Friday Focus
The Friday Focus podcast is a weekly, half-hour masterclass on current events with Janice Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs, and Rudyard Griffiths, Chair of the Munk Debates. To access full length episodes of Friday Focus consider becoming a donor to the Munk Debates. For as little as a $25 CAD annual charitable donation you can listen to 50+ weekly Friday Focus programs online or on your favorite podcast platform.
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Munk Debates chair Rudyard Griffiths and managing director Ricki Gurwitz give listeners a preview of what to expect at the December 3rd Munk Debate on the Two-State Solution and their efforts to engage young people in debate by offering 50% off on tickets to those under age 25 before they...
Rudyard and Janice preview our upcoming 2025 autumn mainstage Munk Debate on the Two-State Solution taking place on December 3rd in Toronto. What can we expect from the team of Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, who believe Israel’s future depends on pursuing two states for two peoples? Can the team...
Rudyard and Janice react to Trump’s stunning decision to cancel trade talks with Canada in response to Doug Ford’s anti-tariff ad. This comes as negotiations were reportedly going very well, with a new deal expected to be signed soon. Is this all a ploy by the U.S. President to extract...
Rudyard and Janice start the show with the big news stories coming out of Gaza this week: the public executions Hamas is conducting in the Gaza strip in order to terrorize and intimidate civilians, and the Israeli government’s growing concern that Hamas is breaking the ceasefire deal by not returning...
Rudyard and Janice dedicate today’s show to the monumental Gaza ceasefire deal which includes a commitment by both Hamas and Israel to end the war. Many of the details still need to be worked out which will inform how successful this deal really is. But make no mistake, Netanyahu has...
Rudyard and Janice begin today’s show with Trump’s threat to Hamas to accept the terms of his ceasefire deal by Sunday or risk being “quickly extinguished”. What are the sticking points for Hamas and surrounding Arab countries like Egypt and Qatar? Why do the Qataris in particular continue to be...
Rudyard and Janice start today’s show with Trump’s address at the UN General Assembly this week where he warned European countries that they are “going to hell” due to mass migration. While citizens rightfully expect their governments to protect their borders, we can’t ignore the fact that we in the...
Rudyard and Janice start today’s show with the big news story of the week: the capitulation of ABC to the Trump administration, suspending the Jimmy Kimmel Show indefinitely in response to his somewhat innocuous remarks about Charlie Kirk’s assassination. Trump is continuing to attack institutions that are integral to the...
Rudyard and Janice discuss the social and political fallout from right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s assassination. What does the country’s online reaction reveal about the state of American culture and democracy? We are living in a climate of heated language which is becoming more and more violent. All signs point to...
This week’s SCO summit in China projected a series of powerful images about the rise of China and the cleaving of the world into two power blocs. Putin, Xi, and Kim Jong Un watching the military parade at Tiananmen Square was a performance of a great power, as was Narendra...
Rudyard and Janice start the show with Trump’s firing of CDC director Susan Monarez over disputes about vaccine policy, and the attempted dismissal of Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook in his bid to take control of the central bank and lower interest rates. In the second half of the show...
Friday Focus: Trump is a foreign policy wrecking ball, and Carney goes from elbows up to elbows down
Rudyard and Janice open today’s Friday Focus with the fallout from last week’s Trump-Putin meeting and Monday’s Zelensky visit to Washington. Putin is walking back from almost every concession he offered last week, essentially demanding that Ukraine be demilitarized without a pathway to NATO membership. This is a non-starter for...