Michael Chorost

As a nonfiction author, Michael Chorost has given over 170 lectures for clients such as Google, IBM, Brown University, Duke University, and the National Institutes of Health. He has also been interviewed frequently on radio, TV, and podcasts.

He has often related his personal story of going deaf and learning how to hear all over again with cochlear implants. But he also uses this story as a launching point for discussing how technology is changing human experience. He often addresses questions such as these:

1. How do prosthetics and implants such as cochlear implants actually work? How are they integrated with the body? How do users adapt to such radical changes in the human sensorium?
2. What philosophical and ethical frameworks are the most useful for thinking creatively about how society is changing in the 21^st century?

Dr. Chorost’s superb speaking skills have been honed by 15 years of teaching at Duke, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of San Francisco. Students have often rated him as being the best teacher of their undergraduate career. His speaking style is thoughtful, engaging, and wryly funny. Despite his total deafness, his cochlear implants let him take questions from audiences with skill and flair.

To see a selected list of his lectures and other appearances, click here.