplan’s book is “full of nuggets that will fascinate leaders, both established and inspiring.”
Wanuri Kahiu’s award-winning feature film, RAFIKI, will be screened in Kenyan High Court—one of the first films ever to do so—as part of a landmark case for the nation.
Acclaimed writer, director and artist Kahiu is the co-founder of AFROBUBBLEGUM, a media company that creates “fun, fierce and frivolous African art.” Her second feature film, RAFIKI, was selected for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (and was the first Kenyan film ever to screen there), where it was met with acclaim—but was banned in her own country.
RAFIKI follows the story of a growing romance between two young women, Kena and Ziki, amidst political and family pressures around LGBT rights in Kenya. It was banned “due to its homosexual theme and clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law”.
Now, it’s being screened in the Kenyan High Court as part of a landmark case, allowing court to decide if there has been a breach of constitutional rights in its ban. “Our wish is that RAFIKI helps towards upholding the articles in our Bill of Rights as enshrined in our constitution,” Kahiu tweeted.
While this is happening, Kahiu is still busy with some amazing new projects—like teaming up with Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown to adapt and direct the celebrated YA novel The Thing About Jellyfish as a feature film, to be produced by Reese Witherspoon. And if that weren’t enough, acclaimed Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor and Kahiu are co-writing the upcoming series adaptation of sci-fi legend Olivia Butler’s Wild Seed, set to star Academy Award-winner Viola Davis.
Tarah Wheeler, a cybersecurity policy fellow at New America, joined Bloomberg Daybreak: Asia to discuss how regulatory policies, as well as the U.S.-China mini trade deal, could impact the tech sector.
Andy Purdy, Chief Security Officer of Huawei, recently said the company plans to spend 2 billion dollars over the next five years on security. Tarah Wheeler admits that we’re already seeing splits in the United States and its allies in terms of policies towards Huawei, and ongoing trade tensions could also lead to two or three internets in the future.
“I’ve been talking about the concept of three internets for a period of time now,” says Wheeler. “It’s growing more defined, more distinct, that as regulatory environments split in their requirements and norms that they’re trying to preserve, we’re going to see a Chinese, a European, and a U.S. and the rest of the world Internet.”
Where does this leave companies who do business across borders? Watch Wheeler’s full segment here to find out more.
To book Tarah Wheeler for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, her exclusive speakers bureau.
After starting a business with her brother Ravinder at the tender age of 19, Manjit Minhas became the President, CEO, and sole owner Minhas Breweries—the tenth largest brewery in the world. In a new feature in Menu, she opens up about the challenges she faced in the industry, and how she grew a successful business despite them.
As a young woman, Manjit Minhas did not fit the standard beer-industry stereotype. But that didn’t stop her from thriving in an unwelcoming industry. “The way we did that was just literally grit and persistence. I realized that I’m going to stand out no matter what I do because of those things,” Manjit explains. “So, then I became […] the best at research, not only [for] my own brands but for the industry. It was just that I was going to be the go-to person for any buyer, for any retailer, for any government official that wanted to know anything happening in the industry.”
Today, Minhas has expanded into spirits and liquor, and her company now offers over 90 different brands. She is also a judge on Dragon’s Den, where she offers young entrepreneurs a chance to follow their own passions. “I’ve had many fabulous mentors in my life professionally and personally and many people along the way that have given me guidance,” she says, looking at the popular series as a way to give back.
The last time Rick Mercerhosted the iconic comedy showcase was a whopping 16 years ago. On October 23rd, he will pick the mic up once again, kicking off a cross-country tour starting in NewFoundland and ending in British Columbia.
Last year, Rick Mercer said goodbye to his beloved CBC program The Rick Mercer Report after 15 seasons on the air— but the political satirist won’t be laying low for long. Mercer will soon host the 18th edition of the Just For Laughs Comedy tour, which is scheduled to play across 17 cities, at the end of the month. In addition to Mercer, the show will also include comedians Ivan Decker, Debra DiGiovanni, and Ali Hassan.
To book speaker Rick Mercer for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agencyand speak with a representative.
With her newest release, The Testaments, breaking sales records around the globe—and at a record speed—literary legend Margaret Atwood is also taking home the Booker Prize for the sequel to 1985’s The Handmaid’s Tale, today.
Nineteen years ago, Atwood accepted the same award for her book The Blind Assassin; and today’s win makes her only the fourth author to have won the prize twice. With the current cultural impact and prescience of the Hulu series ased on her iconic novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, combined with its portentous sequel, The Testaments, it’s not a shock that her landmark new offering overwhelmingly captivated the minds of the jury.
This year, the jury made an unconventional choice: jointly awarding the prize between two people; both Atwood, and the British author Bernardine Evaristo, for her vibrant and vital work Girl, Woman, Other. Together they mark significant moments for the prize—Atwood, 79, is the oldest-ever Booker winner, and Evaristo is the first black woman in its fifty-year history to take home the trophy. Founded in 1969, the U.K. prize is open to English-language authors from all over the globe. Only twice before has it been split between two winners.
The Testamentsis set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale,and explores the accounts of three women: a young woman living inside Gilead, a high school student in Canada who wants Gilead fall, and Handmaid’s Aunt Lydia, a powerful woman who understands the workings of Gilead far too well.
Marking the launch of her new memoir, Unfollow: Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, Megan Phelps-Roper was interviewed on NPR’s popular Fresh Air program.
“It wasn't that we read selective parts of the Bible. It was that we interpreted it in this very selective way. Gramps would say, “The love of God is reserved for the penitent.” That was us. Everybody else was proud of their sin and hell-bound.”
— Megan Phelps-Roper to NPR
From the age of five, Phelps-Roper was on the picket line with her family and other members of the Westboro Baptist Church. Growing up engrained in the notoriously hateful community as the granddaughter of its’ founder, she never knew another way of life of belief system was possible: despite going to a public school, the Church was so influential it was her whole world.
So when, in her twenties, she took over the Church’s social media presence and because confronted with not only the usual anger her picketing inspired, but also empathetic, intelligent individuals who tried to engage with her on a different level. “They started asking questions and digging into our theology…as they were able to find these contradictions and present them to me, I understood that we could be wrong about something,” Phelpe-Roper told NPR. “That was the beginning of the end for me. I had this unshakable faith and it had been shaken.”
After a while, her worldview began to change and Phelps-Roper couldn’t keep living this way. In a brave and rare move, herself and her sister Grace left the Church and their entire life behind. Called a “powerful, empathetic…a must-read” by Publisher’s Weekly, and “wildly brave and incredibly thoughtful” by Sara Silverman, Unfollow tells the story of her time in the Church, her escape, and her life since. It’s only been out for a week, but is already making waves, with a review in New York Times, and profiled in People and Stylist.
As well, Unfollow is well on the way to being made into a major feature film with Nick Hornby (About a Boy) set to write the script, Reese Witherspoon producing, and director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) already attached.
Phelps-Roper has also appeared on Sarah Silverman’s Hulu series, I Love You, America, and on the National Geographic series The Story of Us, with Academy Award-winner Morgan Freeman. She has also been covered by The New Yorker, The Guardian, VICE, The Globe and Mail, and other international organizations.
To book speakerMegan Phelps-Roper, contact her exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency, today.
Artificial Intelligence already recommends our movies, routes our taxis, and even predicts who we might fall in love with. While it’s on track to become a mainstream technology as fundamental as computing or electricity, it still has a few challenges ahead of it. Machine-Learning Expert Ajay Agrawalstopped by The Economist’s weekly technology podcast to discuss the benefits and risks.
Ajay Agrawal is not an AI scientist himself, but an economist who specializes in artificial intelligence. This fundamental difference offers him a unique perspective, often from a higher vantage point than those working at the code level.
“The first branch is categorizing those we can call productivity-enhancing AI. They basically do what we’ve already been doing, just better, faster, cheaper,” Agrawal explains. The second set of AI takes problems that we didn’t think of prediction problems, such as driving or translation, and recasts them as prediction. But one day, AI will go beyond things we can already do and enable us to do something entirely new. While this will be an exciting development, Agrawal fears this will cause problems around the concentration of power.
“Effectively, what we are beginning to see is that AI will likely outperform humans in virtually every form of diagnosis,” Agrawal said, using the medical industry as an example. “The writing on the wall that we can see is that eventually, […] there will be one winner. One that gets ahead of the rest, and because it’s better than the rest, more people will use it. The underlying feature of how AI works is that will lead to natural monopolies.”
In today’s political climate, corporate social responsibility has transformed from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have.”Sarah Kaplan, author of The 360° Corporation, shows us how the next generation of business will survive—and thrive—amidst conflicting stakeholder demands.
“Today, increasingly, corporations are being asked, pressured, forced, encouraged, regulated, and coaxed to consider a broader set of stakeholders in their calculations,” writes Sarah Kaplan in her book The 360° Corporation. “There are many reasons for this. The 2008 financial crisis forced attention on how corporations can have broad-ranging effects on society. Climate change has attuned people to the potentially toxic effects of corporate policies. The global supply chain is more visible than ever before, and many consumers are conscientious of their buying habits than they were in the past.”
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that stakeholder demands can no longer be ignored—even when they conflict with the bottom line. What can today’s businesses do to navigate these challenges? How can business leaders make the necessary trade-offs and feel confident in their decisions? Kaplan has spent nearly a decade thinking critically about the role of corporations in society, and how they can address these new stakeholder demands. In her talks, she shows us how to turn the conflict into a channel for innovation—and transformation.
To book speaker Sarah Kaplan for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Journalist and author Andrew Marantz spent four years with the internet’s most “dodgy characters”—trolls, conspiracy theorists, alt-right bloggers and the like—and his new book Antisocial exposes the underbelly of social media. In an interview with Fast Company, Marantz explores the dangers of both disinformation and deplatforming, and the relationship between the gatekeepers and gatecrashers of social media.
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“I don’t think social media is like tobacco in the sense that it has no social value, but I think that it doesn’t have 100% pro-social value. It also has antisocial components to it.”
— Andrew Marantz in Fast Company
The effects of the increasingly toxic—and increasingly powerful—world of social media platforms like Youtube and Twitter are rippling into the real world more and more. But do the people spreading false information, alt-right propaganda and hateful memes really believe the bile they’re spewing? Marantz thinks there’s a spectrum. “Some people don’t believe anything and they’re just nihilists or opportunists or just trying to make a buck or trying to get some attention…I think other people are true, dedicated ideologues,” he tells Fast Company. “They feel like Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, and they feel like the scales have fallen from their eyes and that the truth has been revealed to them. That’s a really powerful feeling. Even when you are feeling it erroneously, it can still motivate you really strongly, so strongly that you mess up your whole life because of it.”
The reality of our 24-hour news cycle and the fact that anyone can say whatever they want online without being subjected to fact-checks or even consequences for lying is leading to essentially weaponized confusion. “A lot of times when people are sowing misinformation, their goal is not to get everyone to believe every piece of misinformation but rather to create muddle and confusion and exhaustion so that nobody believes anything, Marantz explains.
It’s only been out for a day, but already Antisocial is making an impact. Aside from Fast Company Marantz has also been featured in the New York Times. Marantz, a staff writer for the New Yorker has also written for Harper’s and Mother Jones, and been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, and NPR.
To book speaker Andrew Marantz, contact his exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.
In his latest paper, Professor of Psychology Jay Van Bavelexplores why moral, emotional content tends to capture our attention more than other kinds of content. He expands on this study for the latest episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain.
In his study of thousands upon thousands of tweets, Jay Van Bavel found that there’s an easy way to dramatically increase likes and retweets: “For every moral, emotional word that people use in a tweet, we found that it increased the rate of retweeting from other people who saw it by 15-20 percent.”
The list of words that could be defined as either moral, emotional, or both ranged from curses, to words like “war,” “hate,” “greed,” and “punish.” These words tend to generate outrage, cause messages to spread, and in turn, create even more outage. “Twitter is weird because there’s a level of outrage, then you have people who are outraged by the outrage, because it’s the wrong type of outrage. Then you have people who are outraged by that outrage. And then you have another group of people who are outraged that you’re not outraged enough.”
The different levels and types of outrage co-exist simultaneously, and, says Van Bavel “it cycles through issue after issue on a twenty-four hour basis.”
When it comes to advice, it might be better to give than to receive. Lauren Eskreis-Winklerand her doctoral adviser Angela Duckworth ran a large-scale experiment measuring the surprising motivational effects of advice-giving.
If you know your colleague is struggling to complete a project at work, chances are you might offer them some tips and tricks based on your own experience. Reason dictates that those tips would be helpful to your co-worker. But what if you, the advice-giver, also experience a benefit? “The net result is that I myself am more motivated and more effective at engaging in exactly the same behavior that I was advocating for,” explains Angela Duckworth, appearing on Katherine Milkman’s Choiceology podcast. “The benefits of advice-giving are non-intuitive, but I think they’re very real.”
Why does this happen? “It’s in the nature of advice-giving itself that we focus on things that other people can change, and in so doing, of course we’re also focusing on things that we ourselves can change,” Duckworth notes. “I think that gets to a very related mechanism, which is confidence. The idea that when I give you advice about how you can do better, I indirectly motivate myself, I increase my own confidence in part because I’ve drawn attention to things […] I have control over.”
Lauren Eskreis-Winkler had the original idea of turning students into mentors. She was sparked by the sophisticated motivation tactics that students were already putting into practice: “Yes, we’re psychologists, and we for sure we have information to share with people, but maybe, when it comes to motivation, half of the battle […] is getting people to enact what they already know.”
Could you leave your family and lifelong friends behind and start over? The hotly anticipated memoir of former Westboro Baptist Church member Megan Phelps-Roper is out October 8th—and Good Morning America featured her and her incredible story, Unfollow, today.
Changing her life from one of spreading shocking bigotry to one of compassion and acceptance wasn’t easy, but Phelps-Roper’s journey is as uplifting as it is rare. Deeply personal, yet with strong universal appeal, Unfollow:A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, explores exactly how she was able to escape and build a better life. She opened up on Good Morning America about how she went from picket lines outside of military funerals, to using her voice to uplift understanding instead.
As a granddaughter of the Church’s founding father, Phelps-Roper was deeply embroiled within the virulent religious group from birth, and knew no other way of life. By 2009, she was running the church’s Twitter account, playing a key role in spreading its signature brand of hateful rhetoric to the world stage. However, after interacting with genuinely empathetic individuals online, Phelps-Roper began to doubt the dogmatic assertions of her faith and its celebrations of human tragedy. In 2012, she and one of her sisters made the difficult decision to leave their family and home, renounce their teachings, and face permanent ostracization.
And even though the memoir is just hitting shelves now, it’s such an intersting story, compellingly told, that Unfollow is already on track to becoming a major feature film: scripted by Nick Hornby and produced by Reese Witherspoon.
We’re being watched, listened to—spied on—by the technology we interact with daily. In 2019, that’s not hyperbole, it’s fact; and one that even the companies harvesting our data openly admit. What does this mean for the future of human society? Few have tackled this topic with as much impact, vigor, and urgency as Shoshana Zuboff, and The Guardian published a profile on her and her book, today.
That book is The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power—an international bestseller that explores an international problem. As our right to privacy erodes in tandem with technological development, it’s hard for regulators to keep up.Surveillance capitalism—a concept coined by Zuboff herself—defines the current age in which we’ve all opted into the commodification of our personal information.
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism has been wildly acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal, praised in the New York Times in three separate features, and Naomi Klein has urged readers to read it “as an act of digital self-defense.” In her Guardian feature, Zuboff’s history and path to writing this vital work for the current conversation are explored; as are her theorems that have struck a timely cultural chord.
Zuboff’s book—and her fight for a more thoughtful digital revolution—is not just about our individual lives and minds. The new economic order of surveillance capitalism is shaping democracy anew—in ways that threaten our hard-fought freedoms like never before. From the Guardian: “Every time Zuboff speaks in public, she asks the audience: “What are the concerns that bring you here?” People call out words: privacy; dystopia; control; monopoly; manipulation; intrusion; exploitation; democracy; misinformation; fear; freedom; power; rebellion; slavery; resistance. Everywhere the words are virtually the same.”
Surveillance capitalism is encroaching worldwide, and Zuboff’s work is a vital force, urging us all to wake up and protect ourselves—from ourselves—before it’s too late.
Andrew Marantz’ first book Antisocial has been described as a “searching study of the right-wing gate-crashers who have overwhelmed social media in the Trump Era” (Kirkus Reviews). In a new interview with Longform podcast, Marantz reveals what inspired him to write the book, and why he doesn’t shy away from the tough questions.
In Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation, Andrew Marantz reveals how the boundaries between technology, media, and politics have been eradicated. Ideas once relegated to the fringe of society have now become mainstream—even presidentially endorsed—thanks to a modern-day communications crisis unleashed by online radicalization, reckless social media, and the exploitation of the Internet.
“[Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey] wanted to make money, they wanted to make people addicted to their products, just like any good business person would want to do. There were no checks on them, in a way that if you were making another addictive product like opioids or cigarettes, there would be,” Marantz explains. “Facebook is 2.3 billion people now. By the time you come in ex post facto and try to make rules, it’s a little bit too late.”
When we want to figure out where to eat, what to see, or the answers to our embarrassing questions, we turn to Google. Seth Stephen Davidowitz, a former data scientist for the search engine, explains how our search history reveals more about us than we know.
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz is the author of Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are. On the latest episode of NPR’s Hidden Brain, he shares the surprising connections he’s found from analyzing our online data—which often tells a different story than the self-reported numbers and surveys. It’s allowed him to make certain predictions; for instance, the percentage of American men who are gay, or parents’ unconscious biases towards girls.
“I think there's something very comforting about that little white box that people feel very comfortable telling things that they may not tell anybody else about: Their sexual interests, their health problems, their insecurities. And using this anonymous aggregate data, we can learn a lot more about people than we've really ever known,” he said.
Governor Tom Wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf honored eight women as this year’s Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania, each recognized for their “extraordinary service and contributions to the Commonwealth.” Among them was the New York Times bestselling author of GritAngela Duckworth.
Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania began in 1948 as a way to honor the notable achievements of women in their professional careers and/or voluntary service. Angela Duckworth is one of the eight recognized in 2019. She is the Founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit that provides science-based advice to parents and teachers. Duckworth also teaches psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor, as well as the faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative.
“Tom and I are proud to honor these incredible women for their profound contributions to the people and communities of Pennsylvania. Our commonwealth is a better place because of their selfless dedication and hard work, and we cannot thank them enough,” said First Lady Frances Wolf, in a ceremony at the Governor’s Residence.
Governor Wolf said, “They make us all PA Proud, and we are honored to name them as Distinguished Daughters of Pennsylvania.”
To book speaker Angela Duckworth for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Author of four New York Times bestsellers, and an award-winning columnist for Rolling Stone, journalist Matt Taibbi tackles the current state of the media, with The Hill’s Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti. How did we get here, and how we can get out of this toxic spiral of fearmongering, clickbait and corruption? Taibbi has the answers in his upcoming book, Hate, Inc.
True to form, Taibbi paints a disquieting, detailed account of the intersection of politics, media, and culture, and exactly how they intertwine to muddle the minds of consumers and pit people against one another. Deemed “…one of the few journalists in America who speaks truth to power” by Bernie Sanders, Taibbi demonstrates unparalleled passion, fervor and wit when taking on an especially pressing topic.
With populism on the rise and the integrity of journalism and the media constantly in question, Hate Inc. offers an in-depth, incisive yet accessible assessment of the state of media today—and what it means for the state of things to come.
Hitting shelves October 8th, Taibbi’s highly anticipated and tremendously timely book is sure to be no exception to his reputation for rebellious reporting, pithy prose, and remarkable insight.
Amazon announced their Editor’s picks for October, and Megan Phelps-Roper’s much-anticipated memoir, Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church, tops the list as their featured debut.
Unfollow follows Phelps-Roper’s journey from being deeply engrained in the antagonistic world of the Westboro Baptist Church—frequently called the “most hated family in America”—to her remarkable transformation after leaving the church into a compassionate, open-minded activist, author, and leader.
Her inspiring, moving, and deeply human story of change is also set to be the subject of an upcoming major feature film—directed by Marc Webb, scripted by Nick Hornby, and produced by Reese Witherspoon.
In Publisher’s Weekly, they held the book in high regard: “Phelps-Roper’s intelligence and compassion shine throughout with electric prose … She admirably explicates the worldview of the Westboro Baptist Church while humanizing its members, and recounts a classic coming-of-age story without resorting to cliché or condescending to her former self.” It's a truly fascinating, one-of-a-kind story, and with Amazon singing its praises, it’s sure to be a fall hit.
How will we address the needs of everyone on earth as the population continues to grow? Susan Hockfield—Neuroscientist, author, and former president of MIT—suggests we turn to biology for answers.
By the year 2050, there will be almost ten billion people on earth. Unsurprisingly, the population increase will put a significant stress on our resources: food, water, and energy, to name a few. Susan Hockfield, author of The Age of Living Machines, spoke to celebrated science personality Bill Nye about the new challenges humanity will face. “If everything goes well, […] not only will there be more people, but the people are going to be wealthier, they’re going to be healthier, and they’re going to want an energy-intensive lifestyle,” she explains, meaning that our energy demands will double, and we’ll likely need to produce twice as much food as we do now—but on less land.
The only way to keep up is to use this new toolbox of biology parts to engineer and build new technologies. For example, when addressing the energy crisis, Hockfield explains that it’s not just about producing renewable energy, but coming up with better storage for it. “We let nature’s genius build better batteries,” she says, giving the example of the abalone sea snail that builds its shell out of component parts from nature. “Abalone build the technology they need without contaminating our world. Why can’t we?”
A year ago, Greta Thunberg was an unknown Swedish teenager striking from school once a week to protest climate inaction. Today, she’s a global icon and climate activist that’s inspired a nation. Alongside Greta, these top Climate Change speakersare united in the fight to save our planet, and they show us—beyond activism—what we must do to ensure a sustainable future.
The climate catastrophe is transforming everything from politics to society to business, and not necessarily for the better. In the instant bestseller An Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells imagines the future in the aftermath of the natural devastation. The threat of food shortages, economic destruction and refugee emergency is a scary, but powerful, motivator to change our ways.
Award-winning journalist Naomi Klein brings urgent attention to the climate crisis with her latest book On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal. A powerfully rousing call-to-action, On Fire reminds us that what we do next will determine our future, and shows us a politically viable path to sustainability is still possible.
Together we can mobilize and rally against the forces of climate change, says Bill McKibben. Author of the very first book on global warming (1989’s The Force of Nature), McKibben has been in this fight against climate change a long time. Dubbed by TIME as “perhaps the planet’s best green journalist,” McKibben is a voice of inspiration and a leader to follow.
There are emotional and existential consequences to a warming world. Science writer and broadcaster Britt Wray explores these psychological impacts, from people questioning whether or not to have children, to the troubling rise in drug abuse and PTSD. She makes a compelling argument for mental health to be incorporated into our climate survival strategy.
World-renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky explores large-scale social issues through his work, including the damage and upheaval caused by the climate crisis. His documentary project ANTHROPOCENE—the third in an award-winning trilogy—documents the damning evidence than humans are, indeed, the cause of permanent planetary change (along with collaborations Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencient).
To book one of these incredible Climate Change Speakers, speak with a representative at The Lavin Agencytoday, their exclusive speakers bureau.
Economist James Robinson published the acclaimed Why Nations Fail—an investigation of power, prosperity, and poverty—in collaboration with Daron Acemoglu. Now, the two come together once again for The Narrow Corridor, a book examining the “state, society and the fate of liberty.”
“Everywhere people are interested in liberty,” James Robinson says, discussing his just-released book The Narrow Corridor. “But they also understand that there are disadvantages to living in a society without states, without hierarchy: it’s hard to cooperate, to provide public goods, to get order.”
So how do we create a centralized authority without cascading out of control? On the one hand there’s China’s example of a state dominating society, Robinson explains, while the other extreme is a country like Yemen or Lebanon, where the society dominates the state.
“In the book, we call the first of those a ‘despotic leviathan,’ and the second an ‘absent leviathan.’ And then in between, you can get this balance, what we call the ‘shackled leviathan,’ which is critical to the emergence of liberal democracy. This is the ‘narrow corridor’ of the book’s title.”
To read more of Robinson’s discussion on the new book, click here.
To book speaker James Robinson for your next event, contact The Lavin Agencytoday, his exclusive speakers bureau.
Margaret Atwood’s latest book, The Testaments, breaks new ground yet again—this week it’s the #1 hardcover fiction book. According to the New York Times list, The Testaments—in its’ second week since publication—beat out Stephen King’s latest in its’ debut week.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and praised by the likes of NPR, New York Times, BBC, LA Times, and more, The Testaments is her highly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It picks up 15 years in the future from where the first book left off, and explores new stories in the dystopia of Gilead—some of which may not seem to far from reality today.
Called “powerful, revealing, and engaging” by the Boston Globe, and hailed as “a fast, immersive narrative that’s as propulsive as it is melodramatic,” by the New York Times, The Testaments is well on its way to becoming just as much of a literary classic as its beloved forebear.
To book speaker Margaret Atwood, contact The Lavin Agency, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Four years in the making, ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch is a feature documentary from the award-winning team of Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier. It’s a masterful meditation on humanity’s massive reshaping of the planet, and debuts in over 100 theaters in the US alone, to coincide with the UN Climate Action Summit.
ANTHROPOCENE follows the research of the Anthropocene Working Group, an international body of scientists who’ve studied the profoundly impactful changes humans have made to the Earth. It’s the third in an award-winning trilogy where Burtynsky’s life and work is explored. Traveling the globe, Burtynsky and his collaborators document the damning evidence that we are, indeed, in the anthropocene: the geological epoch wherein humans are the main cause of permanent planetary change.
Exploring the intersection of art and science, Burtynsky’s work has always been remarkable; depicting global industrial landscapes and capturing critical moments in geological history so provocatively that his images have been included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world—including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He’s spoken at the Library of Congress, is one of the first recipients of the TED Prize, and has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada.
To book speaker Edward Burtynsky, contact his exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.
The legendary musician’s third memoir walks readers through the tumultuous year of 2016, in which the nation’s collective despair collided with her own personal grief.
In the opening of Year of the Monkey, Patti Smith says goodbye to her longtime friend and music producer, Sandy Pearlman. This is the first, but not the last, of the difficult moments that Smith goes through. We follow her through a year of ups and downs, from hitchhiking through the desert, meeting an oddball cast of strange and wonderful people, to heading to Kentucky and helping her former lover and cherished friend Sam Shephard finish his final work (he passed away shortly after of Lou Gehrig’s disease).
In their review of the book Vox notes that it’s the first time Smith has opened up about her relationship with Shephard in such a personal and frank way, unwilling or unable to hide her devastation at his deteriorating condition: “This is Smith’s modus operandi. She unfurls a long dreamscape of a scene: the blue light of a country house at night, the horses, the rocking chairs. Then she punches you in the gut with the emotional point—even the people you can’t live without are, in fact, people you might outlive—and pulls you into another dream.”
Though the case of WeWork—a company poised to go public before a sharp, unexpected decline in its valuation—appears as a “one-of-a-kind spectacle,” according to Derek Thompson the underlying narrative is more familiar than we think.
“If you wake up on a Casper mattress, hail a Lyft to get to your desk at WeWork, use DoorDash to order lunch to the office, hail another Lyft home, and have Uber Eats bring you dinner, you have spent your entire day interacting with companies that will collectively lose nearly $13 billion this year. Most have never announced, and may never achieve, a profit,” writes Derek Thompson in his article “WeWork and the Great Unicorn Delusion.”
Investors have poured money in companies that have no clear path to profitability. WeWork has lost $1billion in revenue this year and last year, the result of aggressive expansion that burns through funds. As Thompson notes in his appearance on NPR’s Here and Now, “Unicorns are billion dollar companies stuck between two worlds. As private companies they raise all this money with inflated visions of planetary conquests. Then when they turn public, all the money that they’re spending on conquering the planet appears, on profit and loss statements, as losses.”
While the delusion of private-sector wunderkinds is just that—a delusion—it doesn’t necessarily mean these companies are doomed. But it does mean that they’ll have to change their stories. “Magic made them,” says Thompson. “Only math with save them.”
To book speaker Derek Thompson for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agencytoday.
Celebrated author, journalist, and entrepreneur Michael Casey joins Demetri Kofinas on Hidden Forces to discuss how a loss of faith in our financial institutions—and the rise Surveillance Capitalism—act as a driving force in the remaking of the modern world.
Michael Casey first reviewedShoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism for Coindesk, writing that the book would be a “defining text of the age.” A meditation on the growing ability of corporations to predict and control human behavior, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism was recently longlisted for a McKinsey Business Book of the Year.
Casey revisits Zuboff’s book in his conversation with technology entrepreneur Demetri Kofinas: “It’s not only about how we are having our data extracted from an analytic perspective, but then [how it’s] being turned back on us,” Casey says, explaining why it initially captured his interest. What are the economic implications of such a system? Casey dives deeper. “A free market requires […] free will,” he says. The idea of surveillance capitalism suggests “we would actually be diminishing [free will] and effectively becoming a part of the machine.”
Casey and Kofinas go on to discuss how surveillance capitalism affects cryptocurrency, why our trust in central banks has waned, and the potential for blockchain technology to achieve social impact goals. You can listen to their full conversation, here.
To book speakers Michael Casey or Shoshana Zuboff, contact The Lavin Agency today, their exclusive speakers bureau.
Fast Company is the magazine that innovative businesses trust when they want to understand up-and-coming technologies, changing leadership and workplace trends, and ideas with the power to change the world. At the helm is Editor-in-Chief Stephanie Mehta, helping to shape the future for the next generation of business.
If you want to understand the most creative people—and companies— in business today, look no further than Stephanie Mehta. A veteran in business journalism, Mehta spends her days talking to corporate leaders, social innovators, and creative minds. Her exposure to inventors and entrepreneurs give her a unique perspective on where business is going. What makes these leaders and their cutting-edge companies successful? How do they motivate their teams? Implement new trends? Learn from their mistakes? With care and consideration, Mehta breaks down the culture and processes that allow for innovation, adaptation, creativity, discipline and resilience in a business landscape changing at a dizzying pace.
To book speaker Stephanie Mehta for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
You’re in the middle of pitching investors on your business idea, and someone brings up contradictory evidence to a claim you’ve made. Do you acknowledge it and change your mind? Or do you dig in your heels and argue that you know best? New research by Francesca Gino(featured in Inc) suggests the former will make you look smarter.
Francesca Gino, Leslie K. John, and their collaborators tested pitch competitions to see which situation fared better. They found that “Entrepreneurs who changed their minds during the pitch were almost six times more likely to advance to the final round of the competition.” The reason? “Participants perceived those who changed their minds as lacking confidence, but demonstrating intelligence.”
So the next time you’re worried about changing your mind publicly, remember that being flexible can actually work to your benefit, while being stubborn could actually have adverse effects. You can read more about the phenomenon here.
To book speaker Francesca Gino for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agencytoday.
As students, workers, and people from all walks of life around the world are striking in the name of climate reform, bestselling author and renowned journalist Naomi Klein has released a hot new title—On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a New Green Deal.
A longtime prominent figure calling for international attention to the climate crisis, Klein once again thoroughly lays out exactly where we stand in terms of the environment—and exactly how fast we’re sinking into the irreversible, devastating consequences of our actions—and lack thereof.
A true force of nature herself, Klein is beloved by climate activists seasoned and blossoming alike: hailed as the “intellectual godmother of the Green New Deal,” by 350.org founder Bill McKibben, and as the “great chronicler of our age of climate emergency, an inspirer of generations,” by Greta Thunberg, her powerful influence has had a ripple effect on an international level.
In On Fire, Klein writes with renewed urgency from the frontlines of modern natural disaster; issuing prescient warnings and illustrating that the fight for a greener planet is one and the same with a fight for our lives—and social justice. Reflecting her burning prose and call to action is the fiery passion of protesters worldwide hoping to catalyze real change; to inject the impetus to enact a New Green Deal now—lest we incinerate instead. Although never without hopeful glimpses to a better future, Klein has never slowed down in her fight—because climate change isn’t slowing down either.
Adam Alter—NYU Marketing Professor and New York Times bestselling author—joins Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience Joel Pearson for an engaging conversation on how addictive technology influences our lives.
Why are so many people addicted to technology? Adam Alter has been investigating the question for years, most notably in his latest book Irresistible. It’s a topic that comes up in his fruitful conversation with Joel Pearson, along with many others. For instance, is there such a thing as sustainable tech? What are the mental health effects of big tech? And can we understand addictive technology as a tax on the poor?
“Screens are pacifiers for adults,” Alter admits. “Everytime we’re a little uncomfortable, whether that’s socially or whether we have some small measure of anxiety, our first instinct is to turn to our phones.” Unsurprisingly, this major shift in instinctual behavior has consequences, for us and for future generations. But there’s always going to be benefits to tech, Alter says, cautioning against throwing the baby out with the bathwater: “The trick is going to be working out just the right balance.”
As the former chairman and CEO of Honeywell, David Coteled one of the most historic turn-around’s the manufacturing industry had ever seen. In his upcoming book Winning Now, Winning Later, he distills those strategic leadership lessons for the next generation of business chieftains and managers.
Should an organization focus on its current numbers, or its future health? It’s an increasingly common problem for business leaders today, many of whom have visions for their future, but feel held back by the expectations of their bosses and shareholders each quarter. At some point along the way, we’ve come conclusion that long-term investment has to come at the expense of short-term performance. But David Cote knows the two are not mutually exclusive. In his upcoming book, the celebrated leader opens up about his industry-defining shake-up at Honeywell, showing us how to go after our long- and-short-term goals at once. It is possible to win today and win tomorrow, says Cote, but only if we’re prepared to banish intellectual laziness in favor of rigorous discipline and honesty.
To book speaker David Cote for your next speaking engagement, contact The Lavin Agency and speak with a representative.
The iconic author’s latest release has only been on shelves for one short week, but already it’s established itself as another bona fide hit.
According to Penguin Random House, The Testaments has sold more than 125,000 copies since its release on Tuesday. Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale has performed so well, it has officially broken the record for best first-day sales of any Penguin Random House title this year. Having initially gone to press on the novel for an announced 500,000 copies, the publisher has gone back twice already on The Testaments.
Currently, the book is #1 on Apple Book charts and #2 on the Barnes and Nobles bestseller list, but it has also been doing exceptionally well for independent bookshops. Chicago bookstore owner Sarah Hollenbeck tells The Guardian, “It has a notable cross-generational appeal. I am seeing older customers buy it who adored The Handmaid’s Tale when it was first released and much younger customers pick it up who may have only discovered it only after the Hulu series was released. It also is extraordinarily and terrifyingly timely.”
To book speaker Margaret Atwood for your next speaking event, contact The Lavin Agency today, her exclusive speakers bureau.
Bestselling author Paul Tough sat down with Michel Martin on PBS to discuss how inequality and its widespread effects have come to define higher education. His most recent book, The Years That Matter Most explores this phenomenon in heartbreaking detail.
Today's American students a jaw-dropping $1.5 trillion in student loans—making the average per student nearly $30,000: a daunting amount for almost anyone. For his book The Years That Matter Most, Paul Tough dedicated himself to spending time with students from all socioeconmic walks of life to uncover what their common challenges are—and what the personal, institutional and financial factors are that lead to a successful post-secondary life.
“I think our choice to make higher education scarce, is a choice,” said Tough to PBS’ Michel Martin. “At other moments in American history we've chosen differently. And other countries right now are choosing differently.”
With appearances on the likes of Soledad O'Brien, PBS NewsHour, and Chicago Tonight; and with a feature in September’s Education issue of The New York Times Magazine, Tough’s work on this timely topic is set to add a valuable voice to one of the most vital discussions of our times—and provide a voice for those students who may not otherwise be able to advocate for themselves and their futures.
What does it take to be a peak performer at the top of your game? That’s something that legendary musician, actor, and author Alan Doyle knows all too well. In talks, he reflects upon his illustrious career in the entertainment industry to show us the secret to excellence.
Alan Doyle has sold millions of albums, both as a solo artist and as the lead singer of iconic Canadian band Great Big Sea. A natural-born storyteller, Doyle writes more than music. He is also the author of two memoirs, Where I Belong and A Newfoundlander in Canada, both which chronicle his path from curious small-town boy to bold adventurer and performer. His talks are an extension of his creative personality and artistry, where he reveals that his enormous success is due in part to his extreme belief in the power of preparation. It is the key to being able to adapt, improvise, and roll with the challenges that arise from pursuing your dreams.
To book speaker Alan Doyle for your next event, contact The Lavin Agency, his exclusive speakers bureau.
In her latest op-ed, Harvard Business School professor Laura Huang explains how Universal Basic Income will revolutionize the start-up world for those who are systematically disadvantaged.
“Second chances are one of the biggest hurdles for those who are disadvantaged. They just don’t receive them,” Laura Huang writes in a new op-ed titled ‘The Significance of Andrew Yang’s $1,000 Plan.’ “Part of what is embroiled in disadvantage is that you don’t get to take as many risks—that not everyone ‘gets’ the same number of chances to fail. If you’re a Black woman and someone takes a chance on you, the expectation is that you deliver; that you prove yourself. If you don’t deliver, you often don’t get another chance. So there is less willingness to take chances.”
We openly discuss failure as being part of the journey to success, but we tend to gloss over the fact that not everyone has the same chance to fail. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang’s plan to provide government-sponsored payments—totalling $12,000 a year—could be profound. According to Huang, “It is his way of giving everyone the startup capital they need for their ‘Startup of Me.’”
The retail industry has undergone a massive, unprecedented transformation in the last few years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Retail ReinventionistJoe Jackman and Retail Futurist Doug Stephensjoin forces to answer your most burning questions about the industry and where it’s headed.
Joe Jackman is a master of retail reinvention. As the founder and CEO of Jackman Reinvents, he helps mature businesses get back to growth and relevance through a powerful combination of research, strategy, design, and activation. To date, his reinvention projects have shaped hundreds of billions of dollars in sales.
Doug Stephens has spent over 20 years in retail. Today, he’s one of the most influential retail futurists on the planet, and the founder of his own consultancy, Retail Prophet. He helps brands understand the historic shifts happening in the industry, from economics and demographics to consumerism and technology, and how to stay ahead. Stephens is also the author of The Retail Revival and Reengineering Retail, and hosts the top-rated retail podcast on iTunes.
Jackman and Stephens will be answering your questions on the future of retail in a four-part video series. You can submit questions through Twitter and LinkedIn with the hashtags #retailaskusanything and #retailaua up until September 27th.
Who gets into college, who doesn’t, and why does it matter? Based on six years of reporting, education speaker Paul Tough’s hotly-anticipated new book explores how social mobility affects higher education—and what this means for America’s future generations.
In The Years That Matter Most, Tough shares true stories of students trying to find their way through the application process and into college, to paint a larger picture of the ways privilege affects higher education. For generations, college has been the single best way for young Americans to improve their station in life. But now, there are plenty of signs now that the system isn’t what it used to be. Why doesn’t higher education work the way it used to, and what does this mean for the country’s youth—and the nation at large?
Taking readers from Ivy Leagues to community colleges and everywhere in between, Tough explores whether the American post-secondary system is designed to protect the privileged and leave everyone else behind—or, if a college education today can still provide opportunity to youth seeking to improve their station in life. Called “a powerful reckoning with just how far we’ve allowed reality to drift from our ideals” by The New York Times, and “vividly written” and “utterly lucid” by This American Life host Ira Glass, The Years That Matter Most challenges the status quo, revealing how privilege actually affects access to higher education, and what we can do to make it more equitable for all.
Read an excerpt of The Years That Matter Most here.
To book speaker Paul Tough, contact his exclusive speakers bureau, The Lavin Agency.
Trend Hunter CEO Jeremy Gutsche invited New York Times alum Malcolm Gladwell to the Trend Hunter offices for a thoughtful discussion on how and why we should challenge our assumptions—and the value it brings.
As the founder and CEO of Trend Hunter —the world’s largest, most powerful trend platform — Jeremy Gutsche is at the forefront of the cutting edge. A naturally curious, powerfully driven leader, his mission is finding better ideas, faster. In this pursuit, he invited Malcolm Gladwell to the Trend Hunter offices for an intriguing conversation on why we should investigate ideas, challenge our assumptions, and stay inquisitive about the world around us.
“I don't think of the study of ideas as trivial. I think of it as ideas are the software we use to kind of navigate everyday experience. Nothing could be more important than that,” says Gladwell, who recently released his new book Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know. In it, he examines how our understanding of people is often shaped by a set of rules or preconceived expectations, and how this unconscious bias can limit our potential to learn from them.
Responding to Gutsche’s question on how he fosters his own sense of curiosity, Gladwell admitted that he frequently challenges his own opinion: “A lot of it is about exposing yourself to things that will potentially prove your preconceptions wrong,” he says. “Nothing makes me happier than when I change my mind.”
Negotiating is more than a skill; it’s a fact of life. One could argue that nearly every interaction we have is a form of negotiation, which begs the question: how can we do it better? Francesca Gino explains how—contrary to popular belief—being too friendly in a negotiation could actually have adverse effects.
In a new study on communication styles in negotiation, Harvard Business Professor Francesca Gino and her colleagues performed four experiments across a subset of 1,500 participants. In one of the experiments— a field experiment on Craigslist.com, where price bartering is common—Gino and her team found that “warm and friendly” negotiators ended up paying 15% more for the same item, compared to “tough and firm” negotiators.
“Although our findings highlight the clear economic costs of being “warm and friendly,” they do not imply that everyone should become a jerk. All negotiations are a combination of value-creating and value-claiming, of making the overall pie bigger and securing a slice of it for ourselves. Negotiators should recognize that being nice may make it more difficult to claim a lot of value, particularly in a purely competitive context.”
Atwood fans, rejoice! The Testaments—Margaret Atwood’s hyped-up sequel to The Handmaid's Tale—hits shelves tomorrow.
It’s been nearly 35 years since Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale, and three years since the book was adapted into an Emmy award-winning series. Fans, old and new, are now intimately acquainted with the cruel, fictional world of Gilead. In The Testaments, Atwood once againt visits Gilead, but this time readers should expect a slightly more optimistic rendering of the totalitarian state. In their “first look” review of the novel, The Guardian writes,“For The Testaments take us to a subtly altered Gilead and, in many ways, a more hopeful one. Its structures are weakening; the myths it has told its citizens are beginning to lose their hold. The Eye under which its women must conduct their constricted, stolen lives is beginning to flicker.”
James Ellroy, the prolific author known for the blockbuster novels L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia, released his fourteenth book this year. This Storm tells the story of war fever and racial hatred brewing in 1940’s America.
“There are crime writers and then there is James Ellroy,” writes the GQ profile on the revered author, who released This Storm (the anticipated sequel to Perfidia) to wide acclaim and bestseller status earlier this year. The magazine has dubbed Ellroy the “Writer of the Year,” an honor that the literary icon—now in his fourth decade of writing—firmly deserves.
Read a preview of his GQ profile, which will be released in the October issue of the magazine, here.
New America’s National Fellows Class of 2020 includes 15 talented individuals—a combination of writers, educators, filmmakers, artists, doctors, and editors—who will be funded to pursue personal projects. Among them are Lavin speakers David Rohde and Molly Crabapple.
“Every year, we receive hundreds of applications, all worthy of a fellowship, but those projects that stand out are ones that challenge us to think deeply and thoughtfully about pressing social issues,” Fellows Program Director Awista Ayub said, speaking of this year’s National Fellows Class.
David Rohde is the Executive Editor for the news of NewYorker.com, and a global affairs analyst for CNN. He has received the Pulitzer Prize twice in his career, each time for International Reporting. As a fellow, he will be working on his book In Deep: The FBI, the CIA and the Truth about America’s Deep State.
In addition to her acclaimed reporting for outlets like The New York Times, Paris Review, and Vanity Fair, Molly Crabapple—an Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fellow—is an artist and author of two books. Brothers of the Gun, written by Marwan Hisham and illustrated by Crabapple, was longlisted for the National Book Award for Non-Fiction. As a fellow, she is writing a book on the forgotten history of the Jewish Labor Bund.
Interested in booking a Visual Artsor Literaturespeaker for your next event? Contact The Lavin Agency today for more information.
When thinking about diversity, we tend to consider factors like gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. But what about age? Activist Ashton Applewhite has written a manifesto raging against the perils of growing older in a society that is, at its core, deeply ageist. Forbes calls it a must-read for anyone hoping to foster a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
Rooted in Ashton Applewhite’s own experience navigating the world as an older woman, This Chair Rocks is a lively investigation of the stereotypes, industries, and institutions that contribute to our youth-obsessed culture. Applewhite examines everything from the cult of beauty brands, to discrimination in the workplace, exposing the American myth of independence in the process. And beyond debunking ageist beliefs that no longer serve us, she paints a portrait of what an age-friendly world would look like—and how much better off we’d be for it.
Funny, personal, and thoroughly researched This Chair Rocks is a rousing call-to-action. Forbes writes, “By the end of the book, readers will have a better understanding of age discrimination and will be able to assess personal beliefs that may have contributed to ageism in and out of the workplace. Using humor, Applewhite is able to craft a compelling case for how we can combat our ageist beliefs.”
To book speaker Ashton Applewhite for your next speaking engagement, contact a sales agent at The Lavin Agency today.
Information is capital in the twenty-first century, a fact which has led companies like Google and Facebook to hunt, capture, and hoard the personal data of its consumers. The value lies not in the capacity for service improvement, but in the rich predictive signals such data provides. In an essay for Toronto Life, Shoshana Zuboffexplains the rise of the surveillance economy, and why Toronto may become a leading market.
“The city of Toronto now sits in the crosshairs of a uniquely 21st-century economic model that I call surveillance capitalism,” writes Shoshanna Zuboff in Toronto Life. “This economic model drives toward a totality of information: from bodies to cars, bloodstreams to brainwaves.” Zuboff is a preeminent sociologist and author of The Rise of Surveillance Capitalism. She coined the term to describe the mining of behavioral data from civilians, an insidious practice developed to modify human behavior towards certain preferences for financial gain.
Sidewalk Labs represent the next phase of this phenomenon. The “urban innovation” organization is adapting behavioral modification to the real life city of Toronto, starting with its Waterfront neighborhood. “Toronto now stands first in line to become surveillance capitalism’s real-world petri dish,” Zuboff warns. “Sidewalk’s proposals reveal the full arc of the new logic. With astonishing audacity, it claims the city as its laboratory and the lives of citizens as its free raw material for data creation, ownership, computation and monetization.”
In The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us, bestselling author Paul Tough re-evaluates the state of higher education across the United States. Does college still work? What are the flaws in our current system? And how can we do better?
“In an increasingly pessimistic country with fewer manufacturing jobs than decades ago and a widening chasm between the haves and have-nots, college looms enormous in young people’s psyches. But the mechanics of getting to and through it are messier than ever,” writes columnist Frank Bruni in his latest opinion piece for The New York Times. In it, Bruni discusses the new book by Paul Tough, an author renowned for his previous work How Children Succeed. Tough’s latest releaseThe Years That Matter Most—hitting shelves September 10th—explains how higher education evolved from a rational decision yielding a promising return on investment, to a necessity to simply keep us afloat. “Today, for many young Americans, a B.A. is simply an insurance policy against moving down,” Tough writes.
The Years That Matter Most is filled with anecdotes that illustrate what an anxiety-inducing experience has become for many students, but also offers an alternative vision for the future of education. Bruni writes, “Among his book’s many vital contributions are its portraits of schools and programs that model a better way.”
Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s sequel The Testaments is almost here. The prolific author opens up about the decision to revisit the fictional world of Gilead, her knack for capturing the dark side of history, and her status as a national treasure in TIME magazine.
“Only dead people are allowed to have statues, but I have been given one while still alive. Already I am petrified.”
These are the opening words from The Testaments, the much-hyped sequel to Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel, The Handmaid’s Tale. Up until now, the book has been tightly embargoed—a fact that didn’t stop it from being short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, and long-listed for the Scotiabank Giller Prize (an award she won previously for Alias Grace). Now, for the first time, fans can get a glimpse of the novel ahead of its release, in an excerpt published in The Guardian.
Atwood, to her credit, is a humble recipient of all this attention. In her TIME cover story, the author reminds us that “It’s just a book,” even if it feels like a momentous occasion. Since The Handmaid’s Tale has been adapted for television, Atwood’s celebrity has steadily risen, breaking new, international depths. It’s “exhausting,” she says, in true Atwood fashion. Lucy Feldman, author of the TIME profile, writes, “[Atwood] sees her role as the person who drops a flare on the highway—she wrote the new book in part because she worries the world is trending more toward Gilead than away from it.”
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