So my favoriteTedTalk is a man who studies/understands/manipulates human behavior through pickpocketing.  Apollo Robbins engages the audience well, and rather than merely explaining his observations/findings, he shows them through multiple activities and examples that both the in-person audience and video audiences can take up in.  He thoroughly explains why his techniques work, and shows hilarious examples of them in action.  His TedTalk almost comes across as a “magic” or entertainment show, rather than an educational piece, while the audience still learns a lot about these topics.  Due to this, the Talk is much more memorable, as I first saw this in my junior year of high school and still can’t get it out of my head.

This TedTalk aligns with my strong interest in studying psychology and human behavior, so I was already inclined to enjoy it.  However, Robbins’ presentation is so strong that all audiences are engaged and ends up learning.  I really admire his presentation style and personality that he brings to the stage.  He also uses metaphor to explain certain principles, which make his Talk easy to understand.  He speaks vey clearly and confidently, which draws the audience’s attention in.

I am honestly not sure what I want to do for my topic.  As I said, I have a really extreme interest in psychology as well as criminology, so I’m hoping to maybe find a topic along those lines.  These topics would work well, as they are rather scientific and would have a decent amount of research that would be easily accessible to me.  I also have strong interest in social issues and human dynamics, so maybe topics around societal movements (feminism, etc) would also be up my alley.  However, beyond that, I’m not sure specifically what I want to do,