Most-Popular Skeptics Lecturers
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To commemorate Skeptics’ latest milestone—more than 40 continuous years of weekly presentations during the school year—program director and history department chair Jason Beck offers his personal recollections of some of the most memorable lecturers who have visited Blair, addressed students and, as tradition often dictated, enjoyed spending time informally with students and faculty.
Dr. Terrence Roberts
Dr. Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock Nine, described what growing up in segregated Little Rock, Arkansas, and integrating Central High School taught him about the power of choice, courage and community. To an enrapt Blair audience, he recounted facing violence and hatred yet choosing nonviolence and inner calm, thanks to guidance provided by his loving parents, supportive neighbors and a drive to question injustice. Emphasizing that no one is truly “self-made,” Dr. Roberts urged students to build genuine community, remove barriers to others’ growth and remember that the “dash” between their birth and death dates is defined by how they choose to live and treat other people.
Benjamin Schwartz P’21
The Society of Skeptics welcomed Dr. Benjamin Schwartz P’21, a specialist in gynecologic oncology and minimally invasive surgery, to share his experience with the daVinci® Surgical System and how robotic surgery is shaping the future of healthcare. Students had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Schwartz and try out the cutting-edge daVinci® Surgical System during the class day, before he addressed a larger audience to showcase how this real-world innovation is enhancing doctors’ surgical options while minimizing pain and recovery time for patients.
Susan Kilrain P ’20 ’23
Sharing her experience as the youngest person, and one of only three women, to pilot a space shuttle, Navy commander and NASA astronaut Susan Kilrain P ’20 ’23 revealed to Blair students some of her secrets for defying the odds to become an astronaut–less than a .01 percent chance–and described what it is like to travel in space. She also recounted her experiences as an officer in the U.S. Navy, a distinguished Navy test pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours in over 30 different aircraft, an aerospace engineer and experienced world traveler. For her service, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Commander Kilrain with the Defense Superior Service Medal, as she paved the way for young women to follow in her footsteps.
Chris Ayers ’98
Thanks in part to the work of Chris Ayers ’98, the family of Henrietta Lacks—whose “HeLa” cells enabled major medical breakthroughs from the polio vaccine to COVID-19 treatments—has secured compensation for her unwitting contribution to science. Lacks’ cells were taken without her consent in 1951, a story later brought to national attention by the nonfiction book and film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Representing the family in its legal action, Mr. Ayers spoke to Blair students about the landmark case and the fight against profiteering from the unethical origins of the HeLa cell line.
Luol Deng ’03
Having fled war-torn South Sudan with his family in 1990, Luol Deng ’03 entered Blair Academy nine years later as a ninth grader from the United Kingdom and went on to an illustrious basketball career that took him to the highest echelons of the sport. Today, the former two time NBA All-Star is a global philanthropist and the leader of the Luol Deng Foundation, a nonprofit he founded in 2005 that uses basketball and education to give hope to all South Sudanese in Africa and around the world. At Skeptics, Mr. Deng was joined by a crowd of Blair students eager to hear more about his long commitment to global philanthropy and why they should give back for the opportunities they have been provided.
Colum McCann
Award-winning author Colum McCann underscored the power of storytelling during his Skeptics address. Hoping to inspire students to share their own experiences with others, Mr. McCann spoke about how people can shape the world through listening and storytelling. Apart from storytelling on the page, the Irish author co-founded Narrative 4, a nonprofit global story exchange organization where Mr. McCann encourages the community to tell effective stories for positive change. “They can change the world through telling their own stories and listening to the stories of others,” Mr. McCann said of high school students. “I also wanted them to understand that optimism is far stronger and far less sentimental than the cynic.”
Loung Ung
Loung Ung spent much of her first 10 years of life fleeing her native Cambodia, surviving the genocide known as “The Killing Fields,” a period in the late 1970s when more than one million Cambodians were killed by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime. It took nearly a decade to escape and even longer to be reunited with her remaining family. In fall 2022, Blair students gathered to hear the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights activist share her story and her passion for humanitarian efforts across the globe.
Anthony D’Amato ’06
Bringing a message of inspiration to campus, Anthony D’Amato ’06 shared his decade of experience pursuing, and eventually securing, a career as a full-time musician. “If I can serve as an example of a non-traditional career path that’s available to students who perhaps don’t feel like they fit the mold, that would be a wonderful thing,” he said. Undeterred, Mr. D’Amato entered the industry professionally as a young freelance writer and eventually a music publicist soon after graduating from Princeton University. All the while, he was writing and producing his first two albums from home, and in 2014, landed his first record deal and international acclaim for his third release, “Shipwreck from the Shore,” which launched his career as a touring musician.
Mohamed El-Erian
This famed business leader, public intellectual and Blair uncle did the impossible: garnering the attention of the entire student body by talking about critical economic issues such as the U.S. housing bubble, the problematic growth of the financial sector and the Eurozone in crisis—no small task. After deeming his prepared speech too long without enough time for questions, the PIMCO CEO rewrote his lecture late the night before he visited campus. Students and faculty alike took their hats off to Mohamed El-Erian for his ability to explain complex concepts with understandable and accessible metaphors.
John C. Bogle '47
Chairman Emeritus of the Blair Board of Trustees Jack Bogle began one Skeptics talk by focusing on failure. Yes, he performed poorly in his first outing in the business world—and, indeed, this stumble was a blessing in disguise. He went on to found and lead The Vanguard Group, Inc., creating a veritable investment industry along the way. A student asked about the college courses necessary to enter Jack Bogle’s rarefied world. He replied: “Why not get a good liberal arts education? We can teach you the rest. When you are 45 and have made some money, you will want to have something to say beyond financial matters.”
Christo Brand
Christo Brand served as Nelson Mandela’s prison guard for more than a decade, eventually becoming the former South African president’s confidant and close friend. At Skeptics, Mr. Brand shared how this unlikely relationship grew through his and Mr. Mandela’s mutual respect and trust for each other despite differences in race and ethnicity during a time of apartheid in South Africa. He gave a firsthand account of how it was possible for a young, white Afrikaans-speaking prison guard to befriend a 60-year-old, black Xhosa-speaking prisoner serving a life sentence. Mr. Brand enlightened students with personal stories of his and Mr. Mandela’s daily interactions and the many life lessons he learned from their unlikely friendship.