This is a sample of the Munk Members-Only Podcast. The program provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.

On this week’s Munk Members’ podcast explores three stories in the news. First, a “Nu” COVID-19 variant is making global headlines as the week end. What are the risks of a more infectious and possibly dangerous version of COVID to our already fragile pandemic recovery? And, how can the world address the threat of more variants like Nu emerging from the developing world? Second, Russia-Ukraine tensions were on full display this week. How likely is a hot war between Moscow and Kiev? To what extent is it in the interests of NATO members like Canada and the U.S. to be involved this conflict? And finally, Canada-America trade relations take a hit with the introduction by the U.S. of new tariffs on softwood lumber. How should Canada be managing a series of new bilateral trade and economic tensions from electric vehicles to pipelines to now softwood lumber?

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This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue.

More information at www.munkdebates.com.