Lost Debate

4.6 (600)
POLITICS
UPDATED WEEKLY

Lost Debate is a weekly podcast from The Branch that brings you news, ideas, and arguments from around the political spectrum. We engage in the good-faith discussions that too much of our society and media miss. It's hosted by Ravi Gupta, a former Obama staffer turned school principal.

1H AGO

Venezuela, Bari Weiss, State Censorship

The U.S. just carried out a stunning strike in Venezuela—capturing Nicolás Maduro—and Ravi argues the hard part isn’t the raid, but the chaos, precedent, and “what happens next,” with oil looming over everything. He’s then joined by The Atlantic’s Adam Serwer to unpack the CBS/60 Minutes controversy, where a vetted segment on deportations to an overseas prison was spiked, allegedly to appease the Trump administration. Serwer argues this exposes a growing double standard on the right: “free speech” as the freedom to speak, but not to criticize—backed by real pressure on newsrooms, universities, and public debate. A sharp episode about power—who gets to invade, who gets to speak, and who decides what the public is allowed to see. Adam Serwer’s writing at The Atlantic –––– Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

50 min
6D AGO

The End of Culture

Ravi sits down with cultural critic W. David Marx (author of Blank Space) to ask a simple question: if there’s more music, TV, and art than ever, why does culture feel so… stuck? Marx argues it’s not that people stopped creating—it’s that we’ve stopped treating new, daring work like it matters, so breakthroughs rarely spread and change the mainstream. They unpack how algorithms and money-driven incentives steer us toward what’s already popular and easy, instead of what might challenge or surprise us. If you’ve ever wondered why everything feels like sequels, recycled trends, or endless scrolling, this conversation puts clear language to that feeling—and offers a way out. W. David Marx’s book Blank Space and newsletter Culture: An Owner’s Manual Ravi’s Substack https://realravigupta.substack.com ----- Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

57 min
12/18/2025

Are We Getting Stupider?

Are We Getting Stupider? Andrew Rice joins The Lost Debate to ask an uncomfortable question: why are America’s schools getting worse—even in places that claim to care most about equity? Drawing on sobering national data and reporting from affluent liberal districts, Rice argues that declining standards, political complacency, and the abandonment of accountability have quietly erased decades of progress for kids. Ravi and Rice debate how both parties walked away from what worked—and why lowering expectations has become a substitute for real reform. It’s a sharp, urgent conversation about education, power, and who pays the price when adults stop demanding better for children. Andrew Rice’s article The Big Fail (NY Magazine, Nov 2025) ------------ Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

44 min
12/10/2025

The Worst Story of the Year

This episode takes a visit to the goonverse — a strange online world where hundreds of thousands of people spend hours chasing a “goon state,” a trance-like high reached through marathon adult video consumption. Ravi talks with reporter Daniel Kolitz, whose Harper’s article on this community has become a viral sensation: horrifying, riveting, and impossible to look away from. Together they explore what this subculture reveals about loneliness, post-lockdown life, and the dangers of instant, unlimited online pleasure crowding out real-world connection. It’s disturbing, darkly funny, and a warning sign about where we’re all heading. Daniel Kolitz’s The Goon Squad, (Harper’s, Nov 2025) -- Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

38 min
12/03/2025

How to Think About 2026

In this episode of The Lost Debate, Ravi steps back from the noise to map the forces that will shape 2026—from AI disruption and China’s industrial surge to U.S. political fractures, economic stress points, and the new wave of weight-loss drugs. Instead of predictions, he lays out the big questions we’ll all have to face in the year ahead. He also opens up about his own fight with “attention poverty,” why he’s switching to a flip phone, and how he’s rebuilding his personal moral code. It’s a wide-angle, deeply human guide to the year before it arrives. Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog -- Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

36 min
11/19/2025

The Market Is Speaking — Are You Listening?

Ravi sits down with Lawrence McDonald to reveal why the classic “just buy the index” advice may now be one of the biggest risks in the market. They break down how passive investing, AI-driven mega-caps, and relentless stock buybacks have concentrated everyone’s savings into a fragile handful of stocks. McDonald explains how de-dollarization, shrinking demand for U.S. treasuries, and nonstop bailouts are rewriting the safety playbook. He lays out where the real opportunities may be now—in hard assets, select energy and commodity names, and short-term cash positions ready to strike when the bubble finally pops. Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog Lawrence McDonald’s How To Listen When Markets Speak and The Bear Trap’s Report Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

57 min
11/13/2025

The Age of Extraction

Ravi sits down with Tim Wu, author of The Age of Extraction, to unpack how America’s biggest tech empires rose—and why they might be due for a breakup. From Teddy Roosevelt’s railroad wars to Amazon’s pay-to-play marketplace, Wu traces how antitrust battles have shaped innovation for more than a century. He explains how Amazon’s tactics—copycat products, buried listings, and punishing sellers—mirror the monopolies of the past, and what the FTC is trying to change. The episode ends on AI, asking whether Big Tech’s wild spending is fueling progress—or just building smarter walls around its power. -- Ravi’s Analog Writer’s Group: https://www.ravimgupta.com/analog Tim Wu’s The Age of Extraction -- Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

49 min
11/06/2025

Shrinking US Pop, SC on Tariffs, Low Expectations

Ravi and Idrees Kahloon start with the current Supreme Court showdown: can a president raise tariffs alone, or does Congress have to sign off? They unpack why the Court might push back—and what that could mean for future presidents. Then they turn to immigration, where the U.S. may soon have more people leaving than arriving, with big effects on jobs and Social Security. Finally, they dig into education: why test scores are falling even as grades rise, and how places like Mississippi and New Orleans are turning things around by raising standards and focusing on real learning. – The Inconvenient Success of New Orleans Schools (The 74, 8/25/25) The Court Must Decide If the Constitution Means What It Says (The Atlantic, 11/5/25) America’s Impending Population Collapse (The Atlantic, 10/29/25)America Is Sliding Toward Illiteracy (The Atlantic, 10/14/25) – Leave us a voicemail with your thoughts on the show! 201-305-0084⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ravi at @RaviMGupta Notes from this episode are also available on Substack: https://thelostdebate.substack.com/ Read more from Ravi on Substack: https://realravigupta.substack.com Follow The Branch at @thebranchmedia Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lost-debate/id1591300785 Listen to more episodes of Lost Debate on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7xR9pch9DrQDiZfGB5oF0F Listen to Where the Schools Went: https://thebranchmedia.org/show/where-the-schools-went/

56 min

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TRAILER

Introducing: The Lost Debate

Lost Debate is a non-profit media company founded to tell the stories of those misunderstood, overlooked, or just plain threatening to those with privilege and power. We’re ethically contrarian, which means we challenge conventional wisdom —not to be different or provocative —but to tell stories and highlight issues we believe are valid and underrepresented. Through originally produced podcasts, long and short-form videos, written commentary, and investigative journalism, we’ll build fresh narratives.

10/21/2021

•

2 min

Ravi Gupta

Host
Rikki Schlott

Host

4.6

out of 5

600 Ratings

Loved the episode on the economic state but one question

08/16/2025

Stilik

Been listening to this show for a year or 2 now and its really my favorite when it comes to politics. I just recently listen to the episode on the economic state of the US and I have one question, what use outside of currency does cryptocurrency have that gold does not? Btw when are you getting a new co-host? I do miss Rikki but she been gone long enough. Time to get a new right leaning co-host. Anyways, keep up the good work!!
What Happened?

12/23/2025

sr83mel

Long-time listener who’s disappointed to see this show lose its way. What used to be a reliably thoughtful and engaging hour is now dominated by the host talking about himself. Asking for listener reviews because there are no ads while delivering inconsistent episodes misses the mark.
All Self Promotion

10/27/2025

AB96Port

This used to be one of my favorite shows because he brought real depth and nuance to important issues. Now, we go weeks without episodes, and when there is a new one, it’s just a reread of his personal substack. Take those rereads to therapy and bring us back the real Lost Debate.
Refreshingly honest

07/05/2025

Sammy Olso

This is the rare political podcast that doesn’t just represent a side. He brings real nuance, curiosity, and depth to today’s most polarizing issues—without falling into lazy bothsides-ism.

Lost Debate is a weekly podcast from The Branch that brings you news, ideas, and arguments from around the political spectrum. We engage in the good-faith discussions that too much of our society and media miss. It's hosted by Ravi Gupta, a former Obama staffer turned school principal.