How to enhance your career by becoming a better public speaker and reader

“The average human ear tunes out after about six minutes of orality. It used to be nine.” –Elena Passarello

In this episode of Deviate, Rolf and Elena talk about the first giraffe ever to live in Paris in the 19th century (3:30); how public presentation and performance differs from other kinds of speaking and reading, and how to prepare for it (9:00); the role of nervousness in public speaking, and how to deal with it (21:00); how prepare a text or script before reading or using it as an outline in a public speaking situation (31:00); and the importance of concrete language and “syntactical music” in public speaking (42:00).

Elena Passarello is an American writer, actor, and professor. Her book Let Me Clear My Throat (Sarabande, 2012), won the gold medal for nonfiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards, and her essays on performance, pop culture, and the natural world have been published in Oxford American, Slate, and Creative Nonfiction, among other publications,. For more on Elena, check out https://www.elenapassarello.com/.

Notable Links:

• Paris Writing Workshop (annual summer creative-writing class)
• Jardin des Plantes (botanical garden in Paris)
• Zarafa (giraffe who lived in the Jardin des Plantes)
• King Charles X of France (19th century king)
• Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (French naturalist)
• Luis Alberto Urrea (poet, novelist, and essayist)
• Stump speech (standard speech used by a politician)
• Stage combat (theater technique)
• Bob Dole (American politician)
• Ian MacKaye on the history of rock (Deviate episode)
• Cher Ami (heroic World War I homing pigeon)
• Gerald Ford (38th president of the United States)
• T. Geronimo Johnson (author)
• Al Gore (American politician)
• Benjamin Percy on telling stories (Deviate episode)
• Karen Russell (novelist and short story writer)
• George Saunders (novelist)

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The Deviate theme music comes from the title track of Cedar Van Tassel’s 2017 album Lumber.

Note: We don’t host a “comments” section, but we’re happy to hear your questions and insights via email, at deviate@rolfpotts.com.