The Experience

David Whyte’s talks weave poetry, story and commentary into a moving, almost physical experience of the themes that run through every human life, bringing the understanding of the poetic tradition to bear on the many great cyclical questions of existence: how we see our lives, and our deaths; how we view others and their presence or absence, and perhaps, most importantly, what we dare to believe, and what we’re afraid of believing; an honest appraisal of our relationship to the natural world, darkness, the appearance and disappearance of form and friendship, and the difficult apprenticeship to our own disappearance.

In these immersive experiences, through David’s inimitable gifts of poetry, philosophy and storytelling, you will be invited through a doorway that attempts to give voice to the wellsprings of our human identity, striving and the possibility of true happiness.

As well as his poetry, David will speak to the essays in his two books, Consolations, I and II, which use everyday words to present us with a prism through which to better understand ourselves and the lives we walk through. At the request of readers globally, David followed Consolations I with his recently released Consolations II, with fifty-two short, elegant meditations on a single word ranging from ‘Anxiety’ to ‘Body’, ‘Freedom’, ‘Shame’ and ‘Moon’. He embraces their nuances, amplitudes and depths, and, in doing so, confronts realities that many of us would spend a lifetime trying senselessly to avoid.

About David Whyte

David Whyte was born and raised in Yorkshire; his mother was Irish and his father English. Whyte earned a degree in marine biology in Wales and for a time led naturalist tours and expeditions in the Galapagos Islands, the Andes, the Amazon region, and the Himalayas. His collections of poetry include Songs for Coming Home, Where Many Rivers Meet, The House of Belonging, River Flow: New & Selected Poems 1984–2007, and Pilgrim. His works of prose deal with his commitment to using poetry in business and organisational settings to encourage creativity, leadership, and engagement, and his most recent book, Consolations II, is a collection of essays unfurling the meaning of everyday words.

Whyte is an associate fellow at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He has worked with a variety of international companies and in 2008 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Neumann College, Pennsylvania. Whyte currently lives in the Pacific Northwest.

David has an impressive following across social media with 250,000 followers on Facebook, 93,000 on Instagram and a growing audience on Tik Tok and Substack where he shares beautiful content in the form of writing and moving image.

His 2017 TED talk has had over 1.2 million views where with his signature charm and searching insight, he meditates on the frontiers of the past, present and future, sharing two poems inspired by his niece's hike along El Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

David Whyte’s sessions have been woven in to long term executive leadership programs with organisations such as Mattel, Standard Chartered Bank, The Gap, Boeing, AstraZenica, and Novartis, among many others.

He draws from hundreds of memorised poems of his own, and other beloved poets and he speaks to a body of work he has developed working with organisations for over 25 years, around Conversational Leadership.

About Humans of Purpose

Founded in 2021 by Mel Greblo, Humans of Purpose and our not-for-profit Academy, is wholeheartedly committed to growing you - both inside, and out.

Pairing her 25+ career in social impact and strategic communication expertise, Humans of Purpose is the ecosystem for impact and purpose-driven leaders and businesses to grow and meet the challenges of out time.

Serving Purposeful Leaders and Good Humans

Across our community, agency, podcast and academy, we’re collaborating and partnering with the brightest impact makers and shapers, connecting with like-hearted folk who see a better world and share our determination to be the change.

Our events - immersive, experiential conversations and experiences - nourish the mind and soul, feeding your growth from the inside, out.

Since we first hosted David Whyte in Australia back in 2015, then as Talking Sticks, we’ve been engaging audiences around thought leaders and the big conversations of our time.