David Ewing Duncan

David Ewing Duncan offers a quick, thorough, and digestible survey of where we are with the deluge of new and breathtaking technologies and discoveries that are rushing at us at an exponential pace and what it means to you, your family, your business, and the future. At the same time, we are facing existential-level threats ranging from AI going rogue, automation run amuck, climate change, and the political division. He calls this a “Tale of Two Cities” moment where in one “city” we are seeing breathtaking new technologies in multiple fields that are poised to impact how we live and could improve our lives and the lives of generations to come. The other “city” is what’s keeping us up at night with what might go wrong. Blending optimism with pragmatism, Duncan walks an audience through the wondrous possibilities and how we can aim ourselves towards thriving and building a sustainable future.

Spotlight on AI:
David Ewing Duncan can adapt this talk to focus exclusively on artificial intelligence. Duncan walks audiences through what is really happening with the plethora of recent developments in technology, science, and engineering.

Based on his address at the UN Science Summit, David Ewing Duncan merges two topics he has long studied and reported on—climate change and human health. Drawing from his book, Voyage of Sorcerer II, Duncan describes what climate change is doing to Earth’s microbiome, and the organisms—including humans—it sustains. He also pulls in research and interviews from The Future of Health report he co-wrote, as well as his many years of research into the impact of the environment on the human organism. Duncan’s talk offers hope that it’s not too late to head off disaster and that we can fix our planet if we can muster the social, economic, and political will to do it.

Early in the pandemic, David Ewing Duncan contracted a mild case of COVID that quickly became a case of long COVID—one that left him breathless, his brain in a fog, and impacted his heart, leading to depression and a complete inability to write.

Duncan describes how ketamine psychotherapy, along with one of the leading figures in the psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy movement, saved his brain. He delves deeply into the “new” science and therapeutics of psychedelics to treat depression, PTSD, and other mental health maladies.  Building on his Vanity Fair essay, “Stolen Words: COVID, Ketamine, and Me,” he discusses what’s known about the science, the clinical evidence, and the history of humans and psychoactive substances—plus gives an overview of the possible future of the psychedelic space in business, IP, regulation, legality, and investing. In this fascinating talk, Duncan answers questions like: how do psychedelics work? Will they be legalized? What’s happening with issue of IP? And what traditional medicines can they replace?

How long do you want to live? David Ewing Duncan has asked over 100,000 people this question, asking them to “vote” for wanting to live to age 80, 120, 150, or forever. The results might surprise you. For this talk, Duncan draws off 25 years of reporting on the serious science of health and biotechnology, plus years of test-driving nearly every wellness test on the planet, as he explains what’s real and what’s hype in wellness and longevity science. He also talks about how breakthroughs in genetics, regenerative medicine, AI, and bionics might lead to human enhancement—and whether or not we actually want these augmentations. Duncan includes insights he has received firsthand from the world’s leading longevity and wellness scientists and entrepreneurs.