Anthony Magnabosco shares valuable tips for giving an effective presentation on Street Epistemology, covering essential preparations, audience engagement techniques, and post-talk strategies to inspire and educate.

14 January 2023

One doesn’t have to look very far to find a plethora of tips on how to conduct an effective presentation, so I won’t rehash the general advice most will give. This post will focus specifically on the things one can do in order to give an informative talk on Street Epistemology (SE), based on more than a dozen presentations I’ve given on the subject over the years.

As more and more individuals have started learning about (and have become enchanted with!) SE, requests from people on how to best give a talk about this method to their local groups have increased. I will link to this article when future requests for advice roll in, and I will append more tips as comments below as new suggestions arise.

This article is broken up into three sections: things to consider before giving your talk, things to cover during your talk, and things to do after your talk on Street Epistemology.

Things to Consider Before Giving Your Street Epistemology Talk

Take the time leading up to your talk to address these details in advance.

Assess Your Audience

Understanding the composition of your audience is an important consideration. How many people will attend? Will most be familiar or unfamiliar with SE? Can you expect hostile detractors? Having an understanding of who will likely be attending is a good first step before you prepare one slide or talking point.

If your audience will be primarily comprised of people who have never heard of SE, extra time will be needed to cover the basics. With a more familiar crowd, you can gloss over the basics and delve into the deeper concepts.

As SE becomes more commonplace, the number of people who may take issue with the method will probably increase, so be prepared for people who may want to disrupt your talk and have a plan in place for how to deal with interruptions.

Respect Your Assigned Duration

Receive in writing how much time you will have to give your talk and, if possible, to take questions from the audience. Stick to that plan as best you can out of respect for everybody involved.

That being said, be prepared to scale back or expand your talk, just in case the situation changes on the day of your presentation. I like to have an extra video example and a few more slides tucked away just in case, and have had to use these on more than one occasion.

Keep in mind that a 20-minute talk with no time for questions will be a much different talk than one where you have 1.5 hours and a generous time at the end to answer audience inquiries.

Record and Share

If your hosts will allow it, give serious consideration to recording your talk so that others may enjoy it. Why spend time preparing for a talk on SE to one room of 30 people when you can record and upload it for thousands? It takes a great deal more effort to capture and edit the talk, but well worth it if you can spare the time and have some familiarity with the equipment needed.

If possible, I suggest that you bring your own recording equipment and have a friend or two help you set things up at least two hours beforehand, instead of relying on your hosts to capture the talk. I've literally waited months to get my hands on host-captured footage, only to find that the quality was poor or some other issue prevented me from using it. Do everyone a favor and take equipment that you are familiar with and record everything yourself.

If possible, orient the video camera so the screen displaying your slides and video are NOT in the shot. You can easily add your slides and video examples later during the video editing process, and it will look a lot better than some fuzzy screen. In this setup, stay in one spot and keep the camera trained on you, preferably with a non-distracting background, and your final video will look much better.

Another important consideration is the privacy of your audience. Assume that not everyone will be happy to be included in your video, so face the camera so no one will also be recorded. You don't want to go through all the effort of preparing, giving, recording, editing, and uploading your talk, only to learn that someone who was in the audience wants you to take it down because they're not out to their family and friends.

Consider Your Safety

For the most part, your audience will probably be very welcoming and excited to hear your talk. But that may not always be the case. Discuss with your organizers in advance how to handle hecklers and the best exit route if you feel like your safety is in jeopardy.

Things to Consider During Your Street Epistemology Talk

Keep the following suggestions in mind while giving your presentation.

First Steps

One of the first things I like to do before getting too far into my talking points is to query the audience to see how many people are familiar with SE. Even if you don’t plan to make one change to your talk, asking this question shows an interest in your audience, and could give the impression that you are planning a customized talk just for them.

Also be sure to explain to people early on why SE is important to you. Share something personal with your audience so that they can better understand what motivates you.

This is also a great opportunity to set some ground rules: let people know they can ask their questions at the end of your talk, or if you prefer a hand raise in the middle of your presentation.

Lay Out Your Plan

Tell the audience very early on what you plan to cover, and the order in which you plan to cover it. For example, "After I cover some basics on SE, I'll show a video, delve into some deeper concepts, and then open it up for the Q&A."

Required Talking Points

I think there are a few topics that nearly every SE talk should contain:

• A quick review of the history of the method is essential, including a reference to the Socratic method, Peter Boghossian’s book A Manual for Creating Atheists, a definition of the word “epistemology”, and how people are taking the method into exciting new directions.
• Clear up the common misconception that one has to initiate talks with strangers in public for it to be considered Street Epistemology. It can't hurt to mention this a few times during your talk.
• Explain that SE is never about telling people what to think, like an evangelizer or proselytizer might do. Rather, SE is about asking questions to understand what a person believes, why they believe it, and how they determined that their methods were reliable.
• While you may feel differently about it, I think we have an obligation to be available for people once we've had an SE-based discussion with them. Discovering that a core belief you have may be unjustified can be very unsettling, and we should be accessible to guide people to support-related resources if they request it.

Words Matter

It's interesting how one or two words can distort the entire tenor of your talk. Avoid framing Street Epistemology as "getting people to change" or "making people see they're wrong". Instead, frame your message in terms of helping people correct their possibly mistaken views of reality, because that's largely the goal here. Better framing examples are "helping people reflect on their beliefs" or "assisting people with the discovery that they could be mistaken".

Show an Example

One of the best ways to help your audience get excited about and better understand SE is to show one of your favorite video examples. I would not recommend playing a video for any longer than 10 or 12 minutes.

Also, be sure to "setup" the video before playing it, so you can prepare your audience for what they are about to see. For example, "In this video, a guy is standing on a college campus asking people to stop and chat about one of their deeply-held beliefs. A woman agrees to discuss her belief in karma, and the video will start playing after he's asked her to chat, explained his purpose, and started a timer for five minutes. Pay attention to how many questions he asks, his respectful tone, and how much space she's given to think things through."

Don't feel like you have to choose examples where the topic is exclusively about God claims. SE is perfect for other claims like karma, ghosts, social and political issues, horoscopes, etc. In fact, expanding your examples to less controversial topics may help your audience avoid getting too wrapped up in the topic and stay more focused on the technique.

Avoid the temptation to perform a live example in front of the audience. Your volunteer may be nervous, you may be nervous, and the whole thing may leave the crowd with a completely different perception than you want. Instead, direct people to the now hundreds of video examples that are available online today. If they persist, agree to conduct a small chat with someone after your talk has completely concluded and you have had a chance to relax a bit after your talk.

Questions and Answer Session

The Q&A portion of your talk is usually the most informative and engaging part for both the presenter and the audience. A little planning here can really help leave attendees with a lasting impression.

Whether or not your talk is being recorded, or the audience member has a microphone where everyone can easily hear, always summarize and repeat back the question you are being asked. This adds clarity and may help subsequent questions from the audience to be more concise. If someone asks a good question, let them know it by saying, "Great question!". This simple phrase should encourage more people to participate. Don't be afraid to interrupt people who are taking too long and say, "What is your question, please?"; audience members will likely thank you for interjecting and keeping things focused.

Even though you may have covered this in your talk, someone will almost invariably ask how SE differs from proselytizing, so have a good answer prepared in advance.

Another increasingly common question I have started to experience recently is how one should square the lofty goals of SE with the oftentimes contradictory antics from atheists in the public sphere. Give some thought to how you would explain that the actions of individuals who advocate for SE do not necessarily align with the method's core objectives.

Things to Consider After Your Street Epistemology Talk

Try to extend your engagement with your audience long after the talk ends.

Be Accessible

If you are comfortable doing so, try to be as accessible as possible for people interested in SE. If you have a social media presence, blog, or YouTube channel, make sure you provide those links. Sometimes the best questions or comments surface long after the talk ends, simply because an audience member was too shy to talk with you in person.

Solicit Feedback

Many people will hold off on telling you how you can improve for next time because they don’t want to come across as critical. But if you actively solicit feedback, audience members can give you the best advice that you can incorporate for next time. Something like, "Now that my talk is done, I'd really like your honest feedback of what you enjoyed and what can be improved upon before I give a talk on this topic again." can generate wonderful ideas.

Inspire Action

Don't miss the opportunity to encourage people to support Street Epistemology in some way. If they are interested in conducting SE, direct them to one of the related Facebook groups. If they want to help promote the method, direct them to the SE Website or other resources so that they can share with friends. If they have other skills that might be able to help, encourage them to reach out to the community so we can see what might be a good fit.

Share Your Work

If your presentation went well, consider uploading your files to the Private Street Epistemology Facebook Study Group so that others can use your materials. Make a post in one of the SE groups to explain what parts went well, and which parts seemed to lag. If you have recorded your talk, be sure to provide a link to your presentation so that it might be shared on social media by others interested in this method.

Conclusion

Presentations on Street Epistemology are educational and promotional opportunities that should not be squandered. With a little planning, every single minute of your talk can be optimized for maximum impact.

Source: Anthony Magnabosco

The Street Epistemology Podcast and The Street Epistemology Blog is a production of Street Epistemology International. The views, guests, and topics expressed here (or not expressed here) do not necessarily represent those of the organization.

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