A Tribute to Michael McElligott, creator of “Conversations at The Interval”

It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and colleague Michael McElligott is in hospice care. We want to take this moment to appreciate all that Michael has done for Long Now.

Most of the Long Now community knows Michael as the face of the Conversations at The Interval speaking series, which began in 02014 with the opening of Long Now’s Interval bar/cafe. But he did much more than host the talks. 

Michael had been a volunteer and associate of Long Now since 02006; he helped at events and Seminars, wrote for the blog and newsletter, and was a technical advisor. In 02013 he officially joined the staff to help raise funds for the construction of The Interval, run social media, and design and produce the Conversations at The Interval lecture series.

For the first five years of the series, each of the talks was painstakingly produced by Michael. This included finding speakers, developing the talk with the speakers, helping curate all the media associated with each talk, and oftentimes hosting the talks. Many of the production ideas explored in this series by Michael became adopted across other Long Now programs, and we are so thankful we got to work with him.

You can watch a playlist of all of Michael’s Interval talks here.