Lost Debate

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...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start on the new Florida law whose supporters and opponents call it by different names: Parental Rights in Education vs. “Don’t Say Gay.” We discuss what’s really in the legislation and the impact it could have on classrooms there. America might have an Adderall problem. We’ll talk about the companies behind the flood of prescriptions, and Facebook’s full-on opposition resear...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki lead off with the newly leaked texts from Supreme Court spouse Ginni Thomas. We discuss what her 2020 election conspiracizing means for her and her husband, Justice Clarence Thomas. Bill Gates is calling on rich nations to transition to 100% synthetic meat to fight climate change. We go over the environmental and ethical cases for just such a move. Biden seemingly calls for r...

Ravi and guest host Liz Wolfe start by unpacking the New York Times’ recent editorial stating “America Has a Free Speech Problem.” They discuss what took the paper so long to say so and the countless examples that prove them right. Citigroup says it will pay travel costs for Texas-based employees to get out-of-state abortions. We’ll explain how that fight fits into the national debate around abort...

Two years into the pandemic, Ravi, Cory, and Rikki look back on how much has changed since COVID-19 entered our lives. Standardized testing may be getting less standard. We discuss what makes the testing debate so key to our education system. Journalists are under attack in Ukraine – the most chilling front of Russia’s assault on the truth. And a majority of Americans agree: the Supreme Court need...

Tulsi Gabbard is being accused of “treasonous lies” after tweeting about purportedly U.S.-affiliated “biolabs” in Ukraine. Ravi, Cory, and Rikki sort through the noise. Liberal cities are shifting their approach on homelessness. We discuss whether punitive measures are the answer. Then we dive into a surprisingly murky third-rail debate in America: teen vaping. Finally, breaking news: Jeff Zucker’...

Uber and Lyft launch a new campaign to make sure their drivers can’t hail a union. Ravi, Cory, and Rikki discuss that labor fight playing out in Washington, as well as another in Minneapolis, where thousands of teachers are on strike. We cover alarming new data on pandemic learning loss before turning to the NFL’s Calvin Ridley and the fast-growing world of sports betting. Plus, we unpack “Black P...

U.S. gas prices hit an all-time high the same day Biden announces a ban on Russian oil imports. Ravi, Cory, and Rikki discuss the global energy fallout of the war in Ukraine. Cyberattacks could also be a retaliatory measure Moscow looks to use in undermining the West. We discuss U.S. readiness to defend and respond. Law students at UC Hastings drown out a guest speaker over accusations of racist s...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been met with an avalanche of Western economic sanctions. Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start off by going through the laundry list of financial measures before turning to Russia’s false narrative of the invasion, censorship of war-related content on TikTok, and non-white refugees facing racism as they flee the country. Homeschooling is sharply rising across America. We di...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start on Russia’s intensifying invasion of Ukraine. We discuss where things stand today and how all the many evolving pieces of this conflict – military, economic, diplomatic and political – all fit together. We go through the sweeping updates to CDC guidance on masking and vaccination in the U.S., as well as new studies pointing back to a Wuhan market, rather than a lab, as...

Ravi sits down with Matt Homewood, a dumper diver who is making it his mission to spread the word about the world's No. 1 solution to climate change: food waste. Born in the suburbs of west London, Matt started dumpster diving during a cross-country bike tour of the United States and later continued the trend while studying climate change in Denmark. Astonished by the sheer amount of perfectly sui...

We sit down with Bridget Phetasy, host of “Dumpster Fire” on YouTube and the “Walk-Ins Welcome” podcast. Bridget is a comedian and former Playboy columnist turned politically homeless thought leader. She’s cultivated a vibrant following of those who defy the political binary and value individualism over partisanship. We discuss the problems with the two-party system and the difficulty not falling...

The Regressives Ep. 4 | In America, it's all too common that we measure success by whether you leave the town you grew up in. The best and brightest, it's assumed, are those that get out. Why do we accept that as a country? Urban revitalization strategist Majora Carter says we shouldn't, and we won't see real improvement in our low-income neighborhoods until we approach them differently. Ravi and...

Ravi, Cory, and Rikki start on the oversimplified narratives surrounding 40-year high inflation. We discuss the implications for Donald Trump after his longtime accounting firm cut ties with the family business. We present the best and worst sides of TikTok and why we need a more nuanced discussion about how it affects society. Three members of San Francisco’s school board, ousted in a landslide v...