In town hall meetings across the country, from Portsmouth to St. Louis to Denver to Tampa, the debate over health care reform is heating up to a boiling point. The high emotions at the town halls have started to get more attention than the debate itself. And what do many Americans do when their tempers or emotions boil over?

Yell.
Shout.
Scream.

Outside of this particular debate, how did yelling become so commonplace ?and so acceptable ? in American politics, culture and public discourse? To help us get to the bottom of this loud mystery, The Takeaway talks to Philip Dalton. He’s a professor of speech, communications, rhetoric and performance studies at Hofstra University and he thinks about yelling?a lot.