speaking
Brian has given keynotes, invited lectures, and readings at colleges and universities across the country, including Dartmouth College, Harvard Law School, Amherst College, Bennington College, The Ohio State University, Colby College, Skidmore College, and many more. See topics for his talks below, and reach out if you'd like to invite him for an event.
"How I learned to stop teaching and love AI"
Stop resisting the inevitable march of AI! Artificial intelligence is the solution for every human problem. Based on his popular essay published on McSweeney's Internet Tendency, in this talk, Brian converts any nonbelievers or doubters who still refuse to accept that AI will save us. Stop being so human, and embrace the machine in all its glorious efficiency. Stop dancing; stop making art; stop writing; stop telling people you love them--don't you know that AI can do all of those things for you? And so much more efficiently? This talk will change the life of everyone who hears it, and afterward, you'll never want to do anything as inefficient as asking a question of another person, or reading a book, or daydreaming. Why do those things? We have Chat-GPT now.
all the gods: on the ufc and other american conundrums
In September 2024, Brian traveled to Las Vegas to witness Riyadh Season Noche UFC--a live mixed martial arts event held at Sphere. Inside the venue, he is greeted by a deepfake hologram of Dana White speaking Spanish (Dana White doesn't speak Spanish); he listens as fans quiz and flirt with interactive AI robots; he watches fights before the immersive backdrop of Sphere's 160,000 square foot, high resolution LED screen--the largest in the world. This talk illuminates how the UFC embodies a new kind of empire, combining bleeding-edge technology with the most visceral mass spectacles, in order to rapidly expand its power and profits, The UFC has achieved a monopoly in the sport of mixed martial arts by cultivating a carnivalesque live experience, and leveraged this business dominance and cultural influence to swing a presidential election for Trump. Drawing from his popular Substack newsletter, ALL THE GODS, Brian explains how the UFC harnesses the vortex of alternate realities we call American life in order to achieve its aims, influence politics, and expand its already booming sports and media empire.
The underground cloud: adventures of a media archaeologist
In a 10,000 square foot refrigerator, 220 feet underground, in the caverns of a former limestone mine in rural Pennsylvania, Brian is looking at photos: Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue; a family staring at the contents of the first time capsule; a replica of a German village, built for destruction in a bomb test. Such are the adventures of a media archaeologist, always trying to get his hands on material documents and artifacts. Despite the breathless hype of tech companies, most historical images and documents are not, in fact, digitized. In order to deeply engage the past, and therefore understand the present, we must travel to places that reveal the fears and dreams of the generations who came before us: abandoned mines, missile silos, ice warehouses, and fallout shelters, all of which have been turned into repositories for our data. Drawing from research for his award-winning book, "We the Dead: Preserving Data at the End of the World," in this talk Brian takes his audience deep into "the data complex": the underlying, often underground world of information and infrastructure that must be maintained so that businesses and government can function. Everything we do relies upon this vast, strange, and fragile network, from checking our email, to buying a coffee with a credit card, to retrieving a document that proves we are who we say we are.
other topics
If you have a themed event or otherwise are interested in a talk/reading related to another topic, reach out through the Contact page and describe what you have in mind!