Who We Are 

Loquitur is an Internet podcast which features interviews with academic and professional experts on current National Forensic League (NFL) debate topics for the free educational benefit of all high school students competing in Lincoln-Douglas (LD) and Public Forum (PF) Debate.

Loquitur is the joint creation of Mahesha Subbaraman (on behalf of Trinity Briefs) and Brandon Sheats (on behalf of Georgia Forensics Daily).

Loquitur is neither affiliated with nor sponsored by the National Forensic League.

Our Mission

We believe in the philosophical, educational, and oratorical value of high school debate. 

According to National Forensic League (NFL) membership statistics, over 93,000 high school students currently participate in high school forensics (i.e., speech and debate).

Many of these students specifically participate in one (or both) of the following major styles of high school debate: Lincoln-Douglas Debate (or LD) and Public Forum Debate (or PF).

Students participating in these styles of debate consult a variety of scholarly resources — books, law review articles, philosophical treatises, etc. — in order to understand the topics they are debating and lend credence to the assertions they make in their speeches/cases. 

However, given the length and complexity of many of these sources — sources often written for the benefit of post-graduate audiences, and not teenagers — many high school debaters struggle to understand what these sources are trying to tell them about the topic-at-hand — a plight that often leads to the misuse or mischaracterization of these sources during debate rounds.  

The authors of these sources — particularly, college professors and researchers — clearly need a more direct way to communicate their ideas to high school students.

We also recognize that within the high school debate community, an overemphasis on academic scholarship as a source of “evidence” has encouraged many students to overlook or ignore other equally important sources of knowledge — namely, the experiences of professionals and laymen that do not always make it into print.

Loquitur’s mission is to help solve these problems.

Building Bridges

We know that there are many academics and professionals out there who once participated in speech and debate, either in high school or college. We also recognize that there are just as many experts out there who know nothing about high school debate — all the while, their work is being read and cited every weekend by high school debaters across the country.

Loquitur thus aims to bridge this information gap, enabling academics and professionals alike to realize the profound impact their work has on high school students in understanding and arguing some of the most contentious and thought-provoking issues of our time.

Loquitur also aims to facilitate a closer relationship between institutions of secondary and higher education, providing academic scholars the opportunity to educate high school students not only about the important work they do but also the general importance of a college education and what it means to pursue an academic career.

Let Us Interview You

If you are an established academic or professional expert on a current high school debate topic, then Loquitur wants to interview you. 

Currently, we are seeking established experts to interview on the following debate topics:

NFL National 2008 Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate Topic
Resolved: Limiting economic inequality ought to be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom.

NFL National 2008 Public Forum (PF) Debate Topic
Resolved: U.S. policies established after September 11, 2001 have substantially reduced the risk of terrorist acts against the United States.

NCFL Grand National 2008 Lincoln-Douglas (LD) Debate Topic
Resolved: That secondary education in America should value the fine arts over athletics.

NCFL Grand National 2008 Public Forum (PF) Debate Topic
Resolved: That the U.S. Government should increase social services for indigenous peoples in America.

To be interviewed on either of these topics, please e-mail us at loqdebate-at-gmail.com.