Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates

One Nation Undecided: A Conversation with Peter Schuck

Are you willing to change your mind on abortion? What about immigration? Education?

Former Congressman Mickey Edwards and Host John Donvan discuss the lost art of democratic debate in Congress.

With Stewart Baker, Michael Chertoff, John Yoo, and Catherine Crump

With Daphne Bavelier, Elias Aboujaoude, Asi Burak, and Walter R. Boot

With Jamelle Bouie, Ian Bremmer, Kris Kobach, Rich Lowry, and Jennifer Rubin

With John Tierney, Richard K. Vedder, Nelson Lichtenstein, Amy Traub

With Charles Murray, Andrew Stern, Jared Bernstein and Jason Furman

With Gary Miron, Jeanne Allen, Julian Vasquez Heilig, and Gerard Robinson

With Madawi Al-Rasheed, F. Gregory Gause, Mark P. Lagon, and James Jeffrey

With Clive Crook, David Frum, Gayle Trotter, and Michael Waldman

With Gloria Browne Marshall, Heather Mac Donald, Marq Claxton, and Harry Stern

The debaters are Lawrence Lessig, David Super, Mark Meckler, and Walter Olson

With Eliot Cohen, Derek Chollet, Kristen Silverberg, and Vikram Singh

With Caroline Fredrickson, Nolan McCarty, David Daley, and Chris Jankowski

With Angela Kelley, Steven Camarota, Marielena Hincapié, and Rich Lowry

With Ezekiel Emanuel, Lori Reilly, Neera Tanden, and Paul Howard.

With Timothy Carney, Jennifer Rubin, Ben Domenech, and Bret Stephens

With Charles McConnell, Carl Pope, Michael Nasi, and Jody Freeman.

With David Brooks, Laura Ingraham, Mickey Edwards, and Ralph Reed

With Roger Clegg, Deborah Archer, Stuart Taylor, Jr., and Erwin Chemerinsky

With Michael McConnell, Adam Cox, Carrie Severino, and Eric Posner.

With Anthony Licata, Catherine Semcer, Wayne Pacelle, and Adam Roberts

With Jack Abramoff, Kate Gordon, Zephyr Teachout, and Michael Lind.

With Andrew Keen, Jaron Lanier, James Hughes and Martine Rothblatt

With Wendy Kaminer, Shaun Harper, John McWhorter, and Jason Stanley

With Ian Ground, Aubrey de Grey, Paul Root Wolpe, and Brian Kennedy

With Robert Ford, David Frum, David Miliband, and Jessica Vaughan

With Roger Clegg, Deborah Archer, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Stuart Taylor, Jr.

With Roger Bootle, Edward Conard, Simon Johnson, and Andrew Huszar

With Paul Butler, David Hoffman, Nancy Gertner, and Reid Schar

With Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, Eric Racine, Nita Farahany, and Nicole Vincent

With Shailen Bhatt, Adrian Moore, Alison Premo Black, and Stephen Moore

With Dr. Eben Alexander, Sean Carroll, Dr. Raymond Moody, and Dr. Steven Novella

With Peter Brookes, Robert Daly, John Mearsheimer, and Kevin Rudd

With Jed Rubenfeld, Michelle Anderson, Stephen Schulhofer, and Jeannie Suk

With James A. Dorn, Jared Bernstein, Russell Roberts, and Karen Kornbluh

With Michèle Flournoy, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Philip Zelikow, and Dov Zakheim

James Dobbins, Reuven Pedatzur, Shmuel Bar, Jeffery Goldberg

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Megan McArdle, Jonathan Chait, Dr. Douglas Kamerow

Hannah Rosin, Dan Abrams, Christina Hoff Sommers, David ZIncZenko

With John Eastman, Evan Wolfson, Sherif Girgis, and Kenji Yoshino

With Philip Gordon, Michael Doran, Thomas Pickering, and Mark Dubowitz.

With Peter Thiel, Charles Murray, Henry Bienen and Vivek Wadhwa

With Nicholas Carr, Genevieve Bell, Andrew Keen, and David Weinberger.

With Diann Rust-Tierney, Robert Blecker, Barry Scheck, and Kent Scheidegger.

With Gene Healy, Akhil Reed Amar, Deborah Pearlstein, and Philip Bobbitt

With Paul Nemitz, Andrew McLaughlin, Eric Posner, and Jonathan Zittrain.

With Greg Lukianoff, Angus Johnston, Kirsten Powers, and Jeremy Mayer.

With Josef Joffe, Chrystia Freeland, Peter Zeihan, and James Rickards

Upon hearing the news of the sudden passing of The New York Times's David Carr on February 12th, 2015, we assembled this rememberance. David appeared on our stage on October 27, 2009 arguing against the debate motion: Good Riddance to Mainstream Media.

With Joe Konrath, Franklin Foer, Matthew Yglesias, and Scott Turow

Thinking back to a 2006 debate in the context of the Charlie Hebdo attack

The debaters are Robert Fraley, Charles Benbrook, Alison Van Eenennaam, and Margaret Mellon.

In 1994, Oregon voters passed the Death with Dignity Act, which legalized physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Since then, it has become legal in 4 more states, including New Mexico, where the state court ruling that it is constitutional...

With Elise Gould, Edward Conard, Nick Hanauer, and Scott Winship.

Some say that the mass collection of U.S. phone records is a gross invasion of privacy. Others say that it is necessary to keep us safe. But what does the U.S. Constitution say? "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,...

The disintegration of Iraq, Syria’s ongoing civil war, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the promise and peril of the Arab Spring... What role should America play in the Middle East? For some America’s restraint has been a sign of...

 In K-12 education, there is nothing more controversial than the Common Core State Standards, national academic standards in English and math. Adopted by more than 40 states, they were developed, in part, to address concerns that American...

Revisiting a debate from 2006

Is independent political speech the linchpin of our democracy or its Achilles' heel?   For democracy to work, some say, citizens (and corporations, and unions, and media outlets, and other voluntary organizations) must be allowed to express...

If consciousness is just the workings of neurons and synapses, how do we explain the phenomenon of near-death experience? Is the prospect of an existence after death “real” and provable by science, or a construct of wishful thinking about...

Millennials—growing up with revolutionary technology and entering adulthood in a time of recession—have recently been much maligned. Are their critics right? Is this generation uniquely coddled, narcissistic, and lazy? Or have we let...

 Women's rights activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, became the center a media firestorm last week, when Brandies University reversed its decision to grant her an honorary degree. While they commend her for being "a compelling public figure and advocate...

Is the college of the future online? With the popularity of MOOCs (massive open online courses) and the availability of online degree programs at a fraction of their on-campus price, we are experiencing an exciting experiment in higher education. Does...

Affirmative action, when used as a factor in college admissions, is meant to foster diversity and provide equal opportunities in education for underrepresented minorities. But is it achieving its stated goals and helping the population it was created...

Disarming Syria. Asylum for Edward Snowden. Arming Iran. Deploying troops to Crimea. Is Vladimir Putin flexing his muscles, while our own president fades into the background of world politics, or is it all a global game of smoke and mirrors? Russia is...

With the drone strike on accused terrorist and New Mexico-born Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen, President Obama has tested the limits of the executive branch’s powers. Does the president have constitutional authority under the due process clause to...

Has Edward Snowden done the U.S. a great service? There is no doubt that his release of highly classified stolen documents has sparked an important public debate, even forcing what could be a major presidential overhaul of the NSA’s surveillance...

With the disastrous launch of the HealthCare.gov website, critics of the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” were given more fuel for the fire. Is this political hot potato's inevitability once again at stake? And is the medical community...

Although widespread retail-worker strikes failed to enact a rise of the federal minimum wage in 2013, on the state level, the tide is turning. Last week 13 states started the New Year by raised their minimum wage, and as many as 11 states, and...

According to a 2009 poll, around 1% of American adults reported eating no animal products. In 2011 that number rose to 2.5%--more than double, but still dwarfed by the 48% who reported eating meat, fish or poultry at all of their meals. In this...

The NSA collects data on billions of phone calls and internet communications per day. Are these surveillance programs legal? Do they keep us safe? If not for the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, most Americans would be unaware of the vast amounts...

Recent mass shooting tragedies have renewed the national debate over the 2nd Amendment. Gun ownership and homicide rates are higher in the U.S. than in any other developed nation, but gun violence has decreased over the last two decades even as gun...

If we value a free market in goods and free movement of capital, should we embrace the free movement of labor? Reciprocal treaties would allow citizens of the U.S. and other countries to work legally across borders. Would the elimination of barriers...

While gridlock and division in Washington make it difficult for either party or ideology to set the policy agenda, single-party government prevails in three-quarters of the states. In 24 states Republicans control the governorship and both houses of...

To prevent the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, The Treasury committed 245 billion in taxpayer dollars to stabilize America’s banking institutions. Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger....

The government shutdown is a dramatic display of the growing strife not only between the Republican and Democratic parties, but also, among the GOP itself.  For some, the shut down has even called into question the effectiveness of the American...

The government shutdown is a dramatic display of the growing strife not only between the Republican and Democratic parties, but also, among the GOP itself. For some, the shut down has even called into question the effectiveness of the American...

Although President Obama signed it into law in March of 2010, the Affordable Care Act remains one of the nation’s most divisive issues. Over the past nearly four years, House Republicans  have voted 40 times to repeal the law in part or in...

Remotely piloted aircraft, or drones, have been the centerpiece of America’s counterterrorism toolkit since the start of the Obama presidency, and the benefits have been clear.  Their use has significantly weakened al Qaeda and the Taliban...

Is there a clear course of action the U.S. could take to help the Syrian people that would lead to a better outcome for the country? Or is greater U.S. involvement likely to do little good in the end? The question has taken on a new sense of urgency...

Political gridlock in Washington triggered across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester, in March. As a result, the Pentagon was given six months to eliminate $41 billion from the current year’s budget, and unlike past cuts, this time...

The Food and Drug Administration, the oldest comprehensive consumer protection agency in the U.S. federal government, is charged with protecting the public health.  Under this mandate, it regulates drugs and medical devices for their safety and...

2012 was a disappointing year for Republicans. The failure to win key swing states in the presidential election and surprising losses in the House and Senate have prompted some reflection. Was their embrace of small government, low taxes, and a strong...

The first attempt at establishing a national minimum wage, a part of 1933’s sweeping National Industrial Recovery Act, was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935. But in 1938, under the Fair Labor Standards Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt...

It’s often taken for granted that America needs a strong dollar.  When the value of the U.S. dollar is strong relative to other currencies, it becomes attractive to investors and allows Americans to buy foreign goods and services...

Imagine a world free of genetic diseases, where parents control their offspring’s height, eye color and intelligence.  The science may be closer than you think.  Genes interact in ways that we don’t fully understand and there...

Over the summer of 2012, despite increased international pressure and economic sanctions, Iran doubled the number of nuclear centrifuges installed in its underground Fordow site, stopping just short of the capacity to produce nuclear fuel.  ...

Can science and religion co-exist?

It was 1971 when President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs." $2.5 trillion dollars later, drug use is half of what it was 30 years ago, and thousands of offenders are successfully diverted to treatment instead of jail. And yet, 22 million...

How can America's economy recover? By taxing the 1% or extending tax cuts to all?

Just because we can extend life, should we? Two teams of debaters are arguing for and against this motion. The U.S. is expected to spend $2.8 trillion on health care in 2012. If health care is a scarce resource, limited by its availability and our...

Reuel Marc Gerecht, Brian Katulis, Daniel Pipes and Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser debate the motion: "Better elected Islamists than dictators."

It's free speech versus possible corruption in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S. debate.

Some people are embracing the wave of increased natural gas extraction in the United States. Others, concerned about the risks, are saying no fracking way. A panel of experts weighs the pros and cons of a boom sparked by hydraulic fracturing in the...

In recent years, college football programs have been hit by a series of scandals. And observers have long raised questions about the risks of head injuries. A panel of experts looks at the state of college football in the latest Intelligence Squared U.S.