This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast. The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.

On this week’s Munk Member’s Podcast we dig into three stories: Variants of concern are becoming more “concerning” as third waves builds in Canada, India, and Japan: Just how serious a long term threat are these third waves now that mass vaccinations are taking place? Is there something about the new variants that is could knock back our current assumptions about when life will be returning to something closer to normal? – A “super league” of the world’s best soccer teams blows up in 72 hours: What does this intrigued filled event featuring billionaires, prime ministers and millions of fans tell us about wealth, power, politics and the world’s most loved sporting pastime? Is it a sign that the super rich and the super powerful are about to be held to account in a post-COVID world in a way they have not experienced before? – Jonathan Haidt’s Munk Dialogue took place this week and provided a far ranging set of insights into our democracy, shared values and why we are such a divided society at moment when technology has brought us all so much closer together virtually. We unpack the key insights from Haidt’s talk and debate whether it is possible to restore civility and substance in the public square in our time.

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This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue.

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