The Great Communicators MIT Office For Graduate Education

We sit down and discuss the nature of communicating one’s work with Professor Noam Chomsky and find out that the role of the audience may be more important than that of the speaker.



EPISODE CREDITS

Guest Starring Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Stilt” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Alchemical” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Cloud Line” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

EPISODE SCRIPT



* Print The Transcript Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.

My name is Adam Greenfield and I’m pretty sure it’s no secret just how important a role the audience plays in any type of communication. But in this episode, I want to flip that around a little bit and focus on what the speaker’s equally important role is to the audience’s understanding of a concept or idea.

When I first began working on this series, I somewhat expected to get specific answers and direction on what effective communication looks like. After all, the people I planned to speak with have a significant amount of experience and exposure and knowledge when it comes to communication. But after speaking with this episode’s guest, I learned perhaps less is more.

Speaking of, our guest really needs no introduction but I’m going to give one anyway. He’s a world-renowned speaker, scientist, philosopher, and political activist, to name just a few things. Really, the list of accomplishments and hats he’s worn over the years…

NOAM CHOMSKY

Every single one.

ADAM GREENFIELD

…could go on and on.

NOAM CHOMSKY

Classic formulation, back to the 17th century is that experience conforms to the modes of cognition.

ADAM GREENFIELD

That wisdom-filled voice you just heard?

NOAM CHOMSKY

That’s…

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Professor Noam Chomsky. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. 

CREDITS

Guest Starring Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

EPISODE SCRIPT



* Print The Script Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

NOAM CHOMSKY

AG: Professor Chomsky, thanks for joining us.

NC: Glad to be with you.

AG: Alright, are you ready for some, hopefully good questions?

NC: Sure thing.

AG: Alright, so to start, we’ve noticed you’ve communicated your ideas in multiple mediums from the documentary you released back in August, to books, interviews, articles, speaking engagements and more. Do you have preference or any feelings on which is a more effective communication tool for an audience?

NC: What’s the best communication tool?

AG: Yes.

NC: Personal discussion, face to face.

AG: Face to Face. Did you kind of discover that throughout time or did you have to trial these different things to see if that fit better.

NC: I just think it’s a natural human characteristic to want to be with people directly, rather than through some alienating medium.

AG: Sort of like this conversation here, yes? So, you were involved in a truth out article recently, a couple weeks back and in a question that regarded political rhetoric, the core of your answer was not really for the speaker teacher to persuade others,

Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies at MIT, Ian Condry, gives us some very practical tips & tricks to help when communicating with any audience.



EPISODE CREDITS

Guest Starring Ian Condry, Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies – MIT Anthropology

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)



“Insatiable Toad” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)



“Pavement Hack” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)



“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

EPISODE SCRIPT



* Print The Transcript Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.

My name is Adam Greenfield.

Imagine you’re on stage in front of an audience giving a talk but it’s dark so you can only see maybe the first few rows. Then, maybe 10 minutes in, off in the dark, the blue light of a phone pops up and the audience member’s face becomes visible. They’re looking down at their phone, not at you.

Then, a cough. And a few more. Maybe a yawn. The next thing you know, you can hear people shifting around in their seats.

You’re losing the audience. Even if people are just trying to get comfortable or didn’t get a good night’s sleep the night before, you can feel them fading away.

In this episode, we’re going to talk about things you can do to reclaim the audience’s attention; things that, if implemented well, could have a pretty hefty impact with your audience.

To help us out with this….



IAN CONDRY



I am Ian Condry. I am a cultural anthropologist in the Department of Global Studies and Languages, and I study Japanese popular culture, things like hip-hop and anime.

ADAM GREENFIELD



When I was on the MIT campus, I really enjoyed talking with all the professors who were able to make time for us. I have to admit, though, I do have some favorites. And Professor Condry is one of them.

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Professor Ian Condry. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.



EPISODE CREDITS

Guest Starring Ian Condry, Professor of Japanese Cultural Studies – MIT Anthropology

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

EPISODE SCRIPT



Print The Script Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.



Patrick Yurick:  Can you say your name and what you do at MIT?

Ian Condry:  I am Ian Condry.  I am a cultural anthropologist in the Department of Global Studies and Languages, and I study Japanese popular culture, things like hip-hop and anime.

P:  So, I want to talk a little bit about writing and the role, we cannot cover all these questions today, but I want to focus our talk around some basics on writing but also kind of elevating that to some other ideas.  Why do you think for a professional within these fields of research or study, why do you think writing, it feels very basic to ask that question but, humor me, why you think writing is important?

I:  Why is writing important?  As a scholar, writing is one of the main ways we get our ideas out to a broader audience.  I feel that teaching needs to include the writing aspect where students can go over the material, think about the structure of an argument, and look at how we make a case.  Marshal evidence, draw the reader in, give a twist that surprises people, and then try to get to a conclusion that gets people to a new place.

What happens when we forget to bridge our work to the interests of our audience? MIT’s W.M. Keck Professor of Energy, Yang Shao-Horn, tells us a cautionary tale about just that.



EPISODE CREDITS

Guest Starring Yang Shao-Horn, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)



“Heather” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License



“Snowcrop” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.



“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/



Large Crowd

http://www.freesound.org/people/eguobyte/sounds/360703/

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License. (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)



High Heels

http://www.freesound.org/people/differentieel/sounds/245447/

This work is licensed under the Attribution Noncommercial License. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/)

EPISODE SCRIPT



Print The Script Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.

My name is Adam Greenfield and if you’re like me, getting up to speak in front of an audience can be a little nerve wracking. There’s the fear of saying the wrong things, stumbling through words, and even the fear of physically stumbling while getting up in front of everybody.

Then there’s the fear of your audience getting up and walking out during the talk. I’ve actually had a nightmare or two about that. I have to admit, just mentioning all this, I can feel my anxiety levels rising some.

For our speaker in this episode, that fear became a reality. And instead of that incident crippling her, she learned a valuable lesson: when you approach an audience,

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Professor Shao-Horn. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.



EPISODE CREDITS

Guest Starring Yang Shao-Horn, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy

Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield

Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE

Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE

Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:

Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation

Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League

Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory

Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC

The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.

MUSIC & SOUNDS

“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

EPISODE SCRIPT



Print The Script Here



ADAM GREENFIELD

Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.

Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.



Patrick Yurick:  Can you state your name and tell us a little bit about yourself?

Yang Shao-Horn:  Sure.  So, my name is Yang Shao-Horn.  I am a WM Keck professor of energy at MIT.  I am also a professor of material science engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, and my area of expertise is in developing energy storage technologies.

P:  Cool.  So, we are going to start with a couple questions about audience.  So, our grad students are learning about how to connect to their audience for the first time.  So, the first weeks’ worth of content will be all about like, how do you connect with an audience?  So, what the questions I am going to be asking you have a little bit to do with who your personal audience is for your work and how you have connected to them, if you have, or any stories like that.  So, I guess, the first questions is, who is the audience for your work?

YS:  Alright, I guess we can edit this portion out but, I find this question really can be discussed in several different contexts.  So, it depends on what we actually are doing. So, if we are talking about teaching,