About Peter Leyden
Peter Leyden has spent his career figuring out the future and helping others better understand what’s coming next.
He is known on the web as a futurist, tech expert, strategic foresight advisor, thought leader, keynote speaker, author and writer, serial entrepreneur, and former journalist.
This website ties all the threads together, giving an overview of his career and explaining what he does now.
Professional Bios
Leading expert on the future with Keppler Speakers. Senior advisor on strategic foresight via Reinvent Futures. Host & convener of remarkable innovators, most recently at The Long Now Foundation. Former managing editor at Wired magazine, founder of 2 media startups, author of 2 books, journalist & foreign correspondent.
Peter Leyden is a hard person to describe because he does not fit into any one particular box. He has a wide range of experiences and an unconventional career so we have put together a variety of ways to explain his background and what he does now.
Speaking About the Future
Peter Leyden is a keynote speaker on the future who explains better than almost anyone what’s really going on in the world today, what’s probably coming in the decade ahead, what’s possible to achieve in the long-term, and what you could do now to adapt.
Leyden has been giving frequent keynote talks on the future and the impact of new technologies to business and general audiences throughout America and Europe for the last 25 years, mostly working through Keppler Speakers.
He’s a gifted speaker who uses stunning images and powerful info-graphics in multimedia presentations to back up his foresight into the future. His positive, can-do attitude about what lies ahead often leaves audiences energized and inspired.
Advising on Strategic Foresight
Everything Leyden knows about the future and learns from his network can be synthesized for smaller groups and tailored to the needs of a particular industry or field, company or organization.
Leyden often does private projects and internal sessions with senior executives or leaders of organizations where he makes a presentation to expand their thinking but then drives conversations that help them figure out what to do.
He works thorough his company Reinvent Futures to put on everything from internal talks, to half-day workshops to full six-month projects.
Writing on The Great Progression
Peter Leyden began his career as a journalist working for newspapers, weekly magazines like Newsweek, and monthly magazines like WIRED. He’s since written two books on the future that have gone into multiple languages as well.
Leyden’s latest magazine piece lays out his latest thinking on the real story of progress that will take place in the next 25 years. The Great Progression is a positive reframe of what's really going on in America and the world right now, and what's actually going to happen in the near future.
This piece counters the pervasive gloom and doom out there in the media and the general public, and has become quite popular on the web. Click the image to go right to it.
Interviews & Podcasts of Leyden
Peter Leyden is able to constantly iterate his ideas and apply what he knows to the constantly changing news of the day. He does this through traditional media outlets and the burgeoning world of podcasts, as well as the occasional documentary film.
In this section you can find a range of some of his most interesting recent appearances and links to the podcasts or write-ups of interviews.
Convening Remarkable Innovators
Ever since moving to San Francisco to work with the founders of Wired magazine early in the Digital Revolution in the 1990s, Leyden has built up an extraordinary network of innovators in many different fields impacting the future.
Over the years Leyden has become very good at hosting gatherings that convene a wide range of technologists, entrepreneurs, intellectuals and creatives to cross-connect and learn together.
Leyden was host of the What’s Now San Francisco, a very popular monthly physical event series that ran for five years before the pandemic, as well as virtual series as well. He’s now got more gatherings in the works.
Short Video Clips - Physical Talks
If you want to get a sense of Leyden’s high-energy, inspirational style of speaking, as well as his use of dazzling images and powerful info-graphics in his slides, then sample these short clips.
These highly produced short videos were taken off a keynote talk that Leyden did coming off the pandemic at the Moscone Center in San Francisco for the global conference. Each is roughly 2 minutes on a wide range of topics.
Short Video Clips - Virtual Talks
During the pandemic Leyden got very good at speaking to virtual audiences over the internet. His highly visual slides and powerful motion graphics based on tons of data keep audiences stimulated and engaged.
Here you can find short video clips of a highly-produced virtual talk Leyden gave during the pandemic on The Transformation, a Future History of the World from 2020 to 2050.
This talk was part of the prestigious Seminars on Long-term Thinking series put on by The Long Now Foundation. And it shows how a virtual talk can be as compelling as a physical one.