Speaking

Wade Channell, J.D.

Founder, Damn Fool Productions
Speaker, writer, and independent consultant on gender, masculinity, and reform

Thirty years of development economics. Fifty countries. One fairly late realization.

I spent most of my career removing barriers to healthy economies. Somewhere in the middle of it I noticed the barriers were not the same for men and women, and that my own view of the problem had a hole in it roughly the shape of half the population.

That noticing took longer than I'd like. What it produced was a way of talking about masculinity that starts with evidence rather than with grievance, and that does not require anyone in the room to feel accused before they can hear it.

I speak to development organizations, universities, companies, festivals, and anyone else trying to have this conversation without it going badly. I am comfortable with hostile rooms and I do not need the audience to already agree with me.

Book Wade to speak

What I speak about

The Three Ps, and what comes after them

Provision, protection, procreation. The traditional job description for men, why it is too narrow to be satisfying and too rigid to be useful, and what a larger version looks like.

Men as allies, credibly

Why the "male feminist" label has a credibility problem, why that problem is earned, and what it actually takes for men to be useful in this work rather than decorative.

What the numbers were telling us

Three decades of development economics, and the point at which the gender data stopped looking like a women's issue and started looking like everybody's.

Bystanders, not heroes

Practical, unglamorous intervention. What ordinary men can do in the room, drawn from our work on bystander behavior.

Inheriting badly, and what to do about it

Growing up in the segregated South, and the long business of separating what you were handed from what you keep.

Screening and conversation: Confessions of a Swedish Man

A screening of the award-winning documentary followed by a facilitated discussion on fatherhood, inherited wounds, and the social norms around manhood.

Every one of these can be adjusted for the room. Tell me who I'm talking to and what you're trying to shift, and we'll work out which version is useful.

Formats

• Keynotes
• Facilitated sessions and workshops
• Film screenings + Q&A
• Panels and moderation
• Podcast and broadcast interviews

Fees on request, with reduced rates for nonprofits and educational institutions.

Background, briefly

Wade Channell is a lawyer by training. Eight years in international commercial law led to thirty years in international development, most of it with USAID, where he retired in 2021 as Senior Economic Growth Advisor for Gender. He has worked in more than fifty countries and taught international development and international management at George Washington University and George Mason University.

He is the founder of Damn Fool Productions and a coproducer of Confessions of a Swedish Man. More about Wade

Booking

The quickest route is email. Tell me the date, the audience, roughly how long you want, and what you're hoping people walk out thinking. I'll tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it.

wade@dfproductions.org or use the contact form.