Swipe Left: Have Dating Apps Killed Romance?

John Donvan (Host and Moderator): The moderator of Intelligence Squared U.S. debates since 2008, John Donvan is an author and correspondent for ABC News. He has served as ABC’s White House Correspondent, along with postings in Moscow, London, Jerusalem, and Amman. John is the coauthor of In a Different Key: The Story of Autism (Crown, 2016). In addition to premiering his first one-man show, “Lose the Kid,” in 2013 in Washington, D.C., John is a four-time Emmy Award winner and was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2010.

Daniel Jones (Keynote Speaker) has edited the “Modern Love” column in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times since its inception in October 2004. Jones is the author of several books including Love Illuminated: Exploring Life’s Most Mystifying Subject (with the Help of 50,000 Strangers), The Bastard on the Couch and Modern Love: 50 True and Extraordinary Tales of Desire, Deceit, and Devotion. In addition, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Elle, Parade, Real Simple, and Redbook, among others.

Eric Klinenberg (For the Motion) is a professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is a co-author of Modern Romance, which investigates the nature of dating in the digital era. Klinenberg is also the author of Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. His scholarly work has been published in academic journals including the American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, and Ethnography. He has contributed to numerous leading news platforms as well as the radio program, This American Life.

Helen Fisher (Against the Motion), PhD, a biological anthropologist, is a senior research fellow at The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, a member of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies at Rutgers University and Chief Scientific Adviser to Match.com. She uses brain scanning (fMRI) to study the neural systems associated with romantic love, attachment, and partner happiness. She has written six internationally best-selling books on courtship, romantic love, and future sex, including Why We Love; Why Him? Why Her? and Anatomy of Love. Fisher is also the co-founder of NeuroColor where she is a pioneer in examining the neurochemistry of business team-building, innovation, and leadership.

Manoush Zomorodi (For the Motion) is the host and managing editor of Note to Self, "the tech show about being human," from WNYC Studios. She has won numerous awards for her work, including four from the New York Press Club. In 2014, the Alliance for Women in Media named her Outstanding Host. Zomorodi is author of Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive & Creative Self. She is a self-proclaimed relentless examiner of the modern human condition.

Tom Jacques (Against the Motion) is vice president of engineering at OkCupid, a leading dating site that boasts more than 3.5 million users and sees over seven million messages exchanged per day. OkCupid, which relies on a dating algorithm to determine digital matches, was recently deemed the site most likely to appear in New York Times’ marriage announcements, ranking above Tinder, Match.com, and eHarmony. As a software engineer, Tom engages in data analysis designed to make dating more efficient and less time-consuming. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.