Dr. Aaron McKain, M.S.L.
Dr. Aaron McKain, M.S.L.
ai ethics | free speech I disinformation | privacy I bi-partisan coalitions I college reform
professor I advocate I artist & curator I communications strategist
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Workshop, Indiana University
In 2018, I left liberal higher education, became a diversity hire at a Bible college,
and started a non-partisan and multi-faith digital ethics and free speech think tank.
Everyone thought we were crazy. But it worked because my teams and I have
been developing a holistic technology solution for 20 years.
I started graduate school on 9/11 to figure out how to fix the inevitable collision of technology,
postmodern political culture, and the Constitution/First Amendment.
But the story of what happened next -- and what happened to hundreds of volunteers, partners,
and students for those two decades -- is the story of how higher education collapsed.
(And how America might if someone doesn't Oppenheimer-up and fix it.)
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES I OMAHA WORLD HERALD
NBC AFFILIATES
(TOLEDO, HOUSTON, SACREMENTO)
HUMAN LAWYER I PIONEER PREESS
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS I AI & YOU
In 2018
I left liberal higher education and became a diversity hire at an Evangelical college
to try to fix this AI ethics
and college free speech mess.
The goal was to bring the left and right
--and Christians, Muslims,
and Jewish-Americans --
back together to:
fight against the technology and toxic
political culture
tearing us apart.
Me, my new students, and a childhood friend from across the aisle
started the Institute for Digital Humanity.
Everyone thought we were crazy.
Here's the crazier thing: It worked.
Then I got shot at in my living room.
The Evangelicals lost $$$ for hosting the Floyd memorial.
And me and the kids we're laid off.
Now we're back. Because the cavalry ain't coming folks. And we got 8 months to fix this mess or we're all screwed.
Forbes / NBC KARE-11: Minneapolis
NBC: Houston, Toledo, Sacramento
Human Lawyer / Next Generation Politics
Omaha World-Herald / AI & You / Our Black News / Nebraska Public Television
Pioneer Press / Nebraska Examiner
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Working Group
Indiana University
Consultant
Anti-Defamation League
Co-Founder
Commonplace (McGraw-Hill)
A BIPARTISAN BLUEPRINT
TO FIX OUR COLLEGES, AI, AND
POST-DIGITAL AMERICA.
AT THE SAME TIME.
We have a simple, holistic, 2,000-year-old method to fix the whole mess. And the Black Mirror meets Dead Poet's Society story -- of citizens putting differences aside and working together -- that Americans desperately needs to hear.
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
FORBES I OMAHA WORLD HERALD
NBC AFFILIATES
(TOLEDO, HOUSTON, SACREMENTO)
HUMAN LAWYER I PIONEER PREESS
NEXT GENERATION POLITICS I AI & YOU
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On:
A plug and play K-law school -- plus professional trainings for advocates and attorneys -- interactive
post-digital free speech curriculum
and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Seeking Investors & Partners On
A plug and play K-law school interactive post-digital free speech curriculum and civic deliberation program.
Thank you to my clients, partners, and students for proving that all Americans can still come together and re-embrace
our common humanity.
ACLU MINNESOTA
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
LITTLE EARTH NATIVE HUD COMMUNITY
CODED BIAS (NETFLIX)
BYTES MEDIA
TAKE ACTION MINNESOTA
MN LEGAL RIGHTS CENTER
CIVIC NEBRASKA
MN EQUAL JUSTICE RESEARCH CENTER
MN DEPT. OF HEALTH
SAFETY NOT SURVEILLANCE
GUNS DOWN, LOVE UP
PROTECT MN
SECOND CHANCE COALITION
URBAN EDUCATORS
RECLAIM THE BLOCK
ACLU NEBRASKA
EDUCATION AND TRAININGS
NORTH CENTRAL UNIVERSITY
INDIANA UNIVERSITY
HAMLINE UNIVERSITY
CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY
UNIV OF WISCONSIN: LA CROSSE
ST. PAUL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
IOWA BAR ASSOCIATION
NEBRASKA BAR ASSOCIATION
DIGITAL ARCHIVE OF LITERACY NARRATIVES
NORTH SUBURBAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS
NORTHEAST SCULPTURE GALLERY
MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
STEVE FLETCHER
ABDI WARSAME
LATRISHA VETAW
PHILIPE CUNNINGHAM
SAINT PAUL CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS
MITRA JILALI
NELSIE YANG
RICHFIELD, MN CITY COUNCIL
SIMON TRAUTMANN
MINNESOTA STATE
HOUSE REPRESENTATIVES & SENATORS
PEGGY SCOTT
SCOTT LUCERO
DR. STEVE JENSEN
JEREMY MUNSON
Experience from the adjunct basement to the President's office.
And probably the only prof who taught free speech and digital ethics at a Bible college and the wokest school in America.
A BIPARTISAN BLUEPRINT
TO FIX OUR COLLEGES, AI, AND
POST-DIGITAL AMERICA.
AT THE SAME TIME.
We have a simple, holistic, 2,000-year-old method to fix the whole mess. And the Black Mirror meets Dead Poet's Society story -- of citizens putting differences aside and working together -- that Americans desperately needs to hear.
Story & Proven Bi-Partisan Solutions
Story & Proven
Bi-Partisan Solutions
Forbes / NBC KARE-11: Minneapolis
NBC: Houston, Toledo, Sacramento
Human Lawyer / Next Generation Politics
Omaha-World Herald / AI & You / AG News
Pioneer Press / Our Black News
Because art is the answer
when words stop working.
Two decades of cutting-edge teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
We can still fix our colleges in time.
But we have to move fast.
Because art is the answer
when words stop working.
I left liberal higher education in 2018,
became a diversity hire at a Bible college,
and used 20 years of IP to start
a wildly successful bipartisan and multifaith digital ethics think tank.
Everything works because I started grad school
on 9/11 to build bipartisan solutions
to the inevitable collision between
technology, postmodern American politics, and the Constitution/First Amendment.
This wasn't my team's first rodeo:
We built a multi-campus disinformation fighting network back in 2007 and a free speech
art collective in 2017.
And our story is the story of how higher education collapsed. And why America will too if someone doesn't step up and Oppenheimer this mess.
Forbes I NBC KARE-11 (Minneapolis) I NBC (Toledo, Houston, Sacramento) I AI & You
Omaha World-Herald I Human Lawyer I Next Generation Politics I Pioneer Press
I Our Black News I News On Purpose I Nebraska Public Television
NBC KARE-11: MINNEAPOLIS
October 2021
"After Facebook Scandal, Local
College Students Take On Big Tech"
Tech Ethics, Policy, Culture, & Law
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions
for a just, free, and sane post-digital world for everyone.
We are living through a humanity-defining moment that can alter the course of human history for the better.
We are totally blowing it. And the experts who got us into this mess don't know how
to get us out of it because the colleges silenced the wrong nerds.
Thank you to my clients, students, and partners for proving that all Americans can stop canceling each other and re-embrace our common humanity.
Two decades of cutting-edge teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Higher Ed Leadership & Innovation
We can still fix our colleges in time. But we have to move fast.
Higher ed experience from the adjunct basement to the president's office,
with a Bible college, Fortune 500 company,
and one of the wokest schools in America
in-between.
My student teams have launched
a disinformation fighting platform, a free speech art colllective, and a bipartisan and multi-faith digital ethics think tank. Now we want to show you how to fix higher education.
Arts Advocacy & Creative PR Solutions
Because art is the answer when words stop working.
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars, and advocates
Strategic PR and Art Exhibitions On:
Digital Civil Rights, Technological Racism, Mental and Physical Health, Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars,
and advocates
Produces Art About;
Digital Civil Rights, Mental & Physical Health
Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Twenty years of proven ideas and actual solutions for a just, free, and sane post-digital world for everyone
NEWS AND UPDATES: 5/27/24
Dr. McKain is now consulting partners with Trusted AI, led by Pamela Gupta.
There is still time to fix the AI ethics crisis and the IDH is continuing to
put its proven bipartisan blueprint
in front of elected officials.
Executive Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Digital Humanity
Visiting Scholar
OSTROM Working Group
Indiana University
Consultant
Anti-Defamation League
Co-Founder
Commonplace (McGraw-Hill)
Two decades of cutting-edge
teaching, curriculum, research, and advocacy to fight for free speech and catalyze allegedly impossible cross-cultural conversations.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On:
A plug and play K-law school -- plus professional trainings for advocates and attorneys -- interactive
post-digital free speech curriculum
and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform.
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Working On
Leveling up a plug and play k-law school interactive
post-digital free speech
curriculum and cross-cultural civic deliberation platform
Actively Headhunted
To lead state and national
First Amendment orgs
Currently Seeking Investors & Partners On
A plug and play K-law school interactive post-digital free speech curriculum and civic deliberation program.
NEWS AND UPDATES: 5/27/24
We are working with investors -- and have 100 national reporters crawling all over websites --
because we have the platform and solutions
to fix the free speech crisis on our colleges.
Arts Advocacy
& Creative PR Solutions
Because art is the answer when words stop working.
Because art is the answer
when words stop working.
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars,
and advocates
Produces Art About
Digital Civil Rights, Mental & Physical Health
Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars, and advocates
Produces Art About:
Digital Civil Rights, Technological Racism,
Mental and Physical Health, Disability,
Gun Violence, Post-Digital America
Higher Ed Leadership
& Innovation
We can still fix our colleges in time. But we have to move fast.
Experience from the adjunct basement to the President's office, with a Bible college, Fortune 500 company, and one of the wokest schools in America in between.
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars,
and advocates
Produces Art About
Digital Civil Rights, Mental & Physical Health
Disability, Gun Violence,
Post-Digital America
Artist/Curator
Creative Director/Co-Founder
The Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy
Creates and Leads
Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural
teams of artists, scholars, and advocates
Produces Art About:
Digital Civil Rights, Technological Racism,
Mental and Physical Health, Disability,
Gun Violence, Post-Digital America