In the Bin: The Debate, Rhetoric, and Argumentation Podcast

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Join me along with Profs. John Rief and Rob Boller for a fantastic discussion about the Civic Debate Consortium, upcoming events, and a deep dive into what we mean by “debate,” “dialogue,” and even “education.” What counts as a debate event? Have a listen and see what you think.

John Rief is a Professor of Communication Studies at The Metropolitan State College of Denver.

Rob Boller is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric & Communication Studies and Director of Debate at the University of San Francisco.

Click here to see all the events of the Civic Debate Consortium and how you can become involved.

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Great to have Dr. John Patrick on the show along with Shane Patrick who are the founders and organizers of the Sustainability Summit, an educational event for university students that challenges them to work together to create powerful real-world solutions for issues facing public lands via the power of argumentation and debate.

In this conversation it might be easier to list what we don’t talk about, but the conversation is wide-ranging. We discuss the problems with tournament debate, what publication of the results of a debate event might look like, and the role of debate education in our moment.

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Welcome Tim back to the show and subscribe to his newsletter! Dr. Barr is a fantastic guest and we love having him on.

We talk about trauma-pedagogy debate, Jason Arday, collaborative debating, and much more!

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First of all, welcome to Dr. Sarah Evans who joins In the Bin after a very long and protracted negotiation process involving many agents, lawyers and other talent scouts. I hope she joins again soon!

On this episode I talk about how a recent, kinda-dumb AI image gave me a lot to think about and how I finally have reached the conclusion that although my interests in teaching debate and the tournament debate folks were never aligned, they are actually at cross purposes.

We also talk about AI in higher education. Sarah recently worked on AI scholarship in Brazil and has excellent perspective on AI in everything from grading to assignment design. We briefly talk about the recent MIT committee findings on AI and college assignments.

The Sophistic Take: Rhetoric, Debate, and Argument Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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Use the code PALAUT for 20% off Dr. Steve Llano's book How to Watch the Presidential Debates wtihout Losing It available at springer.com

This episode originally aired on July 27, 2017 and features a conversation with Dr. Cate Morrison, Debate Director at the University of Rhode Island, Aaron Dicker, Graduate student at Georgia, and John Patrick of Cal Poly.

Nearly all the links and references are broken after so many years so don’t expect any link mentioned to work!

Recycle Bin is a throwback where we comb the archives of In the Bin for the most interesting episodes from our audio wine cellar. Let us know if there’s an episode from the past you’d like to hear!

comments are welcome below or you can email us!

David and I spoke in January of 2026 about the influence (perhaps undue influence) of Artificial Intelligence on the art and pedagogy of rhetoric. It was great to catch up with him after so long. David and I crossed paths at the University of Pittsburgh when we were both studying in the communication department at the University of Pittsburgh.

Our conversation goes from the symbol of the American soldier to how we teach rhetoric when AI tools are pervasive and even pushed by university administration.

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