AROUND THE WORLD IN RHETORIC
News,
Nov 18, 2025
Human Corporate Speechwriters: Rumors of Their Demise Are Statistically Dubious
A new Ragan / HarrisX survey suggests CEOs now prefer AI for their speechwriting to a "top-tier communications professional." Not the CEOs who matter, I suggest. (Not yet, anyway.)
EVENTS
Oct 22, 2025
AI and the Speechwriting Process: A Dispatch From the Front
Garbage in is still garbage inโeven if it doesn't smell.
Oct 07, 2025
It’s Not AI, Sweetheart: a Stirring Defense of the Em Dash, and Human Writing
I will not apologize for my training. I will not abandon the tools I was given. I will not write like you.
Aug 04, 2025
Meet Your Brilliant, Solicitous But Untrustworthy New Coworker (AI)
If you are careless, AI will rapidly drag your work down into a sea of mediocrity. I am very deliberate about staying in control of the process.
Jul 17, 2025
Yes, This Work Is Worth It
A note to my fellow exec comms pros, and to young writers who thinking of talking their way into this world.
Jul 02, 2025
This Isn’t Writing, It’s Mincing
My analysis of a University of Virginia leaders' letter generates some dark observations about the state of American leadership communication today. Do you see things differently?
VITAL SPEECHES OF RECENT WEEKS
"When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you."
"Today we no longer need to ask: Did 8 May free us? What we need to ask is: How can we stay free?"
Europeans are emerging from denial. In a single day in Munich, they understood that Ukraineโs survival and Europeโs future are in their hands.
"After weโve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minoritiesโonce weโve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friendsโafter that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the faceโwhat comes next?"
How can we seem indifferent when stakeholders are passionate aboutโand often personally invested inโsocial issues, including human rights, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive rights? โฆ How can any organization argue that any of this is not core to what they do, or who they are?
In your case, your weapons are your performances. In your case, your weapons are your records. In your case, your weapons are the emotions of sport.
"Listen: If Harriet Tubman ran to freedom, you can run to your destiny! Martin Luther King didn't march for you to get a degree and chill! ... Black folks didn't pick cotton so you could look cute in a black robe!"
Many of us have been saying for a long time that the world has been trying to transition in fog, without a compass, on a road to nowhere.ย Consumers increasingly agree, as transition realities bite.
"What draws you to your favorite song, your favorite book? It's what makes you feel. The seriousness of it. The intensity of it."
"We donโt anoint kings in this country. We have elections. And Donald Trump, of all people, should know we donโt rig elections."

