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.

This week’s Munk Members podcast explores two issues in the news. First, its official…the world is now bracing for a massive surge in COVID cases brought about by the Omicron variant. Why is it that twenty months into this crisis are we still responding to the virus with the threat of mass school closures? Are we fine as a society for children to bear the brunt of the Omicron wave while mass sporting events continue along with restaurant dining and unvaccinated workers going into long-term care homes? What does this say about our collective values if we once again deny children their right to education in the weeks and months to come? Second, in swing states across America, Trump supporters are winning local elections for key positions that oversee voting processes and policy. How at risk is America’s democratic infrastructure from a partisan take over? If this is happening, what does it mean for the midterm elections and 2024? And how can a democracy like America work if the machinery of elections themselves are explicitly partisan and politicized?

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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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