First of all, inspiration for this book came from reading When Every Conversation Becomes A Game, We All Lose, by Jane Coaston, which appeared in the New York Times on June 4, 2022.
Two old Venomous Agenda Sidequests have been used in this story: the old Sidequest 2 is now present as Ch4-6, while the old Sidequest 6 is now Ch12-14.
As per usual, people, locations and events are purely fictional, and any reference to actual people, locations and events is coincidental.
I would like to thank Rose, a Lincoln-Douglas alumna and judge, who provided me with precious advice about how speech and debate tournaments are run, as well as how debating in traditional circuits differ from debating on the national circuit, especially for policy and LD.
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Public forum debate topics in the story:
November-December 2024 (Ch3): Resolved: The United States should lift its sanctions against North Korea.
September-October 2025 (Ch7): Resolved: The United States should join the Convention on Biological Diversity.
March 2026 (Ch13-14): Resolved: The United States should lower voting age to 16.
2026 NSDA Nationals (Ch21-26): Resolved: On balance, corporate tax cuts have created more benefits than harms.
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Tournament of Champions bid levels in the story's national circuit tournaments attended in chronological order in the plot (here public forum, thereafter, PF, bid levels are understood to be for the gold division):
Holy Cross (Ch1): Semifinal (LD) Final (policy, PF), top 3 (speech)
Isidore Newman (Ch3, Ch10, epilogue): Semifinal (LD) Final (policy, PF), top 6 (speech, Congressional)
Grapevine (Ch7, epilogue): Quarterfinal (LD, policy, PF), top 6 (speech, Congressional)
Columbia (Ch11): Quarterfinal (PF, LD) semifinal (policy) top 6 (speech) top 16 (Congressional)
Duke (epilogue): Semifinal (LD, PF) final (policy) top 6 (speech, Congressional)
Columbia (epilogue): Octofinal (PF) quarterfinal (LD) semifinal (policy) top 6 (speech) top 16 (Congressional)
Stanford (epilogue) Octofinal (LD, PF), semifinal (policy) top 6 (speech) top 16 (Congressional)