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Published: May 6, 2022, 2 p.m.

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In competitive debate future presidents, supreme court justices, and titans of industry pummel each other with logic and rhetoric.\\xa0

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Unclasp your briefcase. It\\u2019s time for a showdown. Looking back on an episode originally aired in 2016, we take a good long look at the world of competitive college debate.\\xa0This is Ryan Wash\'s story. He\'s a queer, Black, first-generation college student from Kansas City, Missouri who joined the debate team at Emporia State University on a whim. When he started going up against fast-talking, well-funded, \\u201cname-brand\\u201d teams, from places like Northwestern and Harvard, it was clear he wasn\\u2019t in Kansas anymore. So Ryan became the vanguard of a movement that made everything about debate debatable. In the end, he made himself a home in a strange and hostile land. Whether he was able to change what counts as rigorous academic argument \\u2026 well, that\\u2019s still up for debate.

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Special thanks to Will Baker, Myra Milam, John Dellamore, Sam Mauer, Tiffany Dillard Knox, Mary Mudd, Darren "Chief" Elliot, Jodee Hobbs, Rashad Evans and Luke Hill.\\xa0

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Special thanks also to Torgeir Kinne Solsvik for use of the song\\xa0h-lydisk / B Lydian from the album\\xa0Geirr Tveitt Piano Works and Songs

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