I run an association of professional speechwriters, and yesterday one of our members sent me an article about a 77-year-old Retired Lt. Colonel, Barnard Kemter, who was giving a speech on Memorial Day when somebody purposely cut off his mic. “I’m sure you’ve already gotten this from multiple sources,” she…

A journalist acquaintance had a hot take on yesterday’s New York Times story about a letter sent to Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, by his family, disowning him for his disloyalty to President Trump. …

This isn’t just your best opportunity to help your CEO do what needs to be done, it’s actually your first — and probably, your last. Dear Executive Communication Professional: You might be tempted to throw up your hands at this point. (But you won’t.) The Edelman Trust Barometer this week…

I told my 16-year-old daughter it’s time for her to stop pining for this summer to be like last summer, and start thinking about … what, exactly? I’ve been reading Erik Larson’s fine new book about Churchill in 1940, and I think it had something to do with a conversation…

More virtual conferences mean major changes in the nature of speeches — and the speechwriters who are hired to write them. — It’s been a relatively good week for speeches and speechwriters! On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth gave a widely appreciated televised speech calling on British citizens to show “the quiet, good-humored resolve” they’ve been known for going back to her first radio address, in 1940. On Tuesday, American Medical Association President Patrice…

Weary leaders must not revert to their natural instincts. We mustn’t, either. It’s been some month for corporate CEOs, who have been transformed from poster children of American income inequality to American saviors-by-default — many of them forgoing pay, making no-layoff pledges, retooling their companies to help in the fight…

A Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes to You: An Open Letter to American CEOs Why you must say something about coronavirus every single day. Dear American CEO, “I feel like I have been hit on the head with a cow,” a Joseph Mitchell character once said (after he’d had a…

The “self-guided” motorcycle tour of Ecuador sounded a little canned to my college buddy and me. Not for long. Tom hit the dog and went down hard. He was right in front of me, but I actually had time, as I swerved around the wreck on the wet mountain curve…

The question I get asked most as editor of Vital Speeches is, “Where do you find all the speeches?” Which I always take as a polite way of asking, “How do you get to decide?” Of all the tens of thousands of speeches delivered in the world every month, how…