Blog Post #9: The Art of Storytelling

Here is the link to this awesome TED talk by Ric Elias.

This short yet insightful TED talk is about what Elias experienced and thought about while his plane was emergency landing into the Hudson River. He discusses three major points and relates it back to his life before and after the crash. He wants others to go through the same revelations he had without the need for such a catastrophic event. He goes through his three things he learned (it all changes in an instant; in my humanity, I also allow my ego to get in; and the only goal I have in life is to be a good dad), making sure to provide context and guide the audience along the way.

The first important thing Elias does, as any successful storyteller does, is provide context. The visual and auditory imagery he uses is very powerful. His first words immediately entice the audience: "Imagine a big explosion as you climb through 3,000 ft. Imagine a plane full of smoke. Imagine an engine going clack, clack, clack. It sounds scary." He also addresses this scenario with a casual demeanor; his posture is relaxed and he says such serious words with a carefree tone, lightening the situation and making the audience comfortable with the content. He then guides the audience through his realizations and he continually reminds the audience of the context of his three revelations (again, very effective storytelling). He definitely establishes ethos and pathos within the first minute of his talk. He has a lot of credibility because he was in such a terrifying situation that not many people ever experience in their lives. The way that Elias puts the audience in his own situation develops his pathos. His use of real life scenarios that can apply to anyone in the audience makes them even more invested in his words. Pathos is the basis for his entire TED talk and he effectively develops it.

This talk resonated with me because it made me empathize with Elias' situation. At the end of his talk, he encourages the audience to imagine if we were in his shoes, and I did. If I were in a scenario similar to his, where I could die at any second, I would not know what to do or how to think. I would probably feel regret about not being able to accomplish as much as I could have or I would have begun to feel remorse about not being able to say any final words to my loved ones. This also made me realize that these kinds of realizations should not be a result of something so terrible; instead, they should be principles on which we base our actions and thoughts around.