On Point: Speech and Debate: Recent Episodes
Luke Elshoff
Howdy! Welcome to the on-point podcast! I’m Luke Elshoff and this is my weekly podcast where I’ll have a guest and talk to them about something speech and debate related. We’ll go from A-Z covering both speech and debate. This podcast is based around NCFCA and meant for teens, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, regardless of your league affiliation and age. To keep updated, you can follow my Instagram which is: OnPointPodcast_.Thanks for coming and I hope you stick around.
https://www.instagram.com/onpointpodcast_/
On this bonus episode of the On Point Podcast, Nolan and Avian join me (or I join them?) to discuss important matters such as Burger King's geopolitical influence on modern society and following Drake's example to be more vulnerable to increase our judge rizz.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Tyler Barron joins me to discuss his extemp process and how he separates himself from the competition. We delve into topics such as being more personable, extemp prep routines, and speaking well.
Tyler has qualified for nationals every year he has competed and has, thus far this season, won the Online Open for Extemp and has placed 3rd or higher in every tournament he's participated in Extemp.
Emma Lo joins me today to discuss how to effectively strategize, craft, and utilize TP rebuttals to make the most of your round. We dive into topic areas from the theoretical to the practical. Examining various issues like time management, organization, and proper impacting.
Emma has pre-qualed to Nationals in TP for the past 3 years, and has been awarded numerous debate achievements. Most notably, Emma and her partner Nathan Chen have gone to finals 4 times this season alone, and have won 3 out of those 4 finals rounds.
Gabe Zylstra, one of the most consistent LD debaters this year in terms of performance and placing, joins me today to discuss how to approach this resolution in order to communicate clearly and effectively. We also explore the process behind consistency in rounds and in terms of performance.
This year in LD alone, Gabe won an online mixer, a qualifier, and placed second at the NC National Open. He also placed 12th in TP at the most recent regional qualifier ;)
Avishai Deshpande and Caleb Muleta are the Duo champs of the Black Mountain, NC National Open tournament. They join me today to discuss the process they went through to construct their duo and share some of their personal strategies that helped them win NC.
Avishai is qualified to Nationals in LD, Info, Biblical Thematic, and, of course, Duo.
Caleb broke in a few speech events to regionals, placed 12th in digital, and broke in LD at NC.
Joshua Rush, a 6 year TP debater, joins the podcast today to discuss how to brief better, make more effective presses, and craft compelling narratives. Last season, Joshua placed 5th at Nationals and just recently he won the St. Paul National Mixer, earning a prequal to Nats.
Luke Buck, a goated speaker and debater from R6, enlightens the speech and debate community on how to make your limited preps stand out and appeal to the judges by being more personable in your delivery.
Luke Buck, two weeks into the 2024 season, has gotten 1st, 2nd, and 2nd in Extemp, Apol, and Impromptu at the first regional qualifier respectively. At the National Mixer in St. Paul, Luke got 1st, 2nd, and 1st for Extemp, Apol, and Impromptu. Last year at the 2023 National Championship, he got 7th in Apol, 6th in Extemp, and 5th in Impromptu.
Justus Aryani, objectively one of the best current debaters, helps run Ziggy Online Debate and is very active in the debate community. When he partnered with his brother, he got to finals 3 times in his second year, and in 2023, he placed 7th at nationals. Recently, he placed 2nd in TP at the Online National Mixer with his Moot Court Partner, Erin. Today he joins me to discuss debate limitations, what they are, why we struggle with them, and how to overcome them.
Ethan Tong is the head coach and founder of Blackstone Moot Court, the premiere Moot Court coaching organization in the nation. In addition to Moot coaching, he has coached Lincoln-Douglas, Team Policy, and Apologetics. His students have routinely placed at the National level. A recent graduate of Hillsdale College with a Philosophy and Religion degree, Ethan is attending Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, pursuing a Masters of Divinity.
Find out more about Ethan and Blackstone here:
https://blackstonemoot.webflow.io/
Daniel Six, a recent stoa alumni, was ranked 3rd nationally for Extemp and 9th for Lincoln-Douglas in the 2023 season. Daniel is also the founder of the Unshakable speech and debate podcast. Daniel's podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/207DQMbbCDls2mJxUzXHID?si=a7a332b62d024769
An an alumnus of NCFCA, Noah was a champion-level LDer in high-school. In 2016, Noah became a regional LD debate champion and placed in the top ten Nationally. The following year, he went undefeated at the Wenham, MA national open, winning the final round 5-0, and shortly thereafter placed 2nd at the National Championship after achieving a perfect preliminary record. During his highschool debate career, Noah competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate, moot court, and a wide variety of speech events. He has been coaching and judging LD since 2017. Noah's Ethos Debate article: https://www.ethosdebate.com/debating-rationalism-and-empiricism/
Michael Farris is a constitutional lawyer, who has argued before the appellate courts of 13 states, eight federal circuit courts of appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He was an executive committee member of the Coalition for the Free Exercise of Religion that successfully lobbied Congress for the passage of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. He has authored over 15 books, as well as founded or helped found the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, Patrick Henry College, Generation Joshua, and NCFCA. And recently in 2022, he stepped down from his position as President and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom. He has 10 children and 30 grandchildren.I was a little nervous and forgot to check my microphone input so I apologize if the audio sounds a little rough on my end!
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Graecen has been a part of NCFCA for 9 years and has competed in the league for 5. She has done a total of 12 speech styles, three debate styles, and has qualified to Nationals every year that she has competed. Graecen is the two-time national champion for Biblical Presentation and has multiple finals-level awards for 8 different speech events over the past three years.
Today she joins me to discuss biblical interpretations and the new (rather, recycled) category of biblical thematics. She shares her valuable insights and tips in this episode.
Caleb has done NCFCA for 5 years, competing in Moot Court, Team Policy, and 7 speech categories. He has won several tournaments in Extemp and has been to finals at tournaments several times in Apol and various platforms. He has been to finals several times in TP - this past year, he had a 50% finals appearance rate. He won R12 Regionals and a Mixer and got several speaks awards, including 2 wins. Caleb has done Moot Court for 3 years, won a tournament, been nationally ranked all 3 years, including 3rd this year, and won 2 speaks awards at tournaments this year. He's also competed in Coolidge for 2 years now, advanced at the Cup, and won 1st place and 1st place speaks at qualifying tournaments this season.
Today he joins me to discuss argument selection, varying types of speaker personas, and, finally, crafting a debate narrative that is effective and doesn't feel out of place.
Spence is a recent alumni of NCFCA. Throughout his time in NCFCA, Spence attained 18 first place titles, and 94 awards in total. Some of his most outstanding achievements include winning Duo Interpretation at the National Championship in 2021 as well as winning Digital Presentation at nats in 2023. For Moot Court he placed 2nd at a national qualifier in 2023, and 6th place at 2021s Moot Court National Championship.
Outside of NCFCA, Spence earned the best attorney award in 2022 for Florida Highschool Mock Trial as well as best attorney at the Providence Cup.
In the National Association of Moot Court, he placed 2nd at Duke University.
Today he joins me to discuss the structure and the process of Digital Presentations, as well as how to stand out from other presenters.
In 2022, Christian won a qualifier and ended up placing 8th at nationals. And this past season, Christian and his partner Gaege won a qualifier, the North Carolina National Open, and last but not least, went solo and won at Ziggy’s National Championship.
Today he joins me to discuss a plan for your TP Preseason, making the most of your season starting now.
In the final episode of this two-part series, Josiah joins me once more to discuss his strategy for having a successful LD year.
Josiah Hemp is the founder, CEO, and Head Coach of Rhetoric LLC. His past accomplishments include: placing 2nd at the NCFCA National Championship in Lincoln-Douglas, numerous awards in Team Policy Debate and Moot Court, and awards in 8 kinds of speech competition.
Rhetoric: https://rhetoricllc.com/
Josiah Hemp is the founder, CEO, and Head Coach of Rhetoric LLC. His past accomplishments include: placing 2nd at the NCFCA National Championship in Lincoln-Douglas, numerous awards in Team Policy Debate and Moot Court, and awards in 8 kinds of speech competition. Today he joins me to discuss an effective strategy for team policy debate that he recommends for nationals. Rhetoric: https://rhetoricllc.com/
Ben Brown, an alumnus of NCFCA, has an impressive debate portfolio. In 2019, he ranked 12th at nationals for team policy. In 2021, he got 1st place at two tournaments, and 5th place at nationals. In 2022, his final year, he won three tournaments—including winning nationals for team policy debate. Outside of debate, he won 5 tournaments in impromptu, 4 in extemp, and ranked 4th for after-dinner speaking at nationals. Today, he joins me to discuss impromptu negs and a few other TP topics.
Nathan Chen (a sophomore) hails from R2 and has been competing in NCFCA for 3 years, earning several accomplishments. Most notably he won regionals in 2021 for team policy, got 2nd at the fourth online qualifier in 2021, and ranked 8th at nationals with a 4th place speaker award. This year, he has won three 1st place speaker awards, got 2nd place at an online mixer for Lincoln-Douglas, 1st at an all-region qualifier, and won LD for the recent Online National Open.
Today, he joins me to discuss from A-Z in CX.
I hope you find this useful :)
-Luke
In this episode, Luke Brooker—recent Apol Champion for the Online National Open—shares his experiences with Apol and his unique insights about it.
I'm joined today by the excellent interpretation speaker, Zion Sirilan—as she shares her insights into the world of storytelling and the role interpretation speeches have in that.
The new co-hosts of the On-Point podcast Thomas Ryan and Christian Park tackle team policy with a special guest...(im not actually leaving)
Hannah Cavanaugh, first-place speaker at NCFCA Nationals in 2022, joins me today to share her valuable insight into the majestic world of debate speaking.
https://linktr.ee/onpoint_
In this episode, Gaege joins me again to illustrate his thoughts on extemp and how to use it for your own benefit—both in the round and out.
https://linktr.ee/onpoint_
Milestone 10th episode joined by Patrick McDonald :)
Today we dive into Moot Court and specifically presentation tips to improve your mooting skills.
https://www.instagram.com/onpointpodcast_/
Today I'm joined by national open finalist, Brady O'Shea, as we trek through ways that he has personally used and recommends you to use to get better at debate.
W episode 😌
Gonna go on a hiatus for a week or two as I collect even more banger episodes to share with y'all :D
Marc's website:
https://newenglanddebate.com/
If you have seen the first part yet make sure to check it out first!
Have a blessed week -Luke
At least in the NCFCA community, Parliamentary debate is way more underrated than it should be—at least in my opinion. In the first part of this two-part series, John Weaver explains the basics of Parli and why it is beneficial for all types of debaters.
Ace Peak Resolution Generator: https://acepeak.org/debate-resolution-generator
Funniness can go a long way, as we learn in this episode, as long as you match the context cues and be funny strategically. I decided to release this relatively short episode (because its tommy, duh) because this is the first week of qualifiers for NCFCA. Enjoy your first tournaments of the season!
Impromptu can be considered the core of the speech and debate world. It impacts practically every aspect of it, but perhaps even more, it affects our lives outside of tournaments—at work, and in our personal lives. Which are all reasons why becoming good at impromptu, or speaking on the fly, are such excellent and sought-after skills. Today, Gaege Gobezie walks us through the importance of impromptu and ways we can actively get better at it, and most importantly, using the skill to glorify God.
Lincoln-Douglas rebuttals are essential to the debate, there is no doubt about that. But if they're so essential, why are they oftentimes the most lacking or shallow part of a round? And perhaps more importantly, how can we get better at crafting amazing rebuttals? All these questions and more are answered by Chris Park, who won both a tournament and 8th place at nationals.
Episode Transcript: Howdy! Welcome to the on-point podcast! I’m Luke Elshoff and this is my weekly podcast where I’ll have a guest and talk to them about something speech and debate related. We’ll go from A-Z covering both speech and debate. This podcast is based around NCFCA and meant for teens, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, regardless of your league affiliation and age. To keep updated, you can follow my Instagram which is: OnPointPodcast_ again, OnPointPodcast_. Thanks for coming and I hope you stick around, Cya