Words Have Muscle

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week, a whole world was moved by just three words,
just three that, somehow, in a time and place when
words tweets, texts, endless opinions drown us, time stopped briefly
so that we might remember how heavy words can be.
Those three were heard by over one hundred million people.

(00:23):
And then I started stacking them up against other quite
impactful words that history has cobbled together. I have aged
some words become sledgehammers, one all for man one, some
words caption the unthinkable, and some words possess the power

(00:48):
to act. Mister Gorbachev teared down this wall. You know.
Words can be tools of power, precision, persuasion. They can
be used to rile or calm, to divide or unite,
educate or manipulate. Maybe we underestimate words, for they needn't
be spoken before large audiences to matter. A simple I'm sorry,

(01:12):
or I do I believe in you or not guilty,
spoken to just one other, can literally change a life.
Words can be strategic. In the depths of despair, when
there are no words, silence often speaks loudly. Words do
so much more than convey ideas. Research shows that words

(01:33):
connect directly with the brain. Positive words reduce stress strengthen
the person who hears them, while unkind words, especially repeated,
create anxiety, impair, logic, damage, self esteem, sometimes permanently. All
of us, at some point in our lives have suffered
some physical trauma, broken bones, from which we fully physically

(01:57):
recover and forget. But just one negative sentence spoken to
or about us as a child, somehow lives inside of
us for a lifetime. Some words come with great responsibility,
vows oaths. With them comes trust. But if that trust
is broken, if we can't believe what somewhat important in

(02:18):
our lives tells us, the outcome is far more than disappointing.
The deception corrodes our belief in our very important institutions government, education, healthcare,
the church. Those words are bridges between us, and when
a bridge comes down, we are separated forever. When the
comfortable is threatened, they sometimes try to silence words, censorship, bans, restrictions,

(02:44):
debate is stifled. But history tells us that when something
is silenced or censored by another, it grows more powerful.
The silence is often deafening. Are there bad words? It
depends on the intent, and does using profanity mean your
less intelligent stereotypes say yes, but some studies have found

(03:04):
that those who regularly use swear words actually have a
stronger command of the language. So the question is what
would you like this word to do? And then we'll
know if it's good or bad. So, now that we've
fully empowered words and we can use them to cut
through digital noise, how much better can we be with

(03:24):
what we say and write? Are we confined by using
words to argue rather than inform or enlighten? Is the
source from which our words come trustworthy? Do we respect
that today anything we write, say, or repeat, just by
the tap on a small screen can reach the world.

(03:45):
And if we agree that words today are really actions,
as we've learned, actions can change the world.