Burden of Rejoinder

After providing a brief update about the 2022-2023 topic selection process, co-hosts Bill Batterman and Brian Manuel spend most of this episode discussing the water resources protection topic. What are their major takeaways? What trends have they identified? How do they expect the topic to develop during the rest of the season? They analyze the survey of the elimination rounds at St. Mark’s and offer suggestions for students and coaches as they prepare for the next wave of tournaments.

You can subscribe to Burden of Rejoinder in your favorite podcast application. New episodes will be released approximately twice per month. To ask a question or to suggest an episode topic, email [email protected].

As noted in the outro, Bill and Brian are especially interested in hearing from coaches who have recently attended an in-person debate tournament. If you’re interested in sharing your perspective, please send an email and they’ll use it to help prepare for a future episode about the return of in-person debate.

We know high school policy debaters and their coaches are focused on this year’s water resources protection topic, but this episode discusses two other topics that might be of interest to listeners: next year’s proposed high school topics and this year’s college topic.

In the first segment, co-hosts Bill Batterman and Brian Manuel explain how the high school policy debate topic is selected and how students and coaches can become involved in the process. They also share their thoughts on the slate of topics for 2022-2023 in preparation for the first round of balloting that will conclude this week.

In the second segment, Bill and Brian explain how the college topic selection process differs from the high school process and offer a brief introduction to the antitrust topic. They also share some tips for how high school students can improve how they watch college debates and browse the college wiki.

Links discussed in the first segment:
NFHS Summary of 2022-2023 Proposed Topics
2022-2023 Topic Papers
2019 and 2020 Topic Papers
Bill’s Post About 2022-2023 Proposed Topics

Suggested links for learning more about the antitrust topic:
Topic Paper
We The People (Podcast) — “Will President Biden Transform Antitrust?” (07/29/2021)
Weeds (Podcast) — “A User’s Guide to Antitrust” (06/07/2021)
CRS Report — “Antitrust Law: An Introduction” (05/29/2019)
CRS Report — “The Big Tech Antitrust Bills” (08/13/2021)
Brishen Rogers (Boston Review) — “The Limits of Antitrust Enforcement” (04/30/2018)
Sanjukta Paul and Sandeep Vaheesan (The Nation) — “Make Antitrust Democratic Again!” (11/12/2019)

You should now be able to subscribe to Burden of Rejoinder in your favorite podcast application. New episodes will be released approximately twice per month. To ask Bill and Brian a question or to suggest an episode topic, email [email protected].

In this short bonus episode of The 3NR’s new podcast, Bill Batterman and Brian Manuel discuss their early thoughts about topicality on this year’s water resources protection topic. Does “protection” provide a meaningful limit? How can the resolution be interpreted to exclude “effects topical” cases? We’ll revisit these and other topicality questions in the future, but we wanted to share our early impressions after the first few regular season tournaments.

This episode was recorded during the same session that we recorded episode one. Our second full-length episode will be shared soon. You should now be able to subscribe to Burden of Rejoinder in your favorite podcast application. If we missed a podcast directory or if you would like to suggest an episode topic, send us an email at [email protected].

In the first episode of The 3NR's new podcast, co-hosts Bill Batterman and Brian Manuel discuss process counterplans (like the popular National Governors Association/Uncooperative Federalism Counterplan) and offer a few tips for how affirmative teams can better answer them. The following sources are referenced during the episode:

Trufanov, Anthony. "Stupid CP's are Stupid." Debate Musings, 2020.

Ulrich, Walter. “The Legitimacy of the Counter Procedure Counterplan.” Journal of the American Forensic Association, Volume 23, Issue 3, Winter 1987, pp. 166-168.

Watson, Carly. "This Argument Ends the Process Counterplan." MSU Debate Blog, 2021. (Find in page: "This Argument Ends")

New episodes of Burden of Rejoinder will be released approximately twice per month. To ask Bill and Brian a question or to suggest an episode topic, email [email protected].

The long-awaited third season of the 3NR Podcast kicks off with a special guest edition featuring James Herndon (of Emory University) and Whit Whitmore (of the University of Michigan) alongside Scott Phillips. Topics covered include international fiat, impact turning new block impacts after link turning in the 2AC, and research practices/qualifications. The Contemporary Argumentation & Debate issue discussed in the podcast is available here.

Interested? Head over to podcast.the3nr.com and download the new episode. If you haven’t done so already, you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

The 3NR Podcast is back with a new hour-long episode that is divided between two conversations: one looking back on this year’s Tournament of Champions and the other looking forward to summer institutes. Our TOC debriefing covers a lot of ground from the schedule to the judging pool to the class of 2011. The student-centered portion of the episode then puts the focus on preparing for summer institutes. What can students do to improve between now and the beginning of camp? How can students make a good impression on their lab leaders? Many tips (as well as a few warnings) are provided.

Interested? Head over to podcast.the3nr.com and download the new episode. If you haven’t done so already, you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Recorded at the end of April (Apologies for the delay. – ed.), the latest episode of the podcast features the return of Malcolm Gordon (his previous appearances include s01e03, s01e12, and s01e13). Several topics are covered during this hour-long discussion:

As always, you should head over to podcast.the3nr.com and download the new episode. If you haven’t done so already, you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Scott Phillips and James Herndon are back for part two of their discussion of TOC preparation. This time, the goal is to help students prepare to debate on the negative. How can you prepare topicality arguments to protect yourself against new cases? How does the politics disadvantage fit into your preparation? What counterplans should you have ready to go? These and other questions are discussed by two of the coaches of this year’s Copeland Award winning team from Emory University. Head over to podcast.the3nr.com and download the new episode to find the answers. As always, you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Preparing for the season-ending tournaments? Heading to Lexington in a few weeks for the TOC? The latest episode of The 3NR Podcast is here to help. In part one of a two-part series, Scott Phillips and James Herndon discuss affirmative preparation and strategy. When should you read a new case? What makes a new case strategic? How should you write your plan? How can you use add-ons strategically? Head over to podcast.the3nr.com and download the new episode to find the answers. If you haven’t already, you can also subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

As promised, the latest edition of The 3NR Podcast centers entirely around reader/listener-submitted questions. With the full crew on board, the discussion covers a lot of ground including email evidence, the way that judges should (and do) balance explanation versus evidence, debating the case against COIN affirmatives, and more. Click on over to podcast.the3nr.com to download the new episode or subscribe to the podcast in iTunes. We didn’t get to everything, so we will dedicate another future episode to the remaining questions we’ve received from our listeners. If you have something you’d like us to discuss, please let us know.