Debatable

Check out this podcast from RadioLab.  I took an Argumentation class in undergrad and participated in the campus-wide debate tournament every year so the podcast was particularly interesting to me as I remembered my experiences in college.  The debates I was in were nothing like the snippets of the debates you’ll hear on this podcast though!   Seriously, who can talk that fast?

Anyway, I like this story because the debaters bring into question so many interesting things — equity in preparation, relevance of the debates themselves, access to resources, belonging, place and they do it in a way that is artful, passionate, prepared, and persuasive.  Which is what makes a good debater.  They invert the power structure and the meaning of the debate world itself and ask questions that nobody else is asking.  I like it because they disrupted the status quo and forced folks to move beyond mere argument/counter-argument-counting and into bigger and ultimately more meaningful questions.

Ryan Wash & Elijah Smith

Podcast