“No Adam” Eve exclaimed, “Let me eat that fruit, I want that knowledge, I want to be able to think for myself”
There is no such thing a human perfection. I am glad about that. Perfection is a complete bore.
We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories. The storytelling mind is allergic to uncertainty, randomness, and coincidence.
Jonathan Gottschall The Storytelling animal

INSPIRATIONAL TALKS

About ethics, technology, science, art and the stories we tell

Are you looking for a speaker who can engage your team with fresh, thought-provoking ideas at your symposium or corporate event? Look no further! I offer keynote and interactive talks focused on ethics and moral courage in organizations.

In addition to these topics, I frequently speak on the intersections of society, (bio)technology, and art. Like in my book De Dappere Kijker, my talks draw from real-life examples, scientific insights, and well-known stories.

When you invite me to give a talk, you’ll receive a unique and personalized presentation, crafted around your specific questions and needs.

My Style:

  • Sharp: Intelligent, analytical, and deeply insightful
  • Surprising: Full of unexpected twists and new perspectives
  • Accessible: No dull graphs or text-heavy slides—just relatable stories, engaging images, and film clips
  • Humorous: A mix of unconventional, provocative humor to entertain while inspiring reflection
  • Empathetic: Connecting with my audience is always the starting point of a talk.

You can book me as a speaker or moderator through The Next Speaker

Previous topics I’ve covered include:

  • Can we distinguish between fact and fiction?
  • Why are we fascinated by stories, especially about bad people?
  • What can Clint Eastwood teach us about moral courage?
  • What do clothing and hairstyles reveal about the success of a career woman?
  • How do science fiction films shape our views on organ transplantation?
  • Why do men fall in love with robots?
  • How long before we use biotechnology to create ‘perfect’ humans?

I’d also love to explore these questions in a debate!

Examples of recent talks

Just like the movies!

One need not be a science fiction writer to envision the possibility of future murder rings supplying healthy organs for black-market surgeons whose patients are unwilling to wait until natural sources have supplied the heart or liver or pancreas they need.

What do successful carreer women look like?

NETFLIX offers a rich source of strong female role models. Women who struggle with combining the different roles assigned to them—mother, daughter, lover, wife, friend, career woman, boss, and manager. How do these women shape themselves? What do they look like? How do they behave? Who inspires them? This interactive lecture addresses these questions.

Do I feel lucky?

In this talk, I use 40 years of Clint Eastwood’s film history to show how our ideas about good and evil have evolved. The characters Eastwood portrays on the big screen have undergone a massive moral transformation since the 1960s. Once a simple gunslinger with no name, Eastwood now depicts fallible characters with moral depth.

Lecture Bad Girls!

What do women on the big screen tell us about our image of women? What can we learn from these fictional female characters about real women? How is our ideal image of women influenced by films and television?

Lecture: Imagining Bio(techno)logy: What ethicists could learn from bio art.

The “birth” of the critical bio art movement takes place in a time where the traditional bioethics is going through a crisis. A much heard complaint is that bioethics is suffering from an imagination deficit. As a reflective discipline, bioethics is not as dynamic and lively as its object of reflection.

Lecture: Artificial Stupidity?

Why do fictional AI machines dream about being human? Or, why do we think they do? And why do men fall in love with their female robots?
Can she continue for a while? (In response to the question "does anyone have any questions for Ellen")
Visitor of the interactive lecture the woman as design issue
No boring theories or graphs, but stories, films, science fiction, and Netflix as sources of inspiration. I loved it!
Visitor of a talk about robots, cyborgs and love