When you’re communicating ideas that are unfamiliar to your audience, it helps to connect those ideas to concepts or things that are familiar to listeners. For example, when Joe’s children were preschoolers, he couldn’t tell them he’d be home from work by four o’clock. They didn’t know how to tell time yet, so “four o’clock” had no meaning for them. Instead, he’d say, “I’ll be home when Reading Rainbow is over.” Since Reading Rainbow was their favorite television program, this reference made a familiar connection in their minds. Similarly, you can use examples and illustrative stories to connect difficult concepts to your listeners’ experiences and thus make those concepts easier to understand. Think of how educators, presenters, and even TV show hosts do this. Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is well-known for using this technique. For example, when pointing out the many facets of carbon, Dr. Tyson explains this way:

You might think of carbon as a kind of unpleasant little element. After all, it’s the active ingredient in soot. It’s also the stuff left over after you burn your toast. But it’s actually quite distinguished among elements. Carbon has the highest melting point. Pure carbon can become graphite—one of the softest materials around—used every time you write with a pencil. . . . But carbon’s greatest distinction of all is that it’s the building block for the molecules of life.²

Through the use of familiar examples (toast, pencils), demonstrations, and stories, Tyson explains complex scientific principles to general audiences on his TV show NOVA ScienceNOW as well as to people who attend his lectures and speeches.