Super Debate

SuperDebate crossed 500 members today.

It’s a meaningful milestone, but what excites me most is who’s joining: professors, students, founders, researchers, creators, and normal people who simply believe we need better ways to disagree.

We’re building a place where people can sharpen their thinking, engage seriously with opposing ideas, and win the arguments that matter.

500 down. We’re just getting started.

Join us: https://superdebate.org

Chicago friends: come spend an evening with SuperDebate.

On Wednesday, October 21, we’re hosting the Chicago Debate Showcase at The Ferris downtown. Three live debates about AI and our future, including: Is the AI investment boom a bubble?

You’ll get to ask questions, vote on the strongest arguments, and meet people over pizza and beer. No debate experience needed. Just curiosity and a willingness to hear another perspective.

Doors open at 5:30 PM. Debates start at 6.
The Ferris · 1 W. Monroe St.

Early bird tickets are $20, including pizza, beer, and the full evening. Available before October 1 or until the first 50 sell.

Speakers announced soon. I’d love to see you there.

https://superdebate.org/events/chicago-debate-showcase-2026

SuperDebate is starting to expand beyond the debates we produce ourselves.

We’re launching our first open online tournament, and we’re preparing to announce more than a dozen upcoming debates with top researchers and thought leaders.

But one of the things I’m most excited about is building local SuperDebate communities.

We’re looking for people who want to lead a debate club in their city and create a place where people can come together, wrestle seriously with important questions, hear opposing arguments, and actually enjoy disagreement again.

It doesn’t need to become another job. A couple of hours a month can be enough to create something genuinely valuable in your community, and we’ll be building it alongside you.

We also have an open role for a founding head of marketing for someone excited about helping SuperDebate reach the next level.

If either sounds interesting, take a look or reach out directly.

superdebate.org/careers

This exchange gets to the heart of the DEI debate.

One side says DEI weakens merit by giving different groups different advantages in order to reach proportional representation.

The other side says the bigger threat to merit is pretending every system is already neutral, when discrimination, bias, informal networks, and unstructured evaluation can shape outcomes before anyone gets a fair shot.

So the real question is not whether merit matters.

The question is whether DEI protects merit, or distorts it.

Watch both sides and tell me who made the stronger argument.

In 90 minutes, SuperDebate premieres one of the most important debates we’ve hosted yet:

DEI: More Harm Than Good?

Wilfred Reilly argues DEI does more harm.

Armand Domalewski argues DEI is net positive.

Two serious thinkers. Opposite sides. A structured format built for actual clash, cross-examination, and a winner the audience can judge.

Watch live here:

https://youtube.com/live/3KvK_ZC0wOw

Event page:

https://superdebate.org/events/dei-more-harm-than-good

Great write-up from Alan Goldsher in Chicago Sports Stuff on SuperDebate’s Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James debate.

He captured exactly what we’re trying to build: not another sports shouting match, but a place where the biggest arguments in culture can be tested with structure, facts, equal time, and audience judgment.

This one had a clear result.

The registered voters chose the Jordan side, represented by Dr. Ian Lampert, who did an outstanding job breaking down the facts and proving the case for Jordan as the GOAT.

Lindsey also brought a serious and well-argued case for LeBron, which is what made the debate worth watching. Strong opposing cases are the point.

Thanks to Alan and Chicago Sports Stuff for covering the debate and understanding the mission behind it.

Read the piece here:

chicagosportsstuff.substack.com

https://youtu.be/aWSiHIp7USk?si=xoWLq33n9VcnMzq6

What does it mean to wrestle with God?

In the first episode of our Ancient Debate Wisdom series, we trace how the Jewish tradition turned disagreement into a sacred practice, and how that practice helped shape modern democracy itself.

John Thomas Connor Connor (founder of SuperDebate) sits down with Stephanie Lepp (producer, Synthesis Media) and John Hines (founder, Debater Hub) to explore where debate lives inside Judaism, from the rabbinic schools of Hillel and Shammai to the pages of the Talmud, and why "arguments for the sake of heaven" produce wisdom while rage-baiting produces noise.

WHAT WE COVER

-The meaning of "Israel": to wrestle with God, and the questioning culture of the Passover Seder -Why the Talmud is built entirely on recorded disagreement Havruta: studying in pairs because different perspectives sharpen the mind
-Arguments for the sake of heaven, and the line between productive and destructive debate
-The forced disputations: what happens when the conditions for fair debate are stripped away
-From Martin Luther to the Declaration of Independence: debate as the engine of a free society
-Switch-side debate, steel-manning, and the Greek dialectic Tikkun olam: repairing the world, one honest argument at a time

Whatever tradition you've inherited, there's a rich legacy of debate inside it waiting to be rediscovered.

Next week's featured Super Debate:

Has DEI Done More Harm Than Good?

Wilfred Reilly argues that DEI has done more harm.

Armand Domalewski argues that DEI is net positive.

This is the kind of debate SuperDebate exists to host: a serious public question, two credible people on opposite sides, and a structured format built around argument instead of noise.

DEI is one of the most charged topics in American life. Most conversations about it happen in friendly rooms, hostile comment sections, or institutional settings where people are afraid to speak plainly.

We’re putting the question into a real debate format.

Opening statements.
Cross-examination.
Rebuttals.
Closing arguments.
Audience judgment.

Premieres July 1 at 12 PM CT.
Register to watch
https://superdebate.org/events/dei-more-harm-than-good

Going in, who do you think has the stronger case:
DEI good or DEI bad?

Tell us why below!