The Extemper's Bible

Today, Sruti and Vasudevan speak with Siri Ural, the GMU Champion, and NSDA & NCFL finalist! Impromptu returns, along with advice on the best way to (not) prepare, writing your speeches on t-charts, and tournament banner drops. Oh–and don't forget–a news source better than the Economist??

Beating out 100 other competitors at the Glenbrooks to become its champion, Lishore Kumar chats with Kate Liu (on her first solo host job!) on his thoughts on the tournament and extemp at large! From Lishore’s Hot Takes (100% trademarked), beating a cow dead (and then resurrecting it), and a memorable (totally not villain) origin story…welcome to the final episode of the Extemper’s Bible until nex...

Sruti and Vasu (the second of our new co-hosts!) talk with Eshaal, the champion of the New York Invitational–aka Bronx–and Princeton. Topics include: the #1 book every Extemper should read, the burden of great hair, the tape of death, and a fan club for old podcast host Kevin Li? Whether an old competitor or new, you wouldn't want to miss Part Two of our PodMas Special! (and learn, duh.)

The champion of Blue Key and its Round Robin talks with Sruti and new co-host Kate! Join us to hear about her podcast obsessions (which we def support), camp reunions, legalizing question slips, and Tana Mongeau for President? This is Part One of Our PodMas special–we'll be uploading four more episodes until January 6th (MBA time!)

Curious about substructure, question types, sources, and more? Sruti and Jennifer, our Director of Content, sit down to answer your burning extemp questions from our latest Instagram poll. Want to learn more about the ins-and-outs of extemp? Visit https://extempers.org/ and stay tuned for our next episode :)

For the UKTOC's return to an in-person tournament comes a new extemp champion! Kevin and Sruti join Pierce McDade for an interview that's long overdue. But no need to glaze him anymore—iykyk. Meet the Economist addict, PhD-level tag maker (on PhDs), and the embodiment of the HI-to-Extemp pipeline.

Sruti and Kevin chat with the other 2023 Harvard finalists: Amy Cao, McKinley Paltzik, Phoena Lin, and Taylor Burris. New Jersey extempers, beware (you'll see why very quickly). Other topics include: Instagram food accounts, Ice Spice in Info, canceling prom–and, oh yeah, the tournament itself!

Topping the NSDA points race and making weekly national appearances, Teddy Gercken stands out despite being such a familiar face. The double champion of the James Logan MLK Jr. Invitational and finalist in (quite literally) countless others joins Kevin and Sruti to talk about his inspirations, his unreal prep strategy, and his... emotive tactics? Hear about regional divides, how you too can prep i...

Akshita Krishnan guides extempers through maybe our greatest fear: showing emotion. Okay, maybe not for all extempers... Still, hear us (and her) out on why Interp will make you a better extemper!

In the inaugural episode of our new, semi-seasonal series, Kevin, Sruti, and Logan Scisco recap the significant tournaments of the season so far while looking forward to MBA. Congratulations to all 16 invitees!

New co-host and a new Potomac Champ! Join Kevin and Sruti as they talk to Taylor Burris, the champion of the GMU Patriot Games. From Virginia locals to Blue Key, to landing an invite to MBA, Taylor is charting her path on the national circuit. Just don't ask her any questions about education!

Florida: known for its harsh climate, harsher politics, and possibly an even harsher field of extempers. In this episode, Kevin and McKinley are joined by Blue Key champion and NSDA IX finalist Jack Ververis who, despite missing our last invite for the podcast, is finally on to tell us about a new tenet of his. Key to his success? Having fun, and hating on cryptocurrencies (Jack was right about FT...

Perhaps no other school in recent history has had as much success and consistency on the national extemp circuit as Plano West Senior High School. So, what really goes on behind the scenes? Are extemper's just bigger (and better) in Texas? Is Plano running an extemp mill for middle schoolers? Or, do they just practice in a diligent manner? Off the heels of the Yale University Invitational, McKinle...

If you didn't listen to part one, go do that now! Now that you're back for part two, McKinley and Kevin ask Scisco about the creation of Extemp Central, ongoing trends at the national level, and concerns over a post-pandemic world of speech and debate.

The man, the myth, and the legend Logan Scisco has been running Extemp Central for over a decade. So, what does it take to go from an NFL (now called the NDSA) Final Round champion to leading one of the largest websites for free extemp briefs? In part one, McKinley and Kevin dive into the days of early 2000's competition, Scisco's coaching style, and (of course) which national tournament has the b...

The best is saved for the last and 3rd episode of our national finalist series! Kevin and McKinley (!!!) talk to the 2022 NSDA USX finalists: Peter Alisky, Kush Narang, Ananth Veluvali, Kyle Letterer, Dev Ahuja, and William Chien. Kyle contemplates life on a long bus ride, Dev can’t figure out how to cross a particular someone, and Peter remarks on his winning speech! Warning: a third of this epis...

Treading our way into the 2nd episode of a 3-part series, Kevin rings up the 2022 NSDA IX finalists: McKinley Paltzik, Daniel Kind, Majid Shabbeer, Ajay Gupta, and Gabriel Bo (Jack Ververis low-key forgot about the call). The cross clash of two titans, complaining about this year’s (and next year’s) heat, and a now-infamous on-top moment are all included.

In the first of a 3 part series on national finalists, Kevin chats with the 2022 NCFL finalists in Extemp: Daniel Kind, Ananth Veluvali, Rhea Rajvansh, Siri Ural, Rishika Bansal, and Mukta Dharmpaurikar. Enjoy a dose of travel stories and extemp tips from the people at the very top of the game! Also, they wanted a laugh track at one moment in particular, so watch out for that…

Cross-ex catfights, DX slander, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Barring further hypotheticals, Kevin and surprise host McKinley Paltzik chat with the reigning Queen of ETOC, McKinley’s words I promise.

In a special spin-off episode of our news series, Kevin delves into the Russo-Ukrainian war just in time for you to absorb the info before TOCs. Take notes, simply memorize, whatever. Just don't use any of this if you hit Kevin or Chirag in a room.

The champion of Yale, Bronx, Arizona States, and (the most prestigious tournament in all of extemp) MBA, McKinley Paltzik herself goes over her extemp finesse with Chirag and Kevin. With a learning curve that probably matches her MBA graph, Paltzik talks about time and trophies in the 2nd-ever interview we've done with an MBA Champion!

In a surprise to the extemp community, Marc Zavarro ended up winning Harvard. Then, he added to his tally by being Florida's USX Champion. In this episode of the Extemper's Bible, Kevin chats with Marc about his victories and his thoughts on a couple of key events to America's future. P.S. Danny, we know you're already planning revenge.

In this episode, Chirag walks through the admittedly complicated conflict in Ukraine so far. Hopefully, the editing isn't bad this time!!

In this episode, Director of Content Mukta Dharmapurikar talks about the importance of Impromptu, despite the event frequently being the butt of jokes made by extempers.

Another month, another opportunity to complain about the world. In this episode, Chirag and Kevin talk about the retiring Supreme Court Justice, a military-led coup in Burkina Faso, and most dangerously, the whole Russia situation. Grab your dose of news and depressing impacts with The World Sucks and Here's Why, January Edition!