Sunday February 28, 2016

Extinct jobs; Teaching in the digital age; Ben Bell's bassoons; Redrawing the Middle East

Listen to Full Episode 1:42:28

Where have all the milkmen, side-walk knife-sharpeners and CBC staff announcers gone? - Michael's essay: 

A lament for people and jobs long ago discarded, and for the culture of public service that they embodied.

How to teach the students of the 21st century: Three educators join Michael to talk about taking advantage of digital technology, while avoiding its distractions. They are George Siemens, Centre for Distance Education at Athabasca University and Executive Director of the LINK (Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge) lab at the University of Texas; Cathy Davidson, Director of the Futures Initiative at CUNY, and Elizabeth Hanson, English professor at Queen's University.

Meet the best bassoon-maker in the world: Ben Bell is a Canadian bassoon-maker whose instruments are beloved by top musicians from around the world. Karin Wells makes her way to his studio in the woods, to bring us a documentary profile of the talented Mr. Bell.

Redrawing the map of the Middle East: Today's Middle East is an artificial creation; Israel, Jordan, Iran and Iraq came into being when lines were drawn on a map. Some say that's when the trauma really began. Michael's guest is Tarek Osman, host of the BBC Radio 4 series, The Making of the Modern Arab World. 

stories from this episode