Versus Debates was a series of online debates created by Intelligence Squared and Google using Google Plus' +Hangout technology. The first debate was in March 2012, titled "It's time to end the War on Drugs".

Season 1

The first season of Versus was begun on 13 March 2012 with the debate "It's time to end the War on Drugs", featuring

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

Russell Brand Russell Edward Brand (born 4 June 1975) is an English comedian and actor known for his flamboyant, loquacious style and manner. Brand has received three British Comedy Awards: Best Newcomer (2006), Best Live Stand-Up (2008), and the award for ...

Antonio Maria Costa Antonio Maria Costa (born 16 June 1941) is an Italian economist. He lives in Vienna and Brussels. From May 2002 to August 2010 Costa served as an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations to the positions of executive director of the United Na ...

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008. Spitzer was b ...

, Geoffrey Robertson QC,

Fernando Cardoso Fernando Henrique Cardoso (; born 18 June 1931), also known by his initials FHC (), is a Brazilian sociologist, professor and politician who served as the 34th president of Brazil from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2002. He was the first Brazi ...

and

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

. The second Versus event was "Hip-hop doesn't enhance society, it degrades it". Q-Tip,

KRS-One Lawrence "Kris" Parker (born August 20, 1965), better known by his stage names KRS-One (; an abbreviation of "Knowledge Reigns Supreme Over Nearly Everyone") and Teacha, is an American rapper from New York City. He rose to prominence as part of ...

Jesse Jackson Jesse Louis Jackson (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator ...

Jason Whitlock Jason Lee Whitlock (born April 27, 1967) is an American sports journalist, columnist, and podcaster. He hosts a program for the media company Blaze Media, where he hosts the show ''Fearless with Jason Whitlock''. Whitlock is a former columnist ...

dream hampton Dream Hampton (stylized as dream hampton) is an American filmmaker, producer, and writer. Her work includes the 2019 Lifetime documentary series '' Surviving R. Kelly'', which she executive produced, and the 2012 ''An Oversimplification of Her B ...

and more debated the politics of hip-hop to a hall of 2,000 and an online audience of 80,000.

References

Debates Google {{Google-stub