Dr. Aaron McKain, MSL

Executive Director/Co-Founder:
The Institute for Digital Humanity

Creative Director/Co-Founder:
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy

Visiting Scholar:
OSTROM at Indiana University


  • I'VE BEEN BEHIND THE SCENES ON "BOTH SIDES" OF POLITICS, HIGHER ED, REALITY, AND AI
    (and got them to work together).

    So now I am headhunted to run national civil rights and First Amendment orgs, colleges, and for office.


    Our NON-PROFIT Manhattan Project --- and/or me explaining and teaching easy solutions to this mess to as many folks as I can (while I don't have an NDA) -- has a better chance of working in time.

20 YEARS OF PROVEN SOLUTIONS

(and a Ph.d in what happens when technology, politics, our colleges, and the Constitution collide)

to help schools, companies, citizens, and governments navigate (or win) the post-AI world.

7 YEARS LIVING IN A BLACK MIRROR EPISODE


I left one of the wokest universities in America,
crossed the filter bubble,
became a disinfo prof at a Bible college
(2018-2023),
launched a Manhattan Project,
and got SWJ, MAGA, Evangelical, Muslim, and Jewish-Americans to work together on the technology that is dividing us.

And that's not even the weird part.

SEE OUR STORY / PODCAST PILOT HERE

PRESS and MEDIA

CBS: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES
NBC: MINNEAPOLIS
(SACREMENTO, TOLEDO, HOUSTON)
HUMAN LAWYER
OMAHA-WORLD HERALD
PIONEER PRESS
NEBRASKA PUBLIC TELEVISION
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS
AI AND YOU / OUR BLACK NEWS

SEE ALL NEWS APPEARANCES

THANK YOU TO MY PARTNERS, CLIENTS,
and STUDENTS

for putting differences aside and fighting together
for a just, free, and sane digital world.

WHAT I KNOW and WHAT I DO

THIS IS A CRISIS OF CODE, CULTURE, and CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.
YOUR SOLUTIONS HAVE TO DEAL WITH ALL OF IT AT ONCE. OR THEY AREN'T SOLUTIONS.

  • AI , DISINFORMATION, PRIVACY, AND FIRST AMENDMENT

    policy frameworks
    education platforms
    civic networks

    advocacy strategies
    legal governance systems


  • BIPARTISAN POLITICAL COALITIONS (AND CIVIL CROSS-CULTURAL CONVERSATIONS)

    Two decades of working with ALL students, advocates, lawmakers, and experts to get people programmed to hate each other to remember that they don't.


  • COLLEGE REFORM AND POST-AI EDUCATION

    Award-winning higher ed leadership: Whether directing a school, teaching students how to build internationally-recognized think tanks as homework, or speechwriting for Time's University President of the Year.

1 3
1 6

FIRST AMENDMENT & ACADEMIC FREEDOM

CREATIVE DIR / PROFESSOR / ARTIST / EXEC DIRECTOR / COLLEGE 1A WARS SURVIVOR

I speak 21st century First Amendment law -- DEI, AI, higher ed, cancel culture, and encoded censorship -- fluently.

And have the scars and solutions to prove it.

FIRST AMENDMENT SOLUTIONS

HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP & REFORM

CURRICULUM / PLATFORMS

STUDENT THINK TANKS & ORGS / WORKSHOPS

SPEAKING EVENTS / CONSULTING

My teams and I -- whether from a Bible college or one of the "wokest" schools in America -- are living proof of the best and worst of higher education and how to fix it (for everyone) in the post-AI/DEI/disinformation world.

EDUCATION SERVICES

PR & BIPARTISAN COALITION BUILDING

CAMPAIGNS / MESSAGING / WORKSHOPS
SPEAKING EVENTS / CONSULTING / CIVIC FORUMS

Stop guessing what the "other team" is thinking. Or fighting about stuff you actually agree on, whether you are in Congress or just trying to have Thanksgiving with your family.

This is a disinformation war.

PR and ADVOCACY SOLUTIONS

STRATEGIC ARTS ADVOCACY

Because art works when nothing else does.

Juried and grant-funded national and international exhibitions, installations,
and civic forums.

ART EXHIBITIONS and INSTALLATIONS
1 1

The "Manhattan Project"

View full details

Thank you to my clients, partners, students, and allies

  • OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
    MCGRAW-HILL
    HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
    UNIV OF WISCONSIN:
    LA CROSSE
    HAIFA UNIVERSITY
    CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY
    INDIANA UNIVERSITY
    NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERISTY

  • fallback text for an image

    ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
    CODED BIAS (NETFLIX)
    LITTLE EARTH NATIVE
    HUD COMMUNITY
    BYTES MEDIA
    CIVIC NEBRASKA

  • fallback text for an image

    ACLU MN
    ASEMBLIES OF GOD
    RECLAIM THE BLOCK
    SAFETY NOT SURVEILLANCE
    MN SECOND CHANCE COALITION
    URBAN EDUCATORS
    DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF LITERACY NARRATIVES
    ACLU NE

  • AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION
    IOWA BAR ASSOCIATION
    NEBRASKA BAR ASSOCIATION
    MN HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER
    MN EQUAL JUSTICE CENTER

  • fallback text for an image

    SPECIAL THANKS: LAWMAKERS and INFLUENCERS FROM ACROSS THE AISLE

    SEN. SCOTT LUCERO
    (R-MN)
    COUNCILMAN TRAUTMANN
    (D-RICHFIELD)
    COUNCILWOMAN VETAW
    (D-MINNEAPOLIS)
    COUNCILWOMAN YANG
    (D-ST. PAUL)
    COUNCILMAN FLETCHER
    (D-MINNEAPOLIS)
    SEN. PEGGY SCOTT
    (R-MN)
    COUNCILMAN WARSAME
    (D -MINNEAPOLIS)
    SEN. SCOTT JENSEN
    (R-MN)
1 5