A great chat I had impromptu this morning with my friend and colleague Matt about one of my rhetoric lectures that I have given over the years at Cornell University. The version we are discussing is this one from about five years ago:

Even though I have several iterations of this talk available on YouTube, this one has the most views by a wide margin. Not sure why. Initially I thought it was the shirt. This doesn’t seem to be supported by any reliable data.

In the video above this one Matt and I talk about his recent viewing of the video and how he thought about it from the “meta” perspective: What is it a student can do with this lecture and what impact does it have (or should have) in the context of teaching. It’s a good conversation between us about the aim and purpose of a class lecture and what might actually occur. I am glad I recorded it because we have a very nice candid and rhetorically-oriented conversation about purpose, audience, attitude, and things of that nature. I’m very happy we had the chat and it was a nice stimulation to get refocused on teaching as the summer enters its final month.

Also spoiler warning: At the end we talk about He-Man: Revalations on Netflix so if you don’t want to learn about some of the more interesting elements of that show, stop the video when Matt mentions it.