Rhetorical Questions

Fake. Real. Accurate. True. They're the keywords in any debate about representation, the sticky wicket famously represented by Belgian surrealist René Magritte in his painting The Treachery of Images (1929): a flat, cartoonish depiction of a tobacco pipe squats atop the deliciously polemical fiat "This is not a pipe." In this episode, Mark Johnson, from the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism, walks us through the process of representing a news story with a photograph, and Brian recalls the image of President Trump tossing rolls of paper towels to a crowd in Puerto Rico last October. This episode features the song "Oktoberfest Gaudi" by Steve Raphael. The episode illustration (Sharpie on paper towel) was drawn by Barbara Worth Ratner.

Four months after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Obama said that "the memories of these children demand" political action. This argument, which would become the centerpiece of Obama's campaign for gun control, raises questions of ethics and political strategy. Dr. Craig Rood, author of a forthcoming essay on the "warrant of the dead," joins us to discuss this argument and the political chasm it opened up.

After being taken for fake journalists at a local campaign rally, Lauren and Brian reflect on the nature of podcasting as a popular medium, the various models from which podcasters can draw their credibility, and the tension between rigor and accessibility in academic podcasting.

In recent months Donald Trump has taken to labeling news stories and outlets that criticize him as "fake news." The term, which only a few months ago had been used to describe online hoaxes masquerading as news stories, now has become nearly impossible to define. Dr. Lauren Neefe returns to cohost, and together we make a foolhardy attempt to answer the question: what do the president's words mean?

As Barack Obama's presidency comes to an end, first drafts of his legacy are already being written. In this episode I'm joined by three scholars who are contributors to one such draft—an upcoming book called Reconsidering Obama: Reflections on Rhetoric. Professors Jennifer Mercieca, Mark McPhail, and David Frank discuss the "heroic expectations" that accompanied Obama's 2009 inauguration, his rhetoric of racial "consilience," and the haunting possibility that racism may be impervious to persuasion.

"Political correctness" has been a devil term for Donald Trump's presidential campaign, but the term's meaning is far from clear. In this episode I offer a history of political correctness, and suggest that, like every other part of Trump's campaign, his use of the term is like nothing we've seen before.

From time to time the news media call upon debate coaches to analyze the presidential debates, but always with an emphasis on what each candidate needs to do in order to score political points. In this episode we are joined by six current and former debate coaches and argumentation scholars, who lead the conversation in a very different direction. They discuss the civic virtues of the presidential debates, the challenges to moderating a good debate, and their hopes and fears for the upcoming debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The Michigan state legislature is currently considering a law that would fine those engaged in "aggressive panhandling." The bill's sponsor claims that there is a need to raise awareness of the dangers posed by people seeking financial assistance on the streets. But guests Whitney Gent and Melanie Loehwing reply that when it comes to people experiencing homelessness, the last thing the public needs is another lesson in fear.

Following her performance at Super Bowl 50, Beyoncé was condemned for calling attention to police brutality and invoking symbols of black liberationists. Her critics faulted her for injecting race into an event which was purportedly apolitical and post racial. But it may be that her true crime was slaying.

Four days before the 2016 Iowa Caucuses, Republicans—sans Donald Trump—got together for their seventh presidential primary debate. One of the 12 million people to tune in that night, Dr. Ryan Kennedy, believes that mathematical models can give us new insight into the candidates' debate strategies. But there may be limits to what numbers can tell us.