Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a Story the World Needs to Hear

Dave Isay's Ted Talk (https://www.ted.com/talks/dave_isay_everyone_around_you_has_a_story_the_world_needs_to_hear#t-496860)

Purpose: Dave Isay is arguing in his Ted Talk titled, "Everyone around you has a Story the World Needs to Hear," that interviews should not be limited only to those with what the media deems as a significant story, but rather open to everyone to try. He believes that the world's voices need to not only be heard, but archived forever. Isay argues the importance of an interview, no matter who the interviewer nor interviewee may be, is significant and can lend to knowledge and experience for everyone.

Dave Isay

Summary: Isay's most prominent point is his ideas on switching the traditional definition of an interview to an idea that is way more meaningful and personal. When founding his company, StoryCorps, he switched the typical interview's purpose from what everyone knows as a first person commentary on an event/experience for the means of education/entertainment to a question-guided conversation between two people. His interviews became a method of bringing individuals together and sharing and archiving the stories between them. He shares his interest in the amazing stories and how this served as his motivation for founding his company.

Another significant remark made by Isay came from his personal story that he opened up his talk with. He told the story of the great relationship he had with his father, who he found out was gay. This was a complete shock to him which began as devastation. However, around the same time of the shocking news, Isay found a calling to become a radio interviewer. Inspired by his Dad’s story, he interviewed as many people as he could find who were at the Stonewall Inn Gay Bar in 1969. Riots against police began at the bar and were what sparked the gay rights movement across America. He began interviewing each individual, listening and cherishing their important stories. The individuals, however, had always felt as though their story was not important whatsoever prior to their interviews with Dave Isay. They were floored to be able to be heard and have their experiences recorded. He moved from story to story interviewing thousands of people in the process for his radio business. He became astounded by his interviewee’s reactions when he showed them their stories. One man ran up and down a hallway chanting, “I exist!” The wonderful reactions shown by Isay's interviewees proved to support his argument that everyone needs to be heard through the process of an interview.

Stonewall Inn Gay Bar

More support for his argument in Isay's talk comes from the heart-warming examples of his booth at Grand Central Station in action. He plays a recording of a touching interview between a 10 year old child with Asperger’s Syndrome and his mother. It showed the importance of talking and listening to one another because you may never know what an individual’s treasured thoughts may be, or what an individual is experiencing, or how thankful they truly are for you as a person. Isay discusses the authentic traits of interviews and calls it “anti-reality TV.” He says emotion strikes amongst listeners of interviews due to the realness in a world full of illusion and misconception. He expanded his business, reaching 100,000 people in all 50 states. Titled StoryCorps, it has become the largest collection of human voices in the world. Isay shares a few more interviews between unlikely candidates who all fall under one theme: humans are good. The examples of interviews prove to be successful in his mission to redefine the use of interviewing.

StoryCorp Booth in NYC

Appeals: Dave Isay is able to get his point across while using a variety of effective appeals with his audience. He uses a plethora of examples of pathos throughout his argument. The use of pathos can be seen and heard primarily in the personal stories, as well as the examples from his StoryCorp booth in Grand Central Station. For example, a personal story in which Isay tells his audience about a man who was interviewed on the topic of the last flophouse hotel in Manhattan in 1988. Isay wrote a book on these cheap hotels with horrible living conditions, then brought it back to the flophouse and showed a man his page. Isay recalls the man's reaction to seeing his own story, "He stood there standing in silence, then he grabbed the book out of my hand and starting running down the long narrow hallway, holding it over his head shouting, 'I exist!'" The audience erupts in applause due to their emotional connection with the speaker and this particular story. The emotional connection is caused by the speaker's actions of working with this man who lives in very unfortunate conditions. And by showing that man that he has a voice in the world, something he probably never would have thought had it not been for Isay's interviews on the topic. Another example of obvious pathos occurs with the multitudes of examples from Isay's StoryCorp booth. By playing these recording, Dave Isay is using pathos to show support for his argument. He chooses some of the most heart-warming and strangest interviews to show how effective the interviews can bring two people together. This evokes an positive emotional response in the audience as an applause follows every interview example.

Isay is also able to use logos within his argument. One example of the appeal occurs after a tape recording of Sarah Littman and her son, Josh's interview is played. He uses logos to explain why a crying response is typical after hearing an interview from StoryCorp like Sarah and Josh's. He says, "I think it is because you are hearing something authentic and pure at this moment, when sometimes it's hard to tell what's real and what's an advertisement. It's kind of the anti-reality TV. It's an act of generosity and love." His logic is very understandable and easy to follow. This use of logos effectively supports his argument. However, Isay is very biased towards the topic especially since it is his company that he is supporting. He, more than likely, wants StoryCorp to sound the best that it possibly can. So, he uses logos in an effective but biased manner to persuade the audience that a crying response is evoked within the crowd due to the extreme realness that comes out of his company's interviews. This makes his company sound extremely appealing to the audience because he makes it seem like authentic conversations do not occur frequently.

The last appeal that Isay uses is ethos. He is very successful with his company StoryCorp, which lends knowledge to his audience that he is reputable. Isay says that, "he expanded his business, reaching 100,000 people in all 50 states." This is absolutely huge and definitely is an effective use of ethos. His company is very successful with these numbers that he provides, which means he must be credible due to this. While he does seem very knowledgeable as an entrepreneur in the field of these interviews, there are a few moments within his talk where he does not seem very reputable. He provides reasoning for his arguments, but he says phrases like "I think" which show doubt and leads the audience to believe he may not be as credible. One example of this is, "I think it is because you are hearing authentic and pure." While his reasoning seems undoubtedly true, the phrase "I think" expresses significant doubt, which does not support his credibility on the topic.

My Reasoning: I picked this particular Ted Talk because of the drastic change that my peers and I will be going through this year. I have suddenly realized the importance of the people who surround me on a daily basis. I am so extremely thankful for them; however, I know that it is likely I will never see many of them ever again. It’s a sad thought but truly shows the complexities of every individual and the stories that build their personalities and shape who they are. I am inspired by this Ted Talk to get to know my peers and hear their authentic stories before it becomes too late.