Worthy Adversaries: The Courage To Disagree. Vance Crowe speech at Flinchbaugh Ag Policy Forum

The Vance Crowe Podcast · Oct 2, 2025 · 45m · transcript

In this episode, Vance Crowe shares a keynote delivered at the inaugural Flinchbaugh Forum for Agricultural Policy in Manhattan, Kansas, honoring Dr. Barry Flinchbaugh’s legacy of courageous, civil discourse. Vance unpacks the concept of “worthy adversaries,” explaining how respect and even resentment can guide individuals toward those who sharpen their ideas, and offers practical tools for productive disagreement: steelmanning, providing “click” moments of fascination, asking “how” instead of “why,” saying “tell me more,” and diagramming arguments to debate ideas shoulder-to-shoulder rather…