The Failure of WUDC

Am I getting too cynical? Hardly. Although I am highly critical of both the National Communication Association and the national debate organizations such as NDT and CEDA, I haven't said that much about the World Universities Debate Championships.

In this podcast I try to lay out the roots of my criticism, so it's not just particular to WUDC. I think any debate organization that turns toward propagating its own format and culture versus contributing to rhetorical pedagogy is not useless, but dangerous.

These organizations celebrate themselves before they reach out to those outside the walled gardens they labor to perpetuate. At this time, facing these autocratic and plutocratic threats, they have nothing to say. In fact you'll see in this episode an NCA division leader continuously repeats "There is nothing that can be said" in response to the political climate of the United States.

You are a communication organization. What value does NCA have if it has "nothing to say?"

Likewise, large debate organizations should be showing citizens how to engage productively with loud, angry, undereducated people instead of dismissing them as improper. This is the replacement of the universal audience with the vanguard audience (Perelman & Olbrects-Tyteca).

As the years go by I feel more and more alone in my conceptions of rhetoric, debate, and argumentation. A World Debating Council should be offering helpful approaches to debate and argument, not staying silent unless there are fees to pay for an upcoming tournament.

Listening for May and Podcast Updates

Here's my listening report for May: https://www.last.fm/user/Professor_Steve/listening-report/year/2025/month/5

Lots of Charli XCX and who can blame me after the great tour clips on social media and her amazing Coachella performance?


In the Bin podcast is on a regular Wednesday schedule, once a week. I feel like that's the most sustainable model I can do at the moment! It's also on YouTube, so here's the link if you would like to start listening over there (I'm sure you listen somewhere already!)

Instead of Debate Avoidance, Teach Debating

In the latest episode of my podcast In the Bin, I ask why we don't just teach people how to debate instead of trying to avoid debate. Substituting debate with another form of discourse is stealing from ourselves.

Here's the episode. First time doing a video podcast so let me know what you think!

Rochester, New York and Debate Origin Stories

Last weekend I was so lucky to be able to participate in an event at the University of Rochester celebrating Prof. Sam Nelson who has been a debate coach and teacher for a very long time. 

His old students and assistants from all over the U.S. attended the surprise and shared their stories of how Sam transformed their lives. It was really an honor to be present for all of that testimony. 

This is the vlog I made of my perspective of the trip and everything I did and thought about when I was there. This really inspired me to think about debate (what doesn't you might ask) from a variety of different perspectives. 

It was so good to see Sam and to catch up with some of the old friends and students from my time working there. I was coaching at the University of Rochester from 2001 - 2002, and again from fall 2003 through 2004. From the Fall of 2002 to the spring of 2003, I lived in Syracuse, NY and attended Syracuse University. I did stop by from time to time to say hi to the folks working there at the time and Sam. 

I'm looking forward to visiting Rochester again already!