1. Kayla Stearns
Public Speaking Online
November 1, 2012

2. Ben Goldacre:
What doctors don’t know about the drugs they
prescribe.

3. Ben Goldacre has found a startling gap between positive and negative medical
publications with the findings of medical studies.
“Positive findings are around twice as likely to
be published as negative findings. This is a
cancer at the core of evidence-based
medicine.” (Ben Goldacre)

4. He helps to emphasize this fact right in the beginning of his speech
with a published study in psychology, where a researcher named Daryl
Bem published findings in a peer-reviewed academic journal that
found evidence of precognition in undergrad students.
Others tried to replicate the results and found NO evidence of precognition
in undergrads, but when they attempted to publish their findings in the
same journal they were turned away, the journal said “No, we’re not
interested in publishing replication. We’re not interested in your negative
data”

5. “[In science,] we only
Ben Goldacre grabbed hear about the flukes and
the audiences about the freaks.” – Ben
attention right off the Goldacre
bat. He opened up
speaking about
predicting the future
and immediately
pointed the viewers to
a headline on the
projection screen. This
drew him into a study
about precognition,
which then drew in the
subject of bias in
publishing medical
reviews which is the
topic of his speech.

6. He kept the attention
of the audience by
keeping movement in
his speech, to using
hand gestures, and by
raising and lowering
his tone to bring
emphasis to his
points. I felt that this
helped to keep his
presentation
interesting.

7. Dynasim:
I found him to be very
engaging, and seemed
4/5
very engaged and
passionate about his topic.
You could tell this was a
topic that he had
researched extensively
and was something that
he knew a lot about. I feel
that he lacked a lot of
facial expression but I
believe the passion in his
voice made up for it.

8. I feel that he did seem to use some
of the tips that I saw with Nancy
Duarte, Notably that when he spoke
he versed it almost like a story, kept
he topic moving. He also used
presentations to draw in the
audience and to draw his point
home.

9. I found the presentation styles
between Sir Ken Robinson and Ben
Goldacre. Sir Ken Robinson used a
lot of humor to keep the audience
engaged and dynamic movements
with both hands to illustrate his
point.
Ben Goldacre used a lot of slides
and data, and kept his speech
relatively humor neutral. However
the passion in his voice, the
movement of him pacing the stage,
and the way he really emphasized
the volume and tone of his speech
helped. They both are incredible
speakers and knew their topics
well.

10. From watching their speeches I would really
emphasize to other students to really use eye
contact. This really makes the viewer
feel engaged. I would also emphasize
PRACTICE! The two speakers I have
mentioned were very comfortable with
their speeches and it was obvious they had
spent a lot of time practicing them.