If you're a new parent, you've probably heard the term 'gentle parenting'. It's the latest trend that has taken hold among millennials who reject the authoritative principles under which they themselves were raised. This new, softer approach discourages consequences and punishments for bad behaviour in favour of positive reinforcement and a focus on the feelings and emotions which are driving bad behaviour. Proponents of gentle parenting argue that this approach is the most effective way to rais...
Aug 06, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast “We will continue to support Ukraine on its irreversible path to NATO membership”. It was this statement by NATO members at a recent summit in Washington that sent shockwaves through the foreign policy community and elicited strong reactions from both sides of this foreign policy debate. Those in favour argue that bringing Ukraine into NATO would solidify the West’s long-term commitment to Ukraine’s security, force Putin’s hand to end this war, and deter Russia from invading Ukraine in the futur...
Jul 30, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race sent shockwaves across the US - and indeed much of the world - as the Democrats are scrambling to figure out their next move just three months away from the general election. And while it looks like Kamala Harris will be the nominee for the Democrats, there is still a lot of uncertainty around her candidacy and how she will fare on the national stage. To help us make sense of this unprecedented political moment, we’re joined by Jeff Weave...
Jul 24, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 four years of expensive education would be better used learning on ...
Jul 15, 2024•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast **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 and offer a viable alternative to Trump. Furthermore, even if by some...
Jul 09, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Foods transformed the natural and organic food market and made i...
Jul 05, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 partner was Natasha Hausdorff. She’s an attorney, international law e...
Jun 25, 2024•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 pages of a Hollywood script. One can therefore forgive veteran Wa...
Jun 18, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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-winning journalist, best-selling author, and former Munk Debater Dougl...
Jun 11, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West...
Jun 04, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 harm to members of that group; and deliberately inflicting on the gr...
May 28, 2024•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 the incredible progress in health care, education, and tech that ha...
May 21, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 cause was just. Critics disagree. They say the protesters have o...
May 14, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 Qatar, which is currently housing the senior leaders of Hamas, i...
May 06, 2024•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 nuclear installations comes with enormous risks: It would likely ...
Apr 30, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 podcast. Ambassador Dennis Ross played a leading role in shaping ...
Apr 23, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 with proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen for years - threatens t...
Apr 15, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 eight decades of relative peace and prosperity. And in the backdrop o...
Apr 09, 2024•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 blocked on the app stores that an estimated 170 million Americans have...
Apr 03, 2024•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 housing to health care – to the rise of precarious work to exploding...
Mar 28, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 president remains a formidable political force: He has a large and loyal...
Mar 18, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 the US, New START, in 2026. What does all this mean for the prospec...
Mar 13, 2024•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast For decades, the two-state solution has been held up as the best chance for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. But in the aftermath of October 7th, and the security risks posed by a potential Palestinian state in the West Bank, most Israelis are souring on the two-state vision. A few Israeli leaders, however, still believe it is the only viable path forward. On this Munk Dialogue, we’re joined by one of the country’s biggest proponents for peace. Gilead Sher was Chief of Staff to Israeli P...
Mar 06, 2024•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast “An elderly man with a poor memory”. That is how a special counsel report described Joe Biden, president of the United States. Public appearances of the President looking confused and forgetting important dates and names seem to support this finding. Some Democrats believe Biden’s cognitive decline is a major liability that can no longer be ignored. With so much at stake in the 2024 election, and polls that are favouring Trump to win, it’s time for Biden to step aside for a candidate that can ta...
Feb 27, 2024•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most geopolitical experts agree that we have entered into a new cold war. The rise of the China-Russia axis and its threat to the international rules-based order is of growing concern to western powers. On this Munk Dialogue, we’re speaking with Sarah Paine, University Professor of History and Grand Strategy at the US Naval War College. Sarah explains what is motivating leaders like Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to act aggressively towards their neighbours, and how western powers should respond ...
Feb 22, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast 14 countries, including Canada and the US, suspended funding to the U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency in response to Israeli allegations that 12 employees were involved in the attack on Israel on October 7th, and roughly 10% of their employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Human rights workers argue that this is a form of collective punishment that will have dire consequences on a population already suffering from widespread hunger, displacement, and disease. Furtherm...
Feb 12, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In May 2022, just a few months into the war between Russia and Ukraine, we convened a public debate in Toronto about whether the West needed to acknowledge Russia’s legitimate legitimate security interests in order to bring the conflict to a resolution. John Mearsheimer, one of the world’s leading realist scholars in international relations, argued on stage that the West deserves some blame for Russian aggression. After almost two years of fighting, the war, as John predicted at that debate, is ...
Feb 07, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Despite international pressure and the threat of a wider regional conflict, Israel has made clear their intention to keep fighting until Hamas has been eradicated and no longer poses a security threat on their southern border. So how does the government’s military aim square up against growing civilian pressure to free the hostages? And what does this all mean for the future of Gaza? On this Munk Dialogue, we’re joined by David Horovitz, the founding editor of The Times of Israel , which since O...
Jan 30, 2024•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast US airstrikes don’t appear to be deterring Houthi rebels in the Red Sea. The Yemen-based militant group has continued their attacks on commercial ships in retaliation to the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza. These violent clashes risk escalating an already tense situation in the Middle East, which in recent weeks has moved beyond Gaza into southern Lebanon, Pakistan, and parts of Iran and Iraq. So what, exactly, do the Houthis want? And how can the US and its allies successfully defend ag...
Jan 24, 2024•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Teenagers are facing a mental health epidemic. The numbers are staggering: 30% of teenage girls and 10% of teenage boys are suffering from depression, reflecting a 150% increase since 2010. Rates of anxiety and ADHD are equally alarming. On this Munk Dialogue we’re joined by Lenore Skenazy, the founder of the Free-Range Kids and Let Grow movements. Since 2008 she has been sounding the alarm about helicopter parenting and overly-supervised play, which, she claims, is robbing children of their ind...
Jan 18, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
