Faisal Azizi | Ilja Gorbounov | Kaj Goosen

Unexpected | Ray Lewis | TEDxYouth@VHS

Ray Lewis is talking about his experience during his NFL (American football) career
[ CITATION Lew16 \l 1043 ]. The things that he went through physically. He is explaining that
there was a play where he had to do something and he felt a pop in his arm that he never
heard and felt before.

His doctor went to him and said that he torn his tricep from the bone and the doctor was
worried. Ray Lewis was wondering why the doctor was worried because he said ‘’it’s just an
arm’’. After the game he went to his college doctor to confirm if it was torn off the bone. This
doctor was also worried that knowing Ray Lewis. Ray Lewis ended going to the Super Bowl
(Championship Finals for American football) with his team and a day before the game he re-
tore his tricep again. He had to tie his hand up at night for him to be able to sleep during the
night because he said his arm was burning.

They ended up winning the Super Bowl that year. Ray Lewis explained that the motivation
that he got was from his childhood where he and his family lived in poverty. He also
mentioned that his mother was always beaten by her boyfriend at that time and he couldn’t
do anything about it. He started to have a deck of cards and do push-ups based on the
number that appeared on the card. He ended up having 3 decks of cards and finished them
all every day. A deck of cards has 52 cards in it. Coincidentally Ray Lewis his jersey number
was also 52. Ray Lewis explains that that pain is all in your head and it shouldn’t keep you
from doing things or keep pushing to reach your goal.

How does this apply to what Carmine Gallo said?

Carmine Gallo explains that in order to gain people’s attention you should try to talk with
stories that have emotions attached to it, be persuasive. He explains that Bryan Stevenson
got the longest standing ovation in TED Talk history and got donations over $1,000,000. But
why did he get that? It’s because he touched people emotionally. According to Aristotle that
is called Pathos. Stories made up 65% of his presentation. This applies to Ray Lewis as well.
Researchers have discovered that if you tell a story it stimulates the same areas in the brain,
meaning that your minds are in sync. Ray Lewis didn’t necessarily use pictures to gain
people’s attention, rather he used his body language to grab people’s attention. He moved a
lot during the presentation out of emotion to explain his story and I think that is the reason
why he grabbed people’s attention during his presentation.

Ray Lewis has been an inspiration to me for years and that’s because the way he tries to
motivate people. You can also hear the emotion and passion in his voice, it isn’t monotone
he uses waves of sound to make his speech not sound boring or that people will lose
attention.
The moral of Ray Lewis his story is: ‘’sometimes your greatest pain, it isn’t even about you. It
is about a greater purpose that if you can find a way to push through, that if you can find a
way to not make it about you. Learn to appreciate the occasional storms that come into your
life, learn to appreciate how small they are that comes daily and that is the ingredient how to
deal with pain, figuring that out.’’

Our natural sleep cycle is nothing like what we do now | Jessa Gamble | TEDGlobal
2010
Jessa begins her TED talk by explaining how life evolved under the conditions of light and
darkness, and the constant variation between the two [CITATION Gam \l 1043 ]. This led to
plants and animals developing their own internal clocks, to prepare accordingly to these
 Faisal Azizi | Ilja Gorbounov | Kaj Goosen

changes. These internal clocks are based on chemistry, and found across all living beings on
the planet with two or more cells, and sometimes even one.

As an example, she tells about a horseshoe crab and how it would react when flown outside
of its own natural habitat at beach. When placed in a sloped cage, it will scramble up the
cage when the tide is rising on its home shore, and scitter down when it is receding. It will
continue for weeks until the crab gets familiarized with the new environment. This shows how
closely tied the creature’s internal clock is to the environment it has evolved in.

Humans possess a similar internal clock, as the horseshoe crab does. Bringing another
example into her presentation, she tells how this can be seen in humans if their ability to
follow time is taken away and they are locked somewhere where sun cannot be seen. Over
the weeks when these people, as volunteers are locked away in a bunker, they will wake up
slightly later, about 15 minutes every day.

This internal clock according to Jessa, is also an important factor in human culture and
behaviour. As humans evolved close to the equator, being well accustomed to 12 hours of
daylight and 12 hours of darkness, they behave in a specific way that is known to most
humans today. This, however, does not apply to all of us, as we have spread all over the
world.

As a Canadian, she tells of aboriginal people living in arctic Canada, that experience
perpetual daylight during a certain period in summer, and perpetual darkness in winter, when
the sun does not rise even once above the horizon. The effects of these phenomena are
highly pronounced in the cultures of Canadian native inhabitants, which are highly seasonal.
During winters they sleep mostly and spend a lot of time with their families. On the opposite
side, during summers these people spend a tremendous amount of time hunting, working
and being active in various ways.

She turns the page during her presentation and begins talking about a possible natural and
ideal habitat for humans to live in, and how their internal clock would be accustomed to it.
According to a study, in this environment without any artificial lights, people would be
accustomed to sleep twice every night. They would go to bed around 20.00, sleep until
midnight, spend two hours in a peaceful meditative silence of the night without noise
pollution, fall asleep once again and sleep until the sunrise. During the period of silence in
the night, the human would experience a surge in prolactin production, and as a
consequence feel true wakefulness for the first time in their lives during the day.

She concludes the presentation by describing the reality of modern living with constant
travel, light pollution never-ending business and shift work, which paints a clear picture how
unnaturally we are living when comparing our sleep patterns to ideal environments built for
studies or people living in more traditional fashion.

How do Chris Anderson’s ideas apply to Jessa Gamble’s presentation?

According to Chris Anderson, a successful TED talk should not follow a specific script, as it
may come across as manipulative or inauthentic [ CITATION And16 \l 1043 ]. There is however
a specific pre-condition that the presenter should fulfil for his presentation to be considered
successful, and that is the ability to transmit his ideas to the audience in a clear an
understandable manner.
 Faisal Azizi | Ilja Gorbounov | Kaj Goosen

During a presentation, millions of neurons get linked with synapses to each other, forming a
specific idea in the mind of the presenter during his speech. This same phenomenon repeats
itself in the mind of listeners, as the same regions in their brains get activated, and the idea
forms clearly in their minds. This is transmitted through body language, voice and
expressions.

Numerous ideas are in the mind of every person, forming patterns and ultimately a whole
worldview. Ideas also carry different associations for each person, thus they will react
differently to every idea presented to them. But if presented successfully, the speaker may
even change these associations about ideas forever, thus shaping the person itself and the
worldview that makes him the way he his currently.

These are the four guidelines to successfully building an idea in the mind of the listener:
1. Focus on one major idea, and do not deviate from it. Give examples and explain in
detail. Connect in some way to everything during your presentation.
2. Give the listeners a reason to care about your presentation, by making it relevant to
them, and by making them curious. Expose uneven lines in their worldview, and thus
help them add your idea there.
3. Build up the idea from concepts already familiar to the audience. Use language that is
familiar to the audience, including metaphors. Metaphors can give a vivid and
detailed picture in the mind of the listener about an idea.
4. Make your idea worth sharing. Who does it benefit? You, or a wider audience? How
could improve the lives of other people, and how could it inspire them?

For Jessa’s presentation, she succeeded on all four points. The major idea to which
everything was connected was human sleeping pattern, or the internal clock. The concept
was explained concisely and understandably, using simple language. Numerous examples
were given, even scientific studies on how it works and its effects. The benefits were clearly
explained and how they would benefit every single member of the audience, as the problems
associated with an unnatural sleeping patterns are true to most human beings.

Conclusion
As we can see, the key factor for a successful Ted Talk is to talk in a natural way. Besides
this the Talk should appeal to people’s emotions. This way people can relate to the story that
was told by the presenter, and when people can relate to the story it is more likely for them to
remember it, or even better, do something with it. Chris Anderson calls this ‘giving listeners a
reason to care about your presentation’.

Both Ted Talks that were discussed are focused on things that most people can relate to,
because they are concerning sleeping and motivation/persistence. Ray Lewis is using
different ways to say thinks, to add more emotion to his story, this makes it more natural, as
we all tend to talk differently when we are touched by emotion.

We think that what we can learn from this is to stop trying to achieve the perfect presentation,
because we tend to act a little robotic when we do. You need to define a clear storyline for
yourself, and you don’t want to have your story all filled in word by word beforehand. This
way you will be able to keep your story more natural. Besides this it is important to come up
with some examples that people can relate to, to gain the interest of your audience, and hold
on to it. By doing this, you will be able to deliver your message in a stronger, more
convincing way.
 Faisal Azizi | Ilja Gorbounov | Kaj Goosen

Bibliography
Anderson, C. (2016). TED's Secret to Great Public Speaking | Chris Anderson. Retrieved
from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FOCpMAww28
Gamble, J. (2010). Our Natural Sleep Cycle is Nothing Like What we do Now. Retrieved from
Ted:
https://www.ted.com/talks/jessa_gamble_our_natural_sleep_cycle_is_nothing_like_w
hat_we_do_now#t-117
Lewis, R. (2016). Unexpected | Ray Lewis | TEDxYouth@VHS. Retrieved from Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX8ZeA7ahDg