The Word Nerds in debate

The most surprising tale in The Word Nerds about debate was what Barbara Shepherd told. When she wanted to be an actress, debating was part of her training. It was the part she hated, she just wanted to be on the stage and not in the debating competition.



There has already been several TWN issues about rhetoric, so the step to formal debating was not large. David Shepherd repeated the old tale about the Kennedy-Nixon debate. And this goes to show that your appearance is just as important as your debating qualities.



The radio listeners thought Nixon had won, the TV viewers pointed at Kennedy as the winner. It was just that Kennedy looked better. In the visualized age, that can be so much more important. It makes you think twice about podcasts. Yet, The Words Nerds as a podcast is splendid, even without the good looks.



Previous reviews of TWN on this blog:

Ambiguity and linguistic tics,

Syntax,

Prosody,

Rhetoric,

Silence and Speechlessness.

The schedule of the week

Here is a list of some of the posts you can expect in this coming week and a list of new and old podcasts that I will listen to and are likely to be reviewed as well.

-Teaching Company: Abraham Lincoln
How did Lincoln rise to politics? How did he mature to become the most important president the US have had?

-The Word Nerds: Debate
Is debating about proper argumentation? Is it about impressing the audience, with fallacies or without? Or is it about acting? Ask Dave and Barbara Shepherd.

-Dan Carlin's Hardcore History: Carthage destroyed
Dan Carlin has reached the end of his triple series retelling the wars between the Romans and the Carthaginians. The heroes Hannibal and Scipio die the way heroes die and Carthage is cruelly destroyed at long last. The Punic nightmare, eventually turns into a Roman nightmare.

-Veertien Achttien: Maximilian von Spee
The elusive Germans at sea, villains and gentlemen, sometimes in the same person.

New podcasts that I picked up on are: Medicalhistory, Pods and Blogs (BBC) and Junggesellenblog

My listen list contains:
Namaste Stories
Shrink Rap Radio
The Word Nerds
Making history with Ran Levy - עושים היסטוריה
History 2311 (Temple College) - World history until 1600

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I love to get new podcast recommendations. You can let your preferences  know by commenting on the blog or sending mail to The Man Called Anne at: Anne Frid de Vries (in one word) AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk