NPR Intelligence Squared

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This is one of my favorite programs that NPR does, and if you haven’t partaken of it I highly suggest you look into it.

It’s a podcast where they take a topical proposition, such as:

  • Gun control makes America safer, or…

  • Washington is more responsible for the financial crisis than Wall Street…

…and they get experts in the field to debate the topic in front of an audience of people off the street (NPR enthusiasts, keep in mind).

It’s done in the Oxford debate style, which makes it flow really well, and they judge the winner by who sways more people. They take a poll on the proposition before the debate starts and then they do the debate, and then they poll again after the debate concludes. Here’s the format:

  1. Opening statements

  2. Debate between teams, with questions from the audience

  3. Closing statements

Seriously, add this to your list of podcasts. Listening to one of these on a topic is equivalent to spending multiple hours online researching something. ::

Links

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