We sit down with a former MIT student to unpack the previous episodes.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Rebecca Taft, Software Engineer at Cockroach Labs & MIT Computer Science Ph.D. Recpient
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and in this special episode, we’re going to get a different perspective on the things we’ve heard so far.
We asked a few MIT grad students to listen to the interviews we conducted with these great speakers, then provide feedback on what they heard.
In this episode….
REBECCA
My name’s Rebecca Taft. I’m a PhD student at the Computer Science Department here at MIT.

ADAM GREENFIELD

And the focus of Rebecca’s research is in databases.

REBECCA

So creating software for managing big data. It’s very practical, applied research so industry partners are interested in what we’re doing, which is kind of fun, and I’m hoping to go into industry when I’m done.

ADAM GREENFIELD

But perhaps once a researcher, always a researcher.

REBECCA

I think I’m ready to take a break from academia for now but we’ll see. I may miss the research after I leave.

ADAM GREENFIELD

In our talk with Rebecca, she brought up how each speaker she heard seemed to have goals they wanted to accomplish with their writing. She specifically pointed to things Scott Lewis referenced in his comments about his realizations while watching political debates, that while a listing of facts is an accurate view of the world, people may tune out if there’s no emotion tied to them.
SCOTT
I think that in any situation, an election or a church or a- if you’re sitting there just rambling through facts that you might find interesting in some deep part of your soul but you don’t actually communicate why they’re interesting...

This is a rebroadcast of the the full, unedited interview with Yang Shao-Horn. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episodes of Yang’s interview yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Yang Shao-Horn, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.
Patrick Yurick:  Can you state your name and tell us a little bit about yourself?
Yang Shao-Horn:  Sure.  So, my name is Yang Shao-Horn.  I am a WM Keck professor of energy at MIT.  I am also a professor of material science engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, and my area of expertise is in developing energy storage technologies.
P:  Cool.  So, we are going to start with a couple questions about audience.  So, our grad students are learning about how to connect to their audience for the first time.  So, the first weeks’ worth of content will be all about like, how do you connect with an audience?  So, what the questions I am going to be asking you have a little bit to do with who your personal audience is for your work and how you have connected to them, if you have, or any stories like that.  So, I guess, the first questions is, who is the audience for your work?
YS:  Alright, I guess we can edit this portion out but, I find this question really can be discussed in several different contexts.  So, it depends on what we actually are doing. So, if we are talking about teaching, our audience is really our students.

There’s an understanding that just because research has been published, that doesn’t mean it’s some kind of final answer to a question. And Professor Shao-Horn takes comfort in this, this sort of ever-changing landscape of knowledge and information.

EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Yang Shao-Horn, W.M. Keck Professor of Energy
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Castor Wheel Pivot” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“Mind Body Mind” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and in today’s episode, let’s talk about a subject that, within the scientific community, is a pretty significant aspect of written communication. Today we’re going to talk about publishing.
But we’re not going to talk about how to get published in the sense of what sort of guidelines publications are looking for. Instead we’re going to focus on how to engage your peers and readers, and also understand how writing helps you, the communicator, have a clearer, stronger grasp on your research. Not only does publishing help ensure your ideas are reviewed by your peers but it also cultivates new ideas and discussions.

All of these reasons are why our speaker in today’s show is a big fan of publishing.

YANG SHAO-HORN

I think publishing is really great.

ADAM GREENFIELD

That’s Yang Shao-Horn and she’s a W.M. Keck Professor of Energy at MIT. She also teaches material science engineering and mechanical engineering and her area of expertise is in developing storage technologies.

Professor Shao-Horn is no stranger to publishing, either. Just in 2016 alone,

This is a rebroadcast of the the full, unedited interview with Scott Lewis. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episodes of Scott’s interview yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Scott Lewis, CEO of San Diego’s “Voice of San Diego”
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Adam Greenfield: First question.
Scott Lewis: Yes.
A: Name and occupation.
S: My name is Scott Lewis. I am the CEO and editor-in-chief of the Voice of San Diego, an online- mostly online news investigative service for San Diego. And I’m a journalist.
A: So in your hierarchy of necessities in life, from personal to professional, where does communication come into play?
S: I mean, it’s my essence, really. It’s like the thing that I mostly think about in life. You know, it’s the thing- for instance, I can’t watch a show where the plot is driven by miscommunication without crawling out of my skin, you know what I mean? The communication is everything I have… striven… strove? (laughter) It’s everything that I have really pushed myself to learn the most about and to perfect, whether it’s learning another language or in telling stories and learning how to tell stories with the perfection of a plot line and, you know, sort of kicker. All of that has sort of really driven everything in my personal life and luckily it’s been the focus of my career, as well.
A: What other languages do you speak?
S: Spanish.
A: Ok,

Communicating something to someone shouldn’t just be a laundry list of facts. Scott Lewis used the recent political season to illustrate this point, that it’s important for the audience to leave your talk or finish reading your written communication and know what your universe looks like instead of only hearing or reading numbers or stats with no relatable context or background.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Scott Lewis, CEO of San Diego’s “Voice of San Diego”
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and as communicators, sometimes it’s easy to fall into the trap of self-doubt. You begin to question not only if what you’re presenting is accurate or clear or even engaging, but also if, simply put, you’re the right person to do the job.
But in this episode, we’re going to hear how to avoid that trap of uncertainty and insecurity, how there’s no better communicator than you to communicate your research and work, and also why a list of ingredients or information is better off with a little flair than without.
Our guest in this episode has spent well over a decade as a journalist and editor, and communicates in all mediums, from television to radio to podcasts to print. Still, even with all that experience….

SCOTT LEWIS

You’re never going to feel perfect and perfectly confident that you are in the perfect position to tell a story, but you do anyway.

ADAM GREENFIELD

That’s Scott Lewis, the CEO and editor-in-chief of Voice of San Diego…

SCOTT LEWIS

… an online- mostly online news investigative service for San Diego. And I’m a journalist.

ADAM GREENFIELD

Scott is a great guest because of those credentials. But it becomes next-level when it comes to the role communication plays in his everyday personal and professional life; it’s pretty muc...

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Jim Ruland. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Jim Ruland, Author
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Adam Greenfield: Alright, easy one. Name and occupation.
Jim Ruland: My name is Jim Ruland and I’m a writer.
A: What kind of things do you write?
J: I write a lot of different things. Professionally, I’m a copywriter, that’s my day job, I work in advertising, and I’ve been doing that for over 20 years. And I also do a number of other kinds of freelance types of writing, writing book reviews, columns, cultural columns. I also do some ghost writing, editing, I collaborate with people, help them get their stories out into the world. And, lastly, I do writing for myself, fiction and non-fiction.
A: Do you have a preference? If you could ideally write one thing what would it be?
J: That’s a great question. I think how it usually works, though, is when I’m working on a novel, working on a non-fiction project seems so much easier, where all I have to do is talk about what happened. But when I’m writing a non-fiction project and I’m in the weeds, I really miss the freedom of being able to make things up.
A: It’s nice to have that wide range of things to work on.
J: And then, also, the grass is always greener.
A: There’s a reason for that saying. There’s no reason to not search for it.

According to Author Jim Ruland, it’s important to have intentions and goals in mind of what you’re trying to communicate. That’s a good starting point to knowing what is extraneous information and can be left on the cutting room floor, and also what is important to the story.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Jim Ruland, Author
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Marquetry” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“The Molerat” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and a majority of you have probably spent countless hours already writing research papers or grant proposals or other forms of communication. So it’s probably no secret that there’s nothing easy about it.
But what if I told you there are things you can do to make your written communication process not just easier, but better in its effectiveness? No, there’s no magic involved. Neither I nor today’s guest are that good. Just solid advice and a reminder that what you’re writing is more than just a list of ideas and points, and also what you should be focusing on when you’re short on space and time.

Our guest is a writer who, like previous guests in this series, stresses audience engagement but in his own way that he’s honed over time. Oh, and his writing career started in the punk rock music scene.

JIM RULAND

And I still do that, by the way. I still write for punk zines, even though I don’t get out to as many shows as I used to.

ADAM GREENFIELD

That’s Jim Ruland, a San Diego based writer whose name and voice is well established in the literary scene.

JIM RULAND

I write a lot of different things. Professionally, I’m a copywriter, that’s my day job,

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Eric Lander. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Erica Lander, Ph.D., President & Founding Director of the Broad Institute
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Patrick Yurick:  We are forming these ideas around how do, it’s not technically how do you communicate?  It’s more like, what are the things you need to be thinking about. Some of the places we have identified areas where students should be thinking is, connecting to an audience.  So, once of the questions that Tony had formulated that would be great from you was, can you explain the same technique that you have worked on in two different ways, one for a student or a lay audience and the other one for more of a technical audience.  He said, maybe HMMs if you wanted to.
Eric Lander:  I do not know that HMMs would connect.
P:  It could be anything.  You can choose. I am the lay audience, by the way.  Or, PCR, he said. The big thing is that I kind of want to hear what you think about how you would explain it differently, depending on who you are talking to.
E:  I do not think it is a question of explaining it differently depending on who you are talking to.  I think it is a question in every single place, a conversation with a person, a freshman course, or meeting with the President of the United States.

You, the speaker, have all the data and knowledge and understanding of the subject you’re speaking about. But if you can’t convey its significance and why it’s deserving of all this attention, it lessens not just the importance of the data but the audience’s desire to care. According to Eric Lander, a scientist’s job performance involves not just data collection and interpretation but the ability to engagingly educate others.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Erica Lander, Ph.D., President & Founding Director of the Broad Institute
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Mccarthy” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License

“Grand Fell” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

Train Sound
Standard YouTube License
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oJAVJPX0YY
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and if you’ve ever been moved by a speech or by something someone said, what did it was probably how the words and ideas were conveyed to you, or the performance of the communication. There may not have been dancing or music involved but still, a performance was put on.
And as we’ll hear in this episode, that communication performance can include a lot of useful tools, like images or objects, or pacing. So if you’re not a dancer or musician, have no fear. You’re about to find out why you don’t have to be and still be able to perform and communicate effectively.
Now, in your career as a scientist, you may find yourself communicating your work to a wide range of audience types and sizes. It could be one person, it could be thousands of people, it could be the head of a company, it could be an entire high school.

This is a rebroadcast of the the full, unedited interview with Sage Rosenfels. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episodes of Sage’s interview yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Sage Rosenfels, Former American Football Quarterback
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.
Adam Greenfield: To start, then. Can you give me- or can you tell me your name and occupation?
Sage Rosenfels: My name is Sage Rosenfels. I am a retired NFL quarterback of 12 seasons, I live in Omaha, Nebraska, I am a father of three kids, so that’s one of my occupations, I guess, and I dabble in different aspects of the media, whether it be calling football games, writing articles, doing radio shows, radio interviews, all that type of stuff. So I also invest the money that I made while playing football and pay attention to all those businesses or real estate deals that are ongoing.
A: And probably pretty frightening. I mean, we hear those stories of athletes retired in any sport and all of a sudden a few years later they’re bankrupt.
S: Yeah, there is a crazy stat that’s something like, 80% of NFL players after two years removed from the NFL, I think, are either divorced, bankrupt, or something like that. And not surprising, the divorce rate’s just high in general amongst young people with a lot of money. I always say that giving young people a lot of money is not really a good stepping stone to maturity and as well- a lot of NFL players,

When it comes to the performance area of communication, the process of repetition plays a pretty big factor in your success as a speaker or performer.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Sage Rosenfels, Former American Football Quarterback
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Front Runner” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)
“Valantis” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Cleats
Royalty free licensing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_psQs_5A2SY

Stadium Crowd
Royalty free licensing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FLgShtdxQ8
EPISODE SCRIPT

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ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and if you ask a lot of sports fans what draws them to their favorite sport, they’ll probably say it’s the action. But for some, myself included, it’s also a physical and verbal performance that draws them in.
In most sports, if you listen closely and pay attention, all of the athletes involved are all communicating in one form or another, whether it’s verbally or physically. They’re speaking to their teammates, explaining what actions they’re going to take, hopefully without the other team figuring it out first, and also expressing to the audience watching a desire to achieve something special.
Of course, while scientists aren’t competing on a literal field of play, they are, in a sense, conducting their own communicative performance in hopes of getting their own something special across to their audience.
In this episode, we’re going to get a glimpse into the sport of American football and when it’s a...

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Len Cabral. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Len Cabral, Professional Storyteller
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Adam Greenfield: Ok, to start, an easy question. Name and what you would say your title or occupation is.
Len Cabral: Ok, my name is Len Cabral and I’m a professional storyteller.
A: And you’ve been doing that since the mid-70’s, yes?
L: Yes, since 1976.
A: So that was- you were in your mid-20’s around then?
L: Yes, I was. I was in my mid-20’s.
A: Was there anything that triggered the start of the storytelling path?
L: Well, I was working in a daycare center and I was in charge of 15 five year olds. That’ll make you a storyteller. But I was taking classes at a nearby college, Rhode Island College in early childhood development and children’s theater and creative drama, and I was always interested in theater. And I got involved with a children’s theater company, do a lot of reader’s theater. And I guess I was influenced by a lot of TV program I watched as a young boy, too.
A: Which programs?
L: Well, they were different variety shows. There was Red Skelton, there was Laugh In, then there were comedians I was excited about, like Jonathan Winters, there’s Lenny Bruce and Dick Gregory and later on it was Richard Pryor, Danny DeVito, like the physical comics.

When it comes to effective communication, it’s not just about the content. According to Len, using physical movement to tell a story and engage your audience is a pretty important skill and tool to employ.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Len Cabral, Professional Storyteller
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“A Burst of Light” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Caprese” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License. (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and one of my passions is poetry, both reading and writing. I’ve also been lucky enough to have a collection of poetry published. And through this passion I frequently find myself at poetry readings, reciting some of my writing to audiences both big and small. To say I don’t get butterflies in my stomach each time would be a lie.
But over the years, as I’ve tried to better my performance and storytelling skills, I’m verbally practicing out loud to my cat and otherwise empty apartment. Part of that practice also involves physical movement. And what I’ve found is along with my communicating skills improving, there are less and less butterflies each time.
Now, when it comes to communication, especially to a live audience, even the greatest communicators started off a bundle of nerves. But if you ask each one, I bet they’d tell you with practice and an engaging communicative performance, including just the slightest physical movement, it gets easier and easier each time, even if in small increments.
Our guest in this episode is no stranger to using his body in front of an audience to enhance concepts and ideas within a talk or story. He’s not doing somersaults or jumping jacks but….
LEN CABRAL

A little movement goes a long way.

ADAM GREENFIELD

We sit down with a graduate student to unpack the previous episodes.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Morgan Voss, Student in MIT EECS
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Abracadabra” by Silent Partner; No license required (https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and in this special episode, we’re going to get a different perspective on the things we’ve heard so far.
We asked a few MIT grad students to listen to the interviews we conducted with these great speakers, then provide feedback on what they heard.
In this episode….
GRAD STUDENT: Morgan
My name is Morgan Voss and I am a graduate student in the Masters of Engineering program at MIT and the EECS Department.

ADAM GREENFIELD

And when it comes to communicating, Morgan’s aware of her struggles.

GRAD STUDENT: MORGAN

I’m working as a TA and I have to interact with about 23 different students and I have to structure essentially the same program recitation but know how to direct it effectively for each different group of students and sometimes it’s a struggle to see some students who aren’t as interested in what I’m talking about or who aren’t quite on the same page and how do I address that and how do I make sure that my overall message is still being applied.

ADAM GREENFIELD

Fortunately, Morgan has participated in leadership programs and through them has been able to take away very useful pieces of knowledge for future use.

GRAD STUDENT: MORGAN

And just through repeated practice and exposure to that type of experiences I’ve gotten increasingly more comfortable having an audience that maybe doesn’t quite understand me or isn’t quite on the same page or maybe not as interested. And I’ve learned to not be afraid of those instances but use those effectively to make sure I d...

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Dr. Brunie Felding. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Dr. Brunie Felding – Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
[Music Credits]
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.
Adam Greenfield: Ok, so we’ll go ahead and get started. We’ll get some easy questions out of the way. First, can you give us your name and occupation?
Brunie Felding: My name is Brunie Felding and I’m an associate professor at the Scripps Research Institute. I’m a principal investigator in cancer research projects.
A: Do you go by doctor?
B: No.
A: No Dr. Felding?
B: No, you can call me Brunie.
A: Brunie? Ok, alright. I ask because when I go create the script for the show, I want to find out- I want to make sure people’s titles are correct. So I want to know if I should call you Brunie-
B: You can call me Brunie.
A: Ok.
B: I don’t know if you noticed but I have a sign at my door that says Dr. Brunie.
A: I didn’t see that.
B: I mean, I was given that once in a advocacy. You know, I was teaching- like, once a year I teach here in a project called Project Lead with people who are breast cancer survivors who want to become advocates like me. And they get a crash course, so to speak, on science because their backgrounds are very diverse. So I teach there for a week, heavy duty, you know, crash course stuff. And they gave me this nametag that says Dr. Brunie.

All of this feedback leads somewhere, to a better understanding of your own work and how you communicate it to others. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, Brunie doesn’t take this topic lightly.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Dr. Brunie Felding – Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps Research
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Vittoro” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License

“The Summit” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD

Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and there’s an old proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child.” No, this episode isn’t about child rearing. At least not in a literal sense. But it is about the process of creating effective communication through the use of community and peer review.
As you’re about to find out, it goes beyond just the reasoning for effective communication. Going through that process enriches not just you as a scientist and researcher but also the entire field you’re in.
Our guest in this episode, through her own trials and tribulations, has come to find that a support group of peers for evaluation and critique, no matter how honest things get, can really be a boost to personal and professional success.

BRUNIE FELDING

That’s the goal.

ADAM GREENFIELD

And that’s Brunie Felding, an associate professor at Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California and the type of work she does will hopefully one day change the face of medicine and science.

BRUNIE FELDING

I’m a principal investigator in cancer research projects.

ADAM GREENFIELD

I met Professor Felding-

BRUNIE FELDING

You can call me Brunie.

ADAM GREENFIELD

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Sage Rosenfels. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Sage Rosenfels, Former American Football Quarterback
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.
Adam Greenfield: To start, then. Can you give me- or can you tell me your name and occupation?
Sage Rosenfels: My name is Sage Rosenfels. I am a retired NFL quarterback of 12 seasons, I live in Omaha, Nebraska, I am a father of three kids, so that’s one of my occupations, I guess, and I dabble in different aspects of the media, whether it be calling football games, writing articles, doing radio shows, radio interviews, all that type of stuff. So I also invest the money that I made while playing football and pay attention to all those businesses or real estate deals that are ongoing.
A: And probably pretty frightening. I mean, we hear those stories of athletes retired in any sport and all of a sudden a few years later they’re bankrupt.
S: Yeah, there is a crazy stat that’s something like, 80% of NFL players after two years removed from the NFL, I think, are either divorced, bankrupt, or something like that. And not surprising, the divorce rate’s just high in general amongst young people with a lot of money. I always say that giving young people a lot of money is not really a good stepping stone to maturity and as well- a lot of NFL players,

Whether you’re on stage giving a talk or explaining what you do to friends or even on a field being pursued by 11 large athletes who want nothing more than to tackle you, you will at some point fail at least once. It’s inevitable. Sage Rosenfels joins us to help how to tackle unavoidable failure when approaching your communication obstacles and how rebound effectively from those failures.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Sage Rosenfels, a retired NFL quarterback of 12 seasons and also a football broadcaster, analyst for television, radio, and podcast
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Drifting Spade” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

“Dirtbike Lovers” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and this episode is all about the F word: Failure. Countless quotes about failure have been made throughout time, like “Failure is not an option.” This particular quote is attributed to Gene Kranz, the NASA flight director for several significant space missions.
Of course, in space, failure would be catastrophic. But here on the ground and in the universe of communication, failure is not only inevitable but also our friend in the end. It may feel bad at first but as we’re about to hear, failure can actually be an advantage when it comes to communication, if not life in general.
Our speaker in this episode had a career in a field that dealt with failure as just part of the process.

SAGE ROSENFELS

Failure is very much a part of sports. Of all sports.

ADAM GREENFIELD

That’s Sage Rosenfels, a retired NFL quarterback of 12 seasons and also a football broadcaster and analyst for television, radio, and even podcasts.

SAGE ROSENFELS

This is episode is the full, unedited interview with Ed Boyden. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, we strongly encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined.
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Ed Boyden, Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute & Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology
TED Talks by Ed Boyden:
 
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Hello, Adam Greenfield here, host of The Great Communicators podcast series. What you’re about to hear is the full, unedited interview with one of the guests we spoke with. If you haven’t listened to the fully produced episode yet, I definitely encourage you to do so before listening to this one. They’re shorter in length and much more refined. You can find them all at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
The idea behind these longer, unedited conversation is to give you an opportunity to hear the entire talk, warts and all. This is not only a fun way to hear the full flow of the conversation but it also emphasizes the importance of the points made in the shorter, produced episodes, which again, can be found at gradx.mit.edu/podcasts.
Thanks for listening and enjoy the conversation.

Patrick Yurick:  Can you tell me your name, title, and what you do here at MIT?
Ed Boyden:  My name is Ed Boyden.  I am an associate professor here at MIT where I direct a neuro technology group, and I work with people across all different disciplines, science and engineering, on a quest to understand and repair the brain.
P:  Great.  I was kind of interested in, we were just talking, and I was interested because you do have to communicate with a lot of people.  So like, on a daily basis and at different levels. Can you describe the different ways that you have to think about communication?
E:  Sure.  So in my own research group, we have clinicians, roboticists, chemists, people who are trained in the humanities, people who have trained in mathematics, and everything in between.  I spent a lot of time trying to understand and frame problems so that they can be solved. This is a very difficult thing to do because looking at a problem a little bit the wrong way can mean the difference between somebody coming up with a sol...

“I often ask people to think about aiming for a constructive failure.” says Ed Boyden, Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute & Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology, “It is probably going to fail, but you will know what you need to do next. I think from that comes wisdom.” 
EPISODE CREDITS
Guest Starring Ed Boyden, Associate Professor of Biological Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT Media Lab and McGovern Institute & Y. Eva Tan Professor in Neurotechnology
TED Talks by Ed Boyden:
Produced & Hosted by Adam Greenfield
Executive Produced by Patrick Yurick, Instructional Designer – MIT OGE
Executive Produced by Heather Konar, Communication Director – MIT OGE
Special thanks to the following editors who provided us invaluable feedback that aided in the development of this show:
Christopher O’Keeffe, Co-Founder of Podcation
Kristy Bennet, Manager – MIT Women’s League
Jennifer Cherone, Phd Candidate – MIT Burge Laboratory
Erik Tillman, Phd, Formerly of the Kim Lab & Currently A Fellow at Vida Ventures, LLC
The Great Communicators Podcast is a part of Gradcommx. Gradcommx, targeted at enhancing research communication, is the first offering of Gradx – a professional development project created for the graduate student population at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology by the Office For Graduate Education.
MUSIC & SOUNDS
“All The Best Fakers” by Nick Jaina is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Open Flames” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial License.

“Stingray – Dangerous Thought” by Blue Dot Sessions is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License (http://freemusicarchive.org)

“Deliberate Thought” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) is Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
EPISODE SCRIPT

Print The Script Here

ADAM GREENFIELD
Welcome to The Great Communicators Podcast presented by The MIT Office of Graduate Education, a professional development podcast expressly designed to bring lessons from the field to our graduate student researchers.
My name is Adam Greenfield and one of my favorite quotes is by the ancient poet Ovid, and it goes “Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.” That translates to “Be patient and strong; one day this pain will be useful to you.”
I bring this up because in this episode, we’re going to be hearing terms like “constructive failure” and “principle of applied laziness,” things that require patience and perseverance while going through inevitable failures in both communication and elsewhere in life.
But as you’ll also hear, it’s more than that. It’s how those failures benefit you and make you a stronger, better communicator in the end.
Now, I don’t know many people who have done a TED Talk. In fact, I only know one person and you’re about to hear from him.
ED BOYDEN
I look back at talks I gave before then and thought, “wow, that wasn’t very good.”
ADAM GREENFIELD