The Munk Debates Podcast

Munk Foundation / iHeartRadio
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The Munk Debates podcast is an extension of the main stage events - in subject, speaker selection, tone and format. It will introduce the iconic brand - and its engaging debates about significant issues of our time. Audiences will hear strong and passionate arguments from both sides of an issue so they will have enough information to make up their own minds about where they stand.

  1. Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: Jerome Powell stands up to Trump and why the West is reluctant to intervene in Iran

    2D AGO

    Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: Jerome Powell stands up to Trump and why the West is reluctant to intervene in Iran

    To listen to the full episode consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates for as little as $50 annually, or $1.00 per episode. Go to www.munkdebates.com to sign up. Rudyard and Andrew react to the U.S. Justice Department's criminal investigation into Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell alleging he lied to congress about renovation construction costs. This administration is using trumped up charges and the instruments of the state to go after people they can't otherwise control. What makes Jerome Powell a more formidable opponent to Trump compared to others who have tried to stand up to the U.S. President in the past? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Andrew turn to Iran and the regime's brutal response to countrywide protests. What should we think of Trump's musings about intervening in this conflict? It has become fashionable to oppose any type of regime change following America's forever wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but if the West does not intervene, what will be the cost of human life in Iran and the region?

    22 min
  2. Friday Focus: Mass demonstrations in Iran and Trump sets his sights on Greenland and Latin America

    5D AGO

    Friday Focus: Mass demonstrations in Iran and Trump sets his sights on Greenland and Latin America

    Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to watch and listen to full episodes of Friday Focus with Janice Stein. Your donor membership comes with other great perks like access to the videos of our main stage debates and full length episodes of our weekly podcasts with Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne. Rudyard and Janice begin today’s show discussing the ongoing protests in Iran and whether they pose more of a threat to the regime than previous demonstrations. They also discuss the controversial killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota, the Trump administration's gaslighting response, and the subsequent backlash from the American public. Will this tragic incident have an impact on immigration policy more broadly? In the second half of the show, Rudyard and Janice turn to Venezuela and the fallout from the U.S. attack and capture of President Nicolas Maduro. How seriously should we take Trump's imperialist rhetoric regarding Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland? Does this signal a new age of rank colonialism? And is this the end of the international rules-based world order as we know it?

    15 min
  3. Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: Trump's hard power doctrine alienates allies and sets a destabilizing precedent

    JAN 6

    Munk Dialogue with Andrew Coyne: Trump's hard power doctrine alienates allies and sets a destabilizing precedent

    To listen to the full episode consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates for as little as $50 annually, or $1.00 per episode. Go to www.munkdebates.com to sign up. Rudyard and Andrew react to Trump's 2025 national security doctrine being put into action this past weekend with the US military operation in Venezuela and the abduction of its president Nicolas Maduro. Both hosts agree this was not about restoring democracy. Trump's use of hard power while dismantling the country's soft power and sources of genuine American strength is a backward, simplistic and adolescent view of American power. It is a foreign policy that supposes the 19th century great power competition model is most conducive to American interests. Rudyard and Andrew unpack different public reactions to this military raid - specifically from the leaders of Mexico and Denmark - and explain why it is in Canada's interest to draw a line in the sand and stand firmly against our southern neighbour. In the final moments of the show they discuss Pierre Poilievre's political future as he continues to trail in the polls behind Mark Carney. Will his lack of discipline and vocal support of Trump's military raid hurt his leadership aspirations?

    24 min
  4. Friday Focus Emergency Episode: Trump's military operation in Venezuela replaces the dictator but not the dictatorship

    JAN 4

    Friday Focus Emergency Episode: Trump's military operation in Venezuela replaces the dictator but not the dictatorship

    The full length edition of this special Friday Focus episode is being made available to all paying and non-paying subscribers. In this special emergency episode Rudyard and Janice unpack the stunning US invasion of Venezuela and abduction and arrest of its President Nicolas Maduro. Trump's statement that the US would "run" Venezuela for some indeterminate period of time gave little to no indication of a planned transition or a commitment to a democratic outcome. Was Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, the country's new leader, part of a deal with the US prior to Maduro's extraction? If so, the US now has a client regime in Venezuela signalling that the world is indeed returning to a system of spheres of influence. Does Putin now own Eastern Europe? Can Xi Jinping do what he wants in Taiwan? This one abduction could be the green light Russia and China have been waiting for and thus has huge global implications. Meanwhile every leader in the western hemisphere who opposes Trump is now worried about the possibility of being taken in the middle of the night.

    35 min
  5. Friday Focus: Putin derails peace talks and Iranian protesters take to the streets

    JAN 2

    Friday Focus: Putin derails peace talks and Iranian protesters take to the streets

    Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to watch and listen to full episodes of Friday Focus with Janice Stein. Your donor membership comes with other great perks like access to the videos of our main stage debates and full length episodes of our weekly podcasts with Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne. Rudyard and Janice open today's Friday Focus with Russia's allegation of a Ukraine drone attack on Putin which took momentum away from Zelensky's attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Why does Putin have a hold over Trump? Does this have anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to Iran and growing domestic unrest that has spread beyond the streets of Tehran. In a surprising move the President of Iran has said he wants to speak with the protesters and suggested that the government has failed to meet the needs of its citizens. In the long history of this regime, no president has talked this way so openly. Their currency is in free fall, there is a weakened supreme leader and deepening divisions among the political elite. Will the Revolutionary Guards be ordered to take to the streets and brutally suppress these protests like they have done in the past? Or will this time prove different?   This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue. More information at www.munkdebates.com.

    20 min
  6. Friday Focus: the people and events that changed the world in 2025

    12/26/2025

    Friday Focus: the people and events that changed the world in 2025

    In the last Friday Focus of 2025 Rudyard and Janice share their picks on the biggest newsmakers and events of the year and offer some geopolitical predictions for 2026 that could shake up an already volatile period.

    45 min
  7. Friday Focus: Trump defies all norms and a civil war on the right takes centre stage

    TRAILER

    Friday Focus: Trump defies all norms and a civil war on the right takes centre stage

    Rudyard and Janice begin today's show unpacking Trump's increasingly erratic behaviour. A Truth Social post attacking Rob Reiner was followed by the Trump appointed board voting to add his name to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Topping this off was a video of a new hallway of portraits in the White House featuring past U.S. presidents and plaques with Trump's personal commentary of these leaders. As we piece all these events together, is it fair to assume we are witnessing a certain type of senility and mental decline in the 47th U.S. President? And what does the Vanity Fair interview with his Chief of Staff Susan Wiles reveal about how he conducts himself behind closed doors? In the second half of the show Rudyard and Janice turn to the growing civil war in the GOP, specifically an edgier version of MAGA that embraces conspiracies and populist nationalism led by the likes of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson. There is a power struggle over which ideology should reign supreme in the party and another conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, has stepped forward to denounce this growing white nationalist faction. Who wins and who loses in this scenario? How does JD Vance's political ambitions fit into this changing political landscape? And why has anti-semitism become the breaking point between these two factions?

    18 min
  8. Friday Focus: Why America's new national security strategy has Ottawa on edge

    12/12/2025

    Friday Focus: Why America's new national security strategy has Ottawa on edge

    The full length edition of this week's' Friday Focus podcast is being made available to all paying and non-paying subscribers. America's new national security strategy doctrine is getting a lot of attention and for good reason. Two main points stick out for Rudyard and Janice: the assumption that Europe is a civilization in decline, and that the western hemisphere belongs to the United States. Up until this point many of us accepted that in the last decade the world has shifted considerably with the rise of China. The post-Cold war unipolar period led by America as the superpower is over and we are witnessing a return to the great power competition between countries that defined the late 19th and early 20th centuries. What should concern Canadians in the strategy announced last week is the notion of spheres of influence, which suggests that North America belongs to the U.S. who will dominate and discipline neighbouring countries. Putin praised the doctrine which also implies that the other great powers - specifically China and Russia - are allowed their own spheres of influence. How should Canadians interpret this strategy? And how should it inform our foreign policy and defense strategy in the years ahead?

    34 min
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4.4
out of 5
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About

The Munk Debates podcast is an extension of the main stage events - in subject, speaker selection, tone and format. It will introduce the iconic brand - and its engaging debates about significant issues of our time. Audiences will hear strong and passionate arguments from both sides of an issue so they will have enough information to make up their own minds about where they stand.

Information

  • Creator
    Munk Foundation / iHeartRadio
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    536
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Antica Productions and Bell Media
  • Show Website
    The Munk Debates Podcast

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