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Dr. Aaron McKain Services

SPEAKING GIGS

SPEAKING GIGS

My teams and I are living proof that we can still fix AI, education and post-digital America.

20-years of proven solutions for AI, disinformation, free speech, privacy, and fixing our colleges

Plus the Black Mirror meets Dead Poet's Society story your people need to hear right now.

Because the fight for a just, free, and sane digital world (for everyone) isn't  over.  And working together, we will all win.

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MY STORIES / SOLUTIONS

AI ETHICS, LAW, AND CULTURE / DISINFORMATION and REBUILDING A CIVIL REALITY / FREE SPEECH and ACADEMIC FREEDOM / HIGHER EDUCATION REFORM / LEADERSHIP AND RESILIENCE

My students and I survived our city and colleges' post-digital collapse
by the skin of our teeth.

And maybe the only Manhattan Project -- for AI, Disinformation, Free Spech, and Education -- left standing. And you have to fix all of it at the same time.

Now we are living proof that we can still fix AI, education and America. We have the Black Mirror meets Dead Poet's society story your. people need to hear right now.

Manhattan Project Specs

  • PAST CLIENTS / MY STORY

    Who I talk to:

    companies, schools/colleges, policymakers, programmers, attorneys, teachers, churches, comedy clubs, artists, advocates, community orgs, and citizens.

  • PRESS

    I spoke to my first crowd of 5,000 at age 17. 

    As a speechwriter, my messages have reached millions. My students still think I should have become a game show host. They might not be wrong.

  • PRICE

    Given the urgency of our post-AI world

    I'm offering deeply discounted rates for non-profits, schools, and advocates and charging market rates for companies to subsidize those efforts.

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TECHNOLOGY POLICY,
LAW, ETHICS, and CULTURE

ai and algorithms | disinformation | privacy


I SPENT 20 YEARS TALKING ABOUT TECH TO ANYONE WHO WOULD LISTEN.


Now I can explain it to anyone. Using whatever is on the news that day or whatever your audience/industry usually talks about: Hawk Tuah, politics, sportsball, comedians, religion, law, science, movies, music, art, philosophy, TikTok, etc.



DISINFORMATION and POLITICAL DIVISION

I co-built the first multi-campus disinformation fighting system (w/ a Fortune 500 in 2007), became a disinformation 'diversity hire' at a Bible college to try to stop a post-digital civil war,


and ended up in the middle of one (dodging bullets and COVID) with a bunch of scrappy Jesus kids (who hosted the Floyd Memorial) while building emergency information/aid networks (between people programmed to hate each other) in Minneapolis when things went ham.


So, yes, I have stories. Thank god they are funny.

Strategies, hacks, frameworks, and pep talks to fight against disinformation; start to rebuild our shared reality; and heal our communities, classrooms, companies, and country.


  • 20 years of actual solutions

    to rebuild reality,
    bring divided communities back together (via civil conversations),
    and network citizens
    to combat disinformation.

  • Strategies, hacks, frameworks, and pep talks

    to analyze disinformation; start to rebuild our shared reality; and heal our communities, classrooms, companies, and country.

  • Becauase those of us who have lived and worked on “both sides” of our algorithmic (and now AI-powered) echo chambers and filter bubbles

    know firsthand what is in store for the rest of the country if action is not taken immediately to combat the digital amplification of political division, reunite our traumatized and terrified citizens, and restore the public’s trust in our colleges, institutions, and shared reality. 

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COLLEGE REFORM and POST-AI EDUCATION

We have months (not years) to fix higher ed the right way before we lose it -- and the 21st century -- forever.


My teams and I have the story that every (exhausted) student, teacher, and admin needs/wants to hear right now.

And I've spent 20 years leading my corners of higher ed with the best solutions culled from Big 10 schools, small colleges ("woke" and MAGA-y), a Fortune 500, and two nationally-recognized university presidents (including Time's "University President of the Year" during a bilion-dollar fundraising campaign.)

FIRST AMENDMENT and FREE SPEECH

I've been studying 1A and technology since the 90s, am headhunted to run the famous national orgs, taught it for 20 years (Big 10 and Bible/lefty colleges),

started an internationally recognized 1A art collective, am a legit casualty of the college free speech crisis,


and trained thousands of diverse students and citizens to debate/disagree with each other like humans, not gaslit robots.

BIPARTISAN and CROSS-CULTURAL COALITION BUILDING

But our divisions are a national security risk; are tearing our families, communities, and companies apart; and I know why our wires got crossed, where the landmines and opportunities are buried, and how to get humans re-connected again.

Honestly, if you know someone else who spent their career working with the left and right -- to get them to work together -- and spent the last six years on "both sides" of reality, introduce us so we can team up.


PTSD and POST-DIGITAL MENTAL/PUBLIC HEALTH

Also a human who has been through some gnarly stuff that usually only happens in horror movies and House re-runs.


But the worst thing that ever happened to you can help someone else get through it.   Repeat this enough times and lives get saved. Being funny helps.

Internationally-recognized curator, artist, and thought leader on technology, post-fact science, and public health.


ARTS ADVOCACY

Art works when nothing else does. And is our best chance to reunite digitally divided citizens and protect an enclave of the human from AI.