The Sheen Center

18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Naomi Schaefer Riley is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she focuses on child welfare and foster care issues, and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is a former columnist for the New York Post and a former Wall Street Journal editor and writer, as well as the author of several books, including No Way to Treat a Child: How the Foster Care System, Family Courts, and Racial Activists Are Wrecking Young Lives.

For the negative:

Martin Guggenheim is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law Emeritus at New York University Law School and founder of the Family Defense Clinic. As one of the nation’s foremost experts on children’s rights and family law, he has published more than 50 articles and book chapters, authored five books, and successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Sheen Center

18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Perry Metzger is a technology manager, consultant, academic researcher, and entrepreneur specializing in computer systems, networking, software development, system architecture, security, and cryptography. He has held key roles across tech and finance, and currently serves as the chairman of Alliance for the Future, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy organization focused on artificial intelligence.

For the negative:

Brian Merchant is a tech journalist, columnist, and critic focused on AI, Silicon Valley, labor, and power. He is the author of two books, The One Device: the Secret History of the iPhone and Blood in the Machine: the Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech, as well as the Substack newsletter Blood in the Machine. He also serves as a journalist in residence at the AI Now Institute.

The Sheen Center

18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012

Doors open at 6:00 PM
Meeting Convenes on the Main Stage: 6:30 PM
Reception offsite: 8:00 PM

Moderated by Soho Forum Director Gene Epstein.

For the affirmative:

Terence Kealey is a British biochemist and historian of science and economics. He is the former vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham and the author of The Economic Laws of Scientific Research and Sex, Science and Profits: How People Evolved To Make Money. He is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, where he published the recent white paper, Mission Lost: How NIH Leaders Stole Its Promise to America.

For the negative:

Jeffrey Flier is an endocrinologist and an award-winning researcher on the causes of obesity and diabetes. He is a Harvard University distinguished service professor and the Higginson professor of physiology and medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was the 21st dean of the faculty of medicine at Harvard University and served as a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health.