Here’s an animated video featuring my favorite linguist, Steven Pinker.  Pinker discusses the “insights we can get into, thoughts, emotions and social relations from words and how we use them.”
Pinker provides a pychologist’s perspective on something we all know –  talk is autobiographical.  Every story in my book, The Art of Talking Back demonstrates how interviews (debates, hearings and so on)  reveal character. That’s why we love to watch them. 

We’re judged by the company we keep and also by what we say about others, especially during an interview. The media thrives on conflict and controversy, framing the worlds of business, politics, sports and entertainment as highly personal rivalries with winners and losers. That’s why reporters and interviewers phrase questions the way they do in their quest for opposition. You just haven’t made it unless you’ve been asked to trash the other guy.
Authors (writers of fiction in particular) can be counted on to engage in personal combat for show. If …

Back in 1995 the media critic Tom Rosenstiel declared this the Age of the Interview while decrying the devolution of the Q & A format as “more performance art than newsgathering.”  His fears have been realized; we have moved from news to views. Meanwhile, financially troubled newspapers still aim for accuracy and balance in their coverage. It’s a noble journalistic tradition but increasingly audiences seem to prefer to hear from hyper-opinionated individuals coming at them live and unfiltered. Still, with all its sham, drudgery and broken syntax the media interview …

“I don’t deal with rumors. I don’t care about rumors. All I care about is facts. And I don’t have any facts to give you.”       Publicist Alan Nierob, March 18, 2009
A spokesperson is someone engaged to speak on behalf of others. They are guardians of brands and reputations. So why was Alan Nierob talking about himself when responding to questions about actress Natasha Richardson, after her fall on a ski slope in Quebec?  His stinging rebuke sounds like it was meant for The National Enquirer, but it was The New …

“It was easier to write the blasted book than it was to promote it.” That’s what I hear from writers who had the drive to turn themselves into authors but who faltered when the time came to promote their work.  Even with a new website and a strategic selection of book clubs, book blogs, readings rooms, etc., these authors weren’t confident they knew what they were doing. Sadly, the insecurity seemed justified. Most are about to pitch the book they wrote and not the book they want to sell.  What’s …