The Lost Art of Oratory (And Why You Should Learn to Drive Stick) | with Mary Kate Cary

For our Season 1 finale, Peter McHugh, Lidia Zur Muhlen, and Makayla Castle welcome Mary Kate Cary — UVA's Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the President, founder and director of Think Again (the civic education initiative that created Disagree with a Professor), and a UVA alumna who spent her early career writing speeches at the White House for President George H.W. Bush. The conversation spans the art and science of persuasion, the existential threat AI poses to education, the timeless power of audience analysis, the Monroe Motivated Sequence, classroom games you wish existed in every school — and one of the more spirited stick-shift debates ever recorded. IN THIS EPISODE: Season 1 finale welcome and host introductions Meet Professor Mary Kate Cary: UVA administrator, founder of Think Again, and the architect of the Disagree with a Professor concept From UVA undergrad to the White House: her third job out of college was as a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush The two courses Professor Cary teaches at UVA — Political Speechwriting and Greatest Speeches in American History — and how student feedback during COVID reshaped the curriculum Why oratory — not term papers — is the most transferable skill in higher education: audience analysis, persuasion, and lifetime application AI as an existential threat to education: why oratory is harder to outsource than a written assignment Can AI still write a speech? Professor Cary's test: cover the top of the page and identify the speaker Makayla pushes back: attention spans are shrinking — is great oratory a lost art? Monroe's Motivated Sequence: the five-step framework used by every great persuader since ancient Greece — and why the human brain hasn't changed even as platforms have Soundbite wars, "Give Me Back My Stuff," and other classroom exercises that teach rhetoric by doing The Stick Shift Debate: Professor Cary argues every new American driver should learn manual — and defends the position against three skeptical college students Driverless cars, grid vulnerability, and the national security case nobody expected Wrapping up the season: a final reflection on what it means to disagree with respect Season 1 farewell — and a look ahead to Season 2 MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Speaking of America — docuseries on the greatest speeches in American political history (produced through Think Again / UVA) Monroe Motivated Sequence — developed by Professor Alan Monroe at Purdue in the 1920s Peggy Noonan — speechwriter and author, referenced in discussion of soundbites Obama's 2008 election night speech, "Yes We Can" Music: "Dispersion Relation" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License Disagree With a Professor is created by Think Again at the University of Virginia, with production support from Awkward Sage Media. Connect with us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkagain.uva/