AI and the Speechwriting Process: A Dispatch From the Front
I’m witnessing miracles! The same policy people who used to take three weeks to deliver an incoherent mess of data points to me are now responding instantly with content that …
Pregiarized!
There’s nothing new under the sun. (That’s an old saying too.) For years, I’ve been telling speechwriters there are two ways to coach speakers into becoming more dynamic, authentic and …
Meet Your Brilliant, Solicitous But Untrustworthy New Coworker (AI)
Artificial intelligence complicates things for writers. It’s complicating everything for everyone these days, sure. We all have AI in our faces all day long, whether we want it or not …
Leadership Communication These Days: Utterly Essential, and Hard as Hell
So many times were Chatham House Rules re-invoked at last week’s Annual Gathering of the Higher Education Leadership Communication Council at Wesleyan University. This is such a creepy time to be employed to …
Yes, This Work Is Worth It
Fourteen years ago this week I started my first executive communications job. I was (very) loosely qualified for it, but the team was scaling quickly and needed bodies. And my …
Who Wants to Be a Speechwriter in 2025?
First published in Pluck: A Newsletter for Fearless Communicators, produced by Justine Adelizzi, an award-winning speechwriter and communications leader. Subscribe to Pluck. *** Within the communications field, being a speechwriter comes …
‘Does European Speechwriting Have a Future?’
Tuesday. I am on a train. Behind me is a world full of chores: the kitchen lights that flicker like the world’s worst, most desperate, domestic disco; the disintegrating garden …
It’s Lonely Near the Top (But Only If You’re Alone).
Recently Forbes had a piece quoting CEOs on why they join peer groups where they can exchange experiences and ideas with others just like them. “I joined a peer group because I was making …
How to Know Whether You Should Be Worried About AI Taking Your Speechwriting Job
Many of us were journalists before turning to rhetoric, which makes speechwriters an exquisite fusion of objectors and optimists with a weakness for eloquence: people who can spot the long …
Real State of the Union Revealed by State-of-the-Village Speeches
President Trump is giving his big speech to Congress tonight. But even when we have a president who does try to mouth rhetoric that remotely rhymes with reality, I’m not …