Ted Talk Analysis: The Heartbreaking Text that Inspired a Crisis Helpline

I watched Nancy Lublin’s speech, “The heartbreaking text that inspired a crisis help line.” The speech was given at TEDWoman which took place in Monterey, California in May of 2015. Being that this speech was given at TEDWoman, the audience was all women. Nancy Lublin used this to her advantage by talking about a couple crisis examples that involved issues that affect mostly woman which were rape and bulimia. She was smart to do this because women are generally emotional and are usually sympathetic. This worked in her advantage because it got the audience’s attention. When she began her speech she definitely seemed nervous because her voice was slightly shaky and she paused to swallow. Within the first couple sentences she broke her nervousness with a little joke or slander. Lublin gave a statistic and said, “…That’s bigger than the Boy Scouts of America, and we’re not homophobic.” The audience responded well with a laugh. As she continued she had a couple funny parts but also several emotional parts. She had the audience invested in her anther speech. They were paying attention, clapping, nodding, their heads, and what was possibly most important, was that she had the emotionally invested. Nancy achieved all of this through excellent eye contact, hand gestures, the occasional joke, statistics, and compelling stories. As you can see in the picture below, she was engaged in the audience with her eyes as well as her hand gestures.
 She gave specific examples of why she cares so much about her organization which then made the audience care. Another thing that helped her gain their attention was when showed tell a compelling story or example and then pause; it’s almost like she was letting the sadness sink in. She was extremely excited, interested, and passionate about what she was saying and it came across to those in the room and even to myself as I watched. Nancy not only talked about the types of people who used her crisis line such as those with depression, addiction, sexual abuse, bipolar disorder, and more, but she discussed what her trained counselors do and say to help these people in the different situations and how different cases vary. For example, if there is a wait list of people texting, key words such as death, suicide, killing, will place those people in the front of the line as priority because of the severity of their cases rather than chronologic order. This is an effort to save people’s lives. When she started to close her speech it was almost a disappointment. It was ruled intriguing to listen to her talk about her organization, it made the audience care and she did an excellent job of making the audience want to listen to her. She spoke about why she loves this organization and why she is passionate about it. She doesn’t use technology for unnecessary reasons such as catching a convenient cab, getting a quick date, or finding the closest starbucks, she wants to use technology to help those who need it. She talked about inspiration and what inspires her. She left the entire audience with inspiration to help others. Nancy even received a standing ovation.  There are one or two places she could have possibly improved. The first would be her introduction, she was talking about collecting peanut butter jars and Valentines day cards and I honestly had no idea what she was talking about until I listened again. The other time she could have possibly improved was during her pauses; sometimes she cut them short when people were still laughing or clapping. Overall the speech was very impactful and extremely well done. I have attached her talk below, enjoy!

https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_lublin_the_heartbreaking_text_that_inspired_a_crisis_help_line#t-64997

TED Talk Analysis: Life Lessons from Big Cats



Beverly and Dereck Joubert

"We no longer have the luxury of time when it comes to big cats." -Dereck Joubert

The TED talk I analyzed was given by Beverly and Dereck Joubert entitled “Life Lessons from Big Cats.” Beverly and Dereck Joubert are award-winning documentary filmmakers that have worked to conserve wildlife for over 25 years. The Joubert's gave this talk as part of the "TED Women" conference in Washington D.C, in December, 2010. As part of the TED Women conference, the audience in attendance were men and women who are as accomplished and fascinating as the speakers. Beverly and Dereck gave a very interesting talk on the importance of animal conservation, which touched the audience and everyone who has viewed the talk, in several different ways.

The Joubert's begin their talk with the question, "Why would one worry about a few cats?" They answer this question throughout the talk they give by referring back to one cat in particular, a leopard they named Lakadema. They have followed this leopard throughout its entire life, and in their presentation, Beverly and Dereck use Lakadema to show how every individual animal has a personality, just as humans.

Image of Lakadema, the leopard

Another aspect they examined was lions and elephants together. For years, the Joubert's could not capture these two animals together, but on one stormy night, they did just that. A pack of lions attacked an innocent elephant, who almost gave up hope. Just as any human would do, the elephant fought back and eventually escaped the pack of lions. The Joubert's wanted to display this image, not only to show one of the highlights of their career, but to show animals display these hopeful characteristics and humans should do everything they can to conserve these species.

The last thing I found interesting in this presentation was when Beverly and Dereck began explaining how Lakadema took care of a baby baboon, after its mother had died. Still only a cub, Lakadema wanted to play with the baboon. The first thought that comes to mind would be a predator, like Lakadema, would try to kill the baboon, but this did not happen. She cared for the baboon, showing Lakadema's true personality. The Joubert's truly get their message across that humans need to be concerned with the conservation of these wild animals. Just as humans, these animals have personalities. Also, as male lions are killed, it messes with the dynamic of a pack. The Joubert's estimate that as one male lion is killed in the pack, over thirty others will be killed because of fighting and new male lions joining the pack. This messes with the ecosystem in Africa, and the Joubert's truly get their message across about the importance of why this is important.

The Joubert's do an excellent job with the presentation of their talk. They show pictures and videos they have personally taken of Lakadema and other animals throughout their time in Africa. The use of personal images and stories makes the audience feel as if they are there with them, as well as more empathetic with the individual animals. Also, their use of transitioning between who is talking makes the presentation more interesting. They are very well rehearsed, and their passion for what they do and their message truly shows.

To find more information on the Joubert's and the animals they work with, visit their website at: www.wildlifefilms.com

 

 

Patricia Medici: The coolest animal you know nothing about...and how we can save it

Opening image from Ted Talk, Patricia Medici's Tapir

       
 Patricia Medici gave a Ted Talk in August 2015 entitled "The coolest animal you know nothing about...and how we can save it." Patricia is a well known Brazilian conservationist whose lifelong goal has been to save the endangered species of tapirs in South America. She gave her Talk at the 2015 Ted Fellows conference, which means that the audience that Medici was presenting to was a group of diversely educated individuals who had applied and paid to attend the conference and were therefore interested in what she had to say. This interest would have been unavoidable regardless, as the topic which Medici was discussing was, in fact, very interesting. And the interesting subject matter combined with the well crafted presentation made for an easy viewing.
        Medici began her speech with an overview of the personal work she had done for tapirs in South America and she showed several images of her posing with tapirs she had worked with.

Image which accompanied Medici's beginning annecdote

 By beginning with a short anecdote, Medici captured the audiences attention and made the remaining 10 minutes of her presentation much more enticing. Her vocal delivery was paced very evenly, and in spite of her Brazilian accent, she would enunciate every word she spoke to communicate it as clearly as possible. She did say "um" a few times, and there were moments where it seemed as though she had forgotten what she was about to say, but aside from those few short moments, her vocal delivery was fantastic. In addition to this, her body language followed very closely with Carmine Gallo's suggestions for effective communication. She did not stand rigid, but instead used motions with her hands near her midsection with suggested relaxation and receptiveness to the audience.
         Because Medici was discussing her own work with the tapirs, much of the evidence that she provided during her Talk was evidence she herself had gathered. She discussed first how they had gathered the information necessary to understand more about the elusive species of endangered mammals, next why they are endangered and why is it is important that they be saved from extinction, followed by what she and her fellow conservationists have been doing to save them, and finally what we can be doing to continue to save them. Though she packed a lot of her research and evidence into a short amount of time, she told very personal stories and used vast amounts of visual aids which made the information easy to follow. In addition to making the presentation easier to follow, the visual aids also created a powerful affect among the audience because of the emotions which they invoked.

For example, Medici displayed images such as the one shown below and followed it with saying: "how could you not want to save them? They're the cutest mammals on earth." This was obviously meant to create a very emotional reaction among audience members, which, at least for me, it did.

The only thing which I would suggest to Patricia Medici is to practice the fluency of her speech to eliminate the small pauses and "um"s which sometimes filled her silences. Aside from that, she was well spoken and the Ted Talk was both educational and interesting.

Communications Among the Wolves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93hZTKcwxy0&feature=youtu.be

In this video-blog I mentioned all of the wolves howling so here's a little clip of that as well, turn on the volume! :-)

A Day With Halo- Day 3

Halo, the youngest wolf dog puppy

Wolf Run Video Blog

Video Blog Post Link

Please visit the link below to access the most recent video blog by Megan Van Son:

Megan Van Son - Video Blog

Cleaning Up Wolfrun

Volunteering at Wolf Run Wildlife Refuge has been an incredible experience! The amount of team work, time, dedication, care, and love that is involved in this organization is overwhelming. There is not a single person that works with the facility who is not completely dedicated to the care of the animals. Everyone pitches in to get the animals fed, watered, and well cared for. The animals, especially the wolf dogs, are always excited to see their human friends. They are welcoming of people into their enclosures and are always excited for some interaction even if it takes them some time to decide if they want to interact. The past couple of times I have assisted with pulling weeds and cleaning a meat freezer. It's very rewarding to see the pile of weeds that have been removed from in and around the enclosures; it makes me want to do more and try harder. Even though these animals are obviously not able to give anything back other than the occasional affection, its extremely satisfying and motivating to take a step back and notice the large difference of the removal of the weeds. The animals look at us in a funny way; its almost comical. Sometimes we make up things of what they would say or think about us and it makes for a good time, especially when the weather is less than desirable. The wolf dogs are pretty entertaining in their interactions; last week Char and I went into an enclosure with two wolf dogs and a coyote. The coyote and the male wolf dog never interact but the female wolf dog will come pretty close and likes to watch us. So when we went in the female ran up to Char and wanted to play with her until she looked at her face and realized Char wasn't the person she thought! She just ran away but it was like one of those awkward moments when you see someone you thought was your best friend and you go to give them a high five or hug and then its actually some random person. This same wolf dog also enjoys watching us from the top of her shelter. She lays there with her paws crossed as if she is looking over her kingdom and we are her slaves yet she will not lower herself to us and actually interact but we are acceptable from a distance. Watching the wolf dogs interact with us and each other reveals a lot about how society works in the real world. It has been a great learning experience so far.