About Me
Keri Smith is the host of Deprogrammed with Keri Smith and the founder of Civility Dinners. Deprogrammed started as a series of interviews intended to better understand and make sense of her old belief system, Social Justice ideology. Deprogrammed and Civility Dinners are committed to fostering conversation, creating a culture that respects freedom of speech, and making space for both reason and faith.
A self-described “former SJW,” Smith is best known for her writing, lectures and podcasts addressing her old belief system. Her writing has been featured in Human Events, Fee.org and in The Dissenters Project, a collection of essays on the price of dissent in our current culture. As a guest on several popular podcasts, including Tim Pool’s Timcast, Nerdrotic, Triggernometry, and Real Talk with Zuby, Smith illuminates the differences between how Social Justice presents itself versus what it’s actually built around. As host of Deprogrammed, she has interviewed such notable thinkers as Helen Pluckrose, Dr. James Lindsay, Dr. William Allen, Mike Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, Melissa Chen, Samuel Sey, Paul VanderKlay, Dr. Charles Murray, Barbara Kay and Dr. Bret Weinstein. She has also appeared on the archaic BBC and in the failing New York Times. Smith runs the Deprogrammed Book Club, a discussion group that focuses on classic dystopian fiction and modern non-fiction that relate to our current cultural climate.
A liberal who spent twenty years in “the SJW Cult,” Smith offers firsthand experience on the Social Justice Left and its growing influence in mainstream culture. Her lectures are a blend of personal story, humor and audience interaction, in which she talks about her indoctrination at Duke University, her time spent pushing the Social Justice ideology in her former career in entertainment, and the things that lead to her awakening. Her goal is to make her former belief system easier to understand, not only for those who oppose it, but for those still caught up in it and those who are just now encountering it in their schools, workplaces, churches and hobby groups. She enjoys working with people who are trying to maintain their relationships with well-intentioned friends or family members who have been seduced by this increasingly popular belief system. Smith has experience speaking with both small and large audiences as a panelist, moderator, and host. Most recently, she hosted Mindsfest in Austin, TX in April of 2023. She has been a panelist and moderator at several Mythinformed Better Discourse Conferences, and has been a speaker at Feminist for Free Speech’s Women Leaving the Left, Women’s Republican Clubs, PorcFest and WalkAway.
Smith is available for bookings for speaking engagements or Civility Dinners at colleges and private events. For more information, rates and availability, please use the contact form.
