The human brain is wired to perceive public speaking as a genuine threat, a response rooted in our evolutionary history. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld once joked that for many people, their top fear isn’t death — it’s public speaking. And Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has openly discussed her public speaking anxiety with her followers on Instagram. By 2010, when I landed my first publishing job, my public speaking fear was debilitating. In 2015, during an annual checkup, I blurted out that public speaking anxiety was ruining my life.
