by Susannah George

Listen to this 'Talk of the Nation' topic

Charisma is elusive. It's that special something. While I've been thinking about it all morning, I can't quite put it into words. It's Gatsby's smile ("one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it... [it] believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself.")* and the twinkle in Willie Stark's eye ("You saw the eyes bulge suddenly like that, as though something had happened inside him, and there was that glitter.")**.

In The Boston Globe, our guest Mark Oppenheimer describes charisma as "an unusual, even inborn power to command attention". But while most people, including myself, assume that charisma is mysterious and innate (you either have or you don't), some scholars believe that we can learn how to be charismatic.

John Neffinger, also a guest on our show today, is just that: a charisma teacher. And guess who he thinks is the most charismatic person in America? Oprah. What about you? Who has the most charisma? And do you think its something that can be learned, or are the charisma-less just out of luck?

* Nick Carraway describes Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
** Jack Burden describes politician Willie Stark in Rober Penn Warren's All The Kings Men