Jared Diamond

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of Guns, Germs and Steel

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

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THE LATEST: Dr. Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel has been named as one of TIME Magazine's All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books. Read about it HERE.

Jared Diamond -- author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse -- is the epitome of the celebrity scientist. His lectures routinely draw thousands of rapt listeners who walk away with a deeper and more nuanced view of the development of human civilization and the continued gulf between rich and poor in the global community.

Diamond's lectures tackle the giant questions. Why do some societies thrive and prosper, while others shrivel and die? How can humanity maximize the opportunity for human happiness, while saving the planet from ecological ruin and collapse? Are there lessons we can learn from other great civilizations who have grown to world dominance? The huge crowds that attend his talks are testament to his reputation as a great speaker who can spellbind an audience with insights into the most important issues we face.

Currently a professor of Geography at UCLA, Diamond is also the author of two other bestselling books, The Third Chimpanzee and Why Is Sex Fun? He has received some of the world's most prestigious awards, including a MacArthur Genius Grant, the Dickson Prize in Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the National Medal of Science, America's highest civilian award in science.

Dr. Jared Diamond Speech Topics

Human Rights

Today, in Western democracies, we take for granted the idea that all humans enjoy certain universal rights--at least in theory. Those rights include the right to vote, to receive fair justice, to be treated decently as prisoners of war, not to be enslaved, and not to suffer group-based discrimination in applying to jobs or schools. Specifically, those rights are supposed to be shared by men and women, rich and poor, young and old; all people, regardless of family connections or social role or ethnicity or religion.

Although these rights now seem natural, we forget how absurd they would have seemed throughout most of human history, and how recent their acceptance even in Western democracies has been. Why, after tens of thousands of years in which it was taken for granted that different people have different rights, should the notion have arisen, just within the last couple of centuries, that all humans share basic rights? Why should this view have arisen first in Western Europe and its overseas daughter societies, rather than somewhere else, such as in India or China or among Native Americans, Africans, or Australians? Will there be even further broadening of human rights in the near future? What about rights of older people, prisoners, animals, and poor people in the developing world?

Business, The Environment and The Future of Human Societies

When conditions are altered, smart business leaders adapt--they look for more efficient processes, source out new markets, or even take on a whole new strategy. But what is the appropriate response when the changes are as far-reaching and devastating as climate change, environmental degradation, and societal collapse?

In this forward-looking talk, Dr. Jared Diamond explores the state of human societies and the role that business can and should play in ensuring prosperity. One of the world's great minds and a successful non-fiction author, Diamond interweaves strands of ecology, history, anthropology, commerce, group psychology, and geography to describe our collective problems and responses.

This talk is not anti-business. It is a big-picture glimpse of the human condition from a Pulitzer Prize-winner with the scientific credentials to convey how we damage the environment, express repercussions and find solutions. Diamond's examinations of individuals and societies which, when confronted with crises or changing conditions, reappraise core values and survive, are inspirational. His examples of businesses adapting to changing circumstances while staying profitable, gaining clients, and taking the lead on environmental stewardship will enlighten you.

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

The ruined cities, temples, and statues of history's great, vanished societies (Easter Island, Anasazi, the Lowland Maya, Angkor Wat, Great Zimbabwe and many more) are the birthplace of endless romantic mysteries. But these disappearances offer more than idle conjecture: the social collapses were due in part to the types of environmental problems that beset us today.

Yet many societies facing similar problems do not collapse. What makes certain societies especially vulnerable? Why didn't their leaders perceive and solve their environmental problems? What can we learn from their fates, and what can we do differently today to help us avoid their fates?

Guns, Germs and Steel

Dr. Jared Diamond's blockbuster Guns, Germs, and Steel won him a Pulitzer Prize and a place as one of the most influential thinkers of our time. His lecture of the same name takes audiences on an intellectual odyssey that challenges our assumptions about the rise and fall of civilizations. Why did Europeans and Asians conquer the indigenous peoples of Africa, the New World, Australia and the South Pacific, instead of being conquered themselves?

The answer touches on technology, genetics, genocide, zebras, pestilence, weather, geography, and luck. It also unconditionally refutes racist dogma that claims biological superiority for Eurasians. Geographical accidents, not intelligence, seem to be the reasons for Eurasia's success. Audiences will walk away with profound insights into how we got where we are and what this may mean for where we are going. Entering an intellectual maelstrom, they will be discussing and debating these ideas for months to come.

Globalization: For Better or For Worse

Until September 11th of 2001, we equated globalization mostly with 'us' sending 'them' our modern accomplishments: the Internet and Coca-Cola. Now, we are painfully aware of the unpredictable and reciprocal nature of global contact: AIDS, terrorism, unstoppable illegal immigration and diabetes epidemics. What will globalization really bring the world, and how can we minimize its negative impact while continuing to benefit from the advantages of shared cultures and resources?

Globalization means that remote societies can no longer collapse without influencing the rest of the world (as with Easter Island and the Anasazi societies of many centuries ago). We are the first society in history who have the chance to develop using a comprehensive, contemporary and historical understanding of our collective path.

VIDEOS

BOOKS

Collapse

Guns, Germs and Steel

ARTICLES

"What's Your Consumption Factor?" - New York Times

"Review of Collapse" - New Yorker

"Will Big Business Save The Earth?" - The New York Times

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GAYLE LEMMON at TEDxWOMEN

"If you're going to talk about jobs, then you have to talk about entrepreneurs," says Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. "And if you're talking about entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict settings, then you must talk about women." Lemmon is the author of the New York Times bestselling book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana and a Contributing Editor-at-Large for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. She has devoted her life to shedding light on the resiliency of female entrepreneurs, and their remarkable power to reshape local economies. By recognizing and investing in these female breadwinners, Lemmon says, we can help grow economies of all development levels around the world.