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This is open to debate. I'm John Donbeth. And in light of the holiday weekend, we wanted to share one of our favorite debates from the past year. This is when we asked two comedians to come to a comedy club in New York City, this was last fall, and debate this question. Is wokeness killing comedy? So what you're going to hear is a serious debate, but it's also going to have some laughs along the way. We asked our good friend of the show, Nick Gillespie, to take this one on as guest moderator.

There will also be some references in

this debate to sex and some other edgy materials, so please take care if you have children nearby.

And with that, we hope you enjoy, and here's Nick.

Welcome to Open to Debate. I'm Nick Gillespie, editor at large for Reason Magazine, and I'm guest

moderating this debate here at the Comedy Cellar in New York City. We're here to debate the

question is wokeness killing comedy? I guess the very first thing we should do is define the

terms of debate. Being woke or

staying woke is a phrase that originated in African American slang, referring to the urgency

for blacks to have a heightened awareness of social inequality, especially related to race. In contemporary

usage, it means emphasizing issues

of race, gender, sexual orientation,

neurodiversity, and more when analyzing all social interactions.

Supporters of whokeness say it calls much needed attention

to neglected but systemic power imbalances while critics see

wokeness as a way of shutting down legitimate debate and discussion. We're going to debate

...