Discover overlooked America with author, speaker, and civic engagement thought leader Grant Lichtman

Available January 19th, 2027

At a time when America feels hopelessly divided, author and educator Grant Lichtman set out alone in a small RV, traveling for seven months and 20,000 miles on back roads from Native reservations and the farmlands of the Northern Prairie to ranchlands of the Southwest, Cajun parishes in Louisiana, border towns of the Rio Grande Valley, small towns in the Mississippi Delta, New England, the Rustbelt, Appalachia, the West Coast, and big city urban neighborhoods. He listened to people whose stories rarely reach the national stage: farmers, veterans, refugees, social workers, ranchers, small-town politicians, pastors, teachers, fisherfolk, artists, business leaders, and more.

The values, priorities, and themes that emerged were more unifying than dividing: Across the broad national spectrum of background, politics, and beliefs, Lichtman discovered a common longing for stronger community, meaningful human connection, honesty, hard work, mutual respect, and a renewed commitment to civility. When time-tested cultural knowledge and wisdom are at risk of being lost to sound-bite technologies, we are invited to not only witness our shared past, but learn from and preserve it.

Wisdom Road

Searching America for Civility, Shared Values, and Common Ground

Meet the faces of Wisdom Road

“Grant Lichtman is an uber-expert. He is the guest speaker to afford your audience with the exact blend of experience, research, thoroughness and wit to engage an audience to not only listen but decide to act on his words. He demonstrates the importance of community challenge coupled with circumspect thoroughness."


— Katie Koestner, Executive Director, Campus Outreach Services

“Grant Lichtman is an uber-expert. He is the guest speaker to afford your audience with the exact blend of experience, research, thoroughness and wit to engage an audience to not only listen but decide to act on his words. He demonstrates the importance of community challenge coupled with circumspect thoroughness."


— Katie Koestner, Executive Director, Campus Outreach Services

Praise for Grant Lichtman

  • “ Lichtman’s Wisdom Road uncovers enduring truths about who we are as humans and surprising agreement on the kind of nation we want to be. I can’t recommend it highly enough for any American who knows (or wants to believe) that we’re better than our polarized present.”

    — Lauren Hall, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Rochester Institute of Technology; The Radical Moderate’s Guide to Life Podcast

  • “The future comes at us fast—which means school reformers don’t have time to wait. They need real tools in real time. That’s why Moving the Rock is so important. Grant Lichtman has guidance for anyone—teachers, parents, administrators, government officials—intent on helping young people succeed not ‘someday,’ but today.”

    — Daniel H. Pink, best-selling author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

  • “I keep The Falconer by my bedside; I’ve read it more times than I can count. An invaluable tool for any educator who wants to truly transform learning in our schools.”

    — Bo Adams, Director of Mt. Vernon Institute for Innovation

  • “[#EdJourney is] a must-read book for anyone interested in helping shift the education world out of the Industrial Age mindset.”

    — David Kelley, Co-Founder of the Stanford d.School; Co-author of Creative Confidence; Founder of design firm IDEO

  • “On par with Horace’s Compromise, Theodore Sizer’s seminal 1984 descriptor of the failures of America’s high school…a must read.”

    — Pam Moran, Superintendent of County Schools, Albermarle, VA