This week we return to an early classic episode, an exploration of the impact of passionate and well-crafted speech. Effective rhetoric can rouse supporters and sway opponents, and aptly chosen words have the ability to pierce and persuade like little else. Featuring some of the greatest masters of the craft — Churchill, Shakespeare, Sorkin, and of course, Jack Handey — we will show how great writers have an exceptional ability to inspire, enrage, and enliven their audiences. We will hear Kenneth Branagh’s rendition of the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V, Winston Churchill delivering his own rousing speech discussing the drumbeat of war building in Germany in 1934, one of Jack Nicholson’s most memorable film speeches of all time from “A Few Good Men,” and Jack Handey’s discovery of Attila the Hun’s least known speech.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

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