Hey, do you want to come over later for a little Netflix and chill? You will find very quickly that I’m no typical Tinder date. When I pull up Netflix, I’m usually watching a TED Talk. After all, I am an intellectual.

Part of my mission is to tear down the false hierarchy in public speaking. Corporate heads, thought leaders, and tech giants may command the biggest stages, but they do not deliver the best material. In this article we take aim at the almighty TED Talk.

Many speakers and speaking coaches promote TED Talks as the pinnacle of public speaking and intellectual discourse. They regard the red dot as the last stop before entering the pearly gates. While there is no disputing the production quality and distribution, today we finally call out the four-letter fraud that is the TEDx Talk.

Behold the ivory towers

There’s something about a collection of well-behaved adults welcoming the latest pontificator to the stage via contrived applause that turns me off. My introduction to public speaking came from growing up watching pro wrestling every Saturday morning and seeing Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man cut promo interviews against each other. By comparison, the snooty world of simulated academia just doesn’t do it for me. If you're too good for the Macho Man, prepare to be offended.

Disclaimer: As a teacher, I cannot take a neutral stance toward TED Talks. Clueless administrators are reaching into the classroom like never before. At the forefront of incompetent interference is the insistence on showing TED Talks in the classroom.

If you see a teacher showing TED Talks in the classroom, then either the teacher has a hangover, or the curriculum is designed by bureaucrats who have no respect for the teaching profession. If you have any pull in how classes are to be conducted, please keep this article in mind. And if you are a student where showing TED talks is the norm, bring a pillow next time.

Cue the dancing monkey

The language institute where I worked here in Lima added a much-demanded conversation class to complement the rigid academic curriculum. The institute partnered with National Geographic, the textbook publisher, and the TED people to create this new course. Do you suppose they promoted more student interaction and real-life scenarios? Nope.

Each class consisted of two steps:

1. Show the TED Talk
2. Talk about the TED talk

Would you be surprised to know that the project bombed?

Being the Spanish-speaking gringo and dancing monkey of the institute, I was the first to be selected to teach this snoozefest. Peruvian teenagers don’t care about the hardships of working in the shipping industry, or the nuances of designing a school library. The class flopped, and nobody in the office wanted to hear about it. They just kept patting themselves on the back over their new initiative.

Once they stopped watching me, I replaced the videos with my own material and we lived happily ever after. That is, until they sent me on special assignment to teach English classes at the Canadian embassy in Lima. Cue the dancing monkey. Care to guess the curriculum they laid out? See the two steps above. Just so you understand, TED talks already have two strikes against them in my book, but it only gets worse.

Statesman, gentleman, con man

Read these two quotes. Which one sounds more like you, and reflects the way that you treat people?

“The more you make it about them, the more they want to listen to you.”

“Don’t be overly polite. Establish your authority in a conversation.”

Would you believe that those two quotes came from the same speaker? What is the difference between the two quotes? The first quote came from a TED Talk, the other is from a real conversation.

To be a TED speaker, you have to be the hero and the victim. The student and the sage. The sovereign and the citizen. Then you get off the stage. Are you still you? Does your personality on stage match who you are face to face?

I had a meeting on Zoom with the above mentioned speaker to talk about his program to promote speech coaching on social media. As it turns out, egomaniacs are very good at promoting themselves across all platforms.

We talked for over an hour, mostly with him lecturing me that I shouldn’t have a website (thank you for visiting) or a blog (I hope that you're enjoying it). Then he told me that my online course, which he has never seen, must be all wrong. I explained that this contained hot topics in the fitness industry, to which he replied, “Mike – I know the fitness industry.”

With his arrogance and name dropping on display, what do you suppose he titled his TED Talk? “How to get along with anyone.” His method for getting along with anyone and everyone is simple – talk to your own webcam. He is very good at that, especially in his fake baritone voice.

If you give a TED talk, is that the real you speaking from the stage? I urge you to take the TED challenge. Watch a TED Talk, then find the same speaker on another platform. See if you can find any parity between the two.

In all fairness

All arguments must give concession to the opposition. This post is not here to shame the speaker, but rather to question the elite status of the TED platform.

TED Talks have their value, either as a condensed academic lesson or as a personal testimonial. While you can't expect to condense an entire semester into a 10-minute presentation, a TED Talk can be a learning experience.

More importantly, if someone has endured abuse or trauma and works up the courage to tell the story, they deserve the audience's respect. That TED talk will inspire others to tell their stories, and may even save somebody's life.

What is your purpose?

Public speaking is nothing more than a conversation with the audience. Even in their silence, they interact with you. You speak, they think of a response, then you respond to their thoughts. When done right, you form a bond that people remember forever.

At first, you appear so distant on that stage. Each audience member sees you like they’re watching you through a screen. Then you break through that screen and into the mind of each audience member. It’s the deepest connection that you can make with somebody.

Can you expect to forge that connection from a TED stage? The digital demarcation line of cameras and lighting bring great production value at the expense of human connection. The speaker comes across as a stand-alone authority figure, issuing edicts to the audience to learn or understand. When you as a speaker fail to show that you understand or care about the audience, do you really expect them to follow you?

What do you think? Is the TED stage the pinnacle of public speaking? You were bold enough to read this entire article. Let's settle this in the comments section!