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Nathan Leys competed for Des Moines Roosevelt High School (IA). Last year, he became the 2013 NFL National Champion in International Extemporaneous Speaking. During his career, Nathan also notched victories at the Yale Invitational (2012), Glenbrooks (2012), and St. Mark’s (USX-2011). He also won the Exhibition Round at last season’s Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin and was a three time Iowa state champion in extemporaneous speaking (USX-2011, IX-2012 & 2013). This fall he will study global affairs at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he will participate in college forensics. Nathan agreed to sit down with Extemp Central for a two part interview to share his thoughts on extemporaneous speaking, reflect on his career, and provide advice to future extemporaneous speakers.
On July 18th, Detroit filed for bankruptcy, making it the biggest municipal default in American history. Contemporary observers of the city would be hard pressed to tell that it was once one of the fourth most populated cities in the country and produced three-quarters of America’s war machine in the Second World War. Detroit’s bankruptcy has been decades in the making, a consequence of political corruption, deindustrialization, globalization, “white flight,” and poor budgeting. Given that Detroit’s tenure in bankruptcy court will likely last until the end of 2014, if not beyond, extempers will face a host of questions this season about how Detroit got to this point, how it can fix its debt, whether the federal government should come the assistance of the beleaguered city, and what impact its bankruptcy may have on the rest of the United States, namely those cities who are approaching the same fiscal cliff that Detroit has already driven off of.
