CIVIC INFO NETWORKS / BIPARTISAN COALITIONS / ED / ALIGNMENT
DISINFORMATION, POLITICAL DIVISION, & ENCODED POSTMODERNISM
I started grad school on 9/11 to solve this crisis of code, culture, and Constitutional law.
The IDH is a 20 year gameplan to win an information war, re-unite citizens programmed to hate each other, and fix AI hallucinations (and the academic peer review crisis) in time to save reality.
SPEAKING + CONSULTING + TRAININGS
THANK YOU TO MY CLIENTS, PARTNERS, AND STUDENTS
PRESS AND MEDIA
“A Digital Civil War Threatens to Erupt Post-Election, Expert Warns, But Some Are Working To Keep Calm.”
CBS WCCO. Minneapolis, MN: November 4, 2024.
STORY + ELEVATOR PITCH: DISINFO, FILTER BUBBLES, & INFO WAR
March 2020 - August 2020 #Minneapolis
We are survivors of digital civil war. (#Minneapolis) This is not survivable on a national scale.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
ONE HOLSITIC METHOD FOR THE WHOLE MESS:
FREE SPEECH, AI, DISINFORMATION, PRIVACY, AND COLLEGE REFORM
DEAD NEUTRAL, CONSTITUTIONAL, ALREADY ACCEPTED BY THE ACADEMICS
Proven and peer-reviewed methodologies for triangulating truthful news, interdisciplinary scientific impasses, and "both sides" of the filter bubble.
Plus align AI unreliability by re-establishing the already agreed-upon "reality ground wire."
- Used The Daily Show to predict 2026's reality crisis in 2005 (and get a Fortune 500 + Big 10 to build the 1st multi-campus disinfo fighting network)
- Publications: J. of American Culture, Intima, Comedy in Neoliberal Times., Pop Matters
GEMINI'S SYNOPSIS
Developed diagnostic taxonomy for identifying narrative volatility in all disinformation cases as well as in medical storytelling (Intima, Missouri Review) and curated international exhibitions (Contaminated, Sick Girl, All Bullets Shatter) to stress-test cross-cultural civic forums against active medical and scientific misinformation.
- Dr. McKain used high-entropy Daily Show datasets (in 2005) to predict the collapse of traditional journalism gatekeeping and 2026’s "post-truth" crisis (Journal of American Culture) and engineered an "Aesthetic Logic of Truthiness" framework via Colbert (The Joke is On Us).
- With the Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy, the IDH operationalized art/museum infrastructures (CICA South Korea, NE Sculpture Gallery) to negotiate high-stakes scientific/public health controversies with partners/Minneapolis’ citizens (presented at Rhetoric Society of America; Rhetoric of Health & Medicine Symposium)
GREATEST HITS (PER GEMINI)
1st multi-campus disinfo fighting platform (Manhattan Project #1 in 2007 w/ a Fortune 500 & Ohio State).
- Unprecedented bipartisan tech and disinformation partnerships (after Dr. McKain “crossed the filter bubble”).
- Tested under wartime conditions during Minneapolis unrest/COVID “infodemic”(2020-21): Civil civic 3rd- rail policy forums (medical science → trauma) for bipartisan elected officials, bridged MAGA/Evangelical and BIPOC/Inner-City narrative streams via post-fact journalism networks, raised $27K for Little Earth Native HUD Community mutual aid.
- Runner-up, NPR Next Team Challenge.
- Publications: J. of American Culture, Intima, & Theology & Pop Culture.
- Exhibitions: Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (South Korea, juried solo show).
NERD STUFF: GEMINI'S SYNOPSIS OF DR M.'S R AND D
- Developed diagnostic taxonomy for identifying narrative volatility in all disinformation cases as well as in medical storytelling (Intima, Missouri Review) and curated international exhibitions (Contaminated, Sick Girl, All Bullets Shatter) to stress-test cross-cultural civic forums against active medical and scientific misinformation.
- Dr. McKain used high-entropy Daily Show datasets (in 2005) to predict the collapse of traditional journalism gatekeeping and 2026’s "post-truth" crisis (Journal of American Culture) and engineered an "Aesthetic Logic of Truthiness" framework via Colbert (The Joke is On Us).
- With the Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy, the IDH operationalized art/museum infrastructures (CICA South Korea, NE Sculpture Gallery) to negotiate high-stakes scientific/public health controversies with partners/Minneapolis’ citizens (presented at Rhetoric Society of America; Rhetoric of Health & Medicine Symposium)
EDUCATION: TEACHABLE K-CEO
CONNECTING STUDENTS (AND CLASSROOMS) ACROSS THE RELIGIOUS, CULTURAL, AND DIGITAL DIVIDE
20 years Socratically teaching disinformation across the campus -- from lit to business to poli sci to art -- and to "both sides" of reality.
DISINFO-FIGHTING CIVIC NETWORKS & CROSS-CULTURAL NEWS ORGS
The IDH was 20 years ahead on disinformation because Dr. McKain used The Daily Show to predict our reality crisis in 2005 and build the first "Manhattan Project" -- a multi-campus disinfo and civil civic debate platform -- in 2007 with a Big 10 university and Fortune 500
INSTITUTE FOR AESTHETIC ADVOCACY
CO-FOUNDER / CREATIVE DIR
2017-PRESENT
MANHATTAN PROJECT #2
COMMONPLACE
The First "Manhattan Project" Build: Co-launched the first nationally scalable, multi-campus disinfo and peer-review platform. Connecting students across the ideological divide a decade before the "filter bubble" became a household term.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT & SCALING
PLATFORMS + ART + CIVIC FORUMS + BIPARTISAN COALITIONS + PR
Able to unite divided Americans.
BIPARTISAN and MULTI-FAITH COALITIONS & COMMUNITIES
- Civil civic 3rd- rail policy forums (medical science → trauma) for bipartisan elected officials.
- Bridged MAGA/Evangelical and BIPOC/Inner-City narrative streams via post-fact journalism networks, raised $27K for Little Earth Native HUD Community mutual aid.
- Runner-up, NPR Next Team Challenge.
CIVIC FORUMS and ARTS EXHIBITIONS
With the Institute for Aesthetic Advocacy,
- the IDH operationalized art/museum infrastructures (CICA South Korea, NE Sculpture Gallery)
- to negotiate high-stakes scientific/public health controversies with partners/Minneapolis’ citizens
- (presented at Rhetoric Society of America; Rhetoric of Health & Medicine Symposium)
SPEAKING EVENTS
TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
Schools | Companies
Governments | Communities
TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
TRAININGS & WORKSHOPS
Attorneys | Policy Makers
Teachers | Administrators
Students | Programmers
THERE ISN'T TIME FOR THIS TO BE YOUR FIRST RODEO.
Dr. Aaron McKain, MSL
Minneapolis and Omaha / mckain.3@gmail.com
Copyright © 2026 Dr. Aaron McKain, MSL - All Rights Reserved.