Who would you like to see debate in a casual public environment?

In My Humble Opinion
1

One TV show I would love to create is one in which prominent people on opposite sides of major issues debate each other, or at least engage in conversation on said issue, with light moderation. Examples:

  • Michelle Malkin (conservative pundit and author of In Defense of Internment - look it up on Google to get the gist, but its main purpose, IIRC, is to defend the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII and make connection to modern groups, especially Muslims) and George Takei (openly gay actor and resident of Japanese American internment camps as a child)

  • Dylan Avery (creator of “Loose Change”) and Ted Olsen (attorney whose wife died at the Pentagon)

  • Anna Sarkeesian (game developer who was the center of controversy) and any prominent Internet Men’s Rights Activist

  • Barack Obama and any one of a number of people (though Orly Taitz immediately sprang to mind)

Any further suggestions for my wistful dreams?

2

PRI has a daily hour-long show with guests from right-leaning and left-leaning newspapers, and it’s usually a lot of fun. They’re very careful to remain respectful, but avidly put forward very opposing viewpoints. The show is hugely educational.

I’d love to see a genteel debate between a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister over the basic issues of disagreement between these two major branches of Christianity. Five hundred years of history, to be debated in one-hour segments: a really big order, but, if they are both dedicated to the truth, it could be magnificent.

(The moment either of them starts using straw-man attacks – “Catholics worship Saints” – the value of the exercise evaporates away wholly.)

3

Niall Fergeson and Simon Schama have gone at it a few times over the years. I’d like to see that again.