Persuasive Storytelling: An Oratory Lab

Imagine a gymnasium designed to increase, not your physical health, but your fitness as a speaker. The Ancient Greeks called it “progymnasmata,” a progression of fourteen exercises that began with storytelling, advanced through reasoning and ceremonial speechmaking, and only then, in lesson 14, allowed students to argue a thesis. This classical approach aligns with modern brain science: the most essential tool of persuasion is story. Like the progymnasmata, each class session in Persuasive Storytelling will feature a new speaking exercise building on the previous one. We’ll practice the rhetorical arts of pitching, advocating, and interviewing, but our primary focus will be on delivery; how we use the voice and body to captivate an audience and move them to respond.