Enlightenment Feasts

Dan is passionate about creating moments in people’s lives where they are reminded of the gift and privilege of being alive.

During the day, he is the visual strategist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. There he shepherds an amazing team developing creative ways of communicating, and works to transform complex concepts into meaningful stories that can be universally understood. His team's work is seen in public spaces, art museums, and is in outer space.

He is currently developing the "Museum of Awe” with peers David Delgado and Ivan Amato.

Dan graduated valedictorian from the graphic design program at Art Center College of Design in 2002. In 2012 he was selected as “One of the most interesting people in Los Angeles” by the LA Weekly. He currently lives in Altadena, CA with his wife and three kids. 

You know that invigorating feeling you get in the midst of a great conversation? The one where your brain feels like it’s charged up and flowing — well it is! Fiona Kerr will tell you how, and also why it feels like you are connecting physically with the people you are talking to — it’s because you are! Fiona is an industry professor in neural and systems complexity and her work explores the art and wonder of our ability to reshape our own brain and each other’s, and even grow new brain (neurogenesis). She is fascinated by how human connection and direct engagement creates these changes with a chemical cocktail that allows us to flourish.

If you’ve ever wondered whether ants are intelligent, how they all know where they’re traipsing off to everyday, or where memory might come from, Tanya Latty is your woman. Tanya is an Entomologist and specialist in individual and collaborative intelligence and collective memory. Tanya’s work has also seen her collaborate with mathematicians, technologists and thinkers to turn her insights into functional uses for our species.

Derek Leddie is a collective mind expert. What’s that you say? It sounds almost Orwellian, but Derek uses his powers for good, using practical and elemental techniques to help people explore their mind’s potential and the power of the pause, to move into a more mindful, present and intuitive way of being and moving through life.

Matt Beard is a passionate public philosopher, podcaster and Fellow at The Ethics Centre. Matt explores ethics, meaning and purpose in the everyday, bringing deep and gritty human concepts out of dusty leather-bound books and into the public sphere.

Tim Dean is the resident Philosopher at The School of Life in Sydney as well as a writer and avid explorer of all things ethics and human evolution related. Tim is as engaging as they come, spurring discussions on morality, biology and philosophy with an osmotic energy that will make you want to dive into the books and ideas yourself.