Let’s talk about the conversation nobody wants to start first.
I’m David Leder, founder of Protecht Health. I speak about how people actually talk to each other about testing, status, and boundaries, not about the biology behind any of it.
I started Protecht after one too many conversations that went nowhere: someone asks when you were last tested, and the best anyone can offer is a screenshot or their word. I built an app to fix that, but the deeper I got into it, the clearer it became that the real problem was never information. It was words.
Before Protecht, I spent over 20 years in product and web leadership at companies including Cisco, NetApp, and HP/Palm. Since launching, I’ve spent as much time at Pride events listening to people describe these conversations as I have writing code, and that’s shaped everything below more than any research report has.
Five talks. All communication, no medicine.
If a question needs a clinical answer, I’ll be the first to say it’s outside what I do.
The Ask
How to bring up testing, status, or a boundary with a hookup, a situationship, or someone new, without turning it into a whole thing. This is the one I have the most to say about, and the one people ask for most.
What to Say When Someone Sends You a Screenshot
Disclosure is a two-person conversation, and almost nobody talks about the listener’s half. This is what to say (and not say) when someone tells you something real, so honesty doesn’t get punished.
Why Knowledge Doesn’t Change Behavior (But Scripts Do)
A closer look at why handing people facts rarely changes what they do, and what happens when you hand them words instead. Built on what’s actually worked, and flopped, in Protecht’s own content.
Designing for Hard Conversations
What building an app for one of the hardest conversations people have taught me about trust, friction, and interface design. For product people and founders more than anyone else.
The Cost of Staying Quiet
What silence actually costs, in relationships and in trust, told through patterns I’ve seen since launching Protecht. Works best as a workshop, where people can talk it through rather than just listen.
However fits your event
Talk
Straight through, no participation required. Any topic above.
Workshop
Built around practicing real scripts, not just hearing them. Best for The Ask, the screenshot talk, or Staying Quiet.
Podcast
A conversation rather than a performance. Works well for The Ask or the knowledge-vs-scripts topic.
Panel
One voice among several, any topic.
Why listen to someone who isn’t a clinician
Because I’m not trying to teach you the biology. I’ve spent over a year building something specifically because people don’t know what to say, and watching what actually gets a hard conversation started versus what shuts it down before it begins. That’s a different kind of expertise than a medical one, and it’s the one this page is about.
Interested in having me speak?
Email press@protecht.health with your event, your audience, and what you’re looking for, and I’ll get back to you.
press@protecht.health