Wednesday, August 1
THE GENDER TRAP, Part 2
In May, 2011, a Toronto family decided not to reveal the sex of their newborn baby. Only nine people in the world know whether baby Storm is a boy or a girl. The parents believe that gender, more than race and class, constricts individual identity. When the story of Storm became public, controversy ensued. IDEAS producer Mary O’Connell takes up the story and the debate.
Thursday, August 2
CAIRO: HER CITY, HER REVOLUTION
Best-selling Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif (who wrote The Map of Love, which was nominated for the 1999 Booker Prize) talks with IDEAS host Paul Kennedy about the 18 days in Cairo's Tahrir Square that defined the Arab Spring. This interview occured at Montreal's Blue Metropolis Literary Festival, where Soueif had just been rewarded the Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Prize.
Friday, August 3
RECIVILIZATION, Part 4: Re-industrializing the Planet
The digital revolution has cut transaction costs and changed the notion of the firm. Business has to operate collaboratively and transparently to meet the needs of savvy consumers concerned about sustainability and ethical behaviour. Don Tapscott says the scrutiny made possible by the web means businesses must operate nakedly - and if you're going to be naked, you'd better be buff.
Monday, August 6
THE ART OF REASONING
A bronze bust of Pierre Bédard was recently unveiled in the Quebec National Assembly. Bédard was a journalist, politician, judge and nationalist leader of Lower Canada, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was an early advocate of responsible government. Bédard was also a philosopher who engaged in imaginary dialogues with Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and Montesquieu. IDEAS host Paul Kennedy explores his significance for Quebec today.
Tuesday, August 7
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Alcoholism. Respiratory disease. Cancer. Obesity. We're told that these can be the results of genetics, stress and poor nutrition. But in recent years, an extraordinary, retrospective study reveals that childhood abuse may lie at the core of some diseases that show up in middle-aged adults. IDEAS producer Mary O'Connell talks to Dr. Vincent Felitti about the physiological results of psychological trauma.
Wednesday, August 8
IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW
Harvard professor James Kugel is one of the world’s leading biblical scholars. Ten years ago he was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer. His illness forced him to further reflect on themes he’s been studying for decades – the nature of human spirituality and our changing conception of God.
Thursday, August 9
FOOTPRINTS KENYA
An ongoing annual series about the connection between Sport and Society, “Footprints 2012” takes IDEAS host Paul Kennedy to the Great Rift Valley, in Kenya. He spends time in the training camp for distance runners that may produce pots of gold at this summer’s London Olympics.
Friday, August 10
RECIVILIZATION, Part 5: Rebooting the Public Square
In the finale episode, Don Tapscott takes us into the public square to look at how governments must re-engage with citizens. This means leaving behind the traditional model of command and control and into moving into an era of openness and transparency. Citizens need accessible data so they can participate fully in designing effective policy and public services. It also means protecting the web as a public space.
Monday, August 13
THE POWER OF COLOUR, Part 1
Red is passion and lust, courage and sacrifice. Blue is happy, or sad, or - in German - drunk. In India, yellow is said to have been made from the urine of cows, force-fed mango leaves. Cindy Bisaillon looks into the history, psychology, art, music and spirituality of colour. She uncovers the mysteries of the purple tears of sea snails, the vibrant orange of a Stradivarius violin, and the green that killed Napoleon. Part 2 airs Monday, August 20.
Tuesday, August 14 - Wednesday, August 15
THE RED BOOK
Bound in red-leather, a hand-written and vividly illustrated manuscript by Carl Jung documents what he called his "confrontation with the unconscious," beginning around World War I. It was, he claimed, the source of all his later thinking in psychology. But the extent of his dreams, fantasies, arguments, and encounters were revealed only when the astonishing Red Book was published in 2009. Marilyn Powell scouts its dangerous contents.
Thursday, August 16
KOESTLER
Arthur Koestler was a controversial journalist and thinker. He witnessed many of the twentieth century's great upheavals, wars and revolutions. His influential anti-communist novel, Darkness at Noon, made him an international celebrity. Koestler's personal life was chaotic and makes for a compelling story as told by his biographer Michael Scammell.
Friday, August 17
THE BONES OF THE EARTH
Plate tectonics was a revolutionary scientific theory that shook our understanding of the planet. Chris Brookes takes us to Newfoundland’s Gros Morne National Park, the site of one of the world’s best illustrations of plate tectonics in action.
Monday, August 20
THE POWER OF COLOUR, Part 2
Red is passion and lust, courage and sacrifice. Blue is happy, or sad, or - in German - drunk. In India, yellow is said to have been made from the urine of cows, force-fed mango leaves. Cindy Bisaillon looks into the history, psychology, art, music and spirituality of colour. She uncovers the mysteries of the purple tears of sea snails, the vibrant orange of a Stradivarius violin, and the green that killed Napoleon. Part 3 airs Monday, August 27.
Thursday, August 23
MR. PUNCH
How a deformed, child-murdering, wife-beating, psychopathic hand puppet became a cultural icon, a famous satirical magazine, and a four-century-old folkplay cherished by small children for enacting horrendous acts of violence. A documentary by Chris Brookes.
Friday, August 24
FUR, FORTUNE AND EMPIRE
Nowadays, wearing fashionable furs seems somewhat politically incorrect. But pelts and hides from beavers, raccoons and buffalo, and other animals, helped carve out the European settlement of North America. Eric Jay Dolin tells us how the fur trade settled Canada and the United States.
Monday, August 27
THE POWER OF COLOUR, Part 3
Red is passion and lust, courage and sacrifice. Blue is happy, or sad, or - in German - drunk. In India, yellow is said to have been made from the urine of cows, force-fed mango leaves. Cindy Bisaillon looks into the history, psychology, art, music and spirituality of colour. She uncovers the mysteries of the purple tears of sea snails, the vibrant orange of a Stradivarius violin, and the green that killed Napoleon.
Tuesday, August 28
LEGENDS FO THE CAYUGA
In their longhouses, the Cayuga tell stories of a world where hunters stalk a powerful bear in the sky, maple trees hold the secret to life, and a fearsome battle creates Niagara Falls. Dramatized, cast and recorded in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations of the Grand River Territory.
Wednesday, August 29 - Thursday, August 30
NEVER IN ANGER
Anthropologist Jean Briggs lived with an Inuit family during the early 1960s, when she was doing research and writing about them for her doctoral thesis. Whenever she got "angry," they treated her like a child, because they thought that "anger" was an infantile emotion, something never expressed by Inuit adults.
Friday, August 31
A QUESTION OF OPTIMISM
Research seems to indicate that we're genetically inclined to optimism. But what if we're too optimistic to deal with social problems? A Calgary forum mulls the implications. Produced in association with the Calgary Institute for the Humanities at the University of Calgary.