Listening, public speaking and body language

Further to your suggestions, we will listen to either Amy Cuddy, Julian Treasure over the weekend and summarise the extract we choose fir the rest of the class next week.

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. While NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett answers Anderson’s questions about the balance between security and protecting privacy.

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive - and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

Listen to this talk here and answer these questions as you go along:
 

      1. Complete these sentences with the word(s) you hear:

a.       She decided she’d ..................................and try for one last big payday in the marquee event, the New York City marathon.

b.      They are free from all of these modern ................................

c.       The only problem is, the first ................................ only appeared 200,000 years ago.

d.      Now we’re not using our strength because we’re the biggest .............................. in the jungle

e.      And then after that, you ............................... to the rigors of time.

f.        You can’t be bearing ............................. .

            g.       The benefits, social and physical and political and mental, could be ..............................

      2. What are the three mysteries Mr. McDougall presents in relation to humans?

          3.  What explanation does McDougall put forward in order to account for the three mysteries he has previously laid out?

      4. Which are the two times he mentions in which humans benefit most from animal protein?

            5.  In what way does McDougall say we have spoiled our natural ability?

      6. What is McDougall’s proposal at the end of the talk? Does it have other implications?

      7. The following phrases contain words in bold uttered throughout the talk, can you explain what they mean?

a.       But the under-underdog hangs tough

b.      Deratu Tulu ruins the script again

c.       It’s a heartwarming story

d.      Outliers

e.      Scientists at Harvard and Utah University are bending their brains to try to figure out what the Tarahumara have known forever.

f.        They have fangs, they have claws, they have nimbleness, they have speed.

g.       In that very short learning curve, you have gone from broken organs up to the fact that you’re only 10 minutes off the male world record.

h.      …you put them in a race 50 or 100 miles against anybody in the world and it’s a coin toss  who’s going to win.

i.         It being prehistory, you can say whatever the hell you want and get away with it.

j.        It’s us in modern times who have sort of gone off the path.

k.       I need to cross-train. I didn’t do yoga. I’m not ready.

The danger of a single story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice - and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novels and stories are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature. Listen to the talk and answer the following questions:

1. Complete these sentences as you listen:

a. Her ............................... position towards me, as an African, was a .............................. well meaning pity.
b. This story about Africa ................................. comes, I think, from western literature.
c. My chracters drove cars, they were not .................................., therefore, they were not authentically African.
d. There were endless stories of Mexicans as people who were ........................ the health care system, ..................... across the border, being arrested at the border, that sort of thing.
e. I had ................................. the single story of Mexicans.
f. What if my roommate knew about Nollywood? Full of innovative people making films despite great technical ..........................
g. People who .................... despite the government, rather than because of it.

2. Can you find an example of a cleft sentence in this talk?

3. What impression do John Locke and Rudyard Kipling contribute to create of the Africans?

4. In what way does she confess the media influenced her view of Mexicans? How is a single story of a people created by the media?

5. What is the relation between storytelling and power?

6. What examples does she provide to exemplify how different peoples have been dispossed by the white people?

7. In what way does the speaker say reclaiming stories is important?

Rodney Brooks: Why we will rely on robots

Scaremongers play on the idea that robots will simply replace people on the job. In fact, they can become our essential collaborators, freeing us up to spend time on less mundane and mechanical challenges. Rodney Brooks points out how valuable this could be as the number of working-age adults drops and the number of retirees swells. He introduces us to Baxter, the robot with eyes that move and arms that react to touch, which could work alongside an aging population -- and learn to help them at home, too.

Rodney Brooks builds robots based on biological principles of movement and reasoning. The goal: a robot who can figure things out.

Watch this TED Talk here.

Which two factors does Brooks quote as critical in the way the world is changing?

Do you think Brooks' prediction for the increasingly widespread use of robotsover the next 40 years is plausible?