In the past four years I've given nearly two dozen public talks, each with over 100 people in the audience, on it and I still struggle to connect. Those who know me know I'm not a particularly compelling speaker, but there is a message I feel a need to deliver. I'm learning as I go but despite the efforts of a few excellent coaches I'm still not connecting.
Part of the problem is the subject is exceptionally technical with a good deal of active science underway. Within the research community there is a strong consensus on the fundamentals. The nature of science is to live on the edge and expand the world's ignorance, but as science carefully sorts through those new and interesting beaches there is a lot of confusion that needs to be worked through. The experts are often working on issues where there is no consensus and their excitement can be very puzzling to the public.
This is true in medical science. Understanding something as complex as the human body in any depth is beyond us. Studies often give what appear to be contradictory results and, unfortunately, these are often reported to the public giving the impression that the science is settled by drug companies and University PR arms. The attention can produce profit for one and attention that results in new grants for the other. But the public often has the mistaken view that science gives black and white results and hearing about a new study than contradicts something that was reported on the news two months ago can create enough confusion to get John Q Public to ignore any information on the subject - including bits and pieces of science that is settled and accepted with a high degree of confidence.
Most of my public talks are on global warming. The first half dozen were similar in content to Al Gore's talk.1 The problem was I wanted to explain the physics behind each little point to a public which had no interest in physics. Each talk was politely received, but had very long Q&A sessions - usually as long as the talk. Slowly I learned to simplify the talk and not get into physics, chemistry or biology. My real goal should be to teach only one or two very general concepts - doing more in an hour would require a miracle.
I learned that some of the audience want simple suggestions of what to do. Some of the audience can teach me something and a portion of the audience is uninterested in solutions and came to argue. I've learned there is no way to convince the latter group that the basic science is settled. Engaging with them can turn into a two player game where mud balls are trump.
Your general practitioner has a similar problem. You go in for your physical and usually are given a dozen things to change - your diet, exercise, medicines and so on. You are inundated with information and that special diet you heard about is greeted with a confused look. Most people get confused and intimidated and walk away doing nothing.
When it comes to fighting global warming much of the same is true. People have no idea what is cost effective and what isn't. Some very committed folks start to worry about plastic bags and buying a new Prius while they completely ignore a few things that not only make a large impact, but can save them a lot of money. Ideally a short talk would communicate one or two big ideas with enough impact that people in the audience could connect the dots with their own lives and remember them enough the day after the talk to implement one or two of them.
That is what I need to do.
It isn't exactly easy. Coming up with this sort of image is akin to writing poetry. I've had talks with a well know popularizer of astrophysics who makes it seem effortless, but he often struggles for a week on a single image that he can paint with a few sentences in under thirty seconds.
A few of you are gifted speaker and story tellers and I'm grateful for the ideas and mentoring. Slowly I'm making progress. Recently I was able to chat with Mike Evans - a family physician at St Michael's in Toronto and an associate professor of family medicine and public health at the University of Toronto. He has a passion and talent for finding a single piece of advice - often the most important bit of advice - in what amounts to a sea of confusing medical information and communicating it clearly. He made this beautiful nine minute youtube video with an artist and two days of studio time. Watch it!
He doesn't fall into the trap of trying to explain too much that I'm often fall far but, at the same time, he doesn't dumb down the information. The advice he gives is widely held in the medical research community and happens to be very easy to follow, inexpensive and can make a huge difference in your quality of life.
The results have been amazing. He hasn't publicized it - nearly three million visits in less than a year. The message isn't what people expect to hear and he has a curious phrasing near the end that makes it stick in your mind. Tens of thousands have emailed the link to others and social sharing of things like this is an extremely potent mechanism for spreading information.
Speaking of storytelling, Pixar's Brave has been released on DVD. If you haven't seen it take a look. If you have seen it you probably want a copy anyway. The story is simple and a bit predictable, but the cinematography is excellent. This is now my favorite animated film and one of my favorite films ever. I have some connections with Pixar, but I'd say the same without them - this is the first Pixar film that takes the top spot on my animation list.
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1 Only a small percentage of the public connected with Gore's talks for the long term. They had a lot of showmanship, but if you asked people about them a month later all they remembered is being confused about the hockey stick and an unfortunate polar bear.
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Recipe corner
Another holiday dish - a butternut squash side dish that would probably work well with pumpkin.
A Different Sort of Butternut Squash
Ingredients
° 3 tbl olive oil
° a generous pinch of ground asafetida
° 1/2 teaspoon whole mustard seeds (I've tried both brown and yellow with good results)
° 600 g peeled and seeded butternut squash, cut into segments inch-ish pieces (about 1-1/3 cup)
° 1/4 cup water
° 3/4 tsp salt
° 1-1/2 tsp sugar
° 1/4 tbl cayenne pepper
° 1 tbl plain yogurt
° 2 tbl chopped cilantro
Technique
° Pour the oil into a pan over medium heat. When hot, add the asafetida and mustard seeds. Add the squash when the mustard seeds start to pop, (very soon!!). Cook while stirring until the squash pieces just start to brown.
° Add the water, cover, turn heat to low, and cook until the squash is tender - maybe 10 minutes (note - you might try a vegetable stock in place of the water, but try water first)
° Add the salt, sugar, cayenne and yogurt. Stir and cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the yogurt is completely absorbed. Sprinkle in the cilantro and stir a couple of times and its ready.
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