I Have Something to Say
Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in an Age of Disconnection
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
A veteran journalist discovers an ancient system of speech techniques for overcoming the fear of public speaking—and reveals how they can profoundly change our lives.
In 2010, award-winning journalist John Bowe learned that his cousin Bill, a longtime extreme recluse living in his parents’ basement, had, at the age of fifty-nine, overcome a lifetime of shyness and isolation—and gotten happily married. Bill credited his turnaround to Toastmasters, the world's largest organization devoted to teaching the art of public speaking.
Fascinated by the possibility that speech training could foster the kind of psychological well-being more commonly sought through psychiatric treatment, and intrigued by the notion that words can serve as medicine, Bowe set out to discover the origins of speech training—and to learn for himself how to speak better in public.
From the birth of democracy in Ancient Greece until two centuries ago, education meant, in addition to reading and writing, years of learning specific, easily taught language techniques for interacting with others. Nowadays, absent such education, the average American speaks 16,000 to 20,000 words every day, but 74 percent of us suffer from speech anxiety. As he joins Toastmasters and learns, step-by-step, to successfully overcome his own speech anxiety, Bowe muses upon our record levels of loneliness, social isolation, and political divisiveness. What would it mean for Americans to learn once again the simple art of talking to one another?
Bowe shows that learning to speak in public means more than giving a decent speech without nervousness (or a total meltdown). Learning to connect with others bestows upon us an enhanced sense of freedom, power, and belonging.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Bowe (Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy) posits that formal speech training might be a "cure for the loneliness of the modern world" in his breezy look at the educational nonprofit Toastmasters International. Inspired by his step-cousin Bill von Hunsdorf, who ended 43 years of social isolation and got married thanks to Toastmasters, Bowe visited club chapters across America, interviewed members, and eventually joined the group himself. He grounds the program's methodology in the study of rhetoric in ancient Greece, documents his own public speaking missteps, and profiles Toastmaster success stories, including a Louisiana man who served 34 years in prison for robbery and was denied parole four times before earning his release by "bolster his ability to explain' himself" through the program. A helpful appendix summarizes steps readers should take toward making a successful oration, such as thinking about the audience and defining the purpose for speaking. Bowe occasionally oversells the life-changing impact of good and bad speech, but he writes with style and wit, and laces the narrative with useful examples of rhetorical devices in action. The result is a practical and entertaining paean to the value of connecting with people through the spoken word.
