I feel as though my TED talk went very well. Music, a topic that I am very passionate about, is very easy for me to speak about and I felt that certainly carried through to the success of my TED talk. It allowed me to speak naturally and I did not feel bound by notes of sorts. Compared to the civic speech, I definitely improved my “eye contact” even though I still find it difficult to stare into the laptop camera while I’m speaking. It would be much easier to engage eye contact in a live classroom setting. Relying on my notes less helping produe a more engaging recording and I could smoothly transition throughout the talk. My small group members provided great feedback and they said they enjoyed it very much. Specifically, they pointed out the attention to detail in my slides with different songs as the headers – something I am very proud of. Additionally, they said that they felt like they were watching a real TED talk. I enjoy public speaking and I feel as though it certainly comes through in my speaking, although I prefer to speak live because of a stronger connection with the audience and better engagement rather than recording on a laptop for a number of different takes.

In the modern age, there are so many public controversies to choose from. One of the first that comes to my mind is vaccines. Vaccines have long been a controversy amongst people that deny the health and safety they provide or falsely claim that vaccines cause conditions like autism. Amidst the COVID pandemic, there will likely be a surge of this controversy once a vaccine is released to the public for COVID. People are also very concerned of the safety of a vaccine that has been produced at a rate faster than any prior. Another public controversy is the electoral college. This ontroversy has grown in recent years also people become more politically-concious amidst turbulent political times. The electoral college seemingly leaves a great majority of the US unrepresented through the leaders elected to government, and a president can be elected by the electoral college even if they trail by millions in the popular vote. A few other public controversies include cancel culture, the college board, black lives matter, and climate change.