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At a time of rapidly growing political polarization, it can be exceedingly difficult (and exhausting) to fight over an issue — only to reach an impasse every time. And while there's no surefire way to get someone to agree with your views, there are tried-and-true tactics you can use to… Read more   

The second U.S. presidential debate of 2020 was more sedate than the first, with its whining, braying, and general frothing at the mouth. We all remember how the human moderator at the first rumble struggled to cut through to the actual issues that people care about, such as jobs, the… Read more   

Is it time to redistribute the wealth? That's the topic two former Clinton administration officials, a former Greek finance minister and a researcher who has studied the economics of prostitution, explored in a televised debate tonight—with a little help from IBM's latest artificial intelligence software. The debate, which aired on… Read more   

The fate of the remaining US presidential debates is in jeopardy after president Donald Trump declared he would not participate in a virtual face-off. While Joe Biden’s campaign initially signaled its enthusiasm for the virtual debate, originally scheduled for Oct. 15, both candidates now say they’ll stage separate town halls… Read more   

Let’s make debating, like governing, a team sport. Three candidates sit together on each side, for a total of six. There’s a yay-and-nay side, and they present and then debate specific motions. The motions should be ones on which the candidates have meaningful disagreements, but on which some of the… Read more   

Robert Rosenkranz, a financier and a philanthropist, believes in civility. Since 2006, his foundation has sponsored a series of public debates called Intelligence Squared U.S., in which two experts argue for a resolution—“Charter schools are overrated”; “Video games will make us smarter”—and two argue against. “The audience votes twice, on… Read more   

On a frigid January night, a Harvard genetics professor with a billowing white beard stood stage left in a theater on Manhattan's Upper East Side, an icon of the environmentalist movement in a fleece vest beside him. Both men were staring down a toothy problem: How could they convince their counterparts… Read more   

We saw computers beat humans at chess in 1997, beat humans at Jeopardy in 2011 and vanquish the world's best human players of the ancient game of Go in 2017. On Monday, a computer edged out a victory over people in a far more nuanced competition: debate.   IBM created a… Read more   

Can we all agree that Google Duplex demo was eerie? A robot, posing as a human being, scheduled a reservation over the phone. We all knew artificial intelligence was coming, but it was breathtaking to hear software come to life. Before we go any further, let's get our terms straight.… Read more   

In the Trump era, tribalism bests morality. The party of Lincoln elected a reality television star who recently endorsed a senate candidate accused of molesting teenagers. Meanwhile, two Democratic leaders resigned this week after dozens of sexual assault allegations. Conservatism’s underlining principles of economic empowerment have fallen to deep state… Read more   

Two sides with decidedly different opinions on whether college athletes should be paid participated in a public debate on Tuesday night in New York City. Whether college athletes should be paid has been a long-running debate in the world of intercollegiate athletics. The conversation has ramped up over the past… Read more   

If you’re tired of hearing college coaches and athletic directors stumbling over themselves to repeat the same tired, NCAA-issued lines about maintaining the “integrity” of college sports, you’re in luck. Read more   

Retired General David Petraeus shared lessons learned from over fifteen years of combatting terrorists and extremists in the Middle East and Afghanistan at a forum Wednesday. The takeaway: even with all the US's military's capabilities, you can't "drone strike your way out of a problem." Speaking at the Intelligence Squared… Read more   

If budget-cutters in Washington decided to eliminate food-stamp benefits to New Yorkers, the city’s politicians would be denouncing the cruelty of the “Republican war on the poor.” Yet Mayor Bill De Blasio and the city council are already inflicting the same sort of pain on low-income New Yorkers by denying… Read more   

In recent decades, Walmart has come to represent the epitome of capitalist success: The company’s founder, Sam Walton of Oklahoma, was a self-made billionaire and a retail pioneer who built his business on rock-bottom prices. But for many of Walmart’s workers, the company illuminates the darker side of capitalism: The… Read more   

With $485.9 billion in global revenue and 1.5 million employees in the U.S. alone, Walmart the corporation isn’t going away anytime soon. But this Thursday evening, I’ll argue that its business model – based on low pay, understaffing, and low respect for the employees that make the business function –… Read more   

Should all Americans be given a guaranteed basic income, just enough money that any person could scrape by on their monthly check from the government? New York City’s Upper West Side gave the idea a very firm no vote last week. “The universal basic income is supported across the political… Read more   

Is a guaranteed paycheck from the government, with no strings attached, the answer to the relentless rise of automation? The concept might sound far-fetched, but a so-called universal basic income (UBI), is currently one of the most hotly debated policy topics being floated as a means to address income inequality… Read more   

Each year, robots and artificially intelligence systems cause unemployment rates to increase as more and more jobs become automated. And when you stop to take a look, the numbers are harrowing. In Canada, a study conducted by the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship found that a staggering 40 percent… Read more   

In 1988, Al Shanker, then president of the American Federation of Teachers, gave a speech that had been inspired by a visit to Germany where he visited a school run by teachers, who were free to experiment with new ideas and stayed with their classes for six years. Shanker talked… Read more   

Four experts faced off in a live debate Wednesday night on a range of issues that swirl around charter schools—whether for-profit schools work, what's best for student achievement, and if charters lead to innovation. But the discussion came down to a simple question: Are charter schools overrated? And the audience's… Read more   

In late January, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also the minister of defense, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of the King Faisal Air Academy. On the occasion, the Saudis reportedly added to their fleet… Read more   

Intelligence Squared U.S., or IQ2US, organizes a regular series of debates on issues of public concern and broadcasts them via livestreaming, NPR, YouTube, and podcasts. The organization’s purpose, proudly proclaimed, is “to restore civility, reasoned analysis, and constructive public discourse to today’s often biased media landscape.” (Since it sounds a… Read more   

George Washington University hosted a debate Wednesday night about whether or not President Donald Trump should be given a chance to govern in the Oval Office, and the con-side won a clear victory, at least with the live audience. The debate—titled “Give Trump a Chance?”—featured David Frum, senior editor for… Read more   

After all, giving newly inaugurated presidents the opportunity to govern, and show what they can accomplish, is part of America's great democratic tradition. Even former President Barack Obama, no fan of Mr. Trump, urged forbearance in the early going. “Let him make his decisions,” Mr. Obama said soon after the… Read more   

I've known David Frum almost since I first came to Washington. A mutual friend of ours once described him thusly: "David is one of the handful of people in this town whose intellect is genuinely intimidating." That appraisal always struck me as pretty much correct. That's not to say that… Read more   

Listen to the segment:     In partnership with IQ2US, NPR's 1A hosted a preview of the debate, featuring the president of The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU's School of Law, Michael Waldman, who argues that no, Donald Trump should not be given a chance based on the record… Read more   

NEW YORK — Four law and order experts sparred in New York City Wednesday night over evidencebased data suggesting policing isn't racially biased in America and blacks do in fact commit more crimes than other racial groups. Opposing the motion that "policing is racially biased," Harry Stern, managing principal for… Read more   

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Listen to the segment: In a preview of an Intelligence Squared debate, Gloria Browne-Marshall, an associate professor of constitutional law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former civil rights attorney argues that yes, policing is racially biased, while Harry Stern, an attorney at Rains Lucia Stern… Read more   

As President Obama prepares to leave office without having destroyed the Islamic State, he’s selling the notion that U.S. intelligence agencies failed to warn him promptly about the rise of the terrorist group more than two years ago, an assertion raising howls of incredulity in some quarters. The White House… Read more   

Or an “Article V convention to amend the Constitution,” to be more precise.   It’s sitting right there in the Constitution. A loophole to take big, important questions out of the hands of federal legislators and the tortured readings of 98 justices. Just call a convention to propose some amendments.  … Read more   

Lawrence Lessig, activist, Harvard law professor, and author of Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It (Twelve, 2015), and Walter Olson, senior fellow at Cato Institute’s Center for Constitutional Studies, preview their debate over the wisdom of convening another Constitutional Convention. Could it bypass the gridlock in Congress? On… Read more   

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's three-year redistricting legal challenge was part of a debate Monday over whether or not the redrawing of political lines is creating a more polarized political environment.   The event, sponsored by Intelligence Squared US, is part of non-partisan debate series that aims to "restore civility, reasoned analysis,… Read more   

Americans were promised that the passage of the Affordable Care Act would usher in universal health coverage and lower healthcare costs. None of those promises have been kept, nor have several others that the law’s chief advocate, President Obama, made.   Drug costs have soared, and while that may not… Read more   

As the pressures to justify drug pricing both in the U.S. and beyond increase, biopharmaceutical companies and the pharma industry at large must be prepared for open, transparent and two-way public dialogue. A recent debate hosted in New York City by the non-profit organization Intelligence Squared US (IQ2US), featured both sides… Read more   

The question of whether or not Islam is a religion of peace has been the subject of numerous articles and discussions in recent years. One of the more interesting debates on the subject was one hosted by the Intelligence Squared U.S. organization. The statement being debated in fact was “Islam is a… Read more   

While we’re secretly pulling for the candidates and their respective camps to end up on Family Feud (“Donald, Bill — what’s something you’d hear in a locker room?”), Intelligence Squared U.S. has a more viable solution. What the nonpartisan, nonprofit org is suggesting is nothing new: rather, it’s a switch to a classic debate… Read more   

Donvan, who moderates the Oxford-style Intelligence Squared U.S. debate series and is part of a Change.org petition promoting the reform of the American presidential debate system, attributes part of the problem to the format of the event itself. Simply put, it doesn't lend itself to actual debate. "What we really see… Read more   

Recent headlines have decried exorbitant drug costs. No one is surprised by drugs that exceed $100,000 dollars a year or whose prices have grown at six times the rate of inflation. But the biggest surprise at the Oct. 13 debate hosted by Intelligence Squared (Blame Big Pharma for Out-of-Control Health Care Costs) wasn’t… Read more   

Harcourt argues that profiling one group diverts resources from examining others outside the group. So while it may help detect attacks in the short term, profiling could backfire in the long term as "it may well encourage the recruitment of terrorists from outside the core profile and the substitution of… Read more   

Carl Pope, Sierra Club's former director, counters the economic harm argument by saying the number of coal plants retired under the EPA's previous air pollution rules are driving cleaner sources of electricity, with very little harm to the economy.   The country is already moving away from coal, and the… Read more   

The style of presidential debates hasn't changed in decades, and as Emily Schmidt reports, that has opened up a debate ... about debates. Read more   

Monday’s presidential debate has all the makings of something we’ve never seen before in modern politics. But beyond the expected hyperbolic verbal-sparring, will there be anything of substance that American voters will get out of the showdown? Intelligence Squared U.S., a nonpartisan organization whose goal is to raise the level of… Read more   

Yesterday’s presidential debate promised to be a showdown for the ages and to a large extent, it delivered, with the candidates more or less laying out their respective cases amid numerous interruptions and the occasional name-calling. But what did audiences take away from the debate? ABC News correspondent and Intelligence Squared… Read more   

Ahead of the first debate ABC News Correspondent John Donvan sits down with Emily Schmidt to discuss a better way to debate.   Read more   

Glick brings up an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate held in Manhattan last week. The subject was “Blame the elites for the Trump phenomenon.” All four debaters were conservatives who are, within a range, anti-Trump. Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney and The Federalist’s Ben Domenech were on the side blaming the elites… Read more   

Two sides debated the proposition that the American elites are to blame for Trump’s rise. Arguing in favor of the proposition were two Christian journalists – Tim Carney and Ben Domenech.   Arguing against it were two Jewish journalists – Bret Stephens (a former Jerusalem Posteditor-in-chief) and Jennifer Rubin.   Both… Read more   

The nonprofit debate organization Intelligence Squared facilitated a remarkable spectacle Tuesday evening: two elite conservative media pundits arguing that the failures of their social and economic class are responsible for the rise of Donald Trump—and for his winning by a large margin.   Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist and host of “The Federalist… Read more   

John Donvan of ABC News, moderator of public broadcasting’s excellent Intelligence Squared US debates, has been making the media rounds urging that the debate format be changed to Oxford rules — to formally argue resolutions like “Resolved: The United States Should Withdraw from NATO,” in which the candidates would make brief opening… Read more   

The debates this election season have been unprecedented in modern politics, but imagine if they looked a little different, and the candidates actually discussed the issues on Americans’ minds rather than scream over each other and hurl insults. Intelligence Squared U.S. is an organization that seeks to restore civility and… Read more   

On Tuesday, Tim Carney and I won the Intelligence Squared debate on the proposition “Blame The Elites For The Trump Phenomenon” by a significant margin. Undecideds broke for our side of the proposition by more than 4-to-1. You can watch the full unedited debate here. Jennifer Rubin and Bret Stephens had already… Read more   

Ask: “Based on what you know now, do these demands seem reasonable? Have students gone too far?”   Tell students that you will engage in a simplified Oxford-style debate to look more deeply at both sides of this issue. Alternatively, if you prefer and have the time, you could watch this debate on the… Read more   

Media and political elites, not rank and file voters, are responsible for the unlikely rise of Donald Trump.   That was the overwhelming consensus among attendees at Tuesday’s season opener of Intelligence Squared U.S., the Oxford-style debate series in which four journalists – defend or challenge a given prompt. In New York… Read more   

It’s a testament to a flagging campaign when thought leaders from your own party gather to hold a debate on who they should blame for your very existence. Donald Trump may be closing some of the gap in this horse race, but he’s still a long shot, and the conservative… Read more   

Who is at fault for the Donald Trump phenomenon? An audience of New York elites attended a debate on Tuesday night in Manhattan and ultimately delivered a surprising verdict. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Wall Street Journal foreign affairs columnist Bret Stephens began his opening argument at the Intelligence Squared U.S. event by noting that those… Read more   

I’m here to debate (along with Jody Freeman, the Archibald Cox Professor of Law at Harvard) a couple of coal advocates from Texas on the topic, “Has EPA Gone too Far” with its Clean Power Plan.   Our opponents are Charles McConnell, who was Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Fuels in the… Read more   

Should we embrace our end, or should we cure aging? Are human lifespans long enough as is?   This was the central motion of a provocative debaterecently hosted by Intelligence Squared. Pitting a philosopher and a sociologist against two scientists, the well-rounded debate delved into the ethical and social consequences… Read more   

Robert Rosenkrantz and John Donvan wrote an op-ed in February suggesting the debates instead adopt the same format they have used more than a hundred times with leading public intellectuals and academics, government officials, and other thought leaders in their popular debate series Intelligence Squared.   These debates are done in the Oxford-style… Read more   

Two former Obama administration officials went toe to toe last night, debating whether U.S. EPA has "gone overboard" with the president's signature climate rule. Arguing for the Clean Power Plan, former White House climate adviser Jody Freeman won the three-round match. Read more   

“We are debating free speech because its values are under siege,” Wendy Kaminer said during an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate at Yale in March. Intelligence Squared has been hosting fantastic Oxford-style debates since 2006, underwritten by a New York philanthropist named Robert Rosenkranz. Its debates, which last for an hour… Read more   

John Donvan of Intelligence Squared U.S. tells what reforms are needed to make the presidential eebates truly debates, instead of stump speeches and one-liners. Read more   

Now that the primary debates are over and the presumptive presidential nominees are set, a producer of a public radio show would like to fix a few things. Are you tired of political candidates waging personal attacks on each other rather than debating issues? Have the debates become more theatre… Read more   

A debate is not meant to be an exchange of scripted remarks, rehearsed rebuttals or an endless series of character attacks. The pointless insults and repetitive talking points should be left for campaign ads, where they belong. For voters to make an informed decision, we need to hear our candidates… Read more   

The quality of presidential campaign debates in the modern era, low to begin with, has sunk to rock-bottom. Some of that has to do with the declining moral caliber of the candidates themselves. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter were statesmen of unimpeachable rectitude compared with integrity-challenged sleazoids like Donald Trump… Read more   

Alan Dershowitz and Sanford Levinson take on David Kopel and Eugene Volokh on the question of the historical context of the amendment itself and whether it has outlived its usefulness. Read more   

This year, as part of efforts to inject challenging ideas into oncampus conversation, the Adam Smith Society is partnering with Intelligence Squared U.S. (IQ2US), an organization founded in 2006 by MI trustee and Delphi Financial Group... This year, as part of efforts to inject challenging ideas into oncampus conversation, the… Read more   

Months after the killing of Cecil the Lion, let's have a civilized debate over the role of trophy hunting in preserving animals. [...] Can hunters still be considered wildlife conservationists? That will be the subject of a discussion hosted Wednesday by Intelligence Squared U.S. and moderated by John Donvan. Read more   

The empty stage of the Yale Repertory Theatre looked like the set of a talk show. A black-and-white photograph of the New York City skyline hung in three panels in the center, and two empty frosted-glass tables stood on either side of the stage, each flanked by a black podium.… Read more   

I'm a big fan of the Intelligence Squared US (IQ2) debate program, so when I learned that the program had compiled data on the 119 debates it had held since 2006, I was eager to dive in. And in doing so, I learned a few things: People do change their… Read more   

Do the campus protests and debates that roil around speech that has been deemed '€œoffensive'€ or '€œracist'€ signal a threat to free speech or are we simply moving into a more enlightened time when intolerance is no longer quietly accepted? That was the question posed to two teams of debaters… Read more   

More of this year'€™s freshman class expects to participate in at least one protest while they'€™re in college than at any other time in the last 50 years. The portion of all students who claim to be these prospective protesters? 10%. Among black students, the proportion rises to 16%. While… Read more   

One of Washington's most notorious lobbyists is singing the same tune as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders when it comes to corruption on Capitol Hill. Jack Abramoff, dubbed by Time as "the man who bought Washington," was once among the most influential power players in U.S. politics [...] "Washington is… Read more   

At a debate Wednesday night co-hosted by Intelligence Squared US and the 92 Street Y in New York City, a largely white, middle-aged audience was easily convinced that the supposed bright future of artificial intelligence is perhaps not all that it's cracked up to be. The nonprofit debate series, syndicated… Read more   

Jaron Lanier and Martine Rothblatt address our darkest AI fears. The advent of artificial intelligence is as dreaded as it is lauded. Proponents believe it's a technological advancement that will augment humans in unprecedented ways -- think immortality and super-intelligence. But the critics often point out the dangerous repercussions of… Read more   

I spend a lot of time covering advances in artificial intelligence. It's one of the big stories of our time, - so much so that the White House has said it will remake our society. On Wednesday, I attended an Intelligence Squared debate at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y that made… Read more   

A debate in New York tries to settle the question.After taking a 2-0 lead in its five-game match with Lee Sedol on Thursday, Google-DeepMind's AlphaGo artificial intelligence program seems likely to claim victory within the next few days. This will no doubt resurface the many questions people have about AI's… Read more   

Jaron Lanier and Andrew Keen make powerful arguments against tech utopianism.A debate on artificial intelligence took place at the 92nd St Y on Wednesday night, and it took on real sweep that went beyond the subject of AI. This wasn'€™t just because the victory of a Google bot over a… Read more   

A recurring falsehood in the ongoing debate about campus culture, politics, and policy. Last week, I surveyed the overwhelming evidence that free speech is threatened on campus. But I did not address a counterargument that uncharitable skeptics of that position keep repeating: that those who defend liberal values in higher… Read more   

The ever-fascinating Martine Rothblatt is a colorful figure on the Washington scene '€” lawyer, author, founder of Sirius XM, founder and chief executive of United Therapeutics, co-creator of a head-only robot modeled on her wife of 30-plus years (they were married before Rothblatt'€™s sex reassignment surgery), pilot, piano player .… Read more   

Intelligence Squared presented an excellent debate on Tuesday at Yale '€”'€œResolved: Free speech is threatened on campus.'€ Yale was a particularly apt venue for this debate. Yale has a proud tradition of freedom of speech, and its official statement on free speech, the '€œWoodward Report'€ of 1974, is one of… Read more   

A debate at Yale highlighted the disconnect between those who would downplay the problem, and the growing mass of evidence that they'€™re wrong. At a recent Intelligence Squared debate, an audience filled an auditorium at Yale University to weigh the timely proposition, '€œFree speech is threatened on campus.'€ The debate concerned… Read more   

Portrayed as '€˜ignorant at best and immoral at worst,'€™ non-leftist students self-censor. In recent weeks, speakers such as conservative Ben Shapiro and anti-feminist Milo Yiannopoulos have faced angry crowds of progressive students who tried to shut down their campus speeches with interruptions and physical confrontations. Yet it took an evening… Read more   

The atmosphere on college campuses has changed, a Columbia University professor argued before an audience full of Yale students and New Haven residents Tuesday. And that change has created spaces in which free speech is not extinguished, but threatened. A majority of the audience agreed. After a debate hosted by… Read more   

Before a nearly full auditorium at the Yale Repertory Theater Tuesday night, the NPR show '€œIntelligence Squared U.S.'€ hosted a debate on the motion that free speech is threatened on college campuses. But despite the robust turnout, most students'€™ opinions on the topic remained largely unchanged, with students stating that… Read more   

On Tuesday, an audience gathered at Yale to hear a debate on the proposition, '€œFree speech is threatened on campus.'€ The question pertained to institutions of higher education generally, not just the host university. The outcome: a clear majority agree that free speech is threatened. But that wasn'€™t yet true… Read more   

The atmosphere on campuses nationwide has become charged with accusations, on one side, that '€œmicro-aggressions'€ are hurtful to women and people of color, and countercharges that universities are censoring speakers. On Tuesday, the issue will land in the spotlight at the Yale Repertory Theatre as four debaters argue for or… Read more   

As mentioned previously, the tenth Republican debate looms Thursday '€” hosted by CNN and Telemundo, moderated by Wolf Blitzer and staged at the University of Houston in Texas. But there are complaints. Some say entertainment outweighs policy information: Robert Rosenkranz '€” founder of Intelligence Squared U.S., an organization that has… Read more   

The five reaming Republican candidates will debate tonight in Houston. The debates have draw big ratings wins for news organizations'€”13.5 million people watched the last GOP debate on CBS two weeks ago. For the news networks, the debates have become sporting events, with a national anthem, a highly produced introduction… Read more   

Prime-time presidential debates were a brilliant innovation of the 1960s, meant to inform voters and let them see the candidates in action. Their format, however, is due for an update.Since the 1970s, when Jimmy Carter debated Gerald Ford, the setup has been the same: a structured interrogation. Moderators barrage the… Read more   

How long should we live? Is the age of death for the average American (78.8) about right or should science continue trying to expand life expectancies? On February 3, that question was debated by four leading experts for Intelligence Squared U.S. moderated by ABC News correspondent John Donvan in front… Read more   

With more and more money being funneled into the field, more health data being crunched and chances increasing that scientists will crack the aging code, it'€™s a good time to examine the arguments. That'€™s what Intelligence Squared U.S. will be doing in a heavyweight debate between leading life-extension scientists (including… Read more   

It's time to dispose of the politics of fear and embrace a pro-refugee, pro-economy policy. [...] The new Middle East refugees appear to fit this pattern. In a recent Intelligence Squared debate on refugees, David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, noted that eight out of 10 Syrian refugees… Read more   

Should we toy with the human life span? As it turns out, four experts on that subject gathered in New York City on Wednesday to debate that very topic in a forum sponsored by the nonprofit Intelligence Squared. Read more   

Our presidential debate moderators are stuck in an impossible position: Either they allow candidates to spin and not give real answers to questions, or, when they interrupt and insist on a genuine response, they're interpreted as having a personal agenda. The results are a politicized public, a suspicious pool of… Read more   

The Syrian refugee crisis coinciding with America'€™s Presidential Campaigns has brought the emotional debate over refugees into the political arenas of nearly every state and over the internet. Candidates and conservative journalists have placed fear of terrorism and radicalization in front of voters while liberals in this country and abroad… Read more   

A major debate between leading U.S. experts on refugee and migration issues, organized by the Intelligence Squared U.S. organization, produced drastically split results on the motion of whether the U.S. should let in 100,000 Syrian Refugees. Read more   

I used to think podcasts were not for me. But recently, I've been blown away with their ability to expand my horizons. Podcasts can go places other forms of entertainment (and that other e word, education) can'€t: you can listen to them on your commute or as you'€re falling asleep… Read more   

During the Intelligence Squared debate last week, Roger Clegg, president and general counsel for the Center for Equal Opportunity, argued that a diverse campus and the interracial conversations that could result from it is not a compelling enough reason to continue racial preferences, even as part of a larger calculus… Read more   

As the Supreme Court of the United States again prepares to consider arguments in Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin today, the arguments will be presented amid a national environment that seems to have proven that race is still very much a factor on campuses across the country. Read more   

This month marks the seventh anniversary of the Federal Reserve's first round of quantitative easing '€” the program that more than quadrupled the central bank's balance sheet, sparking a debate over the limits of monetary policy. Read more   

While most agree that the U.S. narrowly avoided a second Great Depression, how that happened isn't agreed upon. In fact, whether QE works at all is an open question, one that will be debated tonight in New York. Intelligence Squared U.S., a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that seeks to foster constructive,… Read more   

Quantitative easing has been good for Wall Street, but has it done anything for the average American? It's debatable. At an event this week in New York hosted by Intelligence Squared U.S., a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that holds Oxford-style debates on important issues, two teams of two duked it out… Read more   

We are now four debates into the 2016 presidential campaign, and the emerging consensus is that the format stinks. Yes, there may be some entertaining moments, but nobody seems happy with the status quo. Now that the Republican candidates are reevaluating how the debates should operate, I humbly propose four… Read more   

Pop a pill, ace a test. If you could take a pill that would instantly make you work harder, improve your brain function and make you '€œsmarter,'€ would you? A panel of experts argued this question in a debate this week presented byIntelligence Squared U.S. at George Washington University in… Read more   

In a spirited Intelligence Squared U.S. debate on Wednesday night, Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd and Kissinger Institute Director Robert Daly faced off with University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer and Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Peter Brookes over this provocative motion: '€œChina and the U.S. are long-term enemies.'€ Read more   

After taping this weekend'€™s Radio Derb, with its segments about U.S.-China tensions and geostrategy, I was browsing through my blog roll when I came across this at Steve Hsu'€™s site. It'€™s one of the '€œIntelligence Squared'€ debates'€”a real debate, not one of these'€”on the motion: '€œChina and the U.S. Are… Read more   

In a debate held by "Intelligence Squared US", renowned international relations experts such as John J. Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago and former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd debated whether China and the US would become long-term enemies. The opinion poll of audiences that followed shows that 56 percent… Read more   

Intelligence Squared US and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) are embarking on a joint venture (that I am proud to have brokered), to present a series of high-profile debates on college campuses. Our first debate will be tomorrow at George Washington University. Read more   

Should college students take smart drugs? That was the question posed to a panel of professors at an Intelligence Squared debate at George Washington University on Monday night. Read more   

If there was a pill that could make everyone smarter and more focused, how many people would take it? This question was the subject of debate among experts at the Jack Morton Auditorium Monday night. Moderated by ABC News correspondent John Donvan, the panel weighed the medical and moral risks,… Read more   

We use coffee to stay awake, good food and nutrition to stay healthy and alert. But if there was a drug that made you smarter, helped you learn, and made you more focused, would you take it?That's a question that Nicole Vincent, associate professor of philosophy, law and neuroscience at… Read more   

Should college students be allowed to take Adderall and Modafinil to improve their academic performance, or should universities treat these so-called '€œsmart drugs'€ the same way Major League Baseball treats steroids? I attended a debate on the subject at George Washington University last night, and came away convinced that banning… Read more   

Last night, I had the pleasure of debating my views on why college students should be allowed to take smart drugs. My partner, Anjan Chatterjee and I were in support of the resolution. Nicole Vincent and Eric Racine were opposed. The debate, hosted by Intelligence Squared US (IQ2US) and FIRE,… Read more   

Should students be allowed - or encouraged -€” to take "€œsmart drugs"€ so they can get better grades?That will be the question on the table on Monday when the public affairs program Intelligence Squared - IQ2 -€” brings its lively debate format to George Washington University. Read more   

A former prime minister of Australia, a political science professor, and two senior members from United States-based think-tanks took turns at the lectern at a packed auditorium in Kaufman Music Center on Oct. 14 to debate a topic of the times: are China and the United States long-term enemies? Read more   

On September 16, 2015, ALI members Stephen J. Schulhofer of New York University School of Law, Jeannie C. Suk of Harvard University Law School, and Michelle J. Anderson of City University of New York School of Law participated in a debate discussing whether universities are equipped for enforcing policies in… Read more   

Just before four law professors take the stage here to debate whether courts or colleges should decide sexual-assault cases, the ABC News correspondent John Donvan polls the audience of about 250 people. Should all rape allegations involving college students be handled by the criminal-justice system? Or should campuses continue to… Read more   

Jed Rubenfeld and Jeannie Suk (for) and Michelle Anderson and Stephen Schulhofer (against) participated in an interesting and extensive debate on this question on September 16; video here. One of the most notable aspects of the discussion was the systematic doubt about the capacity of courts to be fair. Professor… Read more   

Harvard Law School professor Jeannie C. Suk argued at a forum in New York this week that the criminal court system, not campus resources, should investigate and adjudicate cases of alleged sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape. At the forum'€”hosted by Intelligence Squared Debates and titled '€œCourts, Not Campuses, Should… Read more   

Best of Enemies celebrates the dawn of intellectual debate in mass media. Intelligence Squared U.S. celebrates its continued relevance. Read more   

That tension between steadfast principles and hard realities, both at home and abroad, was on display when some of America'€™s leading foreign-policy thinkers gathered for a retreat hosted by the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan education and policy organization, in August. The conference'€™s main event was an hourlong debate about ISIS.… Read more   

That the debate surrounding ISIS seems confused was recently echoed in an actual debate on the topic. The folks at Intelligence Squared U.S. recently held a formal Oxford Union-style debate at the Aspen Security Forum. The proposition being debated was '€œContainment is not enough: ISIS must be defeated.'€ The outcome… Read more   

Recently, political discussions relegated to cable news anchors and Twitter feeds have come to share a common criticism of lacking intelligent, nuanced debate. There's even a new documentary, "Best of Enemies," that looks back at the 1968 TV debates between William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal during the Democratic and… Read more   

John Donvan has made a career out of staying calm'€”and staying on topic. A veteran ABC News correspondent, he'€™s now the moderator of Intelligence Squared U.S., a series of Oxford-style debates on the most controversial issues of the day. In this week'€™s episode, Donvan tells Aisha Harris why a successful… Read more   

Rosenkranz's most prominent effort in the area of public affairs is non-partisan in nature'€”Intelligence Squared U.S., a debate series based on a successful London-based program. Created in 2006, Intelligence Squared U.S. has presented over 100 debates on a wide range of topics from clean energy to the Middle East and… Read more   

For the third consecutive year, Intelligence Squared U.S. has been honored for excellence in radio and podcast programming by the New York Festivals International Radio Programs & Promos Awards.On Monday night, IQ2US was announced as the 2015 winner of the Silver Radio Award for Best Public Affairs Program and the… Read more   

Marriage equality won big in Philadelphia this week at the National Constitution Center. Broadcast by National Public Radio, the NCC on Tuesday played host to an Intelligence Squared U.S. debate that questioned whether the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution requires states to license same-sex marriage '€” just weeks… Read more   

I recently attended an Intelligence Squared debate over whether '€œsmart technology is making us dumb.'€ Those who argued that it was said we'€™re too distracted by our phones to think long and hard about serious issues, and also because something something selfies. But the Pew study finds that between the… Read more   

[Greg] Lukianoff is not willing to throw up his arms and throw in the towel. He writes: I am constantly on the lookout for potential cures for this problem. Litigation plays an important role in the fight, as does having students engage in proper Oxford-style debates (like we see today… Read more   

Q: You seemed to argue at an intelligence squared debate, that the US cannot be the world police anymore. How does this notion fit into your idea of an Indispensable America? Bremmer: I did argue that (though they assign you the position... and any good debater should be able to… Read more   

In the heart of blue America '€” New York City '€” Mark Dubowitz and Mike Doran debated Philip Gordon and Thomas Pickering on whether the Iran deal is good for the United States. The way these things work is that the side that moves opinion the most from pre- to… Read more   

On Tuesday evening, I attended a debate in New York City sponsored by Intelligence Squared U.S. focusing on whether or not Obama'€™s Iran deal is good for the country. (The podcast is available at the website.) On the pro side of the debate (for more complete bios on the debaters,… Read more