Favorite Speaker You’ve Seen

Memphis State University had a great speakers bureau. Davis-Kidd booksellers in Nashville was another source of seeing great minds in the wild. Vanderbilt University still has a lot to offer.

Richard Leakey was more enjoyable than he should have been. He took it in stride when the promotional poster featured a beauty shot of Lucy.

Wade Davis was the anti-Indiana Jones. I was prepared to endure his speech for my boyfriend. I still have my signed copy of Serpent and the Rainbow and every other book he wrote.

Alice Walker was quiet, powerful, and made me fall in love with Zora Neale Hurston's story.

Will D. Campbell still makes me want to be a better person than I can be.

So does Tony Campolo.

Angelique Kidjo made me understand why people believed in mermaids,

 

Norman Schwarzkopf, 1994, Orlando. Unfortunately, he was there as part of a big gathering for a major MLM company. So a lot of drivel before and after his speech, but he was amazing to hear.

 

Not sure if this was my favorite, but one of the most effective speaking engagements was Bono, touring the U.S. in the early 2000s to promote debt relief for African nations. He spoke in the student union at the University of Iowa. (EDIT: This was about a decade after I was a student there).

It was a good talk with plenty of visuals and compelling arguments. But at the end, Bono gave in to what most of the crowd wanted to hear. He pulled out an acoustic guitar, said “here’s something new we’re working on” and playing a song from the not yet released album, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.” If I recall correctly, it was an acoustic version of “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own.”

 

Lee Child was a lot of fun. But Michael Chabon probably my favorite. Unfortunately, I had a coughing fit in the middle of it and had to run out of the auditorium and try to stop choking before returning to my seat near the stage. I tweeted something about it years later and who slid into my DMs to say he was glad I was okay? Michael Chabon! I played it cool and did not go into Chris Farley-interviewing-Paul McCartney territory though I sort of wish I had.

Honorable mention to the student speaker at my college graduation, who was a guy I took a theology class with. Incredibly fun class with a prof who was awesome and brilliant, and yet this kid, a sophomore at the time, was, I think, smarter than the professor. Throughout college I'd sometimes stumble upon a scene where the guy was sitting in the quad and a bunch of other students were literally at his feet listening to him pontificate, like Jesus' followers. I'd occasionally stop and listen before going off to play pickup hoops.

At commencement the kid gave an inspiring, funny speech. After the ceremony I milled about with my parents and I heard someone ask the guy what he was going to do now with his life. "I don't know, probably work construction for my uncle," he said. And he did! Worked on a road crew for several years but eventually became a leading anti-war figure during the Iraq war and did go on to become a very successful leader in his community. And probably still delivers a hell of a talk.

 

Saw John Waters at my uni. He was hilarious.