The Soho Forum Debates

Brent Orrell of the American Enterprise Institute and podcaster and author Tom Woods debate the resolution, "Government-imposed restrictions during the Covid pandemic were prudent and essential."

Joe Nocera of The Free Press and Gene Epstein of The Soho Forum debate the resolution, "Capitalism has been a…

Reporter and podcaster Eli Lake and author Jeremy Hammond debated the resolution, "The root cause of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the Palestinians' rejection of Israel's right to exist."

M. Anthony (Tony) Mills of the American Enterprise Institute and Terence Kealey of The Cato Institute debate the resolution, "Government must…

Stanford's Jay Bhattacharya debates St. John University's Kate Klonick on the federal government's role in social media censorship.

Susan Schneider of the Center for the Future Mind and AI entrepreneur Jobst Landgrebe debate the resolution, "Artificial intelligence poses a threat to the survival of humanity that must be actively addressed by government."

The Manhattan Institute's Mark Mills and InOrbis CEO Rosario Fortugno debate the resolution, "Between now and 2035, electric vehicles in…

Chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute Yaron Brook and George Mason University professor Bryan Caplan debate the resolution, "Anarcho-capitalism would definitely be a complete disaster for humanity."

Education activist Corey DeAngelis and attorney Stephan Kinsella debate the resolution, "Today's school-choice movement in the U.S. is worthy of support by libertarians."

The Cato Institute's Alex Nowrasteh and attorney Francis Menton debate the resolution, "The U.S. should have free immigration except for those who pose a…

Libertarian economists David Friedman and Gene Epstein debate the resolution,"The right way to persuade people of libertarianism is by showing them that its outcomes are superior, without any resort to the flawed non-aggression principle."

Law professor Andrew Koppelman and Soho Forum director Gene Epstein debate whether Libertarianism has been thoroughly corrupted by greed.

Two historians go head-to-head on whether the controversial New York Times project has any value. Woody Holton vs. Phil Magness

The Manhattan Institute's Jason L. Riley and New York University (NYU) professor Nikhil Pal Singh debate whether black Americans should move away from progressivism.

On February 21, law professor F.H. Buckley and Libertarian Party activist Jonathan Casey debated the resolution, "The breakup of the United States into different regions is a workable option likely to bring a marked improvement in human affairs."

On January 26, economists Lawrence H. White and Frederic Mishkin debated the resolution, "Replacing the Federal Reserve with free market…

Rich Lowry and Alex Nowrasteh debate the resolution, "Nationalism is an important value that Americans should support."

On November 15, Jay Bhattacharya and Sten Vermund debated the resolution, "Focused protection, as set forth in the Great Barrington…

"Free market ideology is largely responsible for the dismal performance of the U.S. economy over the past few decades." That…

As tensions rise in Eastern Europe, Ward Wilson argued in an Oxford-style debate for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Arguing for the negative was Peter Huessy.

Does the world need to rapidly convert to using renewable energy to save the planet from global warming? That was…

Keith Weiner defends gold against bitcoin podcaster Pierre Rochard. The debate resolution was "Gold will remain an important form of money in the twenty-first century."

Should the U.S. give full military and political support to Ukraine in its war with Russia, short of sending troops? At a live debate in New Hampshire, Cathy Young said yes and Scott Horton said no.

Adriane Fugh-Berman defended the proposition, "America's overdose crisis is the result of doctors over‐treating patients with opioids." Jeffrey Singer argued that the rate of overdoses and the rate at which doctors prescribe opioids aren't correlated.

Do people who hire sex workers deserve to go to jail, or should all laws prohibiting consensual sex work be repealed?

On May 9, 2022, writer and activist Julie Bindel debated Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown at the Sheen Center in lower Manhattan. The resolution was "A good society should criminalize the purchase of sex."

Should the United States use military force to deter China from invading Taiwan?
That was the subject of this month's Soho Forum debate, which took place in front of a full house at the Sheen Center in downtown Manhattan.
Brookings Institution senior fellow William Galston said yes. Former State Department diplomat Peter Van Buren said no.

Haidt, professor of ethical leadership at New York University and co-founder of Heterodox Academy, defended the debate resolution, "The federal government should increase its efforts to reduce the harms caused by social media."

Ilya Somin and Angela McArdle debate the resolution, "While vaccine mandates are an infringement on freedom, some are justified due to their big payoff in lives saved."

The United States Constitution explicitly calls for copyright and patent laws  to "promote the progress of science and useful arts"…

Bill Kristol vs. Scott Horton: "A willingness to intervene, and to seek regime change, is key to an American foreign policy that benefits America."

Do voter identification laws ensure secure and trustworthy elections, or are they a way for political parties to manipulate the democratic process in their favor? NYU's Eliza Sweren-Becker debates Hans von Spakovsky of The Heritage Foundation.

"The Free State Project is a more realistic path to liberty than the Libertarian Party."

If the world were to lose confidence in the dollar, what could replace it— another fiat currency, gold, or bitcoin? That was the topic of a recent Oxford-style debate hosted by the Soho Forum.

John Vallis, a financial consultant and host of the Bitcoin Rapid-Fire podcast, believes that bitcoin will eventually replace governments' fiat money as the preferred medium of exchange. He argues that bitcoin's global adoption is a matter of when not if.

Lawrence H. White, an economics professor at George Mason University, is skeptical of bitcoin's future as money. He believes it may have a future as a financial asset, but isn't suitable to become a global medium of exchange.

"Socialism is preferable to capitalism as an economic system that promotes freedom, equality, and prosperity."

That was the proposition at an in-person Soho Forum debate held on Sunday, April 18 in The Villages, Florida.

Do U.S. presidents need fast-track authority or should their power be sharply curtailed? At a Reason-sponsored Soho Forum debate held on March 17, 2021, and moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein, Terry Moe and Gene Healy went head-to-head on this issue. It was an Oxford-style debate, meaning the winner is the person who moves the most people in his direction.

At each of Whole Foods Market's more than 500 American stores, managers ask every team member—from the meat clerks to the baristas to the janitorial staff—to orient their work around a shared purpose, which is to make natural and healthy food widely available.  This goal, according to Whole Foods CEO and co-founder John Mackey, is in no way inconsistent with maximizing shareholder value, often seen as the essential purpose of a corporation. 

At a Reason-sponsored Soho Forum debate held on February 18, 2020, Ayn Rand Institute Chairman of the Board Yaron Brook challenged this view. He believes that maximizing profit should always be the primary goal of companies, and it's that focus which explains why capitalism has lifted the broad masses out of poverty. That's the message businesses should be emphasizing, he said, and it's inspiring enough.

American Compass Executive Director Oren Cass vs. the Cato Institute's Scott Lincicome on whether the U.S. should increase its intervention in the manufacturing industry.

Should the COVID-19 lockdowns be replaced with a more targeted strategy? In an online Soho Forum debate on December 13, 2020, Martin Kulldorff, a Harvard biostatistician and epidemiologist and coauthor of the Great Barrington Declaration, debated Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, who signed the John Snow Memorandum. Soho Forum director Gene Epstein moderated.

Is the electoral college the best system for electing a president? That was the subject of an online Soho Forum debate held on Wednesday, November 11, 2020. Richard Epstein, a law professor at New York University, defended the system against Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard. Soho Forum director Gene Epstein moderated.

Are fossil fuels an imminent threat to human life, or are attempts to eliminate them more destructive? That was the subject of an Oxford-style online Soho Forum debate hosted on Sunday, October 18th, 2020.

Arguing in favor of the complete elimination of fossil fuels over 20 years was Nesbit, the executive director of Climate Nexus. He went up against Lomborg, the president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center. The debate was moderated by Soho Forum director Gene Epstein.

In July, the Soho Forum hosted a three-way debate asking the question "Who should Libertarians Vote For in 2020?" George Mason Law Professor Ilya Somin made the case for Joe Biden, chair of the Libertarian Party in Los Angeles Angela McArdle argued for Jo Jorgensen, and attorney and Manhattan Contrarian blogger Francis Menton defended Donald Trump.

A lot has changed since July, and with the election now less than three weeks away, the Soho Forum hosted another event in which those same three libertarians updated their arguments for their preferred candidates.

"The latest in school segregation." That's how the headline of a recent New York Times op-ed described private "pandemic pods,"…

The COVID-19 pandemic makes it all the more urgent for the U.S. to install a system of Medicare for All.

That was the topic of an online Soho Forum debate held on August 19, 2020. Arguing in favor of the proposition was Gerald Friedman, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts and the author of the book, The Case for Medicare for All. He went up against Sally Pipes, president of the Pacific Research Institute and author of False Premise, False Promise: The Disastrous Reality of Medicare for All. Soho Forum director Gene Epstein moderated.

Should libertarians vote for Biden, Jorgensen, or Trump in the next presidential election? That was the topic of an online…

There is overwhelming evidence that the criminal justice system is racist. That was the resolution of an online Soho Forum…

"The lockdown has saved hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives and spared American hospitals the horrors of rationing…

"The current pandemic makes it all the more necessary for the federal government to tighten restrictions on immigration." That was…