Exchanges - Ideas and Argument Podcast

The deep divisions of Brexit Britain are explored with a raucous London audience and an expert panel. A further referendum? The Prime Minister's withdrawal deal? How has voting to leave the European Union affected Britain’s standing in the world? BBC World Questions is in the capital to debate some of the contentious issues that are still dividing the UK.

Following a popular and peaceful uprising last year, the country’s new Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, won over 70% of the vote at recent elections. He says his political bloc will now lead an economic revolution that will help pull many of its people out of poverty. How will the new government deliver this transformation? Will it balance growth and investment with environmental concerns? And what will drive Armenia’s foreign policy goals?

Some believe Europe is more divided than ever. After years of austerity and migration, populists are on the rise in countries like Italy, framing politics as a battle between ordinary voters and a corrupt European ‘establishment’. But the continent is also divided over how to move forward in a world where rising economic powerhouses threaten to dominate. Zeinab Badawi and her panel - Hugh Bronson from Germany’s AFD party, Marta Grande from Italy’s 5Star Movement, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt from the European People’s Party and Pauline Bock, a French journalist and political commentator - take questions from an audience in Rome about the future of the continent.

The cannabis industry, reparations for slavery, how to tackle the fourth highest murder rate in the world: World Questions is in Jamaica to debate the big issues of a country which despite its problems has a host of successes in fields as diverse as academia, athletics, literature and reggae music.

Brazil’s burning issues are discussed with an audience of Brazilians at the Cultura Inglesa in São Paulo. Jonny Dymond and a panel of leading politicians and commentators tackle the recent election of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, the environment, racism and crime.