Listen here

Most of us like to think of ourselves as basically honest people. But as speakers and speechwriters, it’s surprisingly easy to find ourselves misleading our audiences: accidentally or (gulp) deliberately.

Find out how — even with the best intentions — you may be leading your audience astray… and how to get back onto the path of truth.

Warning: Contains traces of scolding and a glancing reference to the current American president.

Links: More about Albert Mehrabian and his work on non-verbal communication.

And about the aerodynamics of bumblebees.

One way that bumblebees definitely can’t fly.

My favourite resource for checking quotations and their origins: Quote Investigator.

How graphs can mislead.

Music: Theme: “Good Times” by Podington Bear (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/).

Incidental music by Lee Rosevere (https://leerosevere.bandcamp.com/) including “Night Caves,” “Everywhere,” “Systematic,” “We Don’t Know How It Ends,” and “Saturn V.” Used under a Creative Commons license.

Lee has released a beautiful album in honour of Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary, and you can buy a limited-edition CD. I did and I’m delighted with it. Give it a listen here.

Photo: Jordan Madrid on Unsplash

 

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