Unions are making a comeback. Frustrated with pay, benefits, job security, and working conditions, Amazon workers in Staten Island and Starbucks employees across New York have opted to join unions and initiate collective bargaining with their employers, inspiring a wave of pro-union discussions and meetings among big retail workers across Canada and the US. Many believe that America’s dwindling union membership – down to 11.2% of the workforce compared a near 30% high in the 1950’s – is to blame...
May 17, 2022•44 min•Season 2Ep. 78
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This special episode of the Munk Members podcast provides a recap of the live and in person Munk Debate on the Russia-Ukraine war that took place in Toronto...
May 13, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 21
The end of the Cold War marked the beginning of a new, interdependent world. Growing global consensus around trade rules, technology transfers, mass migration and investment ushered in a wave of globalization that was championed as the most effective means of bringing prosperity and stability to big and small countries. Yet lately, a slew of anti-globalization movements have led to a marked decrease in world trade. Some economists predict that the war between Russia and Ukraine will only acceler...
May 11, 2022•45 min•Season 2Ep. 77
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members only podcast focuses on the upcoming May 12 Munk Debate on the Ukraine War. Janice and Rudyard discuss how the two teams of debater...
May 06, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Ayaan Hirsi Ali joins us for an enlightening discussion on how many of our longstanding beliefs about reasoning and rationality are coming under attack at a time when they are needed most. “Feelings and sentiments have been elevated to a place that makes discussion of anything almost impossible… it's just not conducive to intelligent and rational debate and discussion” The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg . Tweet your comments about this episode to @munkdebate or comment...
May 05, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 76
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members’ podcast explores three topics in the news. First, what should we take away from a week of increasingly tense public exchanges betw...
Apr 29, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 19
“You can have Rogan or Young. Not both” So threatened Neil Young to Spotify in protest to the vaccine and COVID misinformation being spread on Joe Rogan’s incredibly popular and lucrative podcast. As more artists began to pull out from the platform, and users deleted their accounts, many decried what they viewed as the latest episode in an ongoing battle over control of the information landscape. Those claiming censorship argue that the Joe Rogan/Spotify episode, following in the footsteps of re...
Apr 28, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 75
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members only podcast focuses on two stories in the news this week. First, what can we take away from last week of the war in terms of how t...
Apr 22, 2022•19 min•Season 2Ep. 18
In 2002, Winston Churchill was voted the greatest Briton who ever lived, beating Darwin, Shakespeare and Elizabeth I to take the top spot. Just 18 years later, a statue of the former British Prime Minister was defaced in London, spray painted with the words “Churchill was a racist”. As the west reckons with the misdeeds of history’s heroes, Winston Churchill’s long-time critics are eager to shine a spotlight on his dark past. To them, he was a racist, imperialist warmonger whose bombastic speech...
Apr 19, 2022•46 min•Season 2Ep. 74
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast explores three stories in the news. First, Russia suffered a series of setbacks in its war aims this week from the sinking ...
Apr 15, 2022•14 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Acclaimed author and popular podcaster Julia Galef joins us for a fascinating discussion about how embracing a scout’s mindset, one that champions curiosity and truth-seeking over knee jerk reactions, will give us the tools we need to make smarter decisions. QUOTES: JULIA GALEF “The scout's motivation is to go out, see things as clearly as possible and form as accurate a map of a situation or an issue as they can including all of the areas of uncertainty…as you learn more about the world, you're...
Apr 12, 2022•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 73
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast explores two stories in the news. First, Russian troops withdraw from areas around Kiev leaving a trail of war crimes in th...
Apr 08, 2022•18 min•Season 2Ep. 16
The 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 p...
Apr 05, 2022•47 min•Season 2Ep. 72
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members only podcast focuses on two stories in the news. First, after a promising start to the week that featured peace talks in Istanbul, ...
Apr 01, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 15
Pandemic government spending, labour shortages, rising gas prices, and supply chain bottlenecks have led to a surge in inflation and some of the fastest price gains for a broad range of goods and services in the last 40 years. In response, some financial experts expect central banks to raise rates multiple times this year and start selling off some of the hundreds of billions in bonds they purchased during the pandemic. The threat of entrenched inflation supposedly requires central banks to resp...
Mar 29, 2022•52 min•Season 2Ep. 71
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast digs into the latest developments out the War in Ukraine. First up, where are we at thirty days into this conflict? Is the ...
Mar 25, 2022•21 min•Season 2Ep. 14
World-renowned philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett joins us for a special Munk Dialogue on the origin of human consciousness, and how our minds have been shaped by natural selection and generations of cultural evolution. QUOTES: DANIEL DENNETT “We have more degrees of freedom than any other organism alive. We're autonomous, we pull our own strings… the primary moral responsibility of every human being is to not become a puppet of others.” The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Gr...
Mar 22, 2022•54 min•Season 2Ep. 70
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast catches up on the week of news out Ukraine and digs into the Munk Debates recent one-on-one podcast debate on NATO and its ...
Mar 18, 2022•28 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Prior to Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, talks between Vladimir Putin and Western leaders largely centered around NATO’s eastward expansion: The Russian leader demanded that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization deny membership to Ukraine and Georgia and roll back troop deployment in countries that joined after 1997. These demands were ultimately rejected, and Russia’s response was a military assault on Ukraine that has shattered longstanding peace in Europe and weakened the post-soviet ...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 69
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast explores the issues and ideas raised in Janice Stein’s important article this week in Foreign Policy magazine. To access th...
Mar 11, 2022•23 min•Season 2Ep. 12
He’s been heir to the throne for 70 years, waiting to take over as King of Great Britain from the country’s longest serving monarch, his mother, Queen Elizabeth. But as the Queen’s advanced age and fragile health becomes ever more apparent, many in the UK are wondering whether Charles is the right man to take over the throne from his long-beloved and admired mother. The Prince’s critics point to a sense of entitlement and dour personality unbecoming of a monarch. He lectures about the environmen...
Mar 08, 2022•43 min•Season 2Ep. 68
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast focuses on the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Janice and Rudyard discuss how the conflict has escalated over the la...
Mar 04, 2022•22 min•Season 2Ep. 11
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This is a special edition of the Munk Member’s podcast focusing on the extraordinary series of developments in Eastern Europe that have culminated with Russ...
Mar 01, 2022•31 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Gad Saad joins us for an in-depth discussion on how lazy thinking and intellectual tribalism is killing common sense and rational debate. QUOTES: GAD SAAD "When you have a collectivist society, you have cohesive norms, and you have rituals of purity that are easier to implement" The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg . 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 re...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 67
This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast . The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This episode of the Munk Member’s podcast features a one-on-one interview between Janice Gross Stein and ...
Feb 25, 2022•21 min•Season 2Ep. 9
It’s been almost two years since COVID-19 was first declared a pandemic, and yet every few months a new variant emerges, sweeping through entire populations and thwarting any plans for a return to pre-covid normal life. While many governments are still using lockdowns, mask mandates, online school and business closures in order to blunt the surges and prevent a health care collapse, some countries like England and Denmark are pivoting away from these measures, aiming to treat COVID as we do othe...
Feb 23, 2022•57 min•Season 2Ep. 66
This program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This is a special edition of the Munk Member’s podcast focusing on the extraordinary series of developments in Eastern Europe that have culminated with Russ...
Feb 22, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 8
This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast . The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast focuses on two big stories in the news. First, Canada declares its very ...
Feb 21, 2022•26 min•Season 2Ep. 7
By now we’ve all heard of ‘cancellations’ across North American campuses – professors who face reputational and professional damage due to deviating opinions – or students who are forced to recant for behaviour deemed problematic by contemporary culture. A new institution of higher learning is hoping to change all that. The newly created University of Austin aims to prioritize and protect freedom of expression and intellectual diversity. Its supporters argue that universities are fundamentally b...
Feb 15, 2022•48 min•Season 2Ep. 65
This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast . The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein , the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths , Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates. This week’s Munk Members podcast focuses on three topics in the news. First, Canada’s so-called “trucker”...
Feb 11, 2022•15 min•Season 2Ep. 6
