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Dr Ajantha Abey - How I Came To Enjoy Public Speaking As An Introvert

March 4, 2026·17 min·1 clip

A postdoctoral researcher at Oxford reveals how he went from being too scared to collect a spelling award to enjoying public speaking.

1. Dementia Researcher Blogs presents Ajantha Abey, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, reading her blog on how she overcame severe stage fright to genuinely enjoy public speaking. 2. Ajantha Abey identifies herself as a naturally quiet introvert who developed a stutter in high school, with one of her most challenging words being 'neurodegenerative' — the central term of her research field. 3. The episode's core thesis is that public speaking ability is a learnable skill, not a personality trait, and that introverted researchers can develop it through deliberate practice in contexts outside the laboratory. 4. Abey traces her earliest public-speaking avoidance to primary school, where she was too frightened to stand to receive a spelling award at assembly — her headmistress delivered it to her at her seat, and her mother accompanied her on the second occasion. 5. The turning point came in her third undergraduate year when she became president and head coach of her university's quadball club — an adaptation of the Harry Potter sport Quidditch — which required her to lead training sessions three times per week. 6. The quadball community's inclusive culture gave her a low-stakes environment to practice projecting her voice, maintaining authority, explaining complex plays, and making self-deprecating jokes — skills she later mapped directly onto scientific talks. 7. On moving to Oxford for her PhD, she observed a large gap between typical scientific talks — described as 'not great' — and the clear, engaging presentations she had seen in tech and business contexts, and resolved to close that gap in her own practice. 8. She systematically signed up for every available speaking slot during her PhD: postgraduate research showcases, conference flash talks, three-minute thesis competitions, poster sessions, lab meetings, and journal club presentations. 9. For major talks like her ADPD conference presentation, she wrote out every word in advance, ironed out stutters and difficult words, and practiced for one to two hours per day for five consecutive days until the entire talk was memorised. 10. She describes memorising full talks as unsustainable as talks grew to 15 and 20 minutes, and more recently began practising ad-libbing from structured outlines, trading crispness for flexibility. 11. She developed the habit of attending talks across disciplines — business, tech, politics — and rating each speaker on both content and delivery, noting that 'in my books you can't get a top score without telling a joke.' 12. Public engagement events, including Science in the Park stalls and shopping centre outreach, forced her to explain dementia, Alzheimer's pathology, and stem cells to audiences of all ages and backgrounds without jargon. 13. Teaching undergraduate neuroanatomy labs year-round — a role she took on 'mostly for a pure love of teaching' — was the most demanding training ground for thinking on her feet and structuring concepts in logical sequence. 14. She credits teaching with making her 'much more adept at thinking on my feet, speaking while thinking, and rapidly structuring answers' — a skill she notes comes partly from pedagogy as a discipline and mostly from accumulated practice. 15. Winning teaching awards and being invited to give talks about teaching are cited as examples of the confidence built through sustained engagement with non-scientific audiences. 16. Abey argues that the shift from tolerating public speaking to actively enjoying it came not from practice alone but from developing a genuine sense of having something to say — a 'personal brand' and expertise she wanted to share. 17. Her advice to other introverted researchers includes starting in their first PhD year rather than waiting for enough data, taking on leadership roles outside the lab, and always reflecting on what worked and what did not after every talk. 18. The episode closes with an unscripted bonus section in which Abey re-reads her advice paragraph without editing, intentionally demonstrating the hesitations and restarts she now accepts as normal rather than concealing them. 19. The tone is reflective, personal, and candid — Abey laughs at herself, describes her younger self with affection, and frames the ten-year journey as still ongoing rather than complete. 20. Early-career researchers and PhD students who identify as introverts or who avoid speaking opportunities will find this most applicable; senior researchers or confident speakers will find it less relevant to their current stage.

As heard by us

A clear reminder that public speaking gets easier through practice, not personality.

Jonathan Abay, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, turns fear of speaking, stage fright, and a later stutter into a plain case for practice.

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