I got into politics because at its most pure, it's a battle of ideas and I've felt passionately about a bunch of ideas. My first boss was Ted Kennedy, Senator, John F. Kennedy's brother, worked for him for years just as a policy aide. In 2007, they heard I could write and I lied until my good, and this is my first speech writing job. So what does that mean then? When you say you can write, what had they seen of yours at that stage? Was it phrases? Was it the way you carried a message? What do you put into it?
To celebrate some of the most influential and impactful speeches ever made, we invited Barack Obama’s director of speechwriting, Cody Keenan and Tony Blair’s former speechwriter, Philip Collins, to discuss the power of the spoken word. Our host was journalist and presenter Emily Maitlis, with actors including Jeremy Irons and Carey Mulligan joining us to reenact speeches that have defined pivotal moments in history.
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