Having started Loquitur several months ago as an experiment to see whether high school debaters would be interested in hearing what “real” experts have to say about NFL debate topics — and to see whether such real-world experts would be willing to speak to high school debaters on these topics — I’m sad to report that despite the overall success of this experiment, it will be going on hiatus for the next few months.

This is because I will be devoting my time and energy to a new project of mine which I hope will ultimately be able to integrate Loquitur within its scope.

This project is called The American Debater and you can learn all about it via our Facebook Group which is here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22010576875

That said, I want to make sure to thank all of our loyal listeners over the last few months for their interest in and support of this project. We couldn’t have made it as far as we did without you, so thanks a million for tuning in episode after episode.

And stay tuned, because you never know what’s around the bend…  

Rest in peace, Tim Russert.

You were a credit to your profession — and a ceasless inspiration to us here at Loquitur.

You will be missed.

Recently, we (Mahesha, who’s done wonders that I have yet to achieve with getting interviewers to the podcast, and myself) were asked about transcribing podcasts. While we understand the merits of transcribing our podcasts for student use, I can safely say that we will not transcribe podcasts for the very forseeable future. It goes against one of the core ideas of the podcast, to connect debaters with the evidence, not replace it with thirty-minute interviews that provide perspective, not in-depth knowledge. 

Ultimately, it is every debater’s responsibility to know what the source text of an author means, and that is achieved via reading the person’s books and papers, not these interviews. The podcast is a means to understand what a debater should be doing anyway, researching and brainstorming themselves. 

But for those of you that wish to use the podcast’s content, you should review the MLA format for audio citations. We will not go as far to say you cannot use the podcast, but we do heavily frown upon it. 

Also, I have recieved mail about the “unfair” distribution of podcasts. Here’s the deal: If we cannot find interviewees for a topic, we cannot create a podcast on it. We understand the PF topic at the NCFL was not covered, but as it was an already obscure topic, it is rather difficult to find professionals. I am engaging in talks with Mahesha to not cover the National Catholic Forensic League topics in the future, due to the limited lead time to the tournament. It is simply not effective to present interviews that cannot cover resolutions that a limited number of people will ever debate as opposed to the NFL.

         

Guest: Joshua Muravchik — Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of The Future of the United Nations: Understanding the Past to Chart a Way Forward and Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America’s Destiny.

Guest’s Biography

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Have US policies established after September 11, 2001 substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States?

Books Cited During Interview:

What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response (Bernard Lewis)
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Lawrence Wright)

Length: 33 min.

To this end, there are three simple, yet important ways you can show your support for Loquitur:

1. Join The Loquitur Facebook Group

It doesn’t cost you a thing to become a member of the Loquitur Facebook Group — and by joining, you let us know that you really care about the work we are doing.

2. Tell Us What You Think

E-mail us your thoughts on the interviews that we have already posted — and feel free to send us suggestions for future episodes, particularly regarding experts we should interview and/or the questions we should ask them. Our e-mail address is loqdebate-at-gmail.com.

And if don’t want to e-mail us, then consider posting your thoughts directly to this blog  – all this requires is clicking directly on the title of the post you wish to comment on, and then typing your comments into the text box that appears in the resulting window.  

Again — we really want to hear what you think about the work we are doing.

3. Spread The Word About Loquitur

If you like the Loquitur interviews that you’ve listened to thus far, then please (please!) tell your friends and colleagues about us.

The easiest way to do this is by using the ShareThis Link located at the bottom of each post on this blog. Using ShareThis, you can e-mail links to this blog directly to your friends, and you can also share links to this blog via any of the major Web content aggregators (e.g., Digg). 

Also, if you happen to have your own weblog or website, please consider posting a link to our site.

It may not seem like much, but by showing your support for Loquitur in these three ways, you make a huge difference in terms of the work we do — and we can’t thank you enough for it.

         

Guest: Joseph S. Nye, Jr. — University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and author of The Paradox of American Power: Why the World’s Only Superpower Can’t Go it Alone and Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.

Guest’s Biography & Publications

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Have US policies established after September 11, 2001 substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States?

Sources Cited During Interview:

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates — Landon Lecture @ Kansas State University
Joseph S. Nye, Jr. — The Powers to Lead (Book)

Length: 21 min.

    

Guest: Benjamin Barber — Political theorist, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos (a public policy and advocacy organization), president and director of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) CivWorld, and author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should limiting economic inequality be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom?

Sources Cited During Interview:

Andrew Hacker (Author)
American Political Science Association — Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy

Length: 29 min.

    

Guest: Benjamin Barber — Political theorist, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos (a public policy and advocacy organization), president and director of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) CivWorld, and author of Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism, & Democracy.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Have US policies established after September 11, 2001 substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States?

Length: 36 min.

         

Guest: Walter E. Williams — Professor of Economics at George Mason University and author of six books including Do The Right Thing: The People’s Economist Speaks and More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should limiting economic inequality be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom?

Online Resources Cited During Interview:

Walter E. Williams — Recommended Websites
Library of Economics and Liberty
Freedom House Rankings

Books Cited During Interview:

Death By Government (R.J. Rummel)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Adam Smith)
The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
South Africa’s War Against Capitalism (Walter Williams)
The Law (Frederic Bastiat)
The Road to Serfdom (F.A. Hayek)

Length: 51 min.

    

Guest: Robert Lynch — President and CEO of Americans For The Arts (AFTA), the nation’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the role of art in American life and advancing appreciation for the arts in American culture.

Americans For the Arts’Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should secondary education in America value the fine arts over athletics?

Resources Cited During Interview:

Center on Education Policy — Report on “Instructional Time in Elementary Schools”
Dana Foundation Research on Fine Arts & Cognitive Development
Americans For The Arts — Arts Education
National Arts Policy Database ( Search Database )
ArtsEDGE (Kennedy Center)
Arts Education Partnership
Project Zero (Harvard University)
Music Educators National Conference
National Association of Music Merchants

Scholars Cited During Interview: Daniel Pink;  Richard Florida

Length: 51 min.

Resolved: Limiting economic inequality ought to be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom.

Resolved: US policies established after September 11, 2001 have substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States.