Flynn Coleman Explores AI Ethics in Debut Book

Flynn Coleman, known best as an international human rights attorney, professor, and social innovator is releasing a new book that melds her extensive knowledge of humanitarianism with today’s digital age of artificial intelligence. 

A Human Algorithm: How Artificial Intelligence Is Redefining Who We Are explores the ways intelligent technology will have an impact on humanity. It’s a groundbreaking narrative on the urgency of ethically designed AI and a guidebook to reimagining life in the era of intelligent technology.

The book was released on October 1, 2019, and has already received praise and esteem from authors who’ve explored similar topics. 

“The era of thinking machines is no longer the stuff of science fiction; it is our present reality. In this compulsively readable, mind-bending book, Flynn Coleman encourages us to now start grappling with the daunting challenges ‘the Intelligent Machine Age’ presents to our conception of what it means to be human,” said Reza Aslan, author of God: A Human History. “A Human Algorithm is more than a book; it is a manifesto for our times,”

In the book, Coleman recognizes that while these technologies challenge our personal beliefs and our socio-economic world order, they also have the potential to transform our health and well-being, alleviate poverty and suffering, and reveal the mysteries of intelligence and consciousness. She argues that now is the time to instill values, ethics, and morals into artificial intelligence as well as developing and implementing laws, policies, and oversight mechanisms to protect us from potential threats. 

As the era of human intellectual superiority is ending, Coleman uses her latest work to make a resounding assertion that now is the time to plan for this monumental shift - and many experts agree. 

“This book is urgently needed. Humanity can’t afford to ignore the horrendous possibilities that lie ahead should we fail to imbue artificial intelligence with the values of empathy and compassion. We need to consciously protect and nurture our deepest values as we forge new technological frontiers. The time to do it is now, and this is the book to show us how,” said Marianne Williamson.

Click here to learn more about Flynn Coleman.

Download this book speaking kit to share Flynn with your programming committee.

Parenting Expert Caroline Maguire Releases Highly-Anticipated First Book

Caroline Maguire has made helping your kids her mission. That’s why the renowned parenting expert and former Hallowell Center coach has put pen to paper and released her first book on September 24, 2019.

In Why Will No One Play With Me? A Parent’s Guide to Coaching Your Child from Social Challenge to Success Maguire shares her proven strategies for teaching parents how to use coaching to help children dealing with chronic social dilemmas, ranging from shyness to aggression to ADHD, and more. The book is based on the author’s successful “Play Better Plan,” a three-part program where children make noticeable progress while building confidence and enjoying a more satisfying social life.

The “Play-Better-Plan” is a decade-in-the-making and founded on Maguire’s internationally-recognized protocol that draws out the best in her clients and is a direct result of her own struggles to fit in as a child with ADHD and dyslexia. Children of all ages - from kindergarten to post-secondary education - will gain the confidence to make friends and get along with others, using tools like:

• Social Sleuthing: learn to pay attention to social cues

• Post-Play Date Huddles: help kids figure out what to look for in a friendship

• Reflective Listening: improve your child's relationship with their peers

But the book isn’t just for parents. Child educators and counselors can learn from Maguire’s cutting-edge experience detailed in her new book. 

“If your child is lonely at school, if your child cannot make a friend, if, as a parent, you are feeling at a loss to help, then Caroline Maguire’s groundbreaking Why Will No One Play With Me? is the book you have been waiting for,” said Michael Thompson, PhD, author of Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children and Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys. “Caroline provides a wise, tested, and detailed plan for helping your child to develop social skills and open up the pathways to friendship. Even the most experienced counselors and teachers can learn from her experience. I certainly did.”

Before becoming an author, Maguire, ACCG, PCC, M.Ed., has been a resource for many journalists as well as leading ADHD organizations and can be seen in publications such as U.S. News & World Report, Huffington Post, ADDitude, Attention Magazine and WebMD.

Click here to learn more about Caroline Maguire.

Download this book speaking kit to share Caroline with your programming committee.

Outspoken Speaker Brad Jenkins Gets 'Fired Up' for New Podcast

Brad Jenkins is stepping up to the mic. His new podcast, Fired Up with Brad Jenkins, aims to give listeners a fresh perspective into the hearts and minds of political leaders, artists, influencers, and everyday heroes.

“There are very few places in the media where political leaders, artists, or journalists can just be themselves,” Jenkins said. “Our podcast is a place where audiences can actually get to know who these people are without a soundbite agenda.”

With the 2020 United States presidential election quickly approaching, Jenkins has had the opportunity to sit down with numerous candidates and find out what gets them fired up.

“We have had the chance to go to many of the Presidential candidates’ homes and interview them at their most honest and personal. Before every interview, we ask our guests to pick a ‘fired-up topic’ that is a jumping off-point for the conversation,” he added. “We like to give our audiences that feeling of being in the room and listening in on a conversation between two friends.”

Before Jenkins was Managing Director and Executive Producer of Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die, he served four years as President Obama’s Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement. You may have seen one of his projects with the Obama administration - the Emmy-award winning “Between Two Ferns” interview on the Affordable Care Act.

It’s no surprise that Jenkins dreams of having the former president and First Lady Michelle Obama on the podcast. "They are the reason that I got involved in politics," Jenkins said. "We have had a couple Fired Up interviews with couples that haven’t been released yet and they are hilarious. So yes! A Barack and Michelle interview is the dream!”

This isn’t the only new venture for Jenkins. He recently launched Enfranchisement Productions, a DC-based creative and consulting agency. The agency will work with electoral campaigns, non-profits, start-ups, and brands, and will be involved in creative and political strategy.

If you’re looking forward to hearing these one-on-one interviews, look for new episodes available every Tuesday. And you’re in luck, there are already six episodes available for streaming. Listen in as Jenkins talks with presidential candidate Cory Booker, actress Chloe Bennet, and more.

Click here to listen to Fired Up with Brad Jenkins.

Click here to learn more about Brad Jenkins.

Ruha Benjamin Releases Two New Books on Technology and Race

On the surface, one might not notice the relationship between emerging technologies and discrimination. But, as author Ruha Benjamin outlines in her latest work “Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code”, the rise of automation could potentially deepen, and even accelerate, discrimination in a not so visible manner.

Benjamin is an Associate Professor in African American Studies at Princeton University. She studies the line between innovation and equity and this book is one more foray into understanding the cause and effect between the two.

In “Race After Technology” (released on June 10, 2019), Benjamin urges that we can’t look at racism with the same historical lens, otherwise it won’t be apparent. What’s happening now around technology doesn’t look the same as racism of previous eras.

The book introduces the concept of the “New Jim Code.” With it, Benjamin set out to depict how “a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite.”

If you want to continue to explore this subject, be sure to check out another recent work edited by Benjamin, “Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life.”

 “Captivating Technology”, which was released in May 2019, takes a close look at how technology affects prisons and inmates. The contributors in this book explore how devices like ankle monitors “are being deployed to classify and coerce specific populations and whether these innovations can be appropriated and reimagined for more liberatory ends.”

Click here to learn more about Ruha Benjamin.

Outspoken Speakers Take On SXSW 2019

The SXSW Conference & Festival happened March 8-17 in Austin, TX and was once again an event not to be missed. There was no shortage of influential thought-leaders on hand, including these five Outspoken Agency speakers who shared their expertise and passion.

Sam Polk
Everytable, Co-Founder & CEO

Sam Polk’s story is an inspiring journey from the go-go-go mentality of Wall Street to the grab-and-go restaurant business. But he didn’t walk away from life as hedge-fund trader to open just any ol’ restaurant. His mission is bigger than that.

Sam first started his nonprofit, FEAST, as a way to promote wellness through healthy foods with a human connection. But his passion didn’t stop there. He opened a fast-food style restaurant that offers fresh, made-from-scratch meals at affordable prices – we’re talking $5 in LA’s underserved communities.

Everytable’s mission is to change the fast food landscape just like McDonald’s was able to do so many years ago. However, this time it’s all about providing easy access to healthy foods for people who need it most.

His session at SXSW focused on solving the food desert dilemma in America’s low-income neighborhoods. Together with other social entrepreneurs, Sam discussed creative pricing strategies and educational programs designed to educate and empower residents of underserved communities about food decisions.

Amanda Parkes
Future Tech Lab, Chief Innovation Officer

Fashion and tech? These may not be two industries that you’d typically pair, but don’t tell that to Amanda Parkes. She’s a fashion technologist who excels at wearable tech, smart materials, and dreaming up other ways high-tech textiles can be used in fashion applications.

Amanda founded Skinteractive Studios in Brooklyn and she served as CTO of Manufacture NY, another Brooklyn-based business which is an incubator and production space for fashion brands and designers. Her newest venture is chief innovation officer at Fashion Tech Lab helping fashion and apparel start-ups and new technologies collide.

At SXSW, Amanda participated on a panel called “Blueprint: Finding Sonic Voice with Social Sound.” The session was light on fashion, but really heavy on tech, especially scaling social sound and pervasive tech for storytelling purposes. Music has always been a rich storytelling experience, but there’s a new ecosystem for social audio that’s changing how we produce and share music.

Jesse Israel
The Big Quiet, Founder

Imagine being in a space with tens of thousands of other people. Constant networking. Constant learning. You’d need a break, right? That’s just what Jesse Israel brought to the attendees of SXSW and it’s something he has done in the world’s most iconic locations.  

Jesse is the founder of The Big Quiet, which hosts mass meditations in cities across the world as well as large events. He’s led moments of peace at both One World Trade and numerous corporate events.

At SXSW, The Big Quiet led Pure Golden Hour, a sunset mass meditation with special musical guests Miguel, Bishop Briggs, Cautious Clay, and DJ Captain Planet. It was the first mass meditation at SXSW and thousands of people paused together for a quiet moment at one of the world’s busiest festivals. The event was sponsored by Michelob ULTRA Pure Gold.

Josh Levine
Culture LabX, Founder 

Josh Levine is on a mission to help companies create a culture advantage. That’s the topic of his new book, “Great Mondays: How to Design a Company Culture Employees Love.” It’s also the mission of his organization, Culture LabX, which helps companies reconnect with employees through great culture.

His book hinges on the thought that culture can create change in a business, a community, and even the world. Doesn’t a fulfilling and productive job sound more like a passion?

That’s what Josh lived out at his recent book signing at SXSW. He gathered with conference attendees to chat about innovative was to amp up company culture and field questions about exercises and tactics to take home.

Kimberly Bryant
Black Girls CODE, Founder & CEO 

Kimberly’s nonprofit, Black Girls CODE, introduces young ladies of color to computer programming and entrepreneurship in order to set them up for success at an early age. Kimberly founded the organization in 2011 and has seen it flourish from a Bay Area operation to an international success.

At SXSW, Kimberly’s featured session focused on securing the future for black women and girls in tech. The discussion was on technology and social activism, specifically related to women of color in STEM.

The presenters were a mix of current Black Girls CODE students, alumni, and other role models. Together with the audience, the group conversed on creating more opportunities and careers in STEM fields as well as how technology can power social change.