Fred Rogers

Fred Rogers's six-minute testimony to a US Senate subcommittee in May 1969 is the model of quiet persuasion. Facing a sceptical chairman ready to cut public television funding, he talked simply about helping children manage anger and feelings, then recited a song lyric. The chairman said he had goosebumps and the funding survived. Watch it for how calm sincerity can disarm an audience primed to disagree.