Lost Debate

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start by explaining the chaotic state of air travel these days, before turning to yet more damning updates on the police response in Uvalde and a breakthrough in the Senate on gun reform. The hosts then review what we’ve seen from the January 6 committee’s hearings so far and discuss what their case will ultimately amount to. Rikki walks us by the trunk through the fascinatin...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki jump into #TechTuesday (patent pending) with a big question: what constitutes sentience, and does Google’s AI chatbot LaMDA pass the test? Then we turn to the push to regulate the booming business of location data, and check in on the state of self-driving car safety. Finally, we wrap up with a discussion on the lagging effort to bring workable WiFi access to rural America, a...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with America’s inflation crisis, the Fed’s efforts to combat it, and the resulting bear market. Then the hosts turn to the recent discourse around the alleged societal harms of marijuana use, the attempt on Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life, the showdown between the Biden administration and charter schools, and the potentially shifting tide of Russia’s war in...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with the recall vote that ousted San Francisco’s progressive DA, Chesa Boudin before turning to NYC’s plans to throw a couple casinos in the concrete jungle and Ilya Shapiro resigning from Georgetown. Then we turn to a lengthy debate on California’s reparations task force, debating whether America can redress the legacies of slavery and the best proposals to try. Finall...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with all the fallout from the double-edged defamation trial that captured a nation: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. Then the hosts tour the campus of a Facebook-funded “Metaversity” before talking about real classrooms and how many students should be in each one, new charges for the Proud Boys over their role on January 6, the Biden administration’s reversal on Saudi Arabi...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start by checking in on the slowing work-from-home trend before turning to a growing one: the rise of Buy Now, Pay Later. We then turn to the Biden administration’s approach to inflation and one of the thorniest longstanding debates all around the world: whether sex work should be legalized. Finally, we take a look at some sobering testimonials from school counselors and hear...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with the outrage over the police response to the Uvalde school shooting, as new details emerge about the timeline of that tragedy. They then turn to the latest revelations from the Durham probe and whether it’s yet produced the smoking gun some outlets have asserted in the last week. Rikki walks us through the Supreme Court’s intensifying investigation into who leaked t...

"School choice" is among the most politicized phrases in America, mainly because it means different things to different people. Charter schools are at the heart of that divisive debate, pitting progressives and conservatives against one another in a shouting match over what "choice" truly means and who deserves to have it. Ravi sits down with Shavar Jeffries, the president of Democrats for Educati...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with the horrific school shooting in Texas, leaving 21 people dead: 19 of them, only 4th graders. The hosts address the resulting gun reform debate playing out across America before turning to another heated reform discussion: police accountability. We go through Biden’s new executive order and whether it’s a template worth applying on a wider scale. Then we jump into F...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start by explaining why there’s no cause for panic with the latest virus making headlines: monkeypox. The hosts then turn to the war in Ukraine and the looming global food shortage that threatens to result, as well as the new bipartisan bill aiming to break up Google’s advertising business. Cory walks us through the public spat over college football’s new “campaign finance” s...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start on Netflix laying out a standard: they’re going to keep publishing content that some of their employees might disagree with. Then we turn to Tuesday’s primary races and what we should take from the results in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and others. Rikki updates us on the DHS pausing its much-criticized “Disinformation Governance Board,” Ravi pitches a wild idea, and...

 Ravi, Cory, and Rikki begin with the racist mass shooting in Buffalo, laying out what we know about the suspected gunman’s motivations and the prevalence of his ideology in American society. We then discuss the fentanyl crisis and how it’s driving drug overdose deaths to record highs before turning to Elon’s on-again, off-again Twitter buyout, the root causes and political uproar around the short...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start by discussing a conversation taking over the internet right now: which political party has changed more in the last few decades, Democrats or Republicans? Then we turn to the chaos in the stock market and the leftward drift of the ACLU before wrapping up with Capitol Hill staffers unionizing and New York Democrats’ congressional maps getting thrown out for good. [1:02]...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with everything’s that happened in the week since the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade leaked to the public. Then they turn to the wearable health tech revolution, the FDA moving to ban menthol cigarettes, Section 230 reform, Amazon firing union organizers, and the LSAT on thin ice. [1:52] Roe v. Wade Update [11:42] Wearable Health Tech [21:42] FDA Bans Menthols [3...

In the face of over 100,000 overdose deaths throughout the U.S. last year, New York City opened the nation’s first safe consumption sites. Trained professionals monitor drug use and intervene to prevent deaths from overdose. The sites are predictably divisive, drawing intense criticism and praise alike, but behind that debate lies a long list of crucial unknowns. Will the sites enable addiction or...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with J.D. Vance’s win in Ohio’s GOP primary, one of the strongest indicators yet of the power of Trump’s endorsement. Then we turn to the Biden administration weighing federal student debt relief, before turning to the troubling trend of comedians under attack: this time, Dave Chappelle. We discuss how China’s lockdowns could threaten the global economy, and why a menta...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki begin with one of the biggest stories in recent memory: an unprecedented leak from the Supreme Court, signaling a major decision ahead that would overturn the court’s 1973 decision codifying abortion rights, Roe v. Wade. We then turn to the Department of Homeland Security’s mystifyingly named Disinformation Governance Board before wrapping up with our runthrough of the White...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki begin by debating a new bill in California that would call on the state’s Medical Board to crack down on doctors accused of spreading COVID misinformation. The Supreme Court considers the prayers of a high school football coach, with some big implications for religious liberty. We go through the facts and the implications before bringing you the latest on Ukraine, both on the...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with the only story anyone seems to be talking about – Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover – before turning to more industry news: a bad quarter for Netflix, and a streaming service that didn’t even last one quarter: CNN+. We give our dispatches from the streaming warfront. Disney has a plus too, but they have a definite minus in Florida, as Governor Ron DeSantis revokes their...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with the political outrage machine that is Libs of TikTok before turning to South Carolina, where a death row inmate faces execution by firing squad. We talk capital punishment in America. How many libraries does Cory have to donate to get his kid into Yale? We discuss the strange tradition of legacy admissions. And a certain former school principal around here has some...

Ravi sits down with Yascha Mounk to talk about his new book, "The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure," a tailor-made read for Lost Debate listeners. Ravi and Yascha go through the fraying aspects of American democracy while putting a hopeful lens on what it's getting right. Mounk puts the state of global democracy in its vast historical context, arguing to...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with Jared Kushner’s big, beautiful, brazen payday from Saudi Arabia, raising $2 billion from the regime he stridently defended as the Trump administration’s lead man in the Middle East. Compensation for services rendered, or an investment in a second Trump term? The suspected gunman in Tuesday’s Brooklyn subway shooting is in custody, but the debate it’s renewed on NYC...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start with a surprise out of a Michigan courtroom: zero convictions in the alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Whitmer. We discuss the ins and outs of the case and how it fell apart on prosecutors. Then we turn to the swirling debate around the ever-controversial 1619 Project, its framing of history, how it’s evolved and responded – or failed to respond – to legitimate criticism, and...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki begin with the growing calls for war crime proceedings against Putin and Russian forces in Ukraine before turning to a very different category of legal case: the defamation suit against the woman behind the “Shitty Media Men” list. Biden is lifting a controversial immigration order stemming asylum seekers at the southern border. We discuss whether that will exacerbate the cri...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki go through the many allegations against Hunter Biden before diving into major outlets’ overdue corrections – some of them made very quietly – to coverage of the president’s son in the month before the 2020 election. Amazon workers are unionizing in Staten Island. We discuss whether that could turn into a recurring delivery for the mega-retailer. President Biden has overseen a...