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Jonah Lehrer Was Going To Give A Speech On Ethics. It's Canceled, Obviously.

This article is more than 10 years old.

Jonah Lehrer (Photo credit: poptech)

Jonah Lehrer's fabrications have already cost him his gig at The New Yorker and an unknown number of future book sales, and now they're cutting into his lucrative sideline as a speaker. Among the gigs he has lost: speaking to college students about ethics in decisionmaking.

On Tuesday, August 21, Lehrer was scheduled to address new students at Indiana's Earlham College. The speech was to have been part of a lecture series co-sponsored by the Robert Simpson Charles Lectureship in Ethics Endowed Fund.

That lecture has been canceled, says Mark Blackmon, a public affairs officer for the school. "We felt that, given everything that is transpiring, this is not exactly something we would move forward with, given the fact that this fund is to fund lectures in ethics," says Blackmon.

He adds that Lehrer's speaking agent, David Lavin, assured the school it would be reimbursed for any advance fees it has already paid. (Lavin told me he has a policy of never commenting about his clients, and Lehrer didn't respond to a request for comment by email.)

Prior to this week's admission that he made up quotes by Bob Dylan for his book "Imagine: How Creativity Works," Lehrer was a much sought-after public speaker, delivering frequent talks about the brain, creativity and other areas of his expertise. For many of these talks, sources estimate he receives fees in the neighborhood of $20,000. Others, like the Earlham lecture, pay less, and in some cases, Lehrer has agreed to waive his fee. For instance, he is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Excellence in Investing conference on Oct. 24 in San Francisco; the proceeds from the conference go to supporting education and other children's causes.

The Earlham lecture isn't the only speaking engagement Lehrer has lost in the fallout. He was also scheduled to appear in a Q&A format at the Holmes Report's Global Public Relations Summit in Miami in October. Via his office, Holmes Report CEO says that Lehrer will no longer be there. Nor will he be speaking at Iowa State University's College of Engineering, confirms Pat Miller, director of the school's lecture program. Miller calls it an "unfamiliar situation."

A ticketed talk and book signing at the Aliso Creek Inn in Laguna Beach, Calif., has also been called off. "The publisher is no longer releasing the book and we intended on canceling it, so it was a mutual decision," said an employee at the inn.

A spokeswoman for APAP/NYC, a performing arts conferences slated for January 2011, said the conference organizers are discussing whether to retain Lehrer as a featured speaker, but no decision has been made yet.

Lehrer's other upcoming booking include a symposium at Syracuse University, the  Urban Land Institute's Aspen Forum and the International Interior Design Association of Southern California's Leadership Breakfast.

 Correction: An earlier version of this post listed the wrong day and title of Lehrer's lecture. The information listed earlier was for the convocation address he gave last year. This year's address was to have been titled "Imagine: How Creativity Works," the same title as his latest book.