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7 Debate Lessons YOU Can Learn From My Jubilee Video

Wondering how I did it? Here are my own top tips and takeaways from perhaps the most bizarre and intense televised clash of my journalistic career.

Mehdi HasanAug 08, 2025
13,553 10,412 voices LIVE 1,282 Share Transcript

My ‘Surrounded’ debate last month was almost two hours in length, and featured me facing off against 20 different ‘far right conservatives.’ While many of my opponents weren’t interested in a good-faith debate or discussion, and opted instead for personal abuse and ad hominem attacks, I happened to have prepared for that encounter, and so I made sure I got my points across.

Many of you have been asking me over the past few weeks not just how I prepared for this very bizarre, almost surreal, clash on the Jubilee show, but what my exact debate strategy was. What was I thinking, for instance, when the Batman villain from Iran was defending the killing of Palestinian kids in Gaza, or the Hulk wannabe and descendant of US settlers was challenging my own American citizenship? How did I tackle and rebut the racist abuse, collective ignorance, and endless contradictions from my 20 - 20! - opponents?

10 million YouTube views later, here in this Zeteo video above are my top seven lessons from the ‘Surrounded’ debate; lessons that I hope Zeteo subscribers can take away, learn for themselves, and apply in their own daily arguments.

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1Overview of Groups

The conversation revealed three distinct groups that disagree sharply about whether to engage the far right in public, but much less about why 47188. Group 1, the largest, backs showing up and arguing: they say refusing to debate looks like weakness and that a viral clip reaches people who would never watch Zeteo 995132.

Group 2 rejects the format itself, agreeing that shows like Jubilee reward cruelty and that energy is better spent organizing 11271140. Group 3 sits between them: it cares less about the debate than the audience, favoring one-on-one conversations and reaching the undecided 1634758.

Despite these divisions, all three groups converged on preparation and facts, on distrust of shouting matches, and on wanting spaces where disagreement is heard in proportion rather than by whoever replies first 23188201.

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Concept mockup prepared by Showra for Zeteo. Article content © Zeteo. The conversation, statements and figures are illustrative.