The Soho Forum Debates
49 episodes
Can Zohran Mamdani Make NYC Affordable?
Should the NIH Be Abolished?
Terence Kealey and Jeffrey Flier debate abolishing the National Institutes of Health.
Will AI Benefit Everyone?
A Soho Forum debate on artificial intelligence's potential to deliver widespread societal benefits
Should Child Protective Services Intervene More?
Naomi Schaefer Riley and Martin Guggenheim debate the proper role of child protective services.
Is It Time To Break Up Big Tech?
Matt Stoller and Geoffrey A. Manne debate antitrust law and Big Tech.
Should Affirmative Action End?
Jason Riley and Paul Frymer debate affirmative action and the Supreme Court.
Is Oregon Proof That Drug Decriminalization Will Fail?
The Drug Policy Institute's Kevin Sabet debates Reason's Zach Weissmueller.
Should Paying for Sex Be a Crime?
A debate between Melanie Thompson and Kaytlin Bailey.
Are Trump's Deportations Constitutional?
Glenn Greenwald debates Anna Gorisch on Trump's deportation policies.
Should the U.S. Have a Public Health Insurance Plan?
Yale’s Jacob Hacker and Sesame’s David Goldhill debate a government-run health insurance plan.
Was the Cold War a Deception?
The American Enterprise Institute's Hal Brands and investigative journalist Gareth Porter debate the necessity of the Cold War.
Dave Smith and Alex Nowrasteh Debate Immigration
Is it consistently libertarian to support government restrictions on immigration?
Should Libertarians Prioritize Their Own Communities?
Eric Brakey and Andrew Heaton debate whether libertarians should prioritize building local liberty-focused societies like the Free State Project or focus on reforming the federal government.
Are the Palestinians Systematically Oppressed?
City University of New York professor Peter Beinart and AEI's Michael Rubin debate Israel and Palestine.
Did the U.S. Provoke Russia's Invasion of Ukraine?
Antiwar.com's Scott Horton and The Free Press's Eli Lake debate U.S. foreign policy and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
El Salvador's Bukele: Authoritarian or Model President?
Frontier magazine's Peter Gietl and Salvadoran journalist Ricardo Avelar debate the merits of Nayib Bukele's criminal justice policies.
Was the Supreme Court Wrong About Presidential Immunity?
Glenn Greenwald and Elizabeth Price Foley debate Trump v. United States and its implications for presidential powers.
Is Javier Milei Actually Improving Argentina?
Two Argentine pundits debate the success of Javier Milei.
Are American Living Standards In Decline?
David Leonhardt and John Early debate stagnation, inequality, and how people feel about the economy.
Are the Two Parties Any Different?
Two former Republican staffers, David Stockman and Stephen Moore, debate the state of the party.
Is Donald Trump the Best Choice?
Famed economist Arthur Laffer debates Libertarian Party presidential candidate Chase Oliver.
Did COVID Come From a Lab?
Author Matt Ridley debates virologist Stephen Goldstein on the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
What's the Best Argument for Libertarianism?
Dennis Pratt and Gene Epstein debate the efficacy of ethical and consequentialist arguments for libertarianism.
Debate: Austrian vs. Chicago Economics
Economists Gene Epstein and David Friedman debate the merits of the Austrian and Chicago schools of economics.
Glenn Greenwald and Alan Dershowitz Debate Bombing Iran
The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Glenn Greenwald takes on famed lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz.
A Soho Forum Discussion of COVID with Tom Woods
In lieu of the planned debate with Brent Orrell, Gene Epstein and Tom Woods discuss the prudence of COVID-related restrictions.
Did Capitalism Fail During the Pandemic?
Columnist Joe Nocera debates Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.
What's the Root Cause of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
Eli Lake of The Free Press debates author Jeremy Hammond at The Soho Forum.
Must Government Fund Science?
AEI's Tony Mills and British biochemist Terence Kealey debate whether science needs government funding.
Social Media Censorship and The First Amendment
Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya debates St. John University's Kate Klonick on the federal government's role in social media censorship.
Will AI Destroy Humanity?
Susan Schneider and Jobst Landgrebe debate the dangers of AI.
Will Electric Cars Disappoint Environmentalists?
Mark Mills and Rosario Fortugno debate the future of electric vehicles.
Would Anarcho-Capitalism Be a Disaster?
Yaron Brook and Bryan Caplan debate the merits of anarcho-capitalism.
Should Libertarians Support School Choice?
Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children debates libertarian author Stephan Kinsella.
Should the U.S. Have Free Immigration?
The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate immigration policy.
Is the Nonaggression Principle Incoherent?
Economists David Friedman and Gene Epstein debate how best to persuade people toward libertarianism.
Are Libertarians Greedy and Delusional?
Law professor Andrew Koppelman and Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein debate whether libertarianism has been corrupted.
Does The 1619 Project Have Anything To Teach Us?
Two historians go head-to-head on whether the controversial New York Times project has any value.
Black America and Progressivism: Jason L. Riley vs. Nikhil Pal Singh
The Manhattan Institute senior fellow and the NYU historian debate whether black Americans should move away from progressivism.
National Divorce?
Is breaking up the U.S. a good idea? Law professor F.H. Buckley and Libertarian Party activist Jonathan Casey debate.
Should We Abolish the Federal Reserve?
Economists Lawrence H. White and Frederic Mishkin debate whether the Federal Reserve should be replaced with free market institutions.
Should Americans Value Nationalism?
National Review's Rich Lowry debates the Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh.
Never Lock Down Again? Jay Bhattacharya vs. Sten Vermund
Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya debates Yale's Sten Vermund on COVID-19 lockdowns, focused protection, and the Great Barrington Declaration.
Is Free Market Ideology Hurting the Economy?
A livestreamed debate between Binyamin Appelbaum and Gene Epstein
Is It Time to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons?
Author Ward Wilson advocates eliminating nuclear weapons. Defense consultant Peter Huessy says that's unrealistic.
Does Climate Science Really Compel Us Toward Urgent Action?
Climate scientist Andrew Dessler of Texas A&M University defends urgent action on climate against scientist and author Steven Koonin.
Will Bitcoin Demonetize Gold?
Monetary Metals CEO Keith Weiner defends the future of gold against bitcoin podcaster Pierre Rochard.
Should the U.S. Be Arming Ukraine Against Russia?
Scott Horton vs. Cathy Young in a live debate at PorcFest, in Lancaster, New Hampshire.
Did Prescription Opioids Cause The Overdose Epidemic?
Doctors Adriane Fugh-Berman and Jeffrey Singer debate the harms of prescription opioids