I Know That I Know Nothing

The public speaker who has influenced me most is Jane Goodall. I will use her 2007 TED Talk as an example for the discussion below.

Ethos: Goodall establishes herself as knowledgeable, trustworthy, and likable by grounding her message in a lifetime of work. Early on, she connects her path to the respected scientist Louis Leakey, and later notes that she began her field research in 1960, offering concrete observational details about chimpanzee life histories. The mix of vivid stories and technical terms—such as DNA profiling and paleoanthropology—makes her sound professional yet approachable. Just as importantly, her credibility is moral as well as scientific: she frames conservation as inseparable from human well-being, asking how chimpanzees can be saved when the surrounding people are “struggling to survive.” By refusing to portray local villagers as “the problem,” she communicates goodwill, which makes her both more trustworthy and more likable.

Pathos: Goodall’s emotional appeal is powerful from the start. She opens with greetings in multiple languages and imitates the chimpanzees’ nighttime call traveling “from one side of the valley to the other.” This immediately invites empathy before she introduces the problems, and it narrows the perceived distance between humans and chimpanzees. Later, she deepens emotion through vivid images and personal reflections: shrinking habitats, forests turning into deserts, and young people feeling their future has been compromised. She then introduces her central metaphor—Roots and Shoots—explaining that “roots make a firm foundation” and “shoots” can break through a brick wall to reach the sun. Lines like “every single one of us makes a difference, every single day” translate emotion into agency. The arc moves from wonder to sadness to urgency and, finally, to hope—ending with her emphasis on the “indomitable human spirit.”

Logos: The speech also follows a clear line of reasoning. Because “behavior doesn’t fossilize,” studying our closest living relatives can help us hypothesize about early human behavior. From there, she connects chimpanzee survival to human and environmental pressures: when habitats are destroyed and nearby communities are struggling, conservation must address people’s basic needs as well. This logic supports her turn to practical programs that improve local livelihoods while enabling conservation outcomes.

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• Letters to Julia (2)
• Lives of Mathematicians (5)
• Speeches (4)