Lost Debate
Lost Debate is a weekly podcast from The Branch that brings you news, ideas, and arguments from around the political spectrum. We engage in the good-faith discussions that too much of our society and media miss. It's hosted by Ravi Gupta, a former Obama staffer turned school principal.
Episodes
August 27, 2025 • 60 mins
Ravi sits down with Doug Lemov and former UK Schools Minister Nick Gibb to discuss Nick’s new book, Reforming Lessons: Why English Schools Have Improved Since 2010 and How This Was Achieved, and explore one of the most ambitious education reform stories of the past two decades.
Nick lays out how a knowledge-rich curriculum, phonics, behavior expectations, and high-stakes accountability helped England leap from the bottom to near ...
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August 20, 2025 • 53 mins
Ravi sits down with legendary war correspondent Dexter Filkins for a closer look into how drones and AI are transforming modern warfare. They explore Dexter’s recent piece in The New Yorker, Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War?, and his on-the-ground reporting in Ukraine, where $500 kamikaze drones are inflicting massive damage on Russian forces and gamified drone warfare is reshaping combat strategy.
The conversation then turns to...
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August 12, 2025 • 54 mins
Years before the levees failed, New Orleans’ public schools were already in crisis. The corruption was so entrenched that the FBI even set up shop inside the district. The first episode of Where the Schools Went uncovers how decades of mismanagement and neglect turned New Orleans into a cautionary tale long before Hurricane Katrina ever made landfall, and how it set the stage for what would come after. We also follow a group of edu...
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August 6, 2025 • 42 mins
Ravi is joined by hedge fund founder Spencer Hakimian for a deep dive into the state of the U.S. economy under Trump. They begin with the firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a move that raises urgent questions about data integrity and the politicization of economic institutions. From there, they discuss Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s likely exit and what Trump’s next appointment could mean for the future of the Fed. Fi...
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August 5, 2025 • 2 mins
August 2025 marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina altered New Orleans forever. Much has been written about the storm’s destruction and the city’s long road to recovery. But tucked behind those headlines is another story. One that shaped the lives of thousands of children.
From The Branch in partnership with The 74 and MeidasTouch, Where the Schools Went is a five-part documentary series about what happened to the city’s schools a...
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July 30, 2025 • 50 mins
Ravi opens the show by diving into the latest headlines, from Trump's reluctance to rule out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell to the latest attacks on FEMA and the US. dollar.
He then welcomes Gisela Salim-Peyer to the show to discuss her latest piece in The Atlantic, No One Was Supposed to Leave Alive. Gisela shares more about her investigation into El Salvador's mega-prison, where some individuals based in the U.S. have been sent ...
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July 23, 2025 • 72 mins
Ravi kicks off the show with the latest update in the Epstein scandal — a resurfaced birthday letter allegedly sent from Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein. He unpacks the implications of Trump's denial, the GOP's strategic calls to "release the list," and what's really at stake in the fight over grand jury testimony. From there, he turns to Trump's latest attacks on Obama, FEMA, and the U.S. dollar, connecting the dots between the Pr...
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July 16, 2025 • 46 mins
Ravi unpacks a chaotic week in politics, with Trump’s Epstein scandal spiraling into an unprecedented crisis for his MAGA coalition. He explores how conspiracy thinking fuels Trump’s base and why this case feels different.
Next, is America’s crisis infrastructure at risk? Ravi reviews FEMA’s botched disaster response in Texas. He then turns to the president’s recent erratic shifts on Ukraine and the economy and why they may sign...
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July 2, 2025 • 54 mins
Ravi welcomes The Atlantic’s Tyler Austin Harper back to the show for a wide-ranging conversation on some of the week’s biggest headlines, from the Diddy verdict and the dangers of prosecutorial outreach to Bernie Sanders’ recent appearance on Rogan and Trump’s escalating legal attacks on the press.
They then turn to Zohran Mamdani’s win in the New York City mayoral primary and explore what the victory suggests about shifting idea...
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June 25, 2025 • 46 mins
Ravi is joined by Bradley Tusk to break down one of the wildest political upsets in recent memory: Zohran Mamdani’s decisive win in the New York City mayoral primary. They unpack how it happened, why Cuomo flamed out so badly, and what Mamdani needs to do next if he wants to govern the city.
From campaign strategy to trash collection, rent freezes to charter schools, Ravi and Bradley dive into what kind of mayor Mamdani might be a...
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June 18, 2025 • 71 mins
Are Israel and Iran on the brink of war? Ravi takes a closer look at the rapidly escalating conflict and the unsettling possibility that the U.S. is more deeply involved than most Americans realize. He also explores the growing battle within MAGA over America’s role on the global stage, the political opportunism accompanying the recent wave of political violence, and how the Trump administration’s threats to ramp up deportation eff...
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June 10, 2025 • 60 mins
Ravi opens with a deep dive into the unfolding chaos in Los Angeles, where the Trump administration has deployed federal agents and Marines to respond to the ongoing immigration protests. He breaks down what we know so far, why the deployment of federal troops may set a dangerous precedent for civilian law enforcement, and what else is at stake from a legal and constitutional perspective.
Antón Barba-Kay, author of A Web of Our Ow...
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June 5, 2025 • 12 mins
Donald Trump and Elon Musk are on a collision course to all-out political war, and it's messier—and more consequential—than anyone expected.
In this breaking news episode, Ravi unpacks how a once-symbiotic alliance devolved into internet warfare, with accusations flying and stakes rising by the hour. He then explores how a Musk-Trump feud could have massive ripple effects on national security, tech policy, and the future of the Re...
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June 3, 2025 • 61 mins
Ravi kicks off the episode with a sharp take on the latest headlines, from FEMA’s alarming lack of hurricane preparedness and the fragility of U.S. supply chains to the growing indicators that the country is headed towards stagflation. He also reflects on new reports about Elon Musk’s drug use, the rising political influence of tech elites, and what the new film Mountainhead suggests about this current moment in time.
Jamie Hodari...
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May 22, 2025 • 56 mins
Ravi sits down with Steven Wilson, founder of Ascend Charter Schools, for a candid conversation about his new book, The Lost Decade, and the current state of education reform. They discuss Steven’s controversial exit from Ascend and then step back to take a broader look at how DEI orthodoxy and anti-racist ideology have reshaped education reform.
Steven and Ravi reflect on what’s changed in schools over the past decade, exploring ...
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May 13, 2025 • 50 mins
Journalist Bridget Read joins Ravi to explore the dark side of multi-level marketing schemes - and why they’re more dangerous and widespread than most people realize. In her new book Little Bosses Everywhere, Read breaks down how these so-called business opportunities often lure in vulnerable people, turning dreams of entrepreneurship into financial traps. Ravi and Bridget discuss why MLMs thrive despite dismal success rates, how t...
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May 8, 2025 • 61 mins
Ravi kicks off the episode with a blistering critique of the Trump administration’s trade policy chaos, highlighting the economic contradictions, recession risks, and growing corruption tied to foreign investments and crypto schemes. He also addresses the new reports on Senator John Fetterman’s health and why it’s time for leaders to respond to questions about his ability to serve.
Ravi then shifts gears to sit down with former U....
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May 1, 2025 • 58 mins
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and surfer William Finnegan joins Ravi for a wide-ranging conversation on surfing, storytelling, and the pursuit of mastery. They unpack Barbarian Days and how a lifetime of chasing waves has shaped Bill’s understanding of fear, discipline, and identity. They then turn to the tension between purity and accessibility in surfing and how innovations like wave pools can reflect broader social shifts. T...
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April 22, 2025 • 64 mins
Ravi dives into the breaking news of the day, from the Trump administration’s continued attacks on due process and the political meddling at the Fed that could tank the economy, to the latest federal funding threats facing universities.
He then sits down with Dana Goldstein of The New York Times to unpack the Trump administration’s aggressive intervention in K-12 education, from targeting DEI efforts to threatening Title I funding...
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April 17, 2025 • 1 min
The Branch is nominated for a Webby! Vote for Killing Justice for Best Partnership/Collaboration: https://bit.ly/killingjustice
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