First WFTR show of the new school year!

We're back with a new team and a new school year. Here is the podcast:

https://archive.org/details/20150928RMA

Like us on Facebook to see pictures from the studio:  www.facebook.com/RMA-Debate

May 4 Radio Forum

We had quite a lively penultimate Radio Forum last night on WFTR! Kat Berger, Drew Hamilton and Ben Schoonover discussed the Baltimore riot in the first half hour, and then had an excellent debate on the Ukraine and Putin's adventurism in the second half. Here is the link to the podcast. Our last show of the school year will be on Monday May 18th at 6 pm.

 https://archive.org/details/20150504RMA

March 24 WFTR Radio Show

Just get these guys started on Israel and Palestinians... In the studio were Rupe Atwal, Maddi Orem, Drew Hamilton, Ben Schoonover and Jon Pederson, with Coach James Taafel.

https://archive.org/details/20150324RMA

 

Pictures from March 9 at WFTR

WFTR Radio Forum, March 9

Is the educational system unfair to boys? Some interesting studies have come out on the subject, and we tackled it in the first part of our Radio Forum on WFTR Tuesday evening. Coach James Taafel, Jon Pederson, Drew Hamilton and Ben Schoonover worked over the topic, with female perspective provided by Kat Berger. Later in the show Edward Xie had some very interesting things to say about the concept of democracy in China, Kat wrapped up the program with a discussion on Iran's nuclear ambitions and whether or not we should strike a deal with them. Here is the link to the podcast:

https://archive.org/details/20150310RMA

February 24 WFTR Show

We had a lively discussion on WFTR last Tuesday, covering the Keystone pipeline and Greece among other things. The crew was Maddi Orem, Tia Johnston, Kat Berger, and Ben Schoonover, ably steered by Coach Taafel. Here is the link to the podcast: https://archive.org/details/20150224RMA

 

Link to 2/10 Podcast

Here we are in all our live-radio glory. https://archive.org/details/20150210RMA

WFTR February 10

Jon Pedersen, Ben Schoonover, Drew Hamilton

Last WFTR show of the year

Hot show on WFTR Tuesday evening, with the UVA rape story and "narrative journalism" taking up the first half hour, and the Senate torture report the second. We congratulated the team for good performances at recent tournaments, and Jon Ped...ersen for his first college acceptance. Our in studio team was Coach James Taafel, Maddi Orem, John Camarella and Jon Pedersen. Our next show will be January 13 due to the holiday vacation. Best of the season to everyone! https://archive.org/details/20141216RMA

Podcast of our Election Day show on WFTR

Our November 4 show on WFTR was a lively one. In honor of election day we spent the first half hour discussing voted fraud and vting trends in general, led by Jon Pedersen. In the second half hour Maddi Orem, by far the most mellifluous voice ever to grace our show, led a discussion on euthanasia and assisted suicide. We were ably assisted by Ben Schoonover, new team member Roop Atwal, and Coach James Taafel. https://archive.org/details/20141104RMA

Election edition!

We'll be discussing the election for the first half of the show; our show prep session is going strong. The kids want to do a different topic for the second half, probably assisted suicide. Tune us in on WFTR at 6pm tonight! If you haven't voted yet, listen to us in your car on the way to the polls!

First WFTR Show of the school year!

We're back, with new and old Debaters and the same familiar attitude. For some unknown reason, WFTR-AM has allowed us to perpetrate this live panel discussion once again. The schedule this year is every other Tuesday night, at 6 pm.

This week Coach James Taafel was joined by new Team Captain John Pederson, members Maddi Orem, John Camarella, and Ben Schoonover, and newbies Tia Johnston and Natalie Pendie. We beat several topics to death including the current sort-of war in the Middle East.

https://archive.org/details/20140923RMA

WFTR has hosted the RMA Debate Team for over 12 years now. Most of those programs are archived and can be found by searching from any of the podcast links here. I'm trying to gather them up into some semblance of order. Meanwhile, if you want to get in on a little pre-show banter and show prep, feel free to join our page on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/pages/RMA-Debate/275670899259

 

Pictures from the 2014 Wrap Show

We finished on a strong note, with two alumni special guests! Valerie Pratt '11 and Jackson McGraw '12 were debate champions as a team and separately. Val had five first places, and Jackson went to Nationals his senior year. They discuss college, and then our current crew takes over. Graduating Team Captain Micah Peregrino is headed for George Washington University. John Pedersen, Madeline Orem and John  Camarella will be back in the fall.

Last radio show of the school year

The last R-MA Speech and Debate Team Radio Forum of the school year was a little more violent than usual, since we would up talking about violence in Thailand, Ukraine, and the American Southwest. You never know what to expect from this group. Graduating Senior Micah Peregrino was joined on the panel by stalwarts Jonathan Pederson (now on his way to Nationals), Madeleine Oram and John Camarella and team coach James Taafel. Our special guests were Jackson McGraw, R-MA class of 2013 fresh from his first year studying chemical engineering at Ohio University, and Valerie Pratt, R-MA Class of 2011, fresh from graduating from Messiah College with a degree in Politics and International Relations! As usual the discussion was lively right up to (and a little past) time to go. It's been a great year, and we hope you will all come out to the Senior Parade on Friday and watch the class of 2014 graduate. We'll fire it up again in September. https://archive.org/details/20140520RMA

The Supremes and College

We started off dissecting the Supreme Court's decision that racial quotas are no longer required by law in college admissions. And since our studio crew had two Seniors, we spent most of the rest of the time discussing the peculiarities of the college admissions process and the future of higher education! Join Coach Taafel, Jon Pedersen, Debbie Kim and Micah Peregrino in this edition of the R-MA Speech and Debate Team's Radio Forum!

There are two more shows left in the year. The next one will be Thursday May 8 rather than the usual Tuesday due to a schedule conflict. Then we wrap up the school year with a very special edition of the show on Tuesday May 20! Don't miss it. https://archive.org/details/20140425RMA
 

On the Air, March 25 edition

Winter is giving us one last smack in the face, just so we know who's boss. But not even that will stand between us and the microphones at WFTR for our biweekly Radio Forum! Coach James Taafel, Ben Schoonover, Jon Pederson, Paige Hollis, Maddi Orem, and Team Captain Micah Peregrino braved the blizzard and made it to the studio. Internet integrity, government surveillance, and other items of interest were thoroughly discussed. Here's the link to the podcast: https://archive.org/details/20140325RMA

All of our WFTR broadcasts are archived at the team blog, http://rmadebate.blogspot.com
 

On the Air, March 11, 2014

What should we do, or can we do, about the Ukraine and Crimea? In the first half hour of the R-MA Speech and Debate Team's Radio Forum, Ben Schoonover, Jon Pedersen and Micah Peregrino discussed the foreign policy implications while coach J...ames Taafel and host Doug Pratt tried to work in "Crimea river." In the second segment the New York mayor's overt attack on successful charter schools was discussed in the general atmosphere of the school choice debate and the reaction against Common Core. In spite of suffering through the current SAT tests, our group is not impressed with the coming changes to the SAT. Hear it all on our podcast (link below) and listen to us again on Tuesday March 25 at 6 pm on good old faithful WFTR.

https://archive.org/details/20140311RMA

Should the Government provide clean needles and heroin to addicts? The Randolph-Macon Academy Speech and Debate Team analyzed the issue from all sides, then sequed smoothly into the Ukraine uprising on our biweekly talk show on WFTR-AM. There's nothing like live radio. An extra treat was having the R-MA photographer show up, so you can see our radio faces. Here is the podcast: https://archive.org/details/20140225RMA

Radio Forum, Pre-Blizzard Edition

With the impending snowstorm on everyone's mind, of course we decided to talk about something else. Jon Pedersen knows how to solve the problem of drug addiction, Micah Peregrino knows just what it will take to get us all saving our money again, Ben Schoonover knows right where he stands on school choice, and Coach Taafel just wonders what the world will be like when this generation is in charge. Here's the link to the podcast so you can enjoy it at your leisure. Our next live broadcast will be at 6 pm on Tuesday February 25, on faithful WFTR 1480 AM, Sports Talk and other madness for Warren County. http://archive.org/details/20140211RMA

Radio Forum on WFTR, January 28

Putin's problems with Olympics security somehow segued into Satanist statues in Oklahoma. It could only be the R-MA Speech and Debate Team's Radio Forum! Join Micah Peregrino, Jon Pedersen, Madi Orem and John Camarella to see how it all works out. http://archive.org/details/20140128RMA