Welcome Instapundit Readers, to Loquitur.

And thank you, Professor Reynolds, for the link. We really appreciate it.

Now, I’m sure that more than a few of you out there are wondering about who we are and what this podcast is all about.

In short, Loquitur is a brand-new Internet podcast dedicated to interviewing academic and professional experts on current National Forensic League debate topics for the free educational benefit of high school students competing in Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum Debate. 

To that end, for those of you who are familiar with the world of competitive high school debate — particularly, Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Public Forum Debate — please read our open letter to high school debate coaches and students.

And for those of you academics and professionals out there visiting our blog for the first time, please read our open letter to academics and professionals.

Please also visit our About Page to learn more about the “geniuses” behind Loquitur.

Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the show!

And do tell us what you think about the podcast and our mission — or if you’d like to help us out with what we’re trying to accomplish here.

E-mail us at  loqdebate-at-gmail.com. 

       

Guest: Lawrence Douglas — James Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought (LJST) at Amherst College and author of The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust.

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 :  Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States.

Authors Cited During Interview:   Robert Kahn,  D.D. Guttenplan,  Kent Greenawalt

Length: 35 min.

      

Guest: George Fletcher — Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School and author of With Justice For Some: Victims’ Rights in Criminal Trials.

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:  Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Authors Cited During Interview:  Michael Moore & Heidi Hurd, Alon Harel

Length: 36 min.

Guest: Geoffrey Woglom — Chair of the Economics Department and Richard S. Volpert Professor of Economics at Amherst College.

Guest’s Personal Website: http://www.amherst.edu/~grwoglom/

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: Can the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 successfully mitigate economic slowdowns over the next year?

Length: 27 min.

      

Guest: James Jacobs — Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts at NYU Law School, Director of NYU’s Center for Research in Crime & Justice, and co-author (with Kimberly Potter) of Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics.

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: Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Length: 32 min.

       

Guest: Jack Levin — Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University, co-director of Northeastern University’s Center on Violence and Conflict, author of The Violence of Hate: Confronting Racism, Anti-Semitism, Bigotry, and Other Forms of Bigotry, and co-author (with John McDevitt) of Hate Crimes Revisited: America’s War on Those Who Are Different.

Guest’s Personal Website: http://www.jacklevinonviolence.com/

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: Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Length: 34 min.

Resolved: That the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 will successfully mitigate economic slowdowns over the next year.