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UnDisciplined: The art and science of political speech

The UnDisciplined logo features an atom circling a microphone.

Emerging research suggests that human attention spans are getting shorter. That’s a problem for people who want to make change in a world in which the issues we’re facing are growing ever more complicated. So now, perhaps more than ever, it’s important to understand the art and science of giving a good speech — and few people in Canada do that better than David Shepherd. But Shepherd says none of this came naturally to him.

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Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.