Business@anticaproductions.com (Public Policy Forum)

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The Munk Debates PodcastBe it Resolved, let’s engineer a better human beingWe’ve come a long way since DNA was first discovered in the mid 19th century. Today’s scientists are using powerful engineering techniques to edit genes in human eggs and sperm, curing diseases and repairing defective genes before a child is even born. Some scientists are excited about these therapies, championing them as an exciting opportunity to create immunity to viruses, eliminate serious illnesses like AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, and possibly reverse aging. Like prior innovations in medicine and technology, why wouldn’t we embrace a science that allows people to live longer, healthier, and happier lives? Others ar...2023-08-0843 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved Let’s engineer a better human beingWe’ve come a long way since DNA was first discovered in the mid 19th century. Today’s scientists are using powerful engineering techniques to edit genes in human eggs and sperm, curing diseases and repairing defective genes before a child is even born. Some scientists are excited about these therapies, championing them as an exciting opportunity to create immunity to viruses, eliminate serious illnesses like AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, and possibly reverse aging. Like prior innovations in medicine and technology, why wouldn’t we embrace a science that allows people to live longer, healthier, and happier lives? Others ar...2022-11-0343 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Ageing is a reversible diseaseOxygen therapy to lengthen our telomeres and prolong the life of our chromosomes. Boosting the functioning of our mitochondria with NAD. Stem cell rejuvenation. These are just some of the exciting therapies that scientists are exploring in their quest to prevent the decline and suffering we experience as we age. But some scientists argue that these are just partial fixes and that the answer to the eternal quest for the fountain of youth lies in pinpointing the upstream driver of these hallmarks of ageing. They claim that thanks to breakthroughs in the science of genetics they have finally discovered...2022-10-0643 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Humans have free willLife is full of decisions, big and small. What to eat for breakfast, what to wear to work, who to ask for advice, where to send your kids to school. But are any of these decisions truly our own? A growing movement of psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists believe that these decisions may feel like a tossup, but in reality are predetermined, merely the firing of neural pathways forged over time that lead to predictable conclusions. Despite how we feel, free will is an illusion. Supporters of this deterministic worldview argue that our choices are no more under our own co...2022-07-0548 min

Goodest Notes#05 - Lisa Gabriele, ProducerLisa is an award winning producer in the television and podcast world as well as a novelist and journalist. Her credits include serving as the senior producer on Dragons’ Den, serving as the creative EP at Antica Productions, and publishing her best selling s.e.c.r.e.t trilogy of books under the pseudonym L Marie Adeline. We discuss how artistic ventures are like vehicles, leading with your tape, and the ways writing a novel is like planting a garden. www.lisagabriele.com www.anticaproductions.com 2022-04-0623 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: We are living in a simulationThe Matrix, The Truman Show, and now more recently Westworld. Popular culture has long been captivated by the notion that our lives and the world we inhabit in are nothing more than an advanced computer simulation. But it’s also an argument that is being given more credence by world renowned philosophers and scientists. The leading proponents of the “simulation hypothesis” believe that the mathematical nature of the universe is itself the strongest proof we exist in an artificial reality. They point to human DNA and string theory in particle physics as but two of a growing number of so-cal...2022-04-0547 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Animals don't belong on our platesVegetarianism, Veganism, Pescetarianism, Flexitarianism. Never before have there been so many ways to define how and what we eat. But are these choices simply a matter of personal taste, or do they reflect a broader ethical conundrum about what we put in our bodies? Ethicists, animal rights activists, and environmentalists increasingly argue that what we eat constitutes a moral choice. Consuming animals or animal products is inherently unethical, depriving living, sentient beings from living full, productive, and happy lives. Choosing to eat meat is not merely a preference, but an ethically dubious choice that ignores the health of the pla...2022-01-2542 min $Gaënö\'$ Gaënö'Ansley Simpsons Spirit to SoarAnsley Simpson, Anishinaabe, first wowed listeners in 2017 with the release of her excellent debut album, Breakwall. In the years since, she’s refined her songwriting and production skills by releasing more singles and contributing to her sister Leannes album, Theory of Ice. A new full length album, She Fell From the Sky, is slated for release in the spring of 2022 but today we’re discussing her score for the documentary, Spirit to Soar by investigative journalist, Tanya Talaga. As stated on the films website, it’s the heartbreaking “story of seven First Nations high school students who had either died or...2022-01-241h 00

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The west should intervene militarily to defend Ukraine from RussiaRussia has moved more than 100,000 troops close to disputed areas in Ukraine, setting up fears of a new Russian military intervention following their invasion of Crimea in 2014. US officials have responded by threatening Putin both with economic sanctions and the cancellation of a planned gas pipeline to Europe. Some security experts believe that the west must do more to defend Ukraine; standing by and allowing Russia to invade the country sends a message to other aggressive powers like China that their attacks on smaller countries like Taiwan will be met with similar weak responses. Geopolitically, an independent Ukraine creates...2021-12-2246 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Don't fear declining birth ratesGone are the days of the post-war baby boom and nation-wide one-child policies. Fertility rates around the world – From the US to China to South Korea to Japan - are on the decline, and 23 nations are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. Some demographers are sounding the alarm. They argue that low birth rates combined with an aging population will lead to wage inflation, soaring healthcare costs for the elderly and shrinking workforces to pay for public services and already massive government debts. In sum, the shrinking populations of advanced economies will lead to widespread social and economic de...2021-12-1445 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Autonomous weapons will make warfare more humaneTrillions of dollars each year are poured into developing new technologies that redefine the art of war. And the next frontier of military technology will bring the world of science fiction into reality: fully autonomous weapons. Supporters of autonomous weapons argue that it is imperative that we develop artificial intelligence capable of making tough decisions at an extraordinary speed. They argue that this new technology will limit civilian casualties and avoid human error that inevitably costs lives. They argue that these weapons will be necessary to combat hostile governments, and failing to invest in the future of warfare is an e...2021-12-0750 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Let’s engineer a better human beingWe’ve come a long way since DNA was first discovered in the mid 19th century. Today’s scientists are using powerful engineering techniques to edit genes in human eggs and sperm, curing diseases and repairing defective genes before a child is even born. Some scientists are excited about these therapies, championing them as an exciting opportunity to create immunity to viruses, eliminate serious illnesses like AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and cancer, and possibly reverse aging. Like prior innovations in medicine and technology, why wouldn’t we embrace a science that allows people to live longer, healthier, and happier lives? Others ar...2021-11-3043 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: People have the right to choose how and when to dieEveryone who enters the medical field does so altruistically, standing steadfast against the ever present threat of death and disease. But as any doctor knows, there are limits to what they can do. At a certain point, the goal shifts from curative to palliative care. At this stage, the goal is no longer to save a life, but to relieve suffering as best as possible. How to do so, and the point at which suffering becomes worse than death, is highly contested. A growing movement of doctors, nurses, and ethicists argue that patients should be empowered in the face of t...2021-11-2346 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Progressives are leading the Democratic party to defeatRecent gubernatorial losses have left the Democratic Party shaken, concerned about how these disappointing election results will predict how the country votes in the 2022 midterms. Moderate strategists are pointing the finger at their progressive party members. By promoting unpopular policies on police, immigration, education, and gender politics, the progressive wing of the party is alienating its moderate base and pushing them towards the GOP. They argue that the left’s tactics in government – holding important domestic bills hostage in a bid to pass a more progressive agenda – have weakened the party and frustrated independents. Progressives, meanwhile, believe that Democrats need t...2021-11-1651 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Athens not Rome had the bigger impact on Western civilization“All roads lead to Rome,” goes the saying, and many historians agree. They argue that ancient Roman civilization, which grew into a colossal super state lasting two thousand years, is the historical period that has the greatest influence on modern day society. Roman civilization’s impact is vast: a sophisticated approach to law that informs our modern legal system, the Western alphabet, the Romance languages spoken by 800 million people, Christianity as the spiritual home to over 1.2 billion followers today, and systems of governance that guide the constitutional foundation of many countries, including the United States. Critics of this sweeping view o...2021-11-1049 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: It’s time to embrace a 4-day work weekCOVID-19 presented a monumental shift in the way people work. Home offices replaced commutes and cubicles, ZOOM calls took over from conference rooms, and communication went from in person to over Slack. Some people believe now is the time to re-think other conventional work practises as well, specifically the five-day work week. Companies that have experimented with fewer workday hours showed an increase in productivity, better employee retention, higher recruitment of skilled workers, and overall happier staff. Shorter weeks, proponents of the 4-day work week argue, also promote gender equality by allowing mothers and caretakers more flexible hours to...2021-11-0244 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: John Carpenter, not David Cronenberg is the true master of modern horrorTraditional religious holidays are losing ground in a rapidly secularizing world. Halloween, on the other hand, keeps gaining steam. Decorative pumpkins, elaborate costumes, and a cornucopia of sweet confections all signal that Halloween is upon us. But for the hardcore Halloween reveler, Halloween means one thing: horror movies. Horror films allow us to experience our fears from the comfort of our couch, confront them, and work through them. But all horror movies are not created equal. Since the earliest days of the genre, few directors have reached the heights of John Carpenter. Horror aficionados, fellow directors, and film scholars hold...2021-10-2842 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: America’s best days are behind itFalling wages. Failing infrastructure. Soaring public debts. Many believe that America’s future looks anything but bright. Stark ideological and partisan divisions have fractured the country at home while a string of failed foreign military interventions have soured Americans on the country’s role as defender of the liberal international order. Add in exploding disparities between rich and poor, a bungled pandemic response, and lacklustre economic growth and you have all the markers of a country in decline. Others argue that betting against America has always been a losing proposition. Declinists fail to account for the country’s amazing abilit...2021-10-1952 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The pandemic has proven UBI’s time has comeWhile the conversation around a universal basic income - a government program which provides every adult with regular cash payments - has gained traction in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic turned the fringe experimental program into a reality for millions of people around the globe. Facing skyrocketing unemployment and an impending economic crisis, some governments decided to act swiftly and without conditions: they transferred cash directly into the hands of all their citizens - regardless of age, income, or geography. Proponents of UBI see the pandemic era handouts as proof that the program works. COVID-19 exacerbated income inequality and...2021-10-1347 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: To realize humanity’s full potential, requires settling worlds beyond our ownThis past year has seen an onslaught of disruptions that call into question our ability to coexist with our environment. The devastating effects of climate change have arrived, and show no signs of abating. Flash flooding has swept across China and Northern Europe. The Eastern United States has been inundated by hurricanes of historic size. Record breaking heat waves and wildfires have decimated large swaths of Western North America. And a global pandemic continues to rage on. All of this begs the question, must we look elsewhere in our universe to ensure the survival of humanity? A growing movement...2021-10-0545 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The statues must come downIt has become one of the more divisive topics in today’s culture wars: what to do with the statues of historical figures with controversial pasts. And while many can agree that the monuments of Robert E Lee and Edward Colston should not stand in city centres, the debate becomes murkier when the likes of Winston Churchill, John A MacDonald, Queen Victoria, and Abraham Lincoln enter the fray. Those calling for statues to come down and streets to be renamed argue that this is not a case of ‘cancel culture’. Rather, it is an overdue re-examination of past heroes and th...2021-09-2852 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Billionaire philanthropy is bad for societyPhilanthropy, the act of giving, the sharing of one's resources is an inscrutable facet of our social compact. But as global economic trends widen the disparity between the haves and have-nots, the act of philanthropic giving has come under increased scrutiny. In just the last 18 months, billionaires have increased their wealth by $1.2 trillion dollars as markets boom while the rest of the global economy crumbles. And in the spirit of altruism, billionaires have committed portions of this windfall to serve the people most in need. But is it really making a difference? A growing movement of scholars, thinkers, and...2021-09-2153 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: To promote public health, governments should mandate use of COVID-19 vaccines broadly in societyWhat began as early summer optimism about the end of the pandemic has turned into frustration, anger, and worry over a steep rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations. Many are pointing the finger at the unvaccinated, accusing them of selfish and risky behaviour that puts everyone else’s lives, and livelihoods, at risk. Hospital ICUs are filling up again, health care workers are being forced back to the frontline, and taxpayers are expected to foot the bill for those who refused the shot. Some schools are being required to go online again, and many businesses will not be able to...2021-09-1449 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Schools that grade students are failing themIt’s back to school for millions of students this week after a school year of unprecedented disruption and with the traditional grading systems and report card one of the main casualties. But some educators say this past year’s abandonment of letter grades and grade point averages has been a good thing and is key to reforming the education system. They say that for decades research has shown that traditional grading systems decrease student learning by shifting their attention from deep learning to how to play and win at the game of school. Giving out grades reduces student inte...2021-09-0851 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Meritocracy is killing the middle classMeritocracy has long been championed as a way of attaining success through hard work and skill; society’s best and brightest are rewarded based on their performance, not their background. But some people have started to poke holes in this theory, arguing that meritocracy, as it exists today, is an illusion. Critics argue this foundational principle has been co-opted by society’s elite, allowing them to transfer social status and wealth to their children by limiting the competition they face whether it's attaining higher education or gaining lucrative employment. The faux meritocracy of the 21st century is exacerbating inequality and...2021-08-3147 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The future of mental health is big dataA Facebook algorithm that tracks posts for suicidal thoughts; an app that monitors the speed of keyboard strokes for signs of depression; a computer program that analyzes our facial expressions and tone of voice when we FaceTime. These are a few of the thousands of algorithms tracking our mental health that some experts say could revolutionize how we diagnose and treat mental illness. They say that our 24/7 use of digital devices is generating a goldmine of information about our mental state that must be accessible to mental health practitioners if psychiatric medicine is to operate like a scientific discipline...2021-08-2446 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Don’t fear the dominance of Big Tech in societyWhile partisan fighting and gridlock has come to characterize most Western governments, one issue has united liberals and conservatives against a common foe: the rise of Big Tech. Anti-trust experts warn that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft have become too powerful, too fast. They control our data, our discourse, and our politics. Their unmatched power is a threat to innovation and market competition. For the sake of democracy and dynamism, their days of unlimited expansion, privacy violations, and corporate acquisitions must come to an end. It is past time to regulate these internet giants. The CEOs of these tech...2021-08-1848 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: A secular society is a tolerant societyFirst the banning of headscarves in France’s public schools. Then prohibitions against full face coverings and religious worship in public spaces, and most recently legislation that targets Islamic fundamentalism. And in Quebec, a former colony of France, the outlawing of religious symbols in government workplaces, including schools. These are some of the strong measures that France and Quebec have taken to enforce the separation of church and state that is characteristic of Western democracies. Proponents of secularism, or laïcité as it is called in France, say that secularism promotes healthy democracies by ensuring that competing religious loyalties do n...2021-08-1055 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The time has come to embrace a high-tech/gene enhanced/drug boosted Olympics of sportWho can forget these memorable moments in sports when reigning world champions lost their titles, medals, and invitations to compete as punishment for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. But while most sports experts agree these high-profile scandals represent just the tip of the iceberg, some say the time has come to accept that doping is part and parcel of the spectacle of elite sport. They argue that the days where athletes won medals based on natural genetic advantage and dedicated training are long gone and that the World Anti Doping Administration’s push for clean athletes is wishful fantasy...2021-08-0343 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Yes you can have fair Olympics with transgender athletes competing against cisgender womenIt’s been 125 years since the modern Olympics were founded in Athens, and this year will see a monumental first for the world’s biggest sporting competition: the inclusion of Laurel Hubbard, a transgender female athlete, in the women’s weightlifting competition. In 2015, the IOC issued guidelines that allow transgender athletes to compete as a woman if their testosterone levels are suppressed to predetermined level prior to competing. Scientific advisers to the IOC argue that hormone therapy is sufficient in creating a level playing field between transgender athletes and biological females. Trans women, they maintain, who have undergone estrogen therap...2021-07-2749 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan is a tactical and strategic blunder the US will come to regretTwenty years and counting. 800 billion dollars spent. Over 2,000 US service members killed. America, Canada and NATO’s longest war is finally coming to a close as troops begin to withdraw from their bases in Afghanistan this summer. While fully three quarters of Americans applaud President Biden’s decision to pull out ground troops completely, many security experts are sounding the alarm. Leaving Afghanistan without a secure national government and strong army in place, they warn, will almost certainly lead to a Taliban takeover, ethnic cleansing, mass slaughter, and the destabilization of a country that has long been a regional powd...2021-07-2049 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...It is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War. Over 300,000 dead in Syria. One and a half million injured or disabled. Four and a half million people fleeing the country as refugees. And Syria is just one of a growing number of failed or failing states in the Middle East and North Africa. How should developed nations respond to human suffering on this mass scale? Do the prosperous societies of the West, including Canada and the U.S., have a moral imperative to assist as many refugees as they reasonably and responsibly can? Or, is this a...2021-07-1442 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Critical Race Theory has no place in the classroomSeemingly out of nowhere Critical Race Theory has become a highly contentious front in a culture war raging in schools across North America, pitting parents against teachers and progressives against conservatives. Proponents describe it as an important theoretical concept that explains how racism is perpetuated within the power structures of historically white societies. Students, they argue, must be taught that racism is not an individual bias, nor is it a thing of the past; rather, racism is embedded into the country’s institutions and supports the perpetuation of white supremacy in society. In sum, race consciousness, on the part of...2021-07-0648 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Canada is a systemically racist countryThe murder of four Muslim Canadians in London, Ontario; the discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children at a former residential school in BC; a rise in hate crimes against Muslims, Asians, and Jews across the country. As Canadians are confronted by racially-motivated attacks, both past and present, many have come to believe that these are not unique events. Racism in Canada, they argue, is embedded into our culture, our institutions, our media, and indeed the very fabric of our day-to-day lives. Sweeping reform in government, laws, and education must be undertaken to address the country’s...2021-06-2446 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Today’s China is no place for the OlympicsAs if pulling off the world’s signature sporting event in Tokyo this summer during a global pandemic wasn’t challenge enough, the International Olympic Committee is now facing a chorus of voices calling for a boycott of next February’s Beijing Winter Olympics. Politicians from across the political spectrum as well as hundreds of human rights groups say that China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong and the genocide of the Uyghur community violate the fundamental principles of the Olympic charter and that the IOC must preserve the integrity of its mission by calling off the event. They arg...2021-06-1655 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The preponderance of evidence suggests COVID-19 leaked from a laboratoryAs COVID-19 spread throughout the world in the spring of 2020, most scientists accepted the pandemic origin story as told by China and supported by the WHO: the virus jumped from an animal to a human in a Wuhan wet market. Yet after examining how COVID-19 spread among humans and infected its hosts, a few scientists began to question the role of nature in its creation. They found evidence which pointed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a research lab where pathogenic viruses were being studied, and enhanced, in their capacity to infect people. In the fall of 2019, they argue...2021-06-1042 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: A one-state solution is the best hope of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflictIt is perhaps the most disputed land on earth, with claims over property rights going back thousands of years. For decades, foreign governments have attempted to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians through a two-state solution. Yet the 1991 Madrid Conference, the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2000 Camp David Summit and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative have all failed in their ultimate goal: to create mutually agreed upon boundaries whereby both peoples can live side by side, peacefully, within secure and recognized borders. With every failed attempt at a two-state solution tensions between the two sides increase and hope for peace becomes ever...2021-06-0355 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The West should isolate, not engage, Putin’s RussiaVladimir Putin, Russia’s paramount leader for almost two decades, is facing mounting pressure at home and abroad. His ally in Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko, is facing wide spread opposition since claiming re-election last year in a widely condemned election. Russian diplomats have been expelled from the US, Czech Republic, and Poland, along with new a round of economic sanctions by Western powers. At home, mass protests are springing up across the country in support of jailed Putin critic and anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny. Putin’s response has been a show of force; the President moved 100,000 Russian troops to disp...2021-05-2752 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: We should be very worried about the variantsB1617, which has plunged India into a catastrophic third wave of COVID-19 and is spreading globally, is the latest “variant of concern” that has emerged since the pandemic began over a year ago. Many leading infectious disease experts are warning that our failure to contain the spread of the virus, with dozens of high population countries nowhere close to acquiring vaccines, has created the ideal conditions for dangerous new variants to emerge threatening the efficacy of vaccines. They say that only a strategy of maximum global suppression using all the public health tools at our disposal in combination with a massive...2021-05-2050 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Beethoven, not Mozart, is the world’s greatest composerThe Fifth Symphony, Ode to Joy, Don Giovanni, the Requiem. These top hits on the 18th century billboard charts are still beloved by millions of people around the world. They were composed by two musical giants of the 18th century, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven, prolific artists whose vast repertoire continues to anchor orchestral performances and has become the fodder for everything from ringtones to baby brain development videos. Though contemporaries - Mozart was only 14 years older than Beethoven and lived just hundreds of kilometres away - the two composers couldn’t have been more different in thei...2021-05-1354 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Vaccine passports are essential to stopping the spread of COVID-19 and safely reopen our economiesAs people around the world begin to contemplate life after COVID-19, governments are trying to figure out how to re-open their economies safely while the virus continues to circulate. Some countries, like Israel and Denmark, have introduced digital vaccine passports to allow residents access to indoor spaces like restaurants and movie theatres. Those in favour of these certificates argue that they are the safest, easiest, and most effective way of reopening the economy quickly. Citizens should only be allowed to participate in society if they can prove they aren’t a health risk to others. And while it is tr...2021-04-2944 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The mainstream media is dying and that’s OKTraditional broadcasters, daily newspapers, and monthly magazines are struggling to stay afloat as more people turn to non-traditional sources for their news. The likes of Medium, Substack, Twitter, and a seemingly endless series of small independent websites, are building new audiences by offering up news and information tailored to their users’ specific interests and tastes. Some journalists are all too happy to write the mainstream media’s obituary, arguing that institutions like CNN and The New York Times have been taken over by activist journalists and can no longer be relied upon to provide unbiased reporting. Others believe that main...2021-04-2245 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Get ready for a big, long-term surge in inflation20 trillion dollars of government stimulus in countries around the world. Interest rates so low there is no incentive to save. And more than half a billion vaccinated consumers ready to pull out their wallets and kick off the Roaring 20s of the 21st century. Some experts believe that a surge of inflation, such as we haven’t seen since the 1970s, is now in the cards. Inflation bulls argue that the post pandemic recovery is just one of many trends converging to create rising prices for years to come. They argue that demographics and in particular an aging population th...2021-04-1545 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: We are not alone in the universeK2-18 B, an earth-like planet with water vapour is spotted 111 light years away. An interstellar object christened Oumuamua flies through our solar system exhibiting characteristics never seen before in an asteroid. Scientists discover intriguing radio wave emissions coming from Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. These are just some of a growing number of observations that have scientists excited about proving the existence of alien life. Statistical probabilities support this view - the Kepler Space Telescope has identified billions of planets theoretically capable of supporting life. To meaningfully advance the science of astrobiology humanity needs to abandon...2021-04-0849 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: There is no credible military defence of Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggressionChina’s takeover of Hong Kong, and its increasingly aggressive military manoeuvres in the South China Sea have many wondering whether Taiwan is the country’s next “reunification” target. While politicians debate whether it’s in the West’s interest to step in, strategists say the more pertinent question is whether a military defence of Taiwan is even possible. China now boasts the world’s largest army, conventional air force, coast guard, and navy. These vast military resources provide Beijing with the capacity to overwhelm Taiwan through a combined amphibious assault using nuclear attack submarines, destroyers, and aircraft carriers, and an airborne assa...2021-03-3152 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Plato not Aristotle is Ancient Greece’s greatest philosopherMuch of the wisdom that our society today has inherited from ancient Greece draws on the writings and ideas of its two greatest philosophers, Plato and Aristotle. Though contemporaries - Aristotle was Plato’s student - these two giants of Western Thought had radically different views of nature and the human condition, what constitutes a good society and the purposes to which we should direct our individual lives. Two millennia later can we now discern which thinker has had the greatest impact on our civilization? And, considering the daunting future humankind faces - from climate change to the rise of think...2021-03-2445 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: To fight this pandemic and the next, vaccines should be free to everyone the world overWe are into the fourth month of the largest global vaccination programme in history with over 335 million COVID-19 jabs administered in 108 countries. Critics of the vaccine rollout are deeply concerned about the inequitable distribution of the life saving inoculations. They say the vast majority of vaccinations have taken place in wealthy countries with inoculation rates dramatically lower in Asia and almost non-existent in Africa. They argue that we are experiencing an artificially created shortage and the culprit is intellectual property protection rights that give a small number of pharmaceuticals control over the global manufacturing and supply. The solution is a simpl...2021-03-1745 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Cancel culture is not a threat to free speechMusician Ariel Pink is dropped by his label for attending a Trump rally. A top executive at Boeing loses his job because of an article he wrote decades ago opposing allowing women to serve as fighter pilots. JK Rowling is widely condemned for tweets her critics deem transphobic. All of the above were subject to social media ‘cancellation’ campaigns they experienced as attacks on their free speech rights and personal reputations. For cancel culture’s critics, shouting down a speaker in a lecture hall or labelling someone a racist for opposing affirmative action has nothing to do with s...2021-03-1040 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Go Green! Go Nuclear!Zero emissions by 2050 and at the latest 2060. That has been the rallying cry for many of the world’s largest economies, including the US, UK, Japan, Canada, and most notably, China. But with almost 80% of carbon emissions coming from energy, demand for electricity continuing to grow by leaps and bounds, and storage batteries still in their infancy, it’s not clear how these countries will live up to their promises. The answer, say an increasing number of environmentalists and energy experts, lies with nuclear energy. They say this much vilified generator of power requires fewer materials and produces the leas...2021-03-0345 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The GameStop frenzy is good for investors and good for financial marketsBy now most people are familiar with the GameStop saga: how a small video game retailer worth less than $1 billion, fuelled by day trader investors and Reddit message boards, went on the ride of its life – rocketing its share price from $20 to $400 dollars in the span of a few days. The company’s meteoric rise wiped out billions of dollars from institutional investors who had bet against GameStop. And then, as quickly as it rose, it began to fall again. The company’s shares lost three quarters of their value in just 85 minutes wiping out many retail investors. Professional traders argu...2021-02-2450 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBari Weiss on speech and open debateBari Weiss, journalist and best selling author on the future of speech and open debate in contemporary society, and how we forge common understandings about the things that matter in times of extreme political and ideological polarization. The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg. To learn more about the episode, head to https://munkdebates.com/podcast. Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/ To sign up for a weekly email reminder for this podcast...2021-02-1736 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The threat of new COVID-19 variants makes elimination of the virus the only viable, long-term public health strategy to end the pandemicB117, N501Y, P1 - these are the labels for new variants of the COVID-19 virus that have led to new waves of infection in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil and are now spreading around the world. Studies suggest that these variants could be substantially more infectious and possibly more lethal than the early COVID-Sars-2 strains. Most worrying, the mutations that characterize these variants may reduce the effectiveness of the long awaited vaccines leading to new surges in cases, more deaths, and forcing vaccination efforts to achieve levels of mass inoculation that are a public health nightmare...2021-02-1140 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The quest for true AI is one of the great existential risks of our timeA novel written by artificial intelligence is shortlisted for a literary prize. Google software beats a human opponent at Go, one of the most complex board games in the world. Self-driving cars recognize images and then make decisions. These are just some of the extraordinary accomplishments based on artificial intelligence that we have witnessed in the past few years. But there are many scientists who are pushing for a more cautious approach to how we move forward on machine intelligence. They say that we are not far off from developing superintelligent machines whose IQ far surpasses that of humans...2021-02-0347 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Safety and fairness preclude participation of trans athletes in high level women's sportFor almost a century now the international sporting community has grappled with the question of how to determine who gets to compete in the female sports category. Fifty years ago the question was answered with humiliating physical exams, but in more recent decades most international sporting federations have embraced a science focused approach. The International Olympic Committee, for example, uses testosterone levels considerably above the female range, not gender, as the main determinant of who gets to compete in the women’s elite sport. But last October, World Rugby made international headlines when it announced a very different approach. The...2021-01-2745 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The survival of the Republican Party requires a clear and irrevocable break with Donald TrumpRefusing to concede his loss to Joe Biden in November’s Presidential election. Pressuring the Secretary of State to invalidate Georgia’s votes. The President’s supporters storming the Capitol during the certification of electoral college votes. You can’t say that he didn’t warn us but the lengths to which President Donald Trump has been prepared to go to prevent a peaceful, post-election handover to the Joe Biden administration has convulsed the final days of his presidency and deepened the already profound divisions in America and also within the Republican party. But despite the profoundly anti-democratic events of the pas...2021-01-1445 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Britain will boom beyond BrexitIt was a nail-biter, but just days before the UK formally severed its forty-seven-year long membership with the European Union, negotiators finally landed a trade deal that takes some of the sting out of Brexit. But critics of Prime Minister Boris Johnson say that Britain will never recover from its decision to go it alone, even with an EU trade deal to soften the impact. The loss of seamless access to the world’s single largest trading bloc is bound to lead to declining exports and foreign investment in the UK and a brain drain of human talent that wi...2021-01-0644 min

The Munk Debates PodcastAnne Applebaum on the future of democracyAnne Applebaum, Pulitzer-prize winning author and staff writer at The Atlantic, on the future of democracy in an era of populist politics and rising authoritarianism. The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg. For detailed show notes on the episode, head to https://munkdebates.com/podcast. Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/ To sign up for a weekly email reminder for this podcast, send an email to podcast@munkdebates.com. To support civil and sub...2020-12-3042 min

The Munk Debates PodcastIan Morris on the past and future of human civilizationIan Morris, archaeologist, historian, bestselling author and big thinker, joins us to discuss the past and future of human civilization in an era of rapid social and technological change. The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg. For detailed show notes on the episode, head to https://munkdebates.com/podcast. Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/munkdebates/ To sign up for a weekly email reminder for this podcast, send an email to podcast@munkdebates.com. To supp...2020-12-2341 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: It's in America’s interest for Joe Biden to continue Trump’s China policyTough talk on China helped Trump win the presidency in 2016 and over the last four years the US has taken a markedly more assertive approach to confronting the rise of its first major geopolitical competitor since the Soviet Union. Critics of Trump’s approach say his China policy is based on flawed assumptions - the key one being the jingoistic assumption that China aspires to be an expansionist power rather than a regional broker primarily focused on protecting its sphere of influence. These same critics argue that American’s decline, relative to China’s rise, is inevitable and America should...2020-12-1654 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: Distance learning is a disasterWhen COVID-19 shut down schools around the world last March, it launched an unprecedented experiment in education with a billion students as participants. At the heart of this experiment is the home computer, the new conduit to teachers, classmates and learning. Supporters of digital education say that the pandemic offers a much-needed opportunity to rethink our approach to learning for the first time in over a century. They argue that digital learning is the wave of the future and that students in virtual classrooms connected through a computer and the internet will learn more quickly, retain more information, connect to an...2020-12-0941 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The end is in sight for fossil fuels. The future of energy is renewables.The lowest oil prices in history thanks to stalled economies in lockdown. A President Elect and a Green New Deal that promises a carbon neutral America in a decade. Governments pledging to make the internal combustion engines illegal within a decade. It seems like the way we have powered our civilization for two plus centuries, using hydrocarbons, is on the way out as we welcome an energy revolution to combat climate change and environmental degradation. Fossil fuel proponents say that this is wildly wishful thinking that doesn’t take into account renewable energy’s infinitesimal contribution to current global dema...2020-12-0246 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: We should embrace, not fear, populist politicsSome proponents of liberal democracy are interpreting the US election results - and Donald Trump’s near win - as a warning sign that the pulse of populist politics still beats strong in the American body politic, an ill tiding for other liberal democracies currently trying to fend off populist insurgencies. Critics of populism say it is not inconceivable, if action isn’t taken to strengthen liberal democratic institutions and values, that the politics of Spain, France, the UK, and the US could end up looking a lot like those in Hungary, Turkey, Russia, and Brazil today. Defenders of populist p...2020-11-2549 min

The Munk Debates PodcastBe it resolved: The public health response to COVID-19 should focus on protecting the old and letting the young get on with living normal livesWe’re heading into the twelfth month of a global pandemic and in many places the spread of COVID-19 shows no signs of slowing down. As infections continue to surge, countries in the northern hemisphere have started to reimpose lockdowns restricting people's movement and social interactions and closing portions of their economies. Many political leaders and their public health advisors argue that these kinds of restrictions are necessary as a crisis measure when infections spiral out of control, threatening a collapse of hospitals and devastating health consequences. They also advocate a strategy of suppression to keep infections low once th...2020-11-1846 min

Somewhere in the SkiesKarl Pfeiffer: The Science and Philosophy of the ParanormalOn episode 26 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, we hear our first listener ghost story. Katie shares with us a terrifying night she experienced in a dark rec center in Florida. It was a perfect paranormal primer as we count down the days until Halloween. Ryan then sits down to speak with author and paranormal investigator, Karl Pfeiffer. They discuss Karl's time on the Syfy channel where he won the very first season of Ghost Hunters Academy. We hear about the filming process and how influential his time on the show truly was in helping him become a b...2017-10-0845 min

Somewhere in the SkiesChris Garetano: Dark Files and the Montauk ProjectOn episode 24 of SOMEWHERE IN THE SKIES, Ryan speaks with Chris Garetano about his lifelong search for answers to the Montauk Project, said to have been carried out at Camp Hero on Long Island, NY. The government claims that this site is a shuttered military base that once protected Americans, but for decades endless rumors maintain that the United States government engaged in a pattern of covert behavior that saw it experiment on its own citizens in such programs as the Tuskegee Experiments and MK Ultra. Could Montauk’s Camp Hero–with its rumors of mind control expe...2017-09-2559 min