Summary
In competitive debate future presidents, supreme court justices, and titans of industry pummel each other with logic and rhetoric.
Unclasp your briefcase. It’s time for a showdown. Looking back on an episode originally aired in 2016, we take a good long look at the world of competitive college debate. This is Ryan Wash's story. He's a queer, Black, first-generation college student from Kansas City, Missouri who joined the debate team at Emporia State University on a whim. When he started going up against fast-talking, well-funded, “name-brand” teams, from places like Northwestern and Harvard, it was clear he wasn’t in Kansas anymore. So Ryan became the vanguard of a movement that made everything about debate debatable. In the end, he made himself a home in a strange and hostile land. Whether he was able to change what counts as rigorous academic argument … well, that’s still up for debate.
Special thanks to Will Baker, Myra Milam, John Dellamore, Sam Mauer, Tiffany Dillard Knox, Mary Mudd, Darren "Chief" Elliot, Jodee Hobbs, Rashad Evans and Luke Hill.
Special thanks also to Torgeir Kinne Solsvik for use of the song h-lydisk / B Lydian from the album Geirr Tveitt Piano Works and Songs
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Latif. This is Radio Lab. Today we're rerunning one of the most polarizing episodes |
| 0:26.1 | of the last few years. We didn't expect it to be, but it really was. So, yeah, take a listen, |
| 0:34.2 | whether you've heard it before or not, curious to hear what you think. So, tweet at us, but |
| 0:38.4 | other than that, here you go, debatable from Radio Lab. |
| 0:41.6 | Yeah. So, before we get started, I had a couple of questions for you. |
| 0:46.6 | Yeah, please, fire away. |
| 0:47.7 | So, I've talked to a lot of people who have attempted to contact. There's a lot of hesitation. |
| 0:55.5 | People just don't have faith in media right now. And considering our issues, to be honest, |
| 1:01.7 | white control media. So, I got a couple of questions for you. |
| 1:05.1 | Yeah. |
| 1:06.1 | Quest away. Why now? Why do we want to do this story now? |
| 1:09.3 | Yeah, that's been a couple of years. |
| 1:10.8 | Yeah, well, you know, it's a, it's, it's, it's, Abby, Abby just found a story. |
| 1:15.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:16.9 | So, we, we were, it was unknown to us until right now. |
| 1:20.4 | Well, this feels a little newsy of the moment. It does come out of you. |
| 1:23.6 | Yeah. This is Robert, by the way, so we have Robert. We have, we have, we have Chad. |
| 1:28.6 | And we have Abigail. |
| 1:29.6 | Chad, J-A-D-A-D. Yes. Yes. |
| 1:33.6 | We should, I guess. |
| 1:34.6 | Do you have, did you have other questions? |
| 1:36.6 | Sure. We can wait. We can table those. |
... |
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