Dan Riskin

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• How to Thrive in the Brave New World of Artificial Intelligence

  The revolution has begun, so what should we expect? Artificial intelligence (AI) is already changing the way we do art, business, finance, science, engineering, news, and social media. Soon it will disrupt the way we interact with one another. It may feel like a tidal wave, but that doesn’t mean it’s unpredictable. After all, this isn’t the first time intelligence has evolved.

  From dolphins to humans, cockroaches to cockatoos, every new group of intelligent creatures has appeared thanks to the emergent properties of neural networks — the very same process that spawned AI. And with each new intelligent form of life, predictable, repeatable trends have emerged — selfishness, extinctions, behavioural adaptation, establishment of a stable social structure, and, ultimately, a new kind of harmony with the environment. Although we can’t know exactly what the future holds for AI, these broad themes offer a roadmap of what to expect.

  AI won’t steal our jobs… but people using AI effectively might. By understanding the predictable milestones that emerge from evolution, and using them to guide your organization’s AI strategy, you can seize the power of evolutionary change to come out ahead.

• The Key to Teaching: Emotion Matters

  How do you spark a person’s curiosity? Whether you’re engaging a client, a colleague, or a trainee, that first step of getting them to “lean in” can be the ticket for meaningful engagement.

  In this captivating and humourous talk, Dan Riskin breathes life into the subject of curiosity through storytelling, while sharing his personal journey from insecure science student to Discovery Channel TV host.

  Initially plagued by imposter syndrome and fear, Riskin quit academics for a time, giving up on his dreams and working instead as a waiter. But something pulled him back, and while doing his PhD on vampire bats, Riskin was bitten — yes, by a few bats but also by a fundamental fact about curiosity that transformed his life. From that moment on, Riskin was unstoppable, publishing his research in top journals, appearing as a science expert on Jay Leno and Craig Ferguson’s late night talk shows, then ultimately taking the helm as the host of his own TV shows on Animal Planet and The Discovery Channel.

  What’s the secret? It’s the profound understanding that people engage best with content when they are emotionally connected to it. (Riskin knows this from experience, but also because he can point to the scientific papers that explain why it happens.) That realization transformed his career trajectory and empowered him to achieve remarkable success. And since Riskin’s talk is carefully crafted to stoke the emotions of your audience, his message has the power to change them, too. That emotional engagement is why Riskin’s talk will be unforgettable for your group, and why it can permanently alter their perspective on their own professional paths.

• Unleashing the Power of Collective Intelligence

  If you’ve ever had the displeasure of boarding a plane, you know how dysfunctional groups of people can be. The airline assigns seats and calls out group numbers, but it’s still Hunger Games at Gate 42. Everyone swarms the gate, jostling for position to get on as quickly as possible. There’s a thin veneer of politeness, but everyone’s on edge. And even though this has been happening thousands of times every day for decades, it never gets any better.

  And it’s not just how humans board airplanes. It’s how we merge on the freeway, how we choose our political leaders, and how we care for the environment. Individual people are smart, but when you put them together, the group’s performance is well below average.

  Somehow, the opposite happens for groups of animals: A school of fish acts as a distributed network, detecting danger more quickly and more accurately than any individual within the group can. A swarm of cockroaches becomes a kind of living computer that solves mathematical equations to find optimal hiding places in a kitchen. Even a swarm of flies outwits the intelligent predators that hunt them. And natural ecosystems look after themselves indefinitely.

  Why do humans fail while groups of animals thrive?

  In the past few years, the science of crowds has revealed the underpinnings of swarm success, and the selfish mechanisms that make them so effective. Dan Riskin will explore the science behind it while sharing tangible lessons for leaders in teambuilding. You’ll be inspired to change the way your group achieves its goals.

• The Science of Diversity: Discomfort Yields Results

  One of the most fundamental facts about ecology is that diversity makes ecosystems more productive and more resilient to perturbations. We’ve known that for decades, but somehow we haven’t taken full advantage of it for our teams. Why are people so resistant to diversification?

  One obstacle may be that when people work in diverse groups — with people from different backgrounds then their own — they may feel less successful. Recent research has shown that the work itself feels like more of a slog, and workers end up less sure of the final product. Paradoxically, however, their work, on average, is empirically better than that from more homogenous groups, who feel like the work is less challenging and thus feel more successful. This disconnect is an example of the more general phenomenon whereby humans often do their best work when they’re uncomfortable.

  The ongoing process of diversifying our teams is an ethical responsibility. And while it might feel hard sometimes, it can make us more productive, just like the diverse ecosystems we can emulate.

• Resilience: Celebrating Our Love for Nature in a Time of Climate Change

  Imagine the most beautiful setting you can… is it outdoors? It likely is! Thanks to our evolutionary history, every one of us is born with an innate love of nature. Spending time in nature enhances our cognitive abilities, lowers our blood pressure, reduces stress and anxiety, and reduces our odds for obesity, diabetes, and heart failure.

  But, for many of us, it’s gotten harder to enjoy time in nature. More of us live in urban areas. More of us spend the majority of our time indoors. And many of us feel increasingly stressed about the state of the planet. There is no single solution, but Dan Riskin believes the way forward is tied to the restorative powers of the natural world — that we should seek out experiences and connections with the parts of nature that bring us the most joy.

  In this presentation, Riskin shares his fascinating experience as a bat scientist — working in the field and seeing first-hand how their survival is more threatened than ever before, and yet walking away with an overall sense of hope. This talk covers some scary ground, but it will ultimately inspire and empower, equipping audiences with concrete suggestions for growing their connection to nature, getting energized by that relationship, and using that power to help conserve the world we love so much.