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Steven Pinker
Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard | Author, Better Angels, Enlightenment Now & When Everyone Knows | BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award
Steven Pinker is one of the most influential public intellectuals alive. The Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard, he has written eleven books that have collectively redefined how educated people think about language, the mind, violence, progress, rationality, and human nature. His two most recent books make the case that the world is getting better and explain the cognitive and social architecture of common knowledge.
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Steven Pinker biography
Steven Pinker is one of the most influential public intellectuals of the past three decades. The Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, he has spent a career asking some of the most consequential questions about the human condition and answering them with a combination of empirical rigor and stylistic clarity that very few academics can match. His work has reshaped how educated people think about language, consciousness, violence, moral progress, rationality, and the nature of the mind — and his books have found audiences far beyond the academy, making him one of the rare scientists whose ideas genuinely change how non-scientists see the world.
As a science speaker, Pinker grew up in Montreal and earned his BA from McGill University and his PhD from Harvard, before holding faculty positions at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and has received honorary doctorates from universities across North America and Europe. He has won prizes for his research, his writing, and his teaching, including the William James Book Award, the George Miller Prize, the Troland Research Award, and the Henry Dale Prize. In 2024, the BBVA Foundation awarded him the Frontiers of Knowledge Award alongside philosopher Peter Singer for innovative academic contributions in the domains of rationality and moral progress that have achieved widespread impact in the public sphere.
Pinker has been named on the lists of the most influential people in the world by Time and Foreign Policy, and on lists of the most eminent psychologists of the modern era by academic surveys. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, the New York Times Book Review, and the Harvard Crimson, and is a frequent presence in major media on questions of science, rationality, progress, and academic freedom.
Eleven Books, One Argument, and the Latest Frontier
Across eleven books, Pinker has built one of the most coherent and evidence-grounded bodies of popular intellectual work in contemporary non-fiction. The Language Instinct (1994) made the case that language is a biological faculty, not a cultural invention. How the Mind Works (1997) applied evolutionary psychology and computational theory to explain the design of the human mind. The Blank Slate (2002) mounted the most rigorous challenge to the then-dominant view that human nature is infinitely malleable. The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) documented, with overwhelming data, the long-run decline of violence across human history. The Sense of Style (2014) reimagined the writing guide through the lens of cognitive science. Enlightenment Now (2018) extended the argument of Better Angels to the full range of human flourishing metrics, making the case for progress as both empirical fact and normative ideal.
His 2021 book Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters (Allen Lane/Viking) examines why supposedly rational beings are so consistently irrational, and how understanding the cognitive tools that lead us astray can help us use reason more effectively. His most recent book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows…: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life (Scribner, 2025), introduces the concept of common knowledge — information that everyone knows that everyone knows — and shows how this recursive structure underlies phenomena as varied as bank runs, political revolutions, social taboos, humor, and the coordination problems that plague organizations. Nobel laureate Eric Maskin called it “an expository masterpiece.”
As a speaker, Steven Pinker delivers what very few people on earth can: a lifetime of synthetic intellectual work, made accessible without being simplified, on questions that matter to anyone trying to understand the world clearly. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to book Steven Pinker for your next event.
Steven Pinker Speaking Videos
Steven Pinker - Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers
Prof. Steven Pinker & Sadhguru - Is Consciousness a Miracle?
Steven Pinker Keynote Topics
Pinker's signature and most requested keynote presents the empirical case for human progress across 15 measures of wellbeing — life expectancy, health, food, wealth, safety, peace, democracy, equal rights, education, and more — and argues that the failure to recognize this progress is itself a problem with significant consequences for public policy and personal psychology. He examines why the human brain systematically underestimates progress, why the news media structurally misrepresents the state of the world, and why the Enlightenment values of reason, science, and humanism that produced the progress of the past two centuries are now under threat from both the left and the right. A keynote that reliably changes how audiences see the world they are operating in — and what they conclude is worth protecting.
If humans are rational beings, why do we fall for conspiracy theories, make predictable statistical errors, seek out information that confirms what we already believe, and allow emotion to override evidence in some of the highest-stakes decisions we make? Pinker examines the specific cognitive tools — logic, probability, Bayesian reasoning, causal inference, game theory, critical thinking — that make rationality possible, and the specific biases, motivated reasoning patterns, and social dynamics that make it hard. He presents a practical framework for how individuals and organizations can use the tools of rationality more deliberately, and examines why the current crisis of institutional trust and political polarization is, at its core, a rationality problem.
Drawing from his landmark 2011 book, Pinker presents what he calls the most important and least appreciated fact about human history: that violence has declined dramatically across every time scale, from prehistoric to modern, and across every category, from war and genocide to homicide, domestic abuse, child punishment, and the treatment of animals. He examines the historical and psychological forces that drove this decline — the Leviathan, commerce, feminization, cosmopolitanism, and the escalator of reason — and what the evidence says about which of these forces are now most at risk. A keynote that provides senior audiences with the deepest possible grounding in the trajectory of human civilization and what it implies for the challenges we face.
Pinker's most recent book introduces an idea that seems abstract but turns out to explain an astonishing range of human social phenomena. Common knowledge — information that everyone knows that everyone knows, to however many levels of recursion — differs from mere widespread knowledge in ways that are cognitively and socially consequential. When something becomes common knowledge, it changes behavior in ways that simple information does not: it enables coordination, forces acknowledgment, destroys plausible deniability, and triggers tipping points. Pinker shows how this explains bank runs, political revolutions, social taboos, #MeToo, humor, the persistence of bad organizational cultures, and why some truths that everyone privately believes cannot be stated publicly. A keynote that gives leaders a genuinely new lens for understanding communication, coordination, culture, and the moment when hidden consensus becomes public action.
Speaker topics
FAQs on Booking Steven Pinker
Why Steven Pinker?
Booking Steven Pinker means giving your audience access to one of the most rigorously grounded and stylistically gifted public intellectuals alive. He has spent a career making the hardest questions in cognitive science, human history, and moral philosophy accessible without making them shallow, and his eleven books have reshaped educated opinion on questions that matter to every organization navigating a complex world: what human nature actually is, whether the world is getting better or worse, why smart people so often reason badly, and what forces determine whether institutions endure. He is equally compelling to a room of academics, a boardroom of executives, or a general audience, and leaves every audience with a clearer and more evidence-grounded picture of the world. Contact Aurum Speakers Bureau to check availability and fees.
What is Enlightenment Now about?
"Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress" (Allen Lane/Viking, 2018) is Pinker's argument that the values of the Enlightenment — reason, science, humanism, and progress — have demonstrably improved the human condition and continue to be the best available guide for improving it further. Drawing on data across 15 measures of wellbeing including life expectancy, global poverty, literacy, peace, democracy, and equal rights, Pinker documents a long-run improvement in almost every quantifiable dimension of human life and argues that the failure to recognize this progress is itself a symptom of cognitive bias and media distortion rather than accurate perception of the world. The book was endorsed by Bill Gates as his favorite book ever.
What is the BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award?
The BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Awards are granted by the BBVA Foundation to recognize outstanding contributions to scientific knowledge and artistic creation. In 2024, Steven Pinker was awarded the prize in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Economics category jointly with philosopher Peter Singer, recognized for their innovative academic contributions in the domains of rationality and moral progress that have achieved widespread impact beyond the academic sphere. The award acknowledges not just research excellence but the capacity to bring rigorous scholarship to public discourse in ways that change how non-specialists think about important questions.
What topics does Steven Pinker cover as a keynote speaker?
Steven Pinker speaks on the case for human progress and Enlightenment values, the science of rationality and cognitive bias, the history of violence and what drives its decline, common knowledge and the social dynamics of coordination and culture change, the nature of language and the mind, and the relationship between science and humanistic understanding. He presents to audiences across business, government, education, healthcare, and technology, and is equally effective at leadership conferences, academic institutions, policy forums, and large public events. Aurum Speakers Bureau can advise on the right topic for your event and provide full details on Steven Pinker's speaking fees and availability.
How to book Steven Pinker as a keynote speaker?
Aurum Speakers Bureau can help you book Steven Pinker as a speaker for your next event, conference, or board meeting. Simply fill out our contact form to inquire about Steven Pinker's availability for a speaking engagement. One of our booking agents will respond to your request immediately and contact the speaker to let them know you want to hire them. We will assist you with obtaining speaking fees, booking information, and confirming availability for Steven Pinker or any other top keynote speaker or celebrity of your choice.
How much is Steven Pinker speaking fee?
Steven Pinker speaking fees are determined by several factors, including the event's date, whether it's a virtual or in-person event, the duration, format, preparation required for their speech, and more. The same applies to the cost to hire any other top expert speakers and celebrities. The Speaker Fee Range listed on our website is simply a guideline and is subject to change without notice. If you would like to hire Steven Pinker to deliver a keynote speech for your event, please fill out the contact form or email us at info@aurumbureau.com with as much detail as possible. One of our experienced agents will get in touch with you and let you know exactly how much it will cost to book Steven Pinker.
How can I contact Steven Pinker?
We only work with Steven Pinker on paid speaking engagements. Aurum Speakers Bureau can assist you in booking Steven Pinker and will handle all negotiations, contracts, and logistics associated with having Steven Pinker speak at your event. We will be your sole point of contact throughout the process. Get in touch with Aurum Speakers Bureau today, and we will reach out to any motivational speaker or celebrity you want to enquire about speaking at your event. If you wish to contact Steven Pinker for any other reason, we will be unable to assist you as we are not authorized to provide personal contact information.
Can I book Steven Pinker for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Steven Pinker is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Steven Pinker for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
