Author · Classicist · Public speaker
Ancient wisdom for
modern trouble.
Michael Fontaine writes and speaks about free speech, humor, persuasion, leadership, and the recurring absurdities of human behavior.
Professor at Cornell University · Director, Program on Freedom and Free Societies
Princeton University Press author
100+ lectures worldwide
TEDxCornell speaker
eCornell course author
The new book
What happens when leaders promise free speech—and someone takes them at their word?
How to Speak Freely pairs a vivid modern translation of Plato’s Apology with an ingenious ancient satire about the dangers of candor, power, and institutional hypocrisy.
Together they ask a question that has lost none of its urgency: when the truth is unwelcome, what does a person have the courage — and the judgment — to say?
Ideas for modern life
The past is not past.
Greece and Rome offer an unusually clear view of the problems that still govern rooms, careers, institutions, and public life.
Speaking freely
Candor, dissent, and the difficult art of telling leaders what they do not want to hear.
02Humor & influence
How humor builds trust, resets tension, and sometimes destroys the person telling the joke.
03The art of bullshit
Ancient lessons in false authority, charismatic fraud, and intellectual self-defense.
Selected talks
Serious ideas, delivered memorably.
More than 100 lectures delivered internationally to universities, professional audiences, learned societies, and public forums.
About Michael
A classicist interested in what people actually do.
Michael Fontaine is Professor of Classics at Cornell University and Director of its Program on Freedom and Free Societies. A former acting dean of faculty and associate vice provost, he brings ancient ideas into conversation with the practical realities of leadership, persuasion, institutional life, and human behavior.
His books for Princeton include How to Tell a Joke, How to Have Willpower, How to Drink, and the forthcoming How to Speak Freely.
Read the full biographySpeaking & executive education
Bring an ancient problem into the room.
Michael is available for selected keynotes, workshops, interviews, and moderated conversations on free speech, humor, persuasion, leadership, and the classical world.