Baratunde Thurston *
Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, author and vigilante pundit who successfully combines technology, politics and comedy. He co-founded the black political blog, Jack & Jill Politics in the summer of 2006. hosted Popular Science's Future Of on Science Channel and works as the Director of Digital at The Onion. Baratunde has contributed to Vanity Fair, The UK Independent and WNYC, and with over 80,000 followers he tweets very, very hard.
Mr. Thurston, which he goes by in his bio, has often used satire as an expression of his activism and technology as a medium for that expression. He has self-published three books, including Keep Jerry Falwell Away From My Oreo Cookies and is currently writing some sort of book about black people which will be published at some point in time after the present moment.
Baratunde was nominated for the Bill Hicks Award for Thought Provoking Comedy, declared a Champion of the First Amendment by Iowa State University, and called “someone I need to know” by Barack Obama. His stage presence has earned him speaking duties at the National Conference for Media Reform, Netroots Nation, South by Southwest Interactive & Film and Web 2.0 Expo. He has been featured various media outlets including ABC, NPR, BBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, C-SPAN and Comedy Central.
Baratunde resides in Brooklyn, lives in The Internet and has over 30 years experience being black.
Recent Coverage: The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2011
Baratunde Thurston on Facebook / Twitter / YouTube
Confirmed Speakers *
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Sam Kass Assistant Chef and Senior Policy Advisory, Healthy Food Initiatives The White House Read Bio -
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* Speakers subject to change.