The Debate

By FRANCE 24 English

The Debate episodes

January 07, 2021 Stable democracy? America after the storming of the Capitol
Is America's legacy in doubt? The world's most powerful nation has been a stable democracy for most of the better part of two centuries. As the planet awakens to images of the first storming of the US Capitol since the British did it in the War of 1812, there are those who will focus on security lapses: how did crowd control get so easily overwhelmed?
39 min
January 06, 2021 US election certification: Unprecedented bid to overturn presidential result
Is it all just a bit of political theatre by Trump loyalists or is it a coup attempt? Join us for a special edition as we cover what has up until now always been a ceremonial formality: the US Congress' certification of the presidential winner. Some Republicans are vowing to contest Joe Biden's victory. That triggers a recess of the joint session, with senators and congressmen then going to their respective chambers to debate before reconvening.
53 min
January 05, 2021 All over soon? New Covid-19 strains raise uncertainty
With vaccines comes the promise of light at the end of tunnel. That said, it is always safer to manage expectations. As the UK returns to its strictest lockdown since the spring, as Germany and France extend confinement measures, the whole world is watching new strains of Covid-19 out of England and South Africa. Will vaccines be enough? Do new variants mean that humanity has to learn to live with coronaviruses? What future for infectious diseases in a globalised world?
37 min
January 04, 2021 Not fast enough: How to speed up rollout of Covid-19 vaccine?
If 2020 was the year of the pandemic, may 2021 be the year we won the race to save lives. Every vulnerable person inoculated against the coronavirus is a small victory en route to the day when herd immunity will get the better of Covid-19. So why are the French so slow out of the starting blocks? As of the weekend, less than 500 jabs had been administered here, while Germany was up to 250,000 and the UK nearly a million. We ask about the French government's rethink of its cautious strategy.
37 min
December 23, 2020 Stuck at home: How to satisfy humanity's urge to roam?
What happens when an always-on-the-go planet finds itself locked down? This time a year ago, we were wondering how to slow down and reduce our carbon footprints, and were exploring concepts like flight shaming and questioning the sense of humanity's insistence on red-eyed flights for business and package holidays at the opposite end of the globe.
48 min
December 22, 2020 Man of our times: Why Albert Camus matters today
He's been gone six decades but after 2020, it feels like French literary great Albert Camus matters more than ever. The year began with tributes for the 60th anniversary of the French existentialist icon's premature death in a car crash. Then came Covid-19. And readers locked down the world over dusted off that go-to guide, “The Plague”, to make sense of the randomly unexpected. We ask our panel about the re-reading of a novel set in Camus's native Algeria in the wake of World War II. But it's not just "The Plague" that is timeless.
47 min
December 21, 2020 The age of fast fashion: How to kick the planet's shopaholic habit?
If you're looking for that tacky Christmas jumper to provide a dose of light relief from 2020, you've come to the wrong place. Besides the pandemic, we still have a planet to save. The problem is cheap clothes with a short shelf life. It's called fast fashion. Since World War II, what we wear has grown cheaper and cheaper while coming from further and further away. We ask about the scale of the carbon footprint and social cost, and how TikTok and Instagram have further fed that buying frenzy. The world's favourite sport is not football. It is shopping.
43 min
December 17, 2020 Will Modi bend? India's farmers dig in against reform
Has Narendra Modi met his match? For nearly a month, farmers have dug in for a fight over a reform bill that upends the subsidy system at the core of a sector that still employs more than half the country's workforce. Protesters are unmoved by attempts to brand them as dangerous agitators or terrorists.
43 min
December 16, 2020 Charlie Hebdo verdict: Closure for victims of January 2015 attacks?
It was billed as a trial for the history books. Now that the verdict is in for the Charlie Hebdo trial, is France closer to or further from closure? We ask about sentences for accomplices of the radicals who, nearly six years ago, targeted the satirical weekly and a kosher supermarket in Paris. For over three months, while the court heard sometimes gut-wrenching testimony... outside, there were new attacks, triggered by Charlie Hebdo's republication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed: the beheading of a middle school teacher, the knife attack against a church in Nice.
42 min
December 15, 2020 Digital reckoning: EU regulators move to tame Big Tech
Has Silicon Valley met its match? The European Commission has unveiled its double-barrelled blueprint for reining in the unchecked power of Big Tech. We ask about draft bills to regulate free speech online and the use of our personal data.
43 min

About The Debate

From the publisher's feed

A live debate on the topic of the day, with four guests. From Monday to Thursday at 7:10pm Paris time.

Share The Debate

Sign up to save your podcasts

The Debate

The Debate episodes

About The Debate

More shows like The Debate

Global News Podcast

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Fareed Zakaria GPS

Intelligence Squared

Newshour

Amanpour

The Documentary Podcast

The Interview

arts24

People & Profit

Access Asia

Talking Europe

The 51%

Fashion

Inside Europe

Tech 24

Down to Earth

Business

Inside the Americas

Europe Rendezvous

The World This Week

GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Reporters

Focus

Banlieue Project

The Ezra Klein Show

The Observers

Press Review

Ones and Tooze

The Observers Direct

The Foreign Affairs Interview

The Global Story