Keynote
A Republic,
If You Can
Keep It
The summer of 1787, three men, and a government that almost didn’t happen. A talk about showing up, doing the work early, and knowing when to give ground.
The talk
Philadelphia, 1787. The country is broke, a rebellion of indebted farmers has just been put down with artillery, and fifty-five men meet in a room with the windows nailed shut against the heat. They were sent to patch the government. Three of them decide to replace it.
Madison arrives eleven days early, having spent a year studying every republic in history for a test nobody had scheduled. Washington comes despite grief, illness and a friend’s warning that the whole thing will fail and take his reputation with it — then says almost nothing for four months. Franklin, eighty-one and carried in on a chair, spends the summer giving ground, because he is old enough to know that a harvest doesn’t wait.
I wrote it for people who have already sat through dinner and an awards program and did not come to be lectured. It sends them out still talking about it. And it lands particularly well this year, the country’s 250th.
I rewrite it for every room. In Des Moines it opened on angry farmers and closed on the year Iowa became a state. Yours will open and close somewhere else — that is what the call beforehand is for.
The particulars
- Length 35 to 60 minutes, to fit your program.
- Occasion Annual meetings, conventions, awards dinners, general sessions.
- Format Keynote. I’m glad to add questions or an on-stage conversation.
- Technical A microphone, and a lectern if you have one. No slides, nothing to set up.
- Beforehand One call with you, so it lands where your people are.
- Fee Depends on the date and the travel. Tell me about the event and I’ll tell you.
About me
I’m the creator and host of American History Tellers, American Scandal and History Daily. American Scandal alone has passed 200 million downloads. I run Airship, an independent podcast company in Dallas, and I tour a live, band-backed show, The Days That Made America.
For ten years my job has been to make a stranger care about someone who died two centuries ago. It works the same way in a ballroom as it does in headphones.
Booking
If you help pick the speaker for your organization’s annual meeting, convention or awards dinner, this is the whole process. Tell me about the event — I read these myself and answer them myself.