Open To Debate

Open To Debate America is more divided than ever—but it doesn’t have to be. Weekly debates on NPR, Substack, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
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08/31/2026

Where should corporate profits go?

Nick Hanauer argues that companies are spending $1.5 trillion a year buying back their own stock, a practice that was illegal until 1982, while the share of the economy going to wages keeps shrinking.

Jason Furman argues that wages are the highest they have ever been in American history, and they are growing fastest for the lowest-paid workers.

Watch the full debate here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtuuvyLEmG4&t=2s

Cast your vote at opentodebate.org/vote by Friday, September 4.

08/29/2026

What should corporations be for?

Nick Hanauer argues the law should shift the purpose of a corporation from enriching shareholders to solving human problems, because the norms we set shape how people behave.

Jason Furman argues it's rhetoric without a mechanism, a rule that companies would simply ignore.

Watch the full debate with the link in our bio and cast your vote at opentodebate.org/vote by Friday, September 4.

08/28/2026

Does capitalism reward or punish the worst actors?

Nick Hanauer argues the system favors those who care least: there are plenty of businesses who prosper despite ripping off customers and employees.

Jason Furman (Harvard Kennedy School) argues the market is the enforcer: bad reputations get punished, and the biggest companies win by delivering more rather than cutting corners.

Comment “capitalism” to watch the full episode and cast your vote at opentodebate.org/vote by Friday, September 4.

Is capitalism broken?America runs on capitalism, but even some of its biggest winners are questioning how well it's work...
08/28/2026

Is capitalism broken?

America runs on capitalism, but even some of its biggest winners are questioning how well it's working. An entrepreneur with a 10-figure exit takes on the economist who helped steer the economy through the Great Recession, arguing whether the system is still delivering on its core promise.

Arguing yes: Nick Hanauer, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and host of Pitchfork Economics Podcast

Arguing no: Jason Furman, Harvard Kennedy School economist and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama

John Donvan moderates.

Watch the full debate here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtuuvyLEmG4&t=8s

Then cast your vote at opentodebate.org/vote before Friday, September 4 at 4pm ET.

08/27/2026

Is CTE the exception or the norm?

A new study in The BMJ finds that at least 1 in 4 former NFL players who died over a recent six-year span had the disease, and researchers say the real number could be far higher because CTE can still only be confirmed after death.

Jason Whitlock argues the cases that make headlines are outliers. Most players stop after high school or college and no study has shown any significant number of non-pro players developing these problems.

Malcolm Gladwell argues that's exactly the trap: the evidence can't show up in the living, because the only way to find CTE in a brain is an autopsy.

Watch the full debate on all Open to Debate platforms.

08/25/2026

Does climate change mitigation pay for itself?

Michele Wucker, founder of Gray Rhino & Company, argues that it does: mitigation is an investment that builds industries, creates jobs, and keeps paying off for decades, while much of adaptation is money spent just to stay in place.

Bjorn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, argues that if mitigation paid for itself, governments wouldn't have to pay people to choose it. Electric cars, like , sell because subsidies cover the cost, not because the technology has won.

Watch the full debate on all Open to Debate platforms.

08/21/2026

How much will climate change really cost?

Matthew Kahn, USC economist, argues the best economic estimates point to damage the world can absorb: a loss of a few percentage points spread across a century of growth.

Kaveh Madani, environmental scientist and director of UNU Institute for Water, Environment and Health, argues those numbers can't carry that much weight. The same research tells a far darker story under different assumptions, and every model is only as good as what's fed into it.

Watch the full debate here: https://bit.ly/4xj1Jny

Heat waves, floods, and rising seas are already reshaping where and how people live. Some argue that human ingenuity has...
08/21/2026

Heat waves, floods, and rising seas are already reshaping where and how people live. Some argue that human ingenuity has always risen to the challenge, and that innovation and smart investment will let us adjust to a warming world. Others argue that betting on adaptation underestimates the speed and scale of what is coming and that the costs will land hardest on those least able to pay them.

Join us as we debate: Can Humans Adapt to Climate Change? Arguing yes: Bjorn Lomborg, bestselling author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, and USC economist Matthew Kahn. Arguing no: economic policy expert Michele Wucker, founder of Gray Rhino & Company, and environmental scientist Kaveh Madani, who has led environmental policy at the UN and in Iran.

Moderated by John Donvan.

Watch and listen now with the link in our bio.

08/19/2026

Is working poverty a sign that capitalism is broken?

Richard Vedder, economics professor emeritus at Ohio University, argues this is simply how economies work: there will always be a gap between earners, and no system can turn every job into a middle-class one.

Amy Traub, Associate Director of Policy and Research at Demos, argues the market itself proves low pay is a choice. Some of the most profitable names in retail are also its best payers.

Our next debate, “Is Capitalism Broken” is streaming live tomorrow at 2:30 PM ET. Comment “capitalism” and we’ll send you the calendar link!

08/17/2026

Is there a realm of existence beyond the physical one?

Raymond Moody argues there could be a higher domain of existence alongside our own, one that doesn't operate by physical principles and thus doesn't contradict anything science has established.

Sean Carroll argues that almost anything is conceivable hypothetically and that there is no real evidence for Moody’s claim. For him, the real question is whether the evidence for another realm is strong enough to overturn what physics, chemistry, and neuroscience have already established.

Watch the full debate on all Open to Debate platforms.

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