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What do you mean when you talk about debate, as opposed to conversation, discussion, or disagreement?
Debate is distinct because it should be structured. The presidential debates, for instance, are not structured as an actual debate. The structure of debate brings two sides together. You have opening remarks that are uninterrupted. So you are sitting and actively listening to their arguments because you're going to address them later. And if you're not listening, you can't do that. Each side is given uninterrupted time to make their case, present their opening arguments.
Then you have a moderator come in, which is very different from the kind of moderators we see in the American political debates, as it pertains to an Oxford-style format or a parliamentary-style format. The moderator is really honing in on an argument on one side, bringing it to the other side in what you'd call a point-counterpoint, and actually trying to understand where you might be able to agree or why you disagree and find some resolution.
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What are some of the most successful debates you've had?
We call each one of these debates that we produce a miracle, because it's a five-way negotiation. With building a team in an Oxford-style debate, it's two teams of two with a moderator. But even if you're curating a conversation that's one-on-one, there is still so much that goes into your decision to debate—just the wording of the question, because a few different words gives you an advantage or gives your opponent an advantage, and you're not going to agree to debate on those grounds.
We begin by going out with the right kind of motion language. We gather a ton of expertise and research and insight from the leading voices and thinkers and writers and researchers on these topics. And then we approach guests with a very carefully crafted question on the topic that we think is really balanced.
A debate that I was shocked at how big it became was on genetically modified food. Both sides have a lot of competing research. The proposition was just "Genetically modified food, yes or no?" It was very simple. That's a metric to success—distilling really complex ideas into three- to five-word propositions.
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Do you agree that good, honest debate in a public forum seems to have gone missing?
It definitely was missing before we were established in the early 2000s. There wasn't a live forum for debate in the United States. There were a couple of debate shows. Think about Firing Line with William F. Buckley—that was definitely debate. I think debate has gone missing because we ended up with really partisan mainstream media perspectives.
There was a really interesting study that did brain scans of people listening to information that they disagreed with, that really challenged their religion, their political leanings, their value system, and found that the areas of the brain that were activated were the same as fight and flight. There's a physical, biological response to being challenged, that we actually have to learn how to deal with. And that learning is the process of critical thinking. And that's not taught. We don't teach debate. We don't teach that process of questioning what you hear. It's not part of education any longer.
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Are you pursuing a presidential debate-hosting capability?
We are actively pursuing being the next format to host the presidential debates in 2024. I'm very optimistic and hopeful that they will take place, but there's a lot that needs to happen before we get there.
How do you get the candidates to submit to a fair discussion and analysis of their ideas?
First you make it an actual debate format. What we see now are joint press conferences with really rehearsed talking points. There's almost nothing that distinguishes the current presidential debates from what you hear on the campaign trail. So for us, the priority is certainly putting forward debate formats and moderators that are actually helping us understand where these two candidates are coming from and what they believe, to actually engage with each other on stage directly. So it's not just a question from a journalist to candidate A, a question from a journalist to candidate B, and rinse and repeat for an hour and a half.
They're always laced with these personal attacks. There are ad hominem attacks. They're really repetitive. There's question dodging. In that format, if it's just a question-and-answer format, it is easy to evade a question.
I think there's a track record now. The American public expects debates from our highest office of elected officials. And I'm pretty confident we would be able to make those happen. I think we can do presidential debates, an unresolved format, a series of five questions that are yes or no, with opening remarks, with a structured engagement period. I'd love to see an Oxford-style debate with the presidential candidate and their vice presidential candidate debating together. I understand if that seems delusional, but I would love to see that.
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