Kayla StearnsPublic Speaking Online

November 1, 2012

Ben Goldacre:

What doctors don’t know about the drugs they prescribe.

Ben Goldacre has found a startling gap between positive and negative medical publications with the findings of medical studies.

“Positive findings are around twice as likely to be published as negative

findings. This is a cancer at the core of evidence-based medicine.” (Ben

Goldacre)

He helps to emphasize this fact right in the beginning of his speech with a published study in psychology, where a researcher named Daryl

Bem published findings in a peer-reviewed academic journal that found evidence of precognition in undergrad students.

 Others tried to replicate the results and found NO evidence of

precognition in undergrads, but when they attempted to publish their findings in the same journal they were turned away, the journal said “No, we’re not interested in publishing replication.

We’re not interested in your negative data”

“[In science,] we only hear about the flukes and about the freaks.”

– Ben Goldacre

Ben Goldacre grabbed the audiences attention

right off the bat. He opened up speaking about predicting the

future and immediately pointed the viewers to

a headline on the projection screen. This drew him into a study about precognition,

which then drew in the subject of bias in

publishing medical reviews which is the topic of his speech.

He kept the attention of the audience by

keeping movement in his speech, to using

hand gestures, and by raising and lowering

his tone to bring emphasis to his

points. I felt that this helped to keep his

presentation interesting.

4/5Dynasim:

I found him to be very engaging, and seemed

very engaged and passionate about his topic.

You could tell this was a topic that he had

researched extensively and was something that

he knew a lot about. I feel that he lacked a lot of facial expression but I

believe the passion in his voice made up for it.

I feel that he did seem to use some of the tips that I saw with Nancy Duarte, Notably that when he spoke he versed it almost like a story, kept he topic moving. He also used presentations to draw in the audience and to draw his point home.

I found the presentation styles between Sir Ken Robinson and Ben Goldacre. Sir Ken Robinson used a lot of humor to keep the audience engaged and dynamic movements with both hands to illustrate his point.

Ben Goldacre used a lot of slides and data, and kept his speech relatively humor neutral. However the passion in his voice, the movement of him pacing the stage, and the way he really emphasized the volume and tone of his speech helped. They both are incredible speakers and knew their topics well.

From watching their speeches I would really emphasize to other students to really use eye contact. This really makes the viewer feel engaged. I would also emphasize PRACTICE! The two speakers I have mentioned were very comfortable with their speeches and it was obvious they had spent a lot of time practicing them.