Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jul 14, 2023•22 min•Ep 82•Transcript available on Metacast In a landmark ruling, The United States Supreme Court rejected affirmative action at US colleges, determining that race should not be a factor in achieving educational diversity. The controversial decision is expected to lower the admission rates of black and hispanic students at elite universities. Many supporters of the court's decision believe that affirmative action - that is, policies that aim to increase opportunities provided to underrepresented members of society - should be based on cla...
Jul 11, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jul 07, 2023•20 min•Ep 81•Transcript available on Metacast On June 22nd we gathered at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall for a live, sold out debate on Artificial Intelligence. We were joined on stage by four AI experts and pioneers to debate the resolution Be it Resolved, AI research and development poses an existential threat . MIT’s Max Tegmark and Mila’s Yoshua Bengion argued in favour of the resolution, while Meta’s Yann Lecun and the Santa Fe Institute's Melanie Mitchelll argued against it. In this episode of the Munk Dialogues, we bring you the pre-inte...
Jul 04, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jun 30, 2023•22 min•Ep 80•Transcript available on Metacast With the debut of ChatGPT, the AI once promised in some distant future seems to have suddenly arrived with the potential to reshape our working lives, culture, politics and society. For proponents of AI, we are entering a period of unprecedented technological change that will boost productivity, unleash human creativity and empower billions in ways we have only begun to fathom. Others think we should be very concerned about the rapid and unregulated development of machine intelligence. For their...
Jun 29, 2023•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jun 23, 2023•25 min•Ep 79•Transcript available on Metacast Some experts believe that over 300 million jobs worldwide will be automated by AI, with white collar professions in advanced economies being most affected by AI bots like ChatGPT. Radiologists, lawyers, coders, you name it - if you sit at a computer for work, you can expect to have some of your tasks completed by artificial intelligence. To get a closer look at just exactly how AI will transform the labour market, we’re talking to James Bessen. James is the Executive Director of the Technology &...
Jun 19, 2023•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jun 16, 2023•22 min•Ep 78•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past few months we’ve heard many warnings about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence. But are there some positive aspects about this emerging technology that are being overlooked? On this episode, we’re joined by internationally renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier who argues that dangers associated with Artificial Intelligence are being overblown, and that chatbots like ChatGPT could actually strengthen democracy and restore trust in our governing institutions. The host of t...
Jun 14, 2023•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Jun 09, 2023•21 min•Ep 77•Transcript available on Metacast It’s a debate as old as time: when it comes to a household pet, which four legged furball makes the best companion? On one side, we have the independent, low maintenance feline, she who is quiet and clean. The cat isn’t needy; she gives her humans personal space and can walk herself, thank you very much. Unlike the too-eager dog, winning a cat’s affection takes time, patience, and trust. It’s a hard-fought battle which makes its victory that much more special. On the other side, we have man’s be...
Jun 06, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice and Rudyard start the show with a discussion of the ongoing political fallout around former Gov...
Jun 02, 2023•20 min•Ep 76•Transcript available on Metacast In November 2022, substack journalist Matt Taibbi joined us on stage for our Munk Debate on Mainstream Media. Matt and his debate partner, political commentator Douglas Murray, argued in favour of the resolution, Be it resolved, don’t trust mainstream media , against best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg (Matt and Douglas won a decisive victory, it was the biggest voter swing in Munk Debate history). Right after the debate, Matt got on a plane to San...
May 30, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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 edition of Friday Focus is dedicated to analyzing the fallout from former Governor General David Johnston’s report on Chinese interference int...
May 26, 2023•18 min•Ep 75•Transcript available on Metacast It’s no secret that both China and the US are preparing for war. Some American military experts think that an armed conflict between the two superpowers is inevitable and could begin as early as 2025. And while there is a general consensus among Americans that the US should defend Taiwan from Chinese aggression, there is also widespread disagreement about whether the US government should make a public commitment to do so. Some foreign policy experts argue that strategic ambiguity will signal tha...
May 23, 2023•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
May 19, 2023•26 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War marked a new era in world politics. For many geopolitical experts, it was championed as the ascendancy of the western liberal world order over competing political ideologies. It was, as American political scientist Francis Fukuyama famously declared, “the end of history” and the beginning of long term peace and prosperity. But that post-Soviet optimism did not last long. The past decade has seen a rise in authoritarian leadership, w...
May 16, 2023•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
May 12, 2023•22 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast It’s a debate being argued across school boards, politics, and family dinner tables: whether educators should be including gender identity and sexual orientation in their k-5 curriculums. At least 5 Canadian provinces and seven US states now require the inclusion of LGBTQ topics, while more conservative states like Florida have banned any mention of such language altogether. Conservative lawmakers and parents argue that teaching about gender identity is inappropriate and confusing for children w...
May 10, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
May 05, 2023•18 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast 60 years ago, university students were leading the protest in defense of free speech. The 1960’s Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley has been credited with paving the way for the civil liberties movement of the 1960’s and widespread social and political change. These days, however, free speech has taken on a new meaning. University students are being criticized for shutting down speech that doesn’t align with their progressive and left leaning principles. So how do f...
May 02, 2023•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Apr 28, 2023•19 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast Just when inflation seemed to finally be cooling, high interest rates claimed their first major victim: Silicon Valley Bank. And yet, central banks around the world claim the job is not finished, and more needs to be done to curb runaway inflation. But for some economists and business insiders, the latest debacle confirms a long held belief that central banks have largely failed as public institutions. Their supposed neutrality is a farce, and they are inherently political bodies run by unelecte...
Apr 26, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Apr 21, 2023•24 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast The indictment of Donald Trump is an historic event. The 45th president of the United States now holds the unique distinction of being the first president to face criminal prosecution in the country’s history. Some legal experts believe that prosecuting Trump sets a dangerous precedent that will open an era of politically motivated prosecutions undermining democracy and the rule of law. Future presidents will be more likely to stay in office – through undemocratic means – in order to avoid trial...
Apr 17, 2023•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Apr 14, 2023•20 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast With inflation remaining high despite rising interest rates, many economists are looking for new solutions to bring inflation down without triggering a recession. On this Munk Dialogue, we’re joined by Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, who gives us some insight into why the situation might not be as dire as some believe, and offers up some proposals on how to get inflation under control without raising rates. The host of the Munk Debates is Rudyard Griffiths - @rudyardg . Tweet y...
Apr 11, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the 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. The following is a sample of the Munk Debates’ weekly current affairs podcast, Friday Focus. On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice an...
Apr 07, 2023•19 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast Nearly a quarter of the way through the 21st century, there is no doubt that governments and businesses around the world have made tremendous progress in stemming their carbon emissions. But we still have a long way to go if we are to reach a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. For certain scientists, business owners, and public officials, net zero by 2050 is a chimera, and the costs associated with denying this reality will be tremendous. Replacing an entire global economy’s reliance on fossil ...
Apr 05, 2023•44 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast 
