Elliot Krane starts funny and ends funny in his TED2011 talk on the mystery of chronic pain. While we tend to think of pain as a symptom of another problem, Krane discusses the condition where pain becomes a disease in and of itself. He works at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford treating children who have chronic pain, and much can be learned from his concise, powerful TED talk.
Krane is an accessible presenter, soft spoken and calm. He does well to begin by making his audience laugh, (“I put children to sleep for a living, and I’m an academic so I put adults to sleep for free”) which is always a great way to begin a presentation. Humor relaxes an audience. Endorphins start flowing as they smile, chuckle and prepare themselves for a fun presentation. Undoubtedly, Krane is speaking about a serious topic but it’s always helpful to begin with a lighthearted tone. Don’t kill your audience’s initial excitement by bumming them out at the start.
Krane uses props masterfully to demonstrate what chronic pain feels like. “I want to show you how it feels,” he says. Imagine you’re rubbing a feather over your skin, he says, and then imagine that your brain is telling you that the feather’s touch feels like a blowtorch. It’s a strong, memorable explanation embodying the ‘show, don’t tell’ philosophy we champion.
Krane’s use of visuals is excellent throughout his talk, as they are on one hand extremely useful and on the other hand, particularly poignant. He speaks about one of his patients Chandler, and puts a face to the name with a beautiful photo of her, then goes on to show another photo of her injury, and concludes with a video of her post-pain doing a backflip. These visuals connect the audience to the topic because they put a human face on it. The visuals encourage the audience to truly care about and be invested in Krane’s discussion about pain.
Krane also makes use of visuals that explain the science behind how this kind of chronic pain affects people. These animated visuals are essential to the effectiveness of Krane’s talk because they explain complicated science in an accessible way. While Krane risks losing his audience with all the complicated science talk, the visuals he uses serve as a user-friendly guide for his audience to follow along.
Lastly, we love how Krane ends by making his audience laugh again. He talks about treatment and calls the future of pain management ‘bright’, and then concludes by offering a George Carlin quote as representative of his overall goal: “My philosophy? No pain. No pain.”
Watch the entire talk here.
