Not your father’s speechwriting conference
With the PSA World Conference less than two months away (Oct. 22-24 in D.C.), I thought I’d share some of the raves from participants in last year’s event, and remind you that seats …
U.S. Chamber of Commerce seeks speechwriter
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is looking for a speechwriter to “draft speeches, speech briefings, and op-eds for the president and CEO and other senior executives; write other materials including weekly columns, blog …
A crying shame
After Tesla founder Elon Musk's erratic behavior and his emotional interview last week with The New York Times, the company's stock dropped—of course. To explain why, I returned to this piece I wrote …
President rambles, speechwriters blamed
For presidential speechwriters, things are tough all over. To the consternation of his communication handlers, the president often departs from his prepared remarks. President Rodrigo Duterte, that is, of the …
Mommy, what do speechwriters look like?
If you search Google Images for “speechwriter,” you’d think presidential speechwriters are the only kind. We recently did so, and the screen shot reveals that of the 20 frames on the …
“The Molecule of More”: insight for everybody, but speechwriters most of all
Nearly four years ago, a close friend shared some fascinating material: overlooked research on the brain and behavior. It captured my attention as a speechwriter for the groundbreaking things it …
Twain, on TR(ump)
What would Mark Twain have thought of Donald Trump? We will never know for sure, but we can perhaps get a general idea from what Twain said about the presidency …
You think your boss is tough?
You think your boss asks a lot of the speechwriter? President Lyndon Johnson’s schedule “was so fierce that even many young men could not keep up,” according to a piece this …
Script out of order? For the Great Communicator, no big deal
The Great Communicator was nothing short of a public-speaking acrobat, as we learn from this yarn from President Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson (credited for “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”). …
Speeches last longer
Policies come and go, but speeches last forever. In the Obama White House, Ben Rhodes started out as a speechwriter and became a policy guy. Not necessarily a promotion, he …