Room for Discussion

About Room for Discussion

Room for Discussion conducts free live interviews at the University of Amsterdam, with leading voices in politics, economics, journalism and more. Each interview is fully led and conducted by students.

Publisher

Room for Discussion

Category

news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

14 Jan 2016

Latest episode

23 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

1 of 170 episodes have a transcript.

1. 

   23 Oct 2026

   Boiling the Frog - DNB President Olaf Sleijpen on Tomorrow's Risks

   The Netherlands looks like the richest and most stable country in Europe today. We all moved here for a reason…However, reality looks very different: Dutch households carry nearly double the EU’s average debt. House prices keep climbing. A trillion euros in pension assets is mid-transition to a new system, one deadline at a time. And on interest rates, the country is just one vote in Frankfurt on a policy built for an economy that isn’t theirs.On October 9th, we sit down on the Room for Discussion couches with President of the De Nederlandsche Bank, Olaf Sleijpen, in the hopes of getting to know whether the DNB can actually change anything.

2. 

   17 Oct 2026

   Regulating the Unregulatable: Prof. Christoph Knill on Wicked Problems

   Societies today face issues far more wicked than those of their predecessors. From the environmental crisis to artificial intelligence to mass misinformation, policymaking has never been harder. As the modern state struggles to handle it all, one question remains: How can an increasingly powerless state elaborate and implement effective policies to handle increasingly complex grievances?Join us in a discussion with Prof. Christoph Knill from LMU, one of Europe’s most-cited political scientists and the continent’s leading expert on public policy, as we deconstruct the 21st century’s most pressing issues.

3. 

   14 Oct 2026

   Investigative Journalism with Patrick Radden Keefe

   From exposing the Sackler dynasty’s role in the opioid crisis to investigating the Northern Irish Troubles, Russian oligarchs, and organized crime, Patrick Radden Keefe has built a career uncovering stories that powerful people would rather keep hidden. We were thrilled to welcome Patrick Radden Keefe, award-winning investigative journalist at The New Yorker and bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. In this discussion, we explore the art of investigative journalism, the challenges of uncovering deeply buried secrets and how Keefe transforms stories of crime, power and institutional silence into compelling narratives.

Inside a recent episode

The Power of Women in Business

Published 8 Apr 2019 · Transcript excerpt

[…] So the creative gene is the same in boys and girls in their early years. And at about the age of 14 here in the Netherlands we have a choice in the system which says you can choose to go towards maths and sciences or you can go more towards arts and humanities to simplify that path. […]

Who has been a guest on Room for Discussion

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Kajsa Ollongren
• Alle Dorhout
• Student candidates
• Stéphane Duguin
• Philippe Sands

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

4,516,736

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 77 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

84

Social presence

0

YouTube

93

Engagement

81

Contact Room for Discussion

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Room for Discussion