Presentation Thinking™ #177. Dr. Christopher Cummings on the high stakes (and universal value) of risk communication
Dr. Christopher Cummings may have started his career in the classroom but he would eventually find himself in the “COVID-19 war room” during the global pandemic in 2020.
A high stakes job you may never have considered, Chris is a behavioral theorist and Research Social Scientist.
He’s in the business of understanding—scientifically and psychologically—how we perceive risk. How do you convey complex concepts in sometimes scary times? How do you act swiftly while information is rapidly changing? Many of Chris’ answers share core concepts with the B2B world.
After watching Chris’s 2017 TED Talk, The Dark Magic of Communication (and talking about it in our subsequent episode #167), Mikey and Molly knew they had to get Chris on the ‘cast to confirm what they already suspected—Chris is the most interesting man in communications.
Together, we dig into Chris’s unique journey, navigating international comms on emergency vaccine research, presentation skills, his TED Talk experience, mold spores and more.
This is an episode for: speakers with high stakes presentations, anyone interested in social science and everyone still processing their pandemic lockdown.
What's in the Spice Cabinet?
Tune into Chris’s 2017 TED Talk:
Mikey and Molly talk about this pre COVID prophetic TED Talk in Episode #167 of Presentation Thinking
Favorite speakers you’ve admired that led you to your communications journey?
“ When I was a young child like 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, my parents had gotten me a set of audio cassettes. And I would fall asleep every night listening on my little boombox, you know, in the late 80s to the classic golden age of radio.
And so these were pre television comedy shows. Jack Betty, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Amos ‘n’ Andy, Abbott and Costello. So they had incredible uses of voice because they had to, right? It’s radio.
And so, you know, they, brought in props and made sounds that emulated like they were on a street corner in New York, yet they're in, you know, a phone booth sized, you know, recording studio. And I fell in love with language and communication at that age.”
Other comedy shoutouts
In the science world
David Attenborough
In the political world
Former President Obama
Book reccos?
Persuasion, Social influence and Compliance gaining - John Seiter, Robert Gass
Influence: Science and Practice - Robert Cialdini
Nudge - Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein
Rumors: Uses, Interpretations and Images - Jean-Noel Kapferer
Dream presentation venue?
Maybe a major American monument like the Lincoln Memorial
Walkout song?
Where to find and follow Dr. Christopher?
PowerPoint? Google Slides? Canva?
“To me, they’re all poison.”