‘Let’s Talk Studio’ – an initiative by IPS LEAD – the Learning, Excellence and Development Program of IPS – was launched on August 9, 2020 with an aim to contemplate over various issues concerning the country’s youth, especially those topics which generally remain unaddressed by parents, teachers, elders and media, and yet having a direct or indirect impact on our society as well as the country.
The idea was to directly connect senior level mentors with the concerned youth and engage them in open discussions and debates on contentious topics, facilitating them with consolidated inputs which are backed by reasoning, logic and empirical evidence. The program, in turn, seeks to prepare a team of young thought leaders who would carry and convey the mission forward, not only creating a voice for the youth in the process but also effectively creating a chain taking the learned messages further ahead.
‘Let’s Talk Studio’ is set to be a very homey place and an open platform for informal discussions where youth belonging to diverse backgrounds could come over and discuss any topic, no matter how controversial or tabooed, in an open-minded analytical debate, in turn playing a part in creating an environment that will nurture a knowledge-based society in the country.
Conceived by IPS’ during the launch of IPS LEAD in 2013, primarily aimed at engaging the country’s youth, the idea found wheels in August 2020 with the induction of Dr. Aisha Waheed, a senior writer, blogger and trainer already working on a similar idea, as a program manager of ‘Let’s Talk Studio’.
The initiative has seen 10 weekly interactive sessions being held so far, out of which three interactive sessions were held during September 2020. The session titled ‘History of Feminism’, which was addressed by Hamza Qureshi, was held on 9th September 2020, the second session ‘The problem of Evil and Existence of God’ addressed by Ibrahim Babakhel was held on 16th September, whereas the third and last session ‘History of Liberalism’ was addressed by Hassan Haroon on 23rd September 2020.
