Lavin Exclusive Speaker
To evolutionary biologist, TV host, and bestselling author Dan Riskin, picking his scientific focus was easy. “I had a crush on bats,” he says. “I thought they were cute!” Maybe you don’t share the sentiment, but there’s a strong chance that you feel passionate about something, and that passion can motivate you to expertise: in the sciences, education, or the action items of your 9-to-5. A charismatic speaker, Riskin will encourage you to nourish your own “crush” through curiosity and study—and to never apologize for it.
Whether he’s explaining how nature is both a source of terror and beauty (as in the talk based on his bestselling book Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You), or how curiosity is a skill that can be fortified by stoking “childlike passion,” Dan Riskin is a speaker who gives audiences so much more than scientific “wow” facts. His talks will help you see your tastes, your interests, and all the things you find extraordinary, as sources of inspiration in your life. Passionate curiosity isn’t something bequeathed from on high—it’s in you to find, not unlike a wrinkle-faced bat, tucked away in a Venezuelan rainforest.
Riskin is an evolutionary biologist, science broadcaster, author, and holds a PhD in the biomechanics of bats. His passionate love of science influences every aspect of his life, and informs every subject he speaks on. Best known as the host of Animal Planet’s hugely successful show about parasites, Monsters Inside Me, and of Discovery’s flagship science program, Daily Planet, Riskin makes science accessible, relevant, and deeply motivating to the layperson, showing audiences how they can develop their curiosity for the sciences (or anything else) on their own terms.
A hilarious and charismatic television presence, Riskin is currently CTV ’s Science & Technology Specialist and has appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Dr. Oz Show, The Doctors, CBS This Morning, and CNN Tonight with Don Lemon .