Doomer Optimism Gathering: Speakers
Speakers
We are excited to announce our confirmed speakers. We will announce more as they are confirmed.
Bill Kaufman
Bill Kauffman is a writer and cultural critic, and the author of numerous books including Look Homeward America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchist. He writes widely on localism, decentralism, pacifism, and the preservation of American place and memory, with essays appearing in venues such as The American Conservative, Front Porch Republic, and The Baffler.
Chris Arnade
Chris Arnade is a writer and photographer, and the author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America. He writes Chris Arnade Walks the World on Substack, a newsletter reflecting on class, place, and the lives of people on the margins of American society. A former Wall Street trader turned chronicler of everyday America, he lives in New York and spends much of his time walking cities, towns, and back roads across the country.
Peco & Ruth Gaskovski
"Peco Gaskovski is the author of the science fiction novel Exogenesis and also writes Pilgrims in the Machine on Substack, a newsletter exploring being human in an age of acceleration. Ruth Gaskovski and Peco explore navigating the impact of technology in daily life on School of the Unconformed. As Swiss-Canadian dual nationals, they make their home on the borderlands of Mennonite country in Canada."
Grant R. Martsolf
Grant Martsolf is a Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and the Managing Editor of The Savage Collective, a Substack newsletter that explores themes related to class and human flourishing in a Machine age. He writes on topics related to class, fertility, marriage and family formation. His popular work has been published in various outlets including Compact, Angelus Press, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Brandon Daily
Brandon Daily is a mechanic and autodidact. He works as an equipment service technician for the popular convenience store and gas station chain Sheetz. He has a Master's Degree in Religion and tries to read books and drive cars that are much older than him.
Ashley Fitzgerald
Ashley Fitzgerald is an environmental sociologist who co-founded the Doomer Optimism podcast. She is using all of her agency and willpower to find points of hope in the world.
Jeff Shafer
Jeff is director of the Hale Institute. He is an attorney whose areas of litigation practice have included criminal defense, election law, and constitutional and civil rights.
Andy Hickman
Andy is an Adirondacker, boondock geographer, and incorrigible vagabond. He is a full-time writer and traveler who can often be found roaming around New York state.
Charles and Tessa Carman
Charles is assistant professor of history at Regent University. His writings have appeared in The New Atlantis, The American Conservative and Touchstone. His blog is www.orderofperchingbirds.com
Tessa is a mother, writer and teacher with roots in northern Minnesota and branches in the Inland Northwest who thinks and writes and dreams about education, small farms, fairy tales, poetry, theater, liturgical theology, and living philosophy. Her writings have appeared in Hearth & Field, The Lamp Magazine, Plough, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy and more.
Together, they love hosting play readings and home- and community-educating their four (so far) children.
Nicholas Kotar
Nick is an author of epic fantasy and science fiction inspired by Russian fairy tales, a writing instructor and speaker, a freelance translator from Russian to English, the resident conductor of a men’s choir at a Russian monastery in the middle of cow country, and a Grammy-nominated vocalist. His only regret in life is that he wasn’t born in 19th century St. Petersburg, but is doing everything possible to remedy that error. If anyone knows where he can find a blue police box that’s bigger on the inside, please let him know.