This 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.

This week’s Munk Members podcast focuses on two stories in the news. First, what should we take away from the public debut of the findings of the U.S. congressional committee looking into the January 6, 2021 attack on the capitol buildings? Is this the end of Trump’s political ambitions to launch a second bid for the presidency in 2024? How close was America in January 2021 in irreparably breaking its democratic institutions? Second, Shanghai is set to go back into lockdown this weekend for another round of testing of its 24 million plus inhabitants. What is driving Beijing’s relentless COVID zero strategy as China’s economy falters and public unrest over seemingly endless restrictions grow? Are we in fact witnessing a new phase of authoritarian government emerging in China that could well outlast the pandemic?

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