AP Photo/HATEM MOUSSA

If you ever think about how much water you use, it's enough to make you produce some of your own -- from your tear ducts. The long hot showers in the morning to get you going. And maybe a second one, after some time perspiring on the treadmill. Then there's brushing your teeth, making coffee, watering the garden, flushing the toilet. There are always dishes to be rinsed, floors to wash and laundry to do. And there's that annoying drip from a leaky faucet that you just haven't quite got around to fixing.

All of those things are part of what's called your" water footprint". But as you'll hear from our next documentary, they're just a small part.

This week on "And The Winner Is...", two sisters, both freelance journalists, are on a mission are on a mission to use less water -- but they face a startling reality. Their documentary is entitled Tina and Kim Pittaway's Watery Road to Hell -- and it originally aired on The Current.

Listen to Tina and Kim Pittaway's Watery Road to Hell

---

A man walks through a dead maize field due to the drought, near the Mau forest in Kenya. AP Photo/Khalil Senosi

Our second feature takes us to a place in Kenya where it rains only about a twice a year -- and where collecting and preserving water is of utmost importance. But for some Kenyan farmers, saving water is now less of a challenge, thanks to the support they'd been getting from Canada.

It all started in 1979. A group of farmers from developing countries came to Prince Edward Island to see how crops are raised in this country. Before long, the Island farmers were traveling to Africa, taking their expertise and know-how. Now PEI is celebrating the bond that has formed over the last three decades.

In the winter of 2005, the host of CBC Radio's Island Morning, Karen Mair, traveled to East Africa with the contingent from PEI and produced an award-winning documentary "Kindred Spirits in Kenya".

Listen to "Kindred Spirits in Kenya"

Hindu devotees bathe in the River Ganges (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

This week on And The Winner Is... we are presenting two documentaries, both about people from India.

Born into a cultured family in the ancient Indian kingdom of Travancore, she read all of the novels of Charles Dickens before she turned ten. Ten was also the age she was forced to leave school to get married. At 15 she was a mother. And for most of her adult life, Sethu Ramaswamy was in the shadows, trying to find her place in the light.

Then, at age 80, her memoir, Autobiography of an Unknown Indian Woman, was published, to great fanfare and acclaim all over India. "Finally, an icon," wrote one reviewer. "A woman comes of age," read another.

This is the surprising third act in a drama full of surprises, the story of a child-bride whose husband was both her true love and the biggest obstacle to her freedom, a story of a grown woman who set out one day for a life she always wanted.

Producer Sarmishta Subramanian is a grand-daughter of Sethu Ramaswamy and she brings us her amazing story. Her documentary is called "A Woman of No Consequence" and it won a Gracie Award in 2009.

---

The story-teller in our second feature was also born in India. Surjit Sachdev grew up in a conservative family, and he was expected to follow the footsteps of his totalitarian father. So he became, just like his dad, an engineer. But the family tradition ended when Surjit's son Kapel was born with a severe mental disability. Through the years, Surjit's frustrations increased. He became too strict with Kapel and then one day, a major confrontation with Kapel forced Surjit to examine his competence as a father.

"A Fragile Son" was produced by Surjit Sachdev and Carma Jolly. In 2007 it won a Silver Medal in a cathegory for a Best Documentary at Third Coast Festival.

Putting a child up for adoption is one of life's most wrenching decisions. And it doesn't just affect the child or the birth parents who decide they cannot raise the baby . The decision has a profound impact on extended family as well.

In this episode of And The Winner Is... we feature two documentaries about adoption. "When Rose Met Suzanne" is an emotional tale about mother-daughter reunion. "Baby Rescue" is a story from Kenya, where sexual vilence has become all too common. The infants that resulted from an instance of incest are usually put up for an adoption but in many cases they are left in the fields to die. CBC's Erica Johnson travelled to Kenya and produced a documentary about what's being done to save as many infants as possible.

(AP photo)

Before there were movies like "Smoke Signals" or "Atanarjuat", there was a century of celluloid stereotypes. Throughout its history Hollywood has made over 4,000 movies about Native Americans, most of which relied on a mess of cliches. "Isinamowin - The Whiteman's Indian" takes a closer look at these and other stereotypes of Native Americans off the silver screen.

Listen to Part One of "Isinamowin, The Whiteman's Indian"

Listen to Part Two of "Isinamowin, The Whiteman's Indian"

In 1998 actor-comedienne Franny Sheridan brought her one-woman show, "The Waltonsteins", to Ottawa. The show tells the story about Franny's family, who lived in Ottawa as good church-going Catholics. But as children would later discover, they were actually Jewish. And for the much of their life they had to supress their judaism in fear of another holocaust.

When Franny first wrote "The Waltonsteins" and revealed family's true identity, some of her family members were terrified that it may cause them harm, but in the end her Ottawa performance brought together her brothers and sisters for the first time in years.

"The Waltonsteins" was produced by Lynda Shorten. It first aired on This Morning, the Sunday Edition on December 7th of 1997 and it won a Gabriel Award in 1998.

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

Have you ever wondered why word "small" doesn't exist on the Starbucks' menu? Well, size matters in the world of advertising -- and language matters even more.

In the second half of  the show it is "The Language of Persuasion". Terry O'Reilly explains how marketing and advertising have permeated almost every aspect of our lives and had a venti effect on the way we communicate.

But the show begins far from the advertising billboards and screens of a busy metropolis. Julie Berry is a poet and retired elementary school teacher from St.Thomas, Ontario. As a teacher, she was always excited to take her Grade Six students on a special hike.

As you can hear in her documentary, before that hike, many of the children have never seen tadpoles, toads or rare flowers. But Julie's walks weren't solely a lesson in nature; they were also a lesson in the power of poetry.

Listen to "The Poetry Of The Woods" and "The Age of Persuasion"  

Leonard Cohen performs during his concert in Warsaw, Poland, Oct. 10, 2010. (AP Photo/Alik Keplicz)

On April 16, 2009 CBC radio show Q celebrated its second anniversary and to mark the occasion it featured an interview with one of the most ageless artists there is: singer-songwriter, poet and novelist Leonard Cohen.

At the time that show aired, Cohen was 74 and in the middle of a marathon tour which had begun in the spring of 2008, and lasted until the end of 2010. It was his first tour in fifteen years.  Fans across the world rushed to the venues to pay homage to a man with wit, charisma, septuagenarian sex appeal -- and whose musical repertoire spans more than four decades.

This special anniversary edition of Q called "Leonard Cohen in Three Acts" won the Gold Medal at the New York Festivals in a category for Best Regularly Scheduled Talk Program.

Listen to And The Winner Is... episode that aired on April 26, 2013

 

Positron emission tomography image of a human brain - image by BlatantNews

For parents, the realization that their child may be autistic often comes slowly. A worry, a pang, a sinking feeling when trying to play with the new baby, who seems uninterested, even unreachable.

What could be going on?If the answer is autism, it is just the beginning of the questions.

First seen as a medical oddity, the story of autism is both fascinating and troubling. It was described, and named, in the heyday of psychoanalysis. Brilliant, charismatic doctors concluded the disorder was caused by nurture - not nature. In short, it was the parents' fault. They were branded with the label: "refrigerator mothers."

This week on And The Winner Is... we present IDEAS award-winning program on autism. Bernice Landry explores how our understanding of autism has taken an about-face in recent years.

An army of activist parents, and scientists on the cutting edge of genetics research, are together attempting to make up for lost time.

The program is called "The Dark End of the Spectrum."

Listen to Part One which aired  April 12, 2013

Listen to Part Two which aired  April 19, 2013

Our feature this week covers a little subject called The Universe,
what we know about it and all the stuff we have yet to discover. Which
is most of the stuff. For example, when and how it began, and what it's
made of.

Read More »

Up until ten years ago, September eleventh was just another date. But over the past decade, of course, it's taken on a whole world of meaning. September 11th is used as a kind of shorthand for everything from religious violence to a massive failure of global security. And the space where the World Trade Centre stood until that day has widely become known as Sacred Ground.

In 2010, the CBC Radio program Tapestry decided to explore the idea of Sacred Ground, in a two part series. The series first aired in December of 2010 and a year later, it was recognized with a Wilbur Award.

Listen to And The Winner Is...episode that aired on Mar 22, 2013


Listen to And The Winner Is...episode that aired on Mar 29, 2013