Many voters are looking forward to the Presidential debates this election year, but competitive debaters might say that the civil discourse of our times has given up on formal argumentation. True debate depends on a certain openness and on the possibility that minds can change on the strength of a well-crafted argument. Wake Forest University has an award-winning debate team and their members are already preparing for the upcoming season. Host Frank Stasio will be joined by Jarrod Atchison, director of debate at Wake Forest University and an assistant professor in the Communications Department; and Melvin Washington, a junior at Wake Forest University and a competitive debater.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
Shawn Wen joined the staff of The State of Things in March 2012 and served as associate producer until February 2014.
