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GlossarySpeeches That Resonate, Forever
September 1, 2021If someone forwarded this to you, you can subscribe here.
Things I Didn’t Learn in School is about both the macro—what is going on in economies and markets—and the micro, individual life stories. If macro is the cathedral, micro is the stone, both matter. For the latter, I find the podcast to be an ideal forum and today release our third season. We plan to air episodes every two weeks this fall and have, as they say, a great line-up.
Today’s podcast is a conversation with Adam Frankel, one of the key members of President Obama’s speechwriting team and a fellow memoir writer. You can hear the conversation by clicking this link. The show is also available on Apple, Spotify, my website and other major podcasting outlets. As always, if you enjoy these talks, please rate them on Apple Podcasts, that helps draw other listeners in.
I am a bit of a political speech junkie. There was a point in my career where I did a lot of public speaking. To improve, I studied the greats. While most political talks make me cringe, some transcend. Like good art, they both inspire and put into words what people are thinking but struggle to say. Personal favorites include Winston Churchill’s speech in the dark days of World War II (“I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat”), Martin Luther King’s haunting speech just days before his murder (“mine eyes have seen the glory…”) and a number of Obama’s that, whatever your political sympathies, are masterful. Adam and I discuss a few examples in our conversation.
An expert on public speaking once told me a good speech hits four levels at once: kinesthetic, digital, audio and visual. Kinesthetic is how you feel as you listen, digital is the facts and figures cited, audio is how it sounds, like the tone of voice, and visual is what images are conveyed. This expert said most speakers can only hit a few of these languages at once, the greats hit all four.
This Sunday I am going to send out a note about … money. Not economics and markets, although there is a lot going on, but money in regards to these notes and podcasts. More later. Thank you for your interest!