INDUBITABLY: The Debate Podcast

Raising a child is hard, and it doesn’t always go as planned.  But when a child’s actions cross the line from harmless mischief into behavior with serious negative consequences to the people around them, how much responsibility should their parents bear? When a parent has been negligent, should they be held ethically or legally culpable?

In this episode, Josh and Kelly tackle a classic political and economic debate.  Does Capitalism or Socialism do a better job at creating wealth?  What about distributing it?  With the world currently being predominantly capitalist, how has that gone for us?  Would it be better off incorporating more socialist policies? Or even switching to it completely?

Donald Trump is almost certainly set to be the Republican nominee for President in November, but that does not mean that he is universally supported within his own party.  In this episode we weigh the good odds he brings to the table of recapturing the White House against some long term concerns he poses for Republicans.  With the party standing at a crossroads, is Trump the right path to follow into the future?

In part 2 of our series on the conflict between Israel and Hamas we look at how the messaging from both sides has evolved over the past couple of months, and ask exactly how effective it is in garnering support to its side.  Is the world starting to experience compassion fatigue for the people whose lives are defined by this conflict?  Or is our collective attention span simply not long enough to provide the support needed to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

The Israeli - Palestinian conflict is a decades old dispute, but these last two months have exploded into a monumental exacerbation of violence.  When battle lines are drawn so clearly and hatred is so deeply rooted, is it possible to have a productive conversation on an issue?  In part 1 of our series on this issue, we try to help you understand the history and arguments for this particular war as well as provide some lessons to apply to discussions on similarly contentious conflicts.

On this Halloween, we examine fear through a variety of questions:  Is fear useful or harmful?  How afraid should we be of imaginary things?  Should we be scared of death?  Will Kelly survive an hour immersed in a horror filled conversation?  There’s only one way to find out… join us on Josh’s favorite holiday of the year!

Plenty of movies and tv shows have attempted to tap into debate as a source of impassioned and quick witted speeches, but do they get it right? Debates on the screen, in politics, and in academic tournaments take a variety of forms, and have their own distinct strengths and weaknesses.  We examine each of these and point out the lessons that you can learn to improve your own debating skills.

Our society is obsessed with stories about crime, and most of the time the more heinous it is, the better.  That means that there are millions of dollars to be made off of the retelling of the lives and misdeeds of criminals.  Do they have a right to share their stories under free speech protections?  Does that include the profit that follows?  Or should a consideration of their victims prompt us to forbid such cashing in on crime?

The recent fires in Maui and the continuing aftermath have brought attention to the impacts that tourism can have on popular destinations.  Many local, or even national, economies can be completely dependent on the tourism industry, but how do we ensure that same dollars are not having destructive long term effects on the people, cultures and environments of fragile locales?

Hollywood is currently on strike, in large part over the fear actors and writers have of AI generated art.  What implications does this new technology have for the creative content that we consume?  Will human artists be replaced by computers in Movies? Music? Photography?  And if the quality of AI generated art can compete or surpass our own capabilities, is that even a bad thing?