Speaking

Invite Atta to speak.

Four talks for universities, libraries, civic organizations, and community audiences—grounded in lived experience, public work, and Atta's books.

Atta Arghandiwal seated in a dark suit against a black background, in a formal editorial portrait.

The talks

Each talk is about what it takes to remember, rebuild, and remain responsible. Below each one you will find what an audience takes away, who it fits, the formats it works in, and the public recordings you can watch before deciding.

Every topic can be shaped as a keynote, a lecture, a moderated conversation, a book discussion, a panel, or a workshop where the subject supports it.

Immigrant Self-Sufficiency in the Age of AI

How newcomers, families, and the people who support them can use new tools without surrendering privacy, responsibility, or human judgment.

What an audience takes away

Know where AI helps and where a person remains in charge.

Protect private information and verify consequential answers.

Turn one practical need into a safer next step.

Best fit for

  • Universities
  • Libraries and adult education
  • Immigrant and refugee organizations
  • Workforce programs
  • Employers
  • Mentors and sponsors
Full description and formats

AI can help newcomers translate, compare options, prepare questions, organize information, and draft a first version—but it can also create false confidence, expose private information, and produce convincing errors. Drawing from his lived experience and the new book co-authored with Sohrab Rasouli, Atta explores how immigrants, families, and the people who support them can use new tools without surrendering privacy, responsibility, or human judgment.

Formats

Keynote · Lecture · Moderated conversation · Workshop · Panel

Watch or listen first

No public recording of this talk exists yet. The related book is the best way to judge the material.

Afghanistan, Memory, and Moral Loss

A lived account of Afghanistan before and after political rupture, and what honest memory asks of those who survive it.

What an audience takes away

See political rupture through the experience of a family and a life.

Understand exile as an ongoing moral and human condition.

Consider why honest memory matters to future responsibility.

Best fit for

  • Universities
  • Libraries and adult education
  • Civic and cultural organizations
  • Diaspora communities
  • Journalists
  • Documentary audiences
Full description and formats

Atta offers a lived account of Afghanistan before and after political rupture, and of the human consequences that continue long after public attention moves on. He connects national events with family memory, displacement, exile, and the difficult responsibility to tell the truth without turning suffering into spectacle. The conversation invites audiences to consider what history costs ordinary people and what memory asks of those who survive it.

Formats

Keynote · Lecture · Moderated conversation · Book discussion · Panel

Dignity, Work, and Rebuilding a Life

An honest account of learning unfamiliar systems, earning trust, and preserving dignity while beginning again.

What an audience takes away

Understand how responsibility and consistency build trust.

See work as economic necessity and a source of dignity.

Identify systems, relationships, and habits that support a new start.

Best fit for

  • Workforce programs
  • Employers
  • Immigrant and refugee organizations
  • Universities
  • Families
  • Mentors and sponsors
Full description and formats

Atta arrived in the United States in December 1981 with basic English and $10, began as a bank teller, and built a 29-year banking career that led to Senior Vice President and Regional Manager. This talk is not a promise that every path looks the same. It is an honest account of learning unfamiliar systems, earning trust, accepting responsibility, supporting a family, and preserving dignity while beginning again.

Formats

Keynote · Lecture · Moderated conversation · Panel

From Survival to Responsibility

The shift from immediate crisis toward responsibility, structure, family stability, and long-term participation in a community.

What an audience takes away

Distinguish survival from the longer work of stability.

Understand responsibility without ignoring structural barriers.

Identify one practical next step that strengthens agency and family life.

Best fit for

  • Immigrant and refugee organizations
  • Civic and cultural organizations
  • Libraries and adult education
  • Families
  • Diaspora communities
  • Workforce programs
Full description and formats

Survival is urgent, but it cannot be the final plan. Atta examines the shift from immediate crisis toward responsibility, structure, family stability, and long-term participation in a community. He speaks honestly about receiving help, learning systems, making difficult choices, and refusing to disappear inside dependence or shame. The conversation centers dignity: not isolation, not perfection, but the ability to take the next responsible step.

Formats

Keynote · Moderated conversation · Book discussion · Workshop · Panel

Invite Atta

Tell us about your event.

The more specific the request, the faster Atta can give a real answer. The questions are grouped into five short steps, and nothing is sent automatically.

How this form worksThis static website does not receive or store what you type. The button below prepares your message for review. Your email app opens only if you then choose Open the prepared email. Nothing is sent automatically; it leaves only if you press Send in your email app.

  1. The request
  2. When and where
  3. The audience
  4. Practical details
  5. How to reach you

The request

A conference, a class, a community evening, a book festival — whatever frames it.