The 7 speeches featured on 'Conversations' [REPOST]
The Conversations republish of my Speakola chat has brought over 300 new sign ups to this newsletter. Here's links and info on the 7 speeches featured in that interview, and links and audio.
I know Richard from long ago. He was the host of an Australian travel documentary show called Race Around the World and I was one of the globetrotting, camera wielding contestants who travelled solo to ten countries in one hundred days to shoot a mini documentary in each for national broadcast.
But this was a chat about Speakola. Richard asked how the site originated, and I told about the suicide of my best man, Chris Daffey. Delivering his eulogy made me think about the lack of example speech sites on the net. I also felt I was a regular visitor to youtube clips of my favourite speeches, (This is Water, I Have a Dream, JFK's inaugural) and wished there was a single home for great speeches.
Here is the episode:
It was a great chat, and Richard and the Conversations team decided on some speeches to feature. I'll list them below.
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Eulogy for Chris Daffey by Tony Wilson: I'm not ready for goodbyes when the jokes have run out - January 2014
This site wouldn't have happened without this speech, as Richard and I discussed. Daff was the funniest, most generous, most caring person I knew. I remember the tears pouring onto the keyboard as I wrote this. I miss him a great deal.
"The gift I mentioned on facebook this week is probably the one that means the most to us. When Tam was pregnant with our first, Daff barracked so hard for Polly to be born on his birthday, and when she was, he went around the streets of Melbourne, taking photos to give her so she could know what her city looked like that day. He also gave her newspaper front pages. They were the 24th of January twins, separated 35 years to the day. He even photoshopped his own head on to a baby’s body to put it in his ‘Daff box’. When’s going to be the right day to give her that box, Daff? I can’t believe this is happening."
Jacinda Ardern: 'You may have chosen us, but we utterly reject and condemn you', Response to Christchurch terrorist attack - 2019
She has the knack. For sincerity, economy of words, strong messaging, simple clear sentences, and empathy. In this speech she manages to sound strong in the response to the outrage, and sympathetic to the plight of victims. Her speeches in parliament and at the memorial are fantastic too.
"We are a proud nation of more than 200 ethnicities, 160 languages. And amongst that diversity we share common values. And the one that we place the currency on right now -- and tonight -- is our compassion and support for the community of those directly affected by this tragedy. " Full speech
Leonard Cohen: 'How I found my song', Prince of Asturias Poetry Prize - October 2011
A beautiful speech about a great artist finding his voice, and then his song. Cohen talks about a Spanish busker /guitarist in Montreal and the impact he had on his musicianship and his life. Just beautiful, with notes of tragedy throughout.
" I inhaled the fragrance of cedar as fresh as the first day that I acquired the guitar. And a voice seemed to say to me, "You are an old man and you have not said thank you; you have not brought your gratitude back to the soil from which this fragrance arose." And so I come here tonight to thank the soil and the soul of this people that has given me so much -- because I know just as an identity card is not a man, a credit rating is not a country. "
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