Baratunde Thurston

Baratunde Thurston is a technology-loving comedian from the future who cares enough about the world to engage with it politically. Yes, he votes. Regularly. With an ancestry that includes a great-grandfather who taught himself to read, a grandmother who was the first black employee at the U.S. Supreme Court building and a mother who took over radio stations in the name of the black liberation struggle, Baratunde has long been taught to question authority. It helps that he was raised in Washington, D.C. under crackhead Mayor Marion Barry.

His creative and inquisitive mind, forged by his mother's lessons and polished by a philosophy degree from Harvard, have found expression in the pages of Vanity Fair and the The UK Independent, on the radio waves of WNYC, where he is a regular contributor and on the screens of news networks such as CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Al Jazeera English and This Week In Tech. He even hosted his own show on Discovery Science called Popular Science's Future Of.

Far from simply appearing in media, Baratunde is also helping defining its future. In 2006 he co-founded Jack & Jill Politics, a black political blog whose coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention has been archived by the Library Of Congress. From 2007 to 2012, he helped bring one of America's finest journalistic institutions into the future, serving as Director of Digital for The Onion. In 2011 he was a judge for the Knight News Challenge, a media innovation contest which funds experiments in the future of news. His book, How To Be Black, will be published by Harper Collins in February 2012.

His most significant expression, however, is probably his own creative experimentation with new digital platforms. He was named Foursquare Mayor of the Year for holding a real-world rally to defend his virtual mayorship. Every year he live hate-tweets the Twilight movies to his 100,000+ Twitter followers, and in 2009, he embodied the swine flu with a Twitter account of that name.

His wide range of experience and activity has earned him an equally wide range of praise. The ACLU of Michigan honored him "for changing the political and social landscape one laugh at a time." He was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy. The Root added him to its list of 100 most influential African Americans. Fast Company listed him as one of the 100 Most Creative People In Business. Then-candidate Barack Obama called him "someone I need to know," and YouTube user "mooospot" referred to him as a "dumbass liberal crackhead welfare sucker."

When he's not staring at a glowing rectangle, Mr. Thurston, which he goes by near the end of his bio, travels the world, speaking and advising on the subjects of our digital future and storytelling, satire and democracy, and race and politics. In the past two years alone he has spoken at South by Southwest, Google Atmosphere, the Online News Association Conference, Netroots Nation, the Mashable Awards, Web 2.0 Expo, Personal Democracy Forum, Internet Week NY, Social Media Week, TribeCon, the ACLU Annual Dinner (Mass., Mich. and Okla.), Surf Summit 14 (Mexico), The AtlanTech Dinner (Paris), The FD Summit (Amsterdam) and Digital Directions (Australia). In May 2011, he spoke at the presidential palace in Tbilisi, Georgia (the country) on the role of satire in a healthy democracy, and he advises the White House on digital strategy.

Baratunde performs standup comedy regularly in New York City, resides in Brooklyn, lives on Twitter and has over 30 years experience being black.

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Speech Synopses:

Creative Digital Strategy That Works
Comedian and Onion Director of Digital Baratunde Thurston pushes the envelope on the latest web platforms. Whether personifying The Swine Flu on Twitter, treating a Foursquare mayor battle as legitimate politics or live-blogging his experience clearing an exit ramp on Lakeshore Drive during Chicago's epic blizzard of 2011, he's found ways to do more than post photos and beg for followers. Far beyond delivering comedy and shock value, Baratunde has also delivered results. On his own behalf, for The Onion and others, he has proven an ability to engage communities. Tune in for an entertaining and insightful journey that explores the limits of your favorite digital platforms and gets at the very heart of what it is to be human. Ideal for audiences with an interest in: marketing, social media, digital strategy, the future of media, future of news

How To Be Black
Based on his forthcoming book (Feb 2012, Harper Collins), comedian and director of digital for The Onion, Baratunde brings the audience on a journey from the birth of his great-grandfather into slavery through the (possible) re-election of the nation's first black president. His grandmother was the first black employee in the U.S. Supreme Court building. His mother took over radio stations in the 1960s, gave him an African name and loved tofu. He grew up under DC's crack head mayor Marion Barry, attended an Afrocentric rites of passage program and graduated from Sidwell Friends and Harvard. Undeniably black, Baratunde's story, experiences and hilarious insights are also inextricably American. Also, if you don't book him to give this talk, you're a racist. Ideal for audiences with an interest in: comedy, race, politics, American history, affirmative action, urban issues, Barack Obama, blackness

Correspondent From The Future
In this technology and future-oriented talk, Baratunde, host of Popular Science's Future Of on Science Channel, goes behind the scenes of his television show as well as his digital strategy work at The Onion and other companies to give a deeper analysis of the issues raised in his exploration of the future. From self-driving cars to creepy Japanese robots to a real, functioning orgasmatron, Baratunde will share anecdotes, images and a thoughtful, provocative and humorous analysis of what the future might hold. Ideal for audiences with an interest in: technology, science, the future, television, TV production, media

The Role of Satire / Comedy in Politics
Generally, and democracy specifically. He is also regularly invited to speak on The Future of News / Media and to discuss race, politics, comedy/satire and the media.