The Munk Debates Podcast

We have never been more polarized. Echo chambers promote information that confirms people’s preconceived notions, regardless of whether the facts presented are true. Which is why journalists are so important to a functioning democracy: we need them to cut through rampant misinformation and deliver fact-based reporting.  

But do you need journalism schools to do that? Some writers consider j-schools a waste of time: they argue that ...

**Munk Debate members can vote on who they think won the debate at www.munkdebates.com**

Joe Biden’s disastrous performance in his debate against Donald Trump has convinced leading Democrats that Biden cannot be their nominee in November. There are now too many voters concerned about Biden’s age and mental fitness for him to win. A younger, more dynamic candidate would redirect the conversation towards central policy questions an...

On this Munk Dialogue we are speaking with one of the most successful and well known entrepreneurs of the past 50 years. John Mackey was a 24 year old self described hippie in 1980 when he opened up a small natural foods store in Austin, Texas. But what started off as a niche, counterculture company transformed into one of the most popular and profitable grocery chains in North America with annual sales exceeding $22 billion. Whole...

On this special edition of the Munk Debates podcast we are sharing the opening statements from the Munk Debate on anti-Zionism, which took place on June 17th in front of a sold out crowd of 3,000 people at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall.

The debate resolution was: Be it resolved, anti-Zionism is antisemitism

Arguing for the motion was award winning journalist, best-selling author, and former Munk Debater Douglas Murray. His debate part...

One could be forgiven for thinking reality, these days, is stranger than fiction. 

Fears of civil war in the United States if Donald Trump doesn’t get his way in the presidential election; a major armed conflict in Europe for the first time since the 1940s; and talk that the Russians were actually thinking of launching a nuclear missile into space to destroy all of the world’s satellites. All of it sounds like it was lifted off the...

On June 17th four debaters will take to the stage at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall for a sold out debate on Anti-Zionism.

The motion up for debate: Be it Resolved, anti-Zionism is antisemitism

On this special Munk Dialogue, we speak with each of the debaters to get a sense of their arguments heading into the debate, and what it is about this particular topic that made them want to participate.

Arguing for the resolution is award-winni...

About thirty years ago, the world seemed to be entering what President George H.W. Bush called “a new world order” – a world where capitalism was victorious, global trade would discourage countries from going to war, and authoritarianism would slowly give way to liberal democracy. 

It hasn’t worked out that way. 

How did such a hopeful moment in history slip through our fingers? That’s the subject of the book New Cold Wars: China's...

The world “genocide” was first coined in the 1940s to describe the Nazi slaughter of millions of Jews. 

So it is in a sense surreal that the country created in the shadow of the Holocaust, Israel, is now accused of that same horrible crime. 

Those who argue that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza point to three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention: killing members of a group; causing serious bodily or mental h...

Long-held notions of the role of government, trade and economic policy, foreign policy and immigration are being challenged by populist thinkers and movements. They argue that the government has been captured by an elite, college-educated class, and their policies benefit a privileged few while ignoring the needs of the middle and working class. Populist’s critics argue that the rising tide in anti-establishment thinking ignores th...

For the protesters and their supporters, the pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations across the globe are part of a proud tradition of student activism that includes the anti-Vietnam War protests in the 1960s, and the calls to end South African Apartheid in the 1980s. And just as those past protests are now widely accepted to have been on the right side of history, today’s campus protesters are confident that history will prove their...

University students across North America have set up encampments to protest Israel's war in Gaza. These demonstrations are well organized and supplied, with tents, signs, banners, meals, and educational workshops/ So how exactly are these demonstrations being funded?

One think tank has made it their mission to “follow the money” - so to speak. ISGAP, The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy - has uncovered that...

Iran’s missile and drone barrage at Israel earlier this month was the most brazen attack the Islamic Republic has ever conducted against the Jewish state. While Israel did respond with a limited strike, some say Israel should go further and destroy all of Iran’s nuclear facilities. The Islamic Republic doesn’t have nuclear weapons, but it has the material and know-how to put some together in a matter of weeks.

But attacking Iran’s ...

One of the most volatile regions in the world seems to be sitting on a tinder box. How can the international community avoid tensions between Israel and Iran from escalating further? Is it possible for Israel to achieve its war aims in Gaza without further inflaming the Middle East or jeopardizing the prospect of an enduring peace?

It’s hard to find someone more qualified to delve into these questions than our guest on this week's ...

The Middle East, a region already mired in conflict due to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, just got a lot more dangerous. In response to a recent Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate building in Damascus, Iran sent hundreds of drones and missiles to attack Israel, setting the stage for a potential military escalation. The world is now watching closely as the long shadow war between Israel and Iran - which has played out...

We are in the midst of one of the most dangerous and unstable geopolitical moments in recent history. Wars are intensifying in Ukraine and the Middle East, the rise of China as a superpower is threatening the entire Asia-Pacific region, and an unprecedented migrant crisis in the US and Europe is paving the way for right wing populists who threaten to destabilize and destroy the international rules based order that has given us eigh...

TikTok is one of the most popular social media sites on the planet. But concerns have been growing over TikTok’s ability to collect massive amounts of information about its users, and its suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Those fears recently prompted the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill that would force the Chinese company that controls TikTok to sell it to American interests. If not, TikTok would be block...

The US economy is booming. Public investments in infrastructure, education, clean energy, and more is accelerating labour productivity, growing wages, and spurring employment. Recent economic data shows that “Bidenomics” is working and just as a rising tide lifts all boats, the average American worker hasn’t had it so good in a generation or more. But critics are pointing to the high cost of living – from expensive groceries to hou...

If recent polls are to be believed, Donald Trump is poised to become the President, for the second time, of the United States of America. Yet some observers think most swing voters who end up deciding American elections will ultimately turn away from Trump 2.0. For proof, they point to the difficulty Trump has had winning over many voters in his own party during the Republican primaries.  

But other analysts insist the former presi...

Following the Cold War, the US and Russia entered into a series of arms control treaties that gave the world hope that, one day, nuclear weapons may be a thing of the past. But as tensions have risen between the two nuclear powers over Ukraine and other irritants, Russia has been abandoning these agreements. Most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would walk away from the last major arms treaty with th...