Books –
Friday February 10, 2012
Panda Diplomacy
It look as if Prime Minister Harper has convinced China to loan Canada a pair of pandas. With the two countries considering a free trade agreement, is panda diplomacy significant any more?
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Monday February 6, 2012
Dr. Agus with a cure to end illness
What is David Agus trying to tell us? The outspoken U.S. oncologist argues that we can bring an end to the illnesses that plague us with regular eat/sleep patterns, a few key pharmaceuticals and a plan to toss out high heels. Dr. David Agus, author of The End of IllnessThe End of Illness explains.
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Wednesday February 1, 2012
The origins of controlling sex and sexuality
It was a powerful and unsettling statement in an already disturbing murder trial when Mohammed Shafia said his daughters' behaviour made him feel like a cuckold. With that one word, a father's presumed ownership of his daughters' sexuality was laid bare. And while his reaction - four murders - was clearly extreme, the idea of fathers or husbands or brothers controlling a woman's sexuality is neither new nor rare. From American Purity Balls to religious restrictions on contraception, we're looking at a history we all carry.
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Wednesday February 1, 2012
Sleep Paralysis
* Photo in promo bar by Flickr: Martinak15
It is an overpowering fear. You feel you are awake but immobile. Millions of people experience a sleep disorder called Sleep Paralysis. And sometimes with it comes what Newfoundlanders call, The Old Hag. The Current's Howard Goldenthal brings us a documentary on the realities of The Paralysing Night.
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It is an overpowering fear. You feel you are awake but immobile. Millions of people experience a sleep disorder called Sleep Paralysis. And sometimes with it comes what Newfoundlanders call, The Old Hag. The Current's Howard Goldenthal brings us a documentary on the realities of The Paralysing Night.
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Monday January 30, 2012
James Palmer - Game Changer
Our project Game Changer looks back at 1976... when the ground shifted seismically and politically for China. Ten years into the cultural revolution, the earth moved in one of the most devastating earthquakes in world history. We trace the dots, back to the Tangshan Quake in a bid to understand how tragedy and disaster spurred today's China.
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Thursday January 26, 2012
Chile's Game Changer - Ricardo Lagos
It is hard to imagine that one television discussion could change a nation, but that is exactly what happened when Ricardo Lagos publicly denounced Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. That conversation set in motion the change that led to Pinochet's ouster and the restoration of democracy. Ricardo Lagos later became President. Now, in the midst of the Arab uprisings, he says the world can learn from his little country.
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Friday January 20, 2012
Abandoning Ship: History of Captains
Ships' Captains have a mythic quality in our collective psyches. We put our lives in their hands. Which is why people around the world have been riveted by the story of the Costa Concordia. Captain Francesco Schettino, denies the charges against him, and says he only left the ship because he tripped and fell into a lifeboat. We'll discuss Capt Schettino, the tales of infamous and heroic captains gone-by, and we'll explain how the Captain's code of behaviour has evolved.
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Wednesday January 18, 2012
Post-traumatic stress disorder not just a military disorder
Ute Lawrence never went to war and never saw a conflict zone. But she did find herself on the wrong stretch of highway one September day 13 yrs ago. And that's when everything changed. One of Canada's most deadly highway pileups sent her on a lonely, uncharted journey through the world of PTSD. Today, we're talking about identifying the traumas that will linger.
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Tuesday January 17, 2012
SuperPACs and Campaign Spending
Information and mis-information comes courtesy of the multi-million-dollar SuperPAC .. those political organizations in the U.S. that can roll out ads for their favorite candidates without having to say who is bankrolling them. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that equates money with free speech has unleashed an estimated billions in election spending. Is it corrosive or conducive to democracy?
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Monday January 16, 2012
Humanitarian aid workers facing uncomfortable compromises
They are the undisputed heroes in every crisis. From natural disasters, to violent conflict, humanitarian aid workers are often the first in and usually the last to leave. They risk their lives to help the helpless but until now few knew they sometimes also risk their values and ethics. From Afghanistan to Sri Lanka, three of Medecins San Frontiers' front line workers expose the compromises they choose to make for the greater good.
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Friday January 13, 2012
The Obamas biography: Jodi Kantor
It's not exactly a smack down, but the push back this week on the new book, The Obamas has been impressive. New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor joins us to share her portrayal of Michelle Obama, and to answer the White House's criticism of it.
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Monday January 2, 2012
Ian Stirling on the threat to polar bears
They look awfully cute and cuddly from afar. The polar bear is a formidable predator, just ask anyone who's come face to face with one. But for all their strength, the icy environment on which they thrive is literally disappearing from under their feet. Canada is home to two-thirds of the world's polar bear population, spread through 13 bear colonies. It is also home to the man widely considered the foremost authority on polar bears, Ian Stirling.
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Monday January 2, 2012
A modern guide to manners with Henry Alford
Would it Kill you to Stop Doing That? That's not just an exasperated plea, that's the title of a new book on modern manners and all the ticks that drive people to distraction as we immerse ourselves in technological toys. You may likely think you have good manners. But somebody's lying because it's a brusque, rude, uncaring world out there.
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Friday December 30, 2011
Beerology
The bubbly is chilling and the corks are ready to be popped. For many-- champagne's in vogue and beer's a bust when ringing in the New Year. Yet the suds are the most popular alcoholic beverage in this country. We're serving up Beer with the editor of the Oxford Companion to Beer and a tour of the Mill Street Brewery in Toronto.
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Thursday December 29, 2011
Andrew Tabler on his lost faith in Syria's President
His regime is unleashing its ire. Leading a murderous campaign on its own citizens. As international monitors and the world look on, Bashar Al-Assad remains ruthless and defiant. But the Syrian president is also described as mild-mannered and reserved. A duality only a few outsiders have personally witnessed. Today, we talk to the author of a book who spent time getting to know Syria's first family... first hand.
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Thursday December 29, 2011
How the NYC music scene in the 70s changed music forever
In the Bronx, young people were plugging turntables into light posts to invent hiphop. Along the Bowery, art-school kids were distilling rock music down to its essence to create punk. While others were leading the biggest uprising in western classical music since Stravinsky. It all happened over five years, in a space of less than 200 city blocks in New York City. * Click read more below for music playlist and links*
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Wednesday December 28, 2011
Egypt's Revolution
It took 18 days of demonstrations to oust the man who ruled Egypt for 30 years. But there were a lot of signposts that paved the way to Tahrir Square. We hear from the author of a new book about the making of a revolution and the undoing of Hosni Mubarak.
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Tuesday December 27, 2011
Time
Time is rarely on our side. We usually think we don't have enough of it -- and then a look in the mirror often makes us think we've had too much. In part three we discuss time. Does it control us? Or do we control it?
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Friday December 23, 2011
Canadians: Consumers of war, neglecting aid
Canadians may think of themselves as peace-loving, but we speak to a woman who thinks we're avid consumers of war. She says you can see it in our pension plans and even our jewelry. Her new book, Damned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid looks at what happens when greed and guns get in the way of providing aid.
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Wednesday December 21, 2011
The real life story of the Tin Tin creator
He is forever young, the teenage boy with that odd hair and his loyal dog off on another adventure that takes him around the world. TinTin is the anti-hero, the Belgian comic strip character that spawned 23 graphic novels and millions of fans over the last 70 years. But for all the pleasure he brought millions of children, TinTin's creator had a darker side. Herge - Georges Remi - found his greatest success publishing in Nazi-controlled, pro-German papers in occupied Belgium. And while TinTin's illustrations were deliberately simplistic, the life of Herge was incredibly complex. We speak with biographer Pierre Assouline on TinTin's creator.
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Friday December 16, 2011
The "financialization" of the world: Satyajit Das
Also, are you feeling the burden of debt? Silly question. Who isn't? Personal indebtedness has never been higher in Canada. And as far as governments go - it's even worse.
From this country to the U.S. to pretty much all of Europe and beyond, the debt burden in this world is collosal. It nearly wrecked the financial system in 2008. And it could again according to the author of Extreme Money, Satyajit Das.
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Monday December 12, 2011
Humanoid robots & other innovations of the MIT Media Lab
They developed The Kindle, Guitar Hero and the little robot vacuum cleaner that scuttles along the floor. But they've also created the exo-skeleton robots that allow us to run faster with less
effort, robots you can hug and cars that can fold up. Today we bring you the story of MITs Media Lab where very smart people are given the space to play and come up with fantastic off-the-wall ideas for new technology.
The only catch once they Dream It .. they have to Build It.
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Friday December 9, 2011
Man Seeks God: Eric Weiner
Have you found your God yet? That question was asked of Eric Weiner one day when he was in the hospital, and thought he might die. Well, he didn't die but the question haunted him, because the answer, essentially, was No. So he went on a journey, crisscrossing the globe, looking for the religion that's right for him. The book he wrote about it is called Man Seeks God: My Flirtations With the Divine.
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Thursday December 8, 2011
Fast facts about poverty in Canada
FAST FACTS:
- The cost of poverty to Canada has been estimated at $72 to $86 billion per year, or about 5-6% of GDP (Ontario Association of Food Banks)
- In Hamilton, there is a 21-year difference in life expectancy between people living in high and low income neighbourhoods (Hamilton Spectator);
- In March 2010, 867,948 Canadians (38% of them children) turned to food banks for food support - a 28% increase over March 2008 and the highest level of food bank use ever (Food Banks Canada);
- In 2010, 150,000 to 300,000 persons were visibly homeless, another 450,000 to 900,000 were "hidden" homeless, 1.5 million households were in "core housing need", and 3.1 million households were in unaffordable housing (Wellesley Institute)
- In 2010, 59% of Canadian workers lived paycheque to paycheque, "saying they would be in financial difficulty if their paycheque was delayed by a week" (Canadian Payroll Association)
- In 2009, per capita household debt, at $41,740, was 2.5 times higher than in 1989; in 2010, 20BG% of Canadians reported they had too much debt and trouble managing it (Certified General Accountants Association of Canada)
- In 2009, the average annual income ($6.6 million) of Canada's best-paid CEOs was 155 times higher than the average worker's income ($42,988); a third of all income growth in Canada over the past two decades has gone to the richest one percent of Canadians (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives)
- At the end of 2009, 3.8% of Canadian households controlled 67% of total household wealth (Investor Economics)
Wednesday December 7, 2011
Niall Ferguson: The West and the Rest
If you haven't yet caught the symbolism of Rome, Athens and Washington being in financial freefall then look East ... far East, where after 5 centuries of humbling stagnation China is innovative and creative in ways the West used to be. For an historian, it is the way-of-the-world. For the rest-of-us .. This is ominous. Does it have to be?
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Tuesday December 6, 2011
The story of two Canadian scientists who discovered stem cells
It was one of those Sundays, where one scientist was spelling off the other, checking the lab mice in a project that was all about using radiation for cancer treatment. So imagine their surprise when the two scientists realized what was really happening to those mice. They were growing stem cells. The year was 1960. The scientists were right here in Canada. Today, the story of James Till and Ernest McCulloch, two of Canada's most accomplished and least heralded scientists.
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Monday December 5, 2011
Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case
They called her Sybil. Hers was a narrative that changed modern psychiatry, a young woman, her childhood riddled with such abuse that her mind fragmented, shattered into 16 different personalities. Her story would sell millions of books and inspire a gripping film. After Sybil's struggles became public, Multiple Personality Disorder went from being a rare psychiatric condition to a diagnosis for tens-of-thousands of patients. Except the story of Sybil was One Big Lie. We explore the real story with the journalist who unearthed it.
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Tuesday November 29, 2011
Steven Pinker on why violence is declining
There was a time when life for the majority, was nasty, brutish and short. But these days, it is pacified, prolonged and even pensioned. Fully 15-percent of all prehistoric humans died a violent death. These days despite it all, fewer than 3-percent of people do. Author Stephen Pinker has gone back ... way back to crunch the numbers. He says we inhabit an increasingly less violent world. He explains The Better Angels of Our Nature.
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Monday November 28, 2011
UN climate conference process in Durban
The tug of war is about to begin anew in Durban South Africa where politicians, diplomats, advisors and scientists are gathered for a new round of climate change talks. And as they begin, a Canadian investigative journalist poking around behind the scenes argues that our country and other western nations still think they can beat the science. He calls that failed politics.
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Friday November 25, 2011
The Weasel, Marvin Elkind shares his story in "A Double Life in The Mob"
Marvin Elkind aka The Weasel was a low-level mob functionary, a loan collector, a boxer and a long-time police informant. He was also Jimmy Hoffa's driver. It's a remarkable life, perhaps most remarkable for the fact that Elkind has somehow managed to survive it. Elkind's life story is the subject of a new book by National Post reporter Adrian Humphreys. We speak to both of them today.
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Monday November 21, 2011
No running water on Manitoba reserves
We've all seen the pictures, people without drinking water making the trek to the community pipe or the local lake, their water kept in a pail. Now take that image and look again because the people with the buckets live on First Nations reserves in Manitoba. There are 18-hundred homes on reserves in Canada without clean water and the community with the most desperate shortage is in Manitoba. We hear from a woman who says governments could solve this in 5 years.
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Friday November 18, 2011
Georges Laraque: NHL's Unlikeliest Tough Guy
(CP Photo/HO-NHLPA)Former NHL forward Georges Laraque loved the game of hockey. But he rarely got to play because he was expected to rough it up on the ice. An unlikely tough guy looks back on his years as an enforcer.
Tuesday November 8, 2011
Time to strike tents on the occupy movement?
It seems the Occupy movement is at a crossroads. Critics are calling for their cities to start evicting the occupiers. Supporters are coming up with ideas to take the movement to the next level. Today, we take a look at what's been achieved and what might come next.
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Monday November 7, 2011
The Origin of AIDS: Jacques Pepin
Right around the same time that women won the right to vote in this country, a health crisis began that continues to infect and kill. Today, we speak with a researcher who believes he's traced the very first human to be infected with the AIDS virus.
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Thursday November 3, 2011
A Season in Hell: Robert Fowler
Robert Fowler was no ordinary hostage, a career diplomat, former advisor to Prime Ministers ... a man who spent a lifetime as a political and geo-strategic analyst. His days in captivity allowed him to observe one of the world's most formidable terrorist organizations up close. Today we hear from Robert Fowler on what he experienced, what he learned and who might have set him up.
Thursday November 3, 2011
Trusting Democracy
The Greek PM wants to take an austerity plan to the people in a referendum. This morning, his top cabinet ministers are fighting him. The Europeans are incredulous. G20 members are impatient. So .. what is the role of democracy when the going gets tough? Does so-called direct democracy empower governments or enfeeble them?
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Thursday November 3, 2011
Mail: Naser Al-Raas, Peter Kent, Rick Mercer
It's mail day. Today we're revisiting several topics from the week gone by from a Canadian citizen facing Bahrain prison time ...to Peter Kent's Environmental plan for Canada ... to Rick Mercer's plea for youths at risk.
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Tuesday November 1, 2011
Craig Oliver
His is a classic tale of the hardscrabble childhood and the chance offer to try a job. In Craig Oliver's case, it was a radio job, a tiny CBC affiliate that set him on the path that would make him one of Canada's pre-eminent broadcast journalists. From Diefenbaker right through to Harper he's covered 10 prime ministers and the rough and tumble politics that has shaped this country for more than five decades.
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Monday October 31, 2011
Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
We all have a type, be it Helvetica, Arial or Times New Roman. Some people care about fonts more than others however, and we hear how some typefaces are literally fighting words. Also, at the very end of our program, The Voice connects the day that symbolically marks the 7 billionth birth with our Zombie talk on Hallowe'en.
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Wednesday October 26, 2011
Women for Afghanistan
Back in the late 90s, Homemakers' Magazine shared the wrenching story of Afghan women and their treatment under the Taliban. With that article, Homemakers' editor Sally Armstrong galvanized the women of this nation, inspiring them to reach out in projects that would last until this day. And along the way, a nine year old girl who heard her speak decided she too, wanted to help Afghan girls.
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Tuesday October 25, 2011
Game Changer: John Carlos
It was the year of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Martin Luther King and the slaughter of student and worker protesters in Mexico City. Against that backdrop of unrest and uncertainty two African Americans stood on the Olympic medals podium in Mexico and raised their fists in the Black Power salute.
And in a flash, John Carlos became both victorious and vilified.
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Monday October 24, 2011
Our Bodies, Ourselves
It was trouble. Libraries banned it. Women hid their copies. Critics called it trash and pornographic. It dedicated chapters to lesbians, abortions, masturbation and health issues faced by women but ignored by male doctors. And 9 editions, 25 translations and 4 million copies later, the book Our Bodies, Ourselves is considered the book that changed the game on women's health and patients' rights overall. Our project, Game Changer explores the ongoing impact of Our Bodies, Ourselves.
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Friday October 21, 2011
Celebrity Activists
With the recent rallying by Hollywood actors against the Keystone pipeline project, we take a look at the history of tinseltown celebrities taking up causes, both on the left and the right.
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Thursday October 20, 2011
Israel Baseball League
Okay so the baseball diamonds pushed up against patches of sunflowers or they were converted soccer fields ... the players signed contracts that they didn't like ... the bats and the baseballs got stuck in customs ... But for one glorious season, a very determined group of athletes brought the Israel Baseball League to life. And as he pitched, Aaron Pribble learned more about mideast politics and himself than he ever expected.
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Wednesday October 19, 2011
Cyber Crime
There is crime and there is cyber crime. The invisible, barely detectable click of the keyboards that siphons millions if not billions of dollars through the electronic veins of the internet, reaching right into your computer, your transactions, your life and then retreating perhaps across the globe, perhaps next door with a stash of cash and a plan to do it all again. In this particular criminal underworld, five tech-savvy men ran one of its most lucrative operations. One was a reclusive teenager. Another. was an undercover cop. Today we bring you the story of Dark Market.
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Monday October 17, 2011
1973 Oil Embargo
The U.S. still walks a tightrope with events that began at this precise time four decades ago, when infuriated Saudis along with other Arab leaders essentially turned off the spigots with a devastating Oil Embargo. The year was 1973, half the lights on the Golden Gate Bridge went out. The Washington Monuments went to black. And gas station lineups snaked around corners. Today, our project Game Changer looks at the decision that affects Canadian energy policy and U.S. politics to this day.
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Friday October 14, 2011
Quantum Computing: David Deutsch
If you like playing Call of Duty on your PC, just wait till you get a quantum computer. You could pretty much play the entire Second World War with multiple endings. We speak with the father of quantum computing to find out what else they might do.
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Wednesday October 12, 2011
First Nations & Philanthropy
Canadians give as much as 10-Billion dollars a year to charities and philanthropic trusts. And yet across this country those living on First Nations reserves are often invisible to those who donate to make a difference. The Chief of the Assembly of First Nations wants to change that saying partnerships with philanthropies could transform the lives of many. Others argue, the real change will come with loans not gifts.
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Wednesday October 12, 2011
Short Term Marriage
Mexico city councilors appalled at high divorce rates want to introduce two-year Temporary Marriage Licenses. If after the agreed-upon time, Love isn't so true ... the marriage dissolves without a costly, emotionally charged divorce. You want to bet the critics are cringing over such quasi commitments.Today we're asking ... What about us? Is there a place for formal temporary marriage in Canada?
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Tuesday October 11, 2011
Shannon Moroney's Story
When the man Shannon Moroney loved brutally attacked two women, she too became a victim. His actions destroyed her relationship and her career but because she was his wife that mattered to no one. Shannon Moroney's experience forces us all to confront, how we as a society and we in the media are quick to extend guilt to the families of the guilty.
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Tuesday October 11, 2011
Shannon Moroney's Story (Pt 2)
We continue with Shannon Moroney, author of Through The Glass. In her book she shares her experience of being married for just a month, when her husband is arrested for the kidnap and rape of two women. She explains how prison whisked him away from his crimes, but left her to endure the consequences.
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Monday October 10, 2011
Wheat Belly
Many Canadians plan warm buns, stuffing and pie for their Thanksgiving meals tonight. But I'll speak with a cardiologist who thinks we have no reason to be thankful for any food that contains wheat. William Davis says our daily bread is making us fat and sick.
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Monday October 10, 2011
Addicted Mind
Today we follow the journey of a drug addict from the streets of San Francisco to the opium dens of the East to graduate school at the University of Toronto. Marc Lewis shook his addictions and became a neuroscientist with a keen interest in the effects of drugs on the brain.
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Monday October 3, 2011
Resistance Fighter: Stephane Hessel
Terrible things happened to Stephane Hessel when he fought in the French resistance seventy years ago. But he hasn't stop fighting. Now, at the age of 94, he's written a best seller that's inspired many young people. Find out what's behind the new French resistance.
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Friday September 30, 2011
Swearing in the Workplace
The new politics of profanity. Mark Twain said there ought to be a room in every house to swear in. If your home doesn't have so much as a closet to cuss in -- don't fret. Hear why it can be a terrific idea to swear at the office.
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Thursday September 29, 2011
Ghosts By Daylight: Janine di Giovanni
For the last twenty years, if there's a war Janine DiGiovanni has been among the first to get there. As a journalist for the Sunday Times of London, she has relentlessly documented the trauma of those caught in conflict. She was always fearless, willing to go anywhere for the story. But then the war followed her home and the ghosts of all she'd seen intruded on marriage and motherhood. She still covers war but not always like she used to. Janine DiGiovanni talks about Love, War and Redemption.
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Wednesday September 28, 2011
The Story of Economic Genius: Sylvia Nasar
Just when you thought it was safe to ignore the Economists comes a new book that argues there is nothing quite like Economic Genius. Hidden in literature from Dickens to Darwin economic thinking has clobbered the class system, encouraged consumers and celebrated the secular and the scientific. Our look at Game Changers focuses on the long line of Economists who dared to see the world through a different lens.
Tuesday September 27, 2011
The War Against al-Qaeda: Ali Soufan
It is clear that the CIA got hold of Ali Soufan's book. His chronicle of the investigation and interrogation of Islamic terrorist suspects is peppered with thick black lines blanking out words . .. whole sentences .. whole paragraphs .. or even whole pages. Ali Soufan was an FBI special agent whose interrogations - literally hands off - aborted several terrorist plots but who left the agency after the CIA insisted on using what it called 'Enhanced Interrogation' and others called torture. Today we speak with Ali Soufan on how to coax a terrorist to talk, why torture backfires and what we should know about terrorist threats.
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Friday September 23, 2011
The World of Stolen Art
Art heists are mysterious, and mythological. In the real world, art theft is an international labyrinth of petty criminals and hot shot detectives. We go inside the international black market for stolen art, a market that fuels organized crime and one in which Canada plays a prominent role.
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Wednesday September 21, 2011
Michigan Governor: Jennifer Granholm
Over eight years as Governor of Michigan, Vancouver-born Jennifer Granholm introduced 99 separate Bills to cut taxes. She cut spending. She cut government jobs. And nothing worked. She watched the coveted automotive industry shrivel. She argues for government intervention to save the economy. A woman born on one side of the border and elected on the other offers her thoughts on America's economic future.
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Monday September 19, 2011
Game Changer: Tzeporah Berman
Photo: AP/Chris PolkAs a leader in the fight to save BC's Claqouot Sound, environmentalists rallied around her while government and corporate officials called her an eco-terrorist. And then Tzeporah Berman did the unthinkable. She negotiated with the very companies she once vilified, securing groundbreaking deals to save Old Growth Forests. Now some environmentalists consider her a sellout. Today we talk to the woman credited with changing Environmental Politics in Canada.
Thursday September 15, 2011
Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction
Women who want to break through the glass ceiling might first want to glance at the mirrored wall. A sociologist at the London School of Economics believes since beauty and appearance adds an extra 15 per cent to earnings... women may want to invest in sexier slingbacks.
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Wednesday September 14, 2011
Entitled University Students
Canada's university students are back at the books -- that is, if they can find enough time between keggers and Call of Duty Four. The authors of a new book say this generation of undergraduates is the most pampered ever, and their entitled attitude is sucking the joy out of teaching.
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Monday September 12, 2011
Andrew Nikiforuk on the Mountain Pine Beetle
Andrew Nikiforuk joins us to tell the story of a tiny beetle with a very big appetite and a game-changing capacity for ecological destruction. Did you know that they credited the beetle with the invention of the wheel and the chain saw?
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Friday August 26, 2011
In Praise of the Middle Child
Middle children know their place in the birth order can sound uninspiring: Stuck in the middle, middle of the road, middle of nowhere. But there are suggestions the middle kids aren't content to remain second best. Pierre Trudeau, Charles Darwin, David Letterman -- all in-betweeners who did a lot more than just "middle through."
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Wednesday August 17, 2011
Feathers - Thor Hanson
Feathers have remarkable properties - coveted for their marvelous engineering and for their beauty. Today we talk to biologist Thor Hanson about his new book, Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle, and why he thinks feathers are a natural evolutionary wonder.
Tuesday August 9, 2011
Hippie Physics
Before the 1960s, only poets thought about seeing the world in a grain of sand and holding infinity in their hands. But then, suddenly physicists were the daydreamers. A branch of science went from being almost at war with the universe -- to becoming one with it. We tell you how it all went down.
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Monday August 8, 2011
The Anatomy of Evil: Michael Stone
Is there really such a thing as evil? You bet there is according to our guest, Dr. Michael Stone. He's interviewed hundreds of killers and can place their acts on a spectrum of evil.
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Monday August 1, 2011
Shoplifting
Call it what you want: sticky-fingers, the five-finger-discount, kleptomania. It costs Canada about $3.5 billion a year. Today on The Current we looked at the culture and psychology of shoplifting.
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Friday July 29, 2011
WWII Stories of Canadian Veterans (Documentary)
To this day, World War Two is the bloodiest conflict in history. And many of the men and women who lived through it are passing away. But a new book called Honour is preserving some of their stories.
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Tuesday July 19, 2011
Rat Island
A bold conservation project is about to get underway on Gwaii Haanas, some of Canada's most remote and rugged islands off the coast of British Columbia. The goal is to protect endangered species from predators... namely the rat. Killing off one species to save another. It's easier to defend when you're talking about killing rats. But it doesn't get rid of any of that pesky ethical murkiness.
Friday July 15, 2011
Wicked Bugs: Amy Stewart
Across the country, this has been a bad year for mosquitos, black flies and insects of all kinds. But it's nothing compared to what Amy Stewart documents in her new book, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects. We talk to Amy Stewart about the most potent and feared insects the world has ever seen.
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Friday July 15, 2011
The Wars of Afghanistan: Peter Tomsen
Foreign troops have begun leaving Afghanistan. But the country is still a long way from being prosperous, stable or even safe. We talk to someone who witnessed what happened under similar circumstances 20 years ago as the Soviet Union withdrew and cleared the way for civil war.
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Tuesday July 12, 2011
The Red Market: Scott Carney
We take you inside the world of organ brokers, bone thieves and blood farmers as they supply the global trade in human body parts.
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Wednesday July 6, 2011
Risking the Ruins of Machu Picchu
We're off to Machu Picchu, Peru to look at how that magnificent, spiritual site is now in danger not just of disnification, but of poor conservation, and significant environmental damage as a construction boom continues below it.
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Friday June 24, 2011
Raising Elijah: Sandra Steingraber
Susan Steingraber is a biologist, writer and mom and she makes the case that being a good parent means taking better care of our planet.
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Tuesday June 21, 2011
The Mystery of U.S. Military Base Area 51
A strange new twist on an already mysterious place. We speak with an investigative journalist with a controversial story about what really happens at the U.S. military base called Area 51. A mystery that has given rise to some of the world's most enduring conspiracy theories.
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Thursday June 2, 2011
Afghan MP Fawzia Koofi
One of 23 children, Fawzia Koofi grew up in a male-dominated society and went on to not only become a member of Afghanistan's Parliament but its first deputy speaker.
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Tuesday May 31, 2011
IMF Leader: Panel
The future of the International Monetary Fund is up in the air after the resignation of Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Khan. And that has a lot of people betting on what's going to happen.
Friday May 27, 2011
Ratko Mladic
Ratko Maldic, the Bosnian Serb Army General was captured alive and is in custody today. Next month, he will face war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court. The capture of Mladic closes a brutal chapter in the wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 90's. But it also re-opens old wounds. We talk to two people whose lives were changed by Mladic and his henchmen.
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Friday May 27, 2011
The Business of Hair
(Photo: Forget jewelery or high-priced electronics. In cities across the United States, thieves increasingly are setting their sights on a new target: human hair. We explore the growing black market for human tresses, and the recent rash of hair weave thefts that's supplying it.
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Wednesday May 25, 2011
Willful Blindness: Margaret Heffernan
Ever wonder why we insist on burying our heads in the sand? What's behind our inclination to willful blindness, our ability to avoid facing the truth and sometimes even pretend we didn't know it. We talk to the writer of a fascinating new book.
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Thursday May 19, 2011
Headache Disorders
The World Health Organization has released its first ever global atlas on headache disorders and the results aren't good. Billions of people are suffering ... the social and economic costs are enormous and we're not doing much to help.
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Wednesday May 18, 2011
Better By Mistake
Somewhere along the line, you've probably been told that failure is a useful experience and that you should learn from your mistakes. The trouble is that all to often, we talk the talk but don't walk the walk. Now two writers are trying to force us to take those ideas seriously and maybe even live by them.
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Tuesday May 17, 2011
Parent Alienation Syndrome
After she was divorced, Pamela Richardson's son became estranged from her and later took his own life. She blamed her husband and a condition called Parental Alienation Syndrome ... a condition so controversial it has sparked a battle over whether it even exists.
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Wednesday May 11, 2011
Something Fierce: Carmen Aguirre
Carmen Aguirre fled Chile soon after that and landed in Vancouver. But she went back to fight in the underground resistance to Pinochet's rule ... a life she's only now prepared to talk about openly.
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Monday May 9, 2011
The Fear: Robert Mugabe & Zimbabwe
It has been three years since Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was defeated at the polls and forced into a power-sharing government. Today, he has re-consolidated his power and recommitted to staying on top for his 31st year in office. We talk to Zimbabwean-born writer Peter Godwin on his book, The Fear: Robert Mugabe and The Martyrdom of Zimbabwe.
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Friday May 6, 2011
Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Bryan Caplan
Most parents will tell you that the more kids you have, the harder your job is going to be. But economist Bryan Caplan says that that doesn't have to be the case ... that having children is a lot easier than you might think and that there are plenty of perfectly selfish reasons to have more.
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Thursday May 5, 2011
A Memoir of Captivity: Mellissa Fung
The CBC's Mellissa Fung has spent two-and-a-half years coming to terms with what happened to her while she was held hostage in Afghanistan. She has now written a book about her ordeal.
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Monday May 2, 2011
The Information: James Gleick
Information is now ubiquitous. Google will deliver in seconds what would have once taken months to unearth. The device in your pocket has more computing power than the machines we used to send on lunar missions. But according to James Gleick, we're still a long way from truly understanding what all this information is doing to us and the world we live in.
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Monday April 25, 2011
Democracy: Francis Fukuyama
Across Egypt and Tunisia, people are trying to build successful democracies on the ruins of brutal dictatorships. But in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain ... people are wondering if they will ever get the chance. Francis Fukuyama, one of the most prominent and controversial American political thinkers shares his thoughts on why democracy takes root in one place, only to be thwarted somewhere else.
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Wednesday April 20, 2011
Supreme Court Justices
The clock is ticking for four Supreme Court Judges nearing the mandatory age of retirement. Their eventual replacements may be the biggest election issue you've never heard of.
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Tuesday April 5, 2011
Political Hypocrisy
Many Canadians rail against what they see as hypocrisy in politics but we speak with an author who argues that that's a bit... well... hypocritical. Today we raise the prospect that we may be hardwired for hypocrisy.
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Monday April 4, 2011
Eve Ensler
Eve Ensler is best known for writing The Vagina Monologues. She's also a cancer survivor ... a tireless champion of women in war zones and a woman of remarkable perspective. We talk to Eve Ensler about her efforts to changing the perception of victimhood and empowering battered women in Congo to Live Life to the fullest.
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Friday April 1, 2011
Part 1 (cont'd) & Greg Malone
We continue our panel on humour in politics. Plus a conversation with Greg Malone, a former member of CODCO tells friend Mary Walsh about his upcoming book, Don't Tell the Newfoundlanders. A book that uncovers the conspiracy to make sure Newfoundlanders joined Canada.
PART TWO
Humour in Politics - Panel (cont'd)
Comedian Rick Mercer, former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish and NDP Candidate Peter Stoffer joined us this morning to talk about why it seems so difficult for Canadian politicians to show a little humour on the hustings. So we continued our discussion taking a different tact and asked whether humour on the Hill is getting better or worse.
Rick Mercer is the host of The Rick Mercer Report on CBC Television. Carolyn Parrish is a former Liberal MP. And Peter Stoffer is running for re-election for the NDP.
Newfoundland - Greg Malone
We started this segment with a clip from 62 years ago today .... April 1st, 1949. Joey Smallwood, the little fella from Gambo who led the charge to get Newfoundland into confederation, had just been sworn into office as the new province's first Premier.
At the time of the vote on confederation, Newfoundland was being governed by Britain. And Newfoundlanders were given a choice -- join Canada or go back to being an independent nation, a status it was forced to relinquish in 1933 for economic reasons. In the end, on a second vote, Newfoundlanders elected to join Canada by a slim margin of 52 to 48 per cent.
That's the story most of us Canadians know. But according to Greg Malone and many other Newfoundlanders, there's a lot more to it than that. Greg is an old friend and former CODCO cast-mate of Mary Walsh. And he has uncovered what he says was a conspiracy to make sure Newfoundlanders did join Canada. He lays out his case in an up-coming book called Don't Tell The Newfoundlanders set to come out sometime next year. And he has agreed to give us a sneak peak this morning. He was in St. John's.
Related Links:
Tuesday March 29, 2011
Rebuilding Japan
The CBC's David Gutnick takes us on a tour of the Saitama Super Stadium in suburban Tokyo, where 2500 people are seeking shelter from the radioactive danger in Fukushima prefecture. Plus we talk to two guests about the social, spiritual and communitarian dimensions of rebuilding an area broken by disaster.
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Monday March 28, 2011
Reducing your Carbon Footprint: Mike Berners-Lee
Mike Berners-Lee has a surprisingly low-guilt plan for reducing your carbon footprint. He says the trick is knowing what really does the damage. And getting over the idea that we're ever going to get to zero.
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Tuesday March 22, 2011
Spousonomics: Jenny Anderson
Spousonomics is the idea that learning a few basic economic principles can make your home life happier, healthier and full of better sex. We do the calculations with the co-author of Spousonomics, Jenny Anderson.
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Wednesday March 16, 2011
The Politics of Blindness: Graeme McCreath
Meet Graeme McCreath. He's a physiotherapist in Victoria. He's blind. And he says it's time to radically re-think of the way blind people are treated in Canadian society.
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Thursday March 10, 2011
Memory: Joshua Foer
We talk to a science-journalist turned U.S. National Memory Champion about how your memory works, why it sometimes doesn't and how you can make it better.
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Wednesday March 9, 2011
Manning Up: Kay Hymowitz
Writer Kay Hymonitz will explain why she thinks the rise of powerful women has given men a license to be boys.
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Tuesday March 8, 2011
Chinese Mothers: Xinran
Pt 2: Chinese Mothers - We talk to Xinran, a Chinese writer who has documented the heart-breaking choices many Chinese women have made because of the country's one-child policy.PART TWO
Chinese Mothers - Xinran
We started this segment with a poem by a Chinese writer named Xinran. It reflects the longing that many Chinese mothers feel for the daughters who are no longer part of their lives. China's one-child policy has had a devastating impact on Chinese girls.
But it has also left many Chinese women facing heart-breaking decisions about the daughters who are born to them. Xinran has collected some of those stories in a new book, called Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love. Xinran was in London, England.
Related Links:
- Mothers in China: Sobs on the night breeze - The Economist
- Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother Review by Hilary Spurling - Financial Times
Other segments from today's show:
Friday March 4, 2011
How to Run the World: Parag Khanna
Meet Parag Khanna. He has been named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. And he has a plan to make the world run better.
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Thursday March 3, 2011
The Chilean Miners Rescue
We take you back to those 69 harrowing days last year when 33 Chilean miners were trapped underground. And we speak to the man who - other than those miners - may know more than anyone else about what life was like in that darkened cave and in the months after emerging from it.
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Wednesday March 2, 2011
Requiem for a Sentence
We talk to acclaimed literary critic Stanley Fish. His new book is called How To Write a Sentence and How To Read One. And he says we're in danger of losing our ability to do both.
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Tuesday March 1, 2011
Near-Death Experience
Neurologist Kevin Nelson has developed a scientific theory about what's happening in your your brain during a near-death experience. A theory that he says still leaves room for a little magic.
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Thursday February 24, 2011
Tea Party Goes to Washington: Rand Paul
We talk to Rand Paul, the first American Senator to win as a Tea Party candidate. He weighs in on his historic victory and his new book, The Tea Party Goes to Washington.
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Tuesday February 22, 2011
Multiverse: Brian Greene
We speak with Brian Greene. He's a theoretical physicist at Columbia University. He's best known for his work on string theory. And in his new book, he argues that our universe probably isn't the only one and that there may actually be an infinite number of parallel universes. His new book is called The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos.
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Monday February 21, 2011
The Walker
Meet a man who has spent the last decade walking across 64 countries on six continents. His goal is to walk around the world. And it looks like he's just months away from making it.
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Wednesday February 16, 2011
Inconceivable: Carolyn & Sean Savage
Carolyn Savage became pregnant using in vitro fertilization. She and her husband Sean were thrilled ... until they found out that the egg and the sperm that led to the pregnancy belonged to another couple.
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Wednesday February 2, 2011
Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks led a very difficult life before dying of cancer at a young age. But 60 years later, her cells are still with us. And they have fueled major discoveries in almost any field of medicine you can think of.
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Thursday January 13, 2011
Recommended Reading List from David Goldboom, MD
Dr. David Goldbloom was the first physician in chief at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. He is now their senior medical advisor for Education and Public Affairs. He is also the Vice Chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
During our Mental Health Phone-In, Dr. Goldbloom mentioned a reading list for people wanting more information on mental illness. He wanted to share this list with our listeners.
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Tuesday January 11, 2011
Panic Virus - Seth Mnookin
Author Seth Mnookin documents the many flaws with the research linking vaccines and autism ... and makes a disturbing argument about why the controversy has persisted for so long.
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Tuesday January 4, 2011
EPA Changes
US President Barak Obama may face serious opposition in Congress and the Senate on emissions controls for proposing new powers for the Environmental Protection Agency ... but he's got a law from the 70's on his side.
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Tuesday January 4, 2011
Terrorism Against Cuba
For decades, American politicians and others have derided Fidel Castro as a supporter of terrorism. Now, writer Keith Bolender has written a different narrative ... an oral history of what he calls a decades-long string of terrorist acts against Cuban civilians.
Friday December 31, 2010
The Story of Cleopatra
Cleopatra is one of the best-known figures in history ... the last Queen of the Pharoahs ... a ruler renowned for her beauty and intelligence. But according to a new book, a lot of what we think we know about her just isn't true. British historian Adrian Goldsworthy takes on what he calls the myth of Cleopatra.
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Wednesday December 29, 2010
The Family Dinner
Academy award winning filmmaker, Laurie David dishes on why she believes shunning the family dinner is to blame for everything from obesity, to illness, and even crime. We talk to her about her new book, The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect With Your Kids, One Meal at a Time.
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Tuesday December 28, 2010
Procrastination
Just in time to help out with New Year's resolutions to stop putting things off, you'll meet a professor from the University of Alberta who believes he has discovered a cure for procrastination.
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Tuesday December 28, 2010
Jane Bussmann Feature
Comedy writer Jane Bussmann tells the story of how her trip to Uganda to meet a guy for a date went awry and led her to investigate the brutal Lord's Resistance Army.
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Monday December 27, 2010
Sex and the Bible
Michael Coogan is the author of the new book God and Sex - a book about what he thinks the Bible really says.
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Wednesday December 22, 2010
Project Censored
We continue our look at the year's most under-reported stories with Peter Phillips. He is the co-author of this year's Project Censored report and we talk to him to find out where he thinks the media has dropped the ball.
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Wednesday December 15, 2010
Death of Anticipation
Wait for it ... Writer Jenny Rosenstrach tells us why she thinks the anticipation that leads up to the holidays might be the best part. And Jonah Lehrer explains why the ability to defer gratification is one of life's most important lessons.
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Monday December 6, 2010
The New Harvest - Calestous Juma
Calestous Juma thinks Africa is poised for a remarkable breakthrough that will make it agriculturally self-sufficient within a generation. We talk to the leading thinker on agricultural expansion who just back from an informal summit with five African leaders.
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Tuesday November 30, 2010
Nov 30/10 - Pt 2: Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington, the founder of the influential news website, The Huffington Post, is a titan of American political journalism. She shares her thoughts on WikiLeaks and her fears for the future of The American Dream.
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Thursday November 25, 2010
Nov 25/10 - Pt 1: Ireland's Psyche
The Irish Government unveiled a 20-Billion-dollar austerity plan yesterday, including public sector job cuts, tax increases and a 20-per-cent cut to public spending. Now thanks to the collapse of home prices and the threat of bank defaults, Ireland finds itself having to negotiate a bailout package estimated at more than 100-Billion-dollars. We look at what the economic collapse is doing to the country's psyche.
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Wednesday November 24, 2010
Nov 24/10 - Pt 2: Biography of Cancer
Meet a cancer physician and researcher who has written what he calls "A Biography of Cancer" ... one that's 46-hundred years in the making.
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Wednesday November 24, 2010
Nov 24/10 - Pt 3: Tensions in Korea
North and South Korea are in the midst of what some say is their worst conflict since the Korean War. We look at where it goes from here.
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Tuesday November 23, 2010
Nov 23/10 - Pt 2: The Atlantic Ocean
Simon Winchester has written what he calls "a biography" of The Atlantic Ocean. And he makes the case that the Atlantic has fundamentally defined the world we live in through trade, biological riches, immigration and war.
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Monday November 22, 2010
Nov 22/10 - Pt 2: Jamie Oliver
We talk to British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver about his quest to get children all over the world to eat less junk food.
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Tuesday November 16, 2010
Nov 16/10 - Pt 3: Tabloid Tradition
After nearly a century, the future of the National Enquirer is now fodder for headlines... it's owner may be headed for bankruptcy protection. We talk to the son of the paper's founder.
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Friday November 12, 2010
Nov 12/10 - Pt 3: In Utero Experience
It has been nearly 13 years since the ice storm that devastated Quebec and eastern Ontario. And now new research suggests the experience shaped not only the people who lived through it but the children some of them were carrying at the time.
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Monday November 8, 2010
Nov 08/10 - Pt 1: Judge John Reilly
In 1997, Judge John Reilly did something no provincial court judge was supposed to do. Frustrated by so many impoverished people from Alberta's Stoney Reserve facing charges, he pointed to the Native leadership and ordered an investigation into corruption on the Reserve. We talk to Judge Reilly about his new book, Bad Medicine.
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Monday November 8, 2010
Nov 08/10 - Pt 2: Anti-Aging
Some women are using bio-identical hormones as a way to mitigate the side-effects of menopause and some men are using human growth hormone as a way of maintaining a leaner physique later in life. We're asking what is behind this anti-aging fixation.
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Friday November 5, 2010
Nov 05/10 - Pt 2: Daylight Saving Time
Most Canadians will be turning back their clocks this weekend. But there's a growing chorus of voices who say we should follow Saskatchewan's lead ... stop springing forward ... quit falling back and just commit to the time of day.
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Tuesday November 2, 2010
Nov 02/10 - Pt 3: American Liberalism
Today's U.S. mid-term election is widely expected to bring bad news for President Barack Obama. But according to Chris Hedges, the situation is way worse than that which is why he's written an obituary for American liberalism.
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Wednesday October 27, 2010
Oct 27/10 - Pt 1: Jimmy Carter
A feature interview with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. In his new
book, he outlines some of the major issues that confronted him in the White
House. And two of them - the decision to back the Mujahadeen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan and the decision to back the Shah of Iran - have helped create difficult and thorny issues for Barack Obama.
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Wednesday October 27, 2010
Oct 27/10 - Pt 3: Auto Bailout Autopsy
It has been about a-year-and-a-half since the Obama Administration in the U.S. agreed to a multi-billion-dollar-bailout of the auto industry. It's a deal many people credit with saving the industry and one that very nearly didn't happen. We hear from the man who helped put it together.
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Monday October 25, 2010
Oct 25/10 - Pt 3: The Last Narco
According to Malcolm Beith, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is actually the most wanted drug lord in the entire world and the reason that Mexico has over-taken Colombia as the centre of the drug trade in the Americas. We talk to Malcolm Beith.
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Thursday June 10, 2010
June 10, 2010
Pt 1: World Cup and South Africa - Thousands of jobs created, billions of dollars of debt taken on, national pride on display, and predictions of national anger and unrest on the way - the World Cup is about to kick off in South Africa. We asked what the world's biggest sporting event will mean for the country. (Read More)
Pt 3: Letters - It's mail day. We heard your thoughts on rationing cancer care, managing super-bugs and building a coalition. Plus, we got another perspective on what happened during Israel's raid on the flotilla bound for Gaza. (Read More)
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Pt 2: HST Fight in B.C. - Former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm is back and spoiling for a fight. But this time, he's not running for office. He's leading a grassroots tax revolt that could threaten the current provincial government. (Read More)
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Pt 3: Letters - It's mail day. We heard your thoughts on rationing cancer care, managing super-bugs and building a coalition. Plus, we got another perspective on what happened during Israel's raid on the flotilla bound for Gaza. (Read More)
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Thursday June 3, 2010
June 3, 2010
Pt 1: Ottawa Defence Show - The biggest arms show in Canada opened in Ottawa this week. For twenty years, The City of Ottawa banned arms trade shows from city property. But not anymore. And now City Councilors are arming themselves for a fight over the issue. (Read More)
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Pt 2: - H1N1 Exaggerated? - Earlier this morning, the World Health Organization declared that the H1N1 influenza outbreak is still a pandemic. But a year after it was first declared, an increasing number of critics are saying that the threat was overblown from the start. (Read More)
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Pt 3: Letters - It's mail day. We heard your thoughts on why we really hate oil companies and on the Israeli raid on the flotilla bound for Gaza. And we heard from Edward Peck. He's a retired U.S. diplomat who was on one of the ships in that ill-fated flotilla. (Read More)
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Tuesday April 13, 2010
April 13, 2010
Pt 1: GM Dealers - Last May, GM severed its ties with more than a third of its Canadian dealerships. Now that the demand for new cars is increasing, GM dealerships in the U.S. are re-opening but not in Canada. (Read More)
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Pt 2: Henry Petroski - Writer Henry Petroski will make the case for why engineers -- not scientists -- have the best shot at solving the world's biggest problems. (Read More)
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Pt 3: Health Care User Fees - Quebec Premier Jean Charest wants to put a 25-dollar user fee on doctor visits. Supporters say it will help get the province out of the red. Critics say it will cost more than anyone is bargaining for. (Read More)
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Thursday April 1, 2010
April 01, 2010
Pt 1: David Frum - A conversation with David Frum, a Canadian and a former speech-writer for U.S. President George Bush, about his criticism of the Republican Party's handling of the new U.S. health care bill ... the price he believes he has paid for it and the future of conservative politics in the United States. (Read More)
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Pt 2: Letters - It's Mail Day. We read some of your letters on the Catholic Church, the Arctic Council and on our special, Russia Revealed. And we also talk to comedian Guy Earle who is accused of uttering homophobic and sexist comments while he was on-stage in Vancouver. (Read More)
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Pt 3: Reality Hunger: A Manifesto - What do you get when you mix a Jane Austen novel with a bit of contemporary zombie fiction? Some say it's a mess that's nothing more than glorified plagiarism. Others see a legitimate literary mash-up and the future of the novel. We talk to David Shields, a writer who has found himself at the centre of that debate. (Read More)
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Wednesday December 30, 2009
December 30, 2009
Pt 1: Growing Interest in Yemen - President Barack Obama served notice that the U.S. would target terror more vigorously, with Yemen in its crosshairs.
Pt 2: Breeding Pigs - When Barbara Schaeffer lost her job as a policy advisor in Ottawa, she decided to become a pig farmer. This was in the midst of great uncertainty and hardship for the Canadian hog industry, but she's not just any pig farmer. She runs a small operation in an age of industrial-scale farming with a heritage breed of pig that has little commercial value.
Pt 3: Maps - In 1492, Christopher Columbus stumbled into the Western Hemisphere on his way to the Orient. So riddle us this...why are the continents in our hemisphere called North and South America and not North and South Columbia?
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Pt 2: Breeding Pigs - When Barbara Schaeffer lost her job as a policy advisor in Ottawa, she decided to become a pig farmer. This was in the midst of great uncertainty and hardship for the Canadian hog industry, but she's not just any pig farmer. She runs a small operation in an age of industrial-scale farming with a heritage breed of pig that has little commercial value.
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Pt 3: Maps - In 1492, Christopher Columbus stumbled into the Western Hemisphere on his way to the Orient. So riddle us this...why are the continents in our hemisphere called North and South America and not North and South Columbia?
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Tuesday December 29, 2009
December 29, 2009
Pt 1: More Racial Profiling?- On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab tried and failed to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane approaching Detroit. By Boxing Day, airports across North America were in gridlock, as passengers endured painfully long waits to board their flights ... many of which were delayed or cancelled as a result of security bottlenecks.
Pt 2: Vitamen Eh - Documentary - The World Food Summit wrapped up last month without securing the 44-billion-dollars in new agricultural development money that the United Nations had hoped for. But even if a massive global push to end hunger has yet to coalesce, some solutions to specific aspects of malnutrition are gaining ground. Take Vitamin A deficiency, for example. Close to half-a-million children go blind from a lack of Vitamin A every year, and half of them die within a year of losing their sight. Canadian aid and research has helped to bring a Vitamin-A enriched variety of sweet potato to Uganda ... a country where drought has led to famine.
Pt 3: Mad Child Interview - By just about any measure one of Canada's best-known rap groups, British Columbia-based Swollen Members, a big homegrown success - gold records, extensive touring and four Juno Awards. But all that success has meant also meant a lot of excess-- money, cars, girls, and of course, drugs.
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Pt 2: Vitamen Eh - Documentary - The World Food Summit wrapped up last month without securing the 44-billion-dollars in new agricultural development money that the United Nations had hoped for. But even if a massive global push to end hunger has yet to coalesce, some solutions to specific aspects of malnutrition are gaining ground. Take Vitamin A deficiency, for example. Close to half-a-million children go blind from a lack of Vitamin A every year, and half of them die within a year of losing their sight. Canadian aid and research has helped to bring a Vitamin-A enriched variety of sweet potato to Uganda ... a country where drought has led to famine.
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Pt 3: Mad Child Interview - By just about any measure one of Canada's best-known rap groups, British Columbia-based Swollen Members, a big homegrown success - gold records, extensive touring and four Juno Awards. But all that success has meant also meant a lot of excess-- money, cars, girls, and of course, drugs.
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Friday December 18, 2009
December 18, 2009
Pt 1: Afghan Detainees - We started this segment with a clip of Laurie Hawn, the Parliamentary Secretary to Canada's Minister of Defence. He made the point that afghan detainees is not an issue that is concerning Canadians right here on The Current last week. And then this week, he made it again during an interview with CTV News while he was defending a Conservative boycott of a parliamentary committee meeting on Afghan detainees.
Pt 2: Copenhagen Wrap-Up - Metaphorically at least, it's about half-past the eleventh hour in Copenhagen right now. And there's still no clear sense of what -- if any -- climate treaty is going to emerge for the United Nations Summit there. Negotiators worked through the night in the wake of new overtures from the United States that were meant to bridge its differences with the developing world. And this morning U.S. President Barack Obama made a plea to world leaders to reach a last minute agreement.
Pt 3: Hmong - We started this segment with a clip of Bla Za Fang. He's a Hmong refugee from Laos who is being held at an immigration detention centre just across the border in Thailand. Like many ethnic Hmong, he fled Laos because he feared political persecution.
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Pt 2: Copenhagen Wrap-Up - Metaphorically at least, it's about half-past the eleventh hour in Copenhagen right now. And there's still no clear sense of what -- if any -- climate treaty is going to emerge for the United Nations Summit there. Negotiators worked through the night in the wake of new overtures from the United States that were meant to bridge its differences with the developing world. And this morning U.S. President Barack Obama made a plea to world leaders to reach a last minute agreement.
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Pt 3: Hmong - We started this segment with a clip of Bla Za Fang. He's a Hmong refugee from Laos who is being held at an immigration detention centre just across the border in Thailand. Like many ethnic Hmong, he fled Laos because he feared political persecution.
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Wednesday December 16, 2009
December 16, 2009
Pt 1: Climate Science - If there's anyone anxious for a global climate treaty, you'd think it would be James Hansen. He's widely regarded as the most influential climate scientist in the world. He has spent 30 years studying the earth's climate systems and perfecting models to predict the effects of climate change. And yet, he says the kind of deal that is likely to come out of the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen would be worse than no deal at all.
Pt 2: In Memoriam: Hay River Documentary - Drive up the MacKenzie Highway, right to the top of Alberta. Then keep heading north for another hour-and-a-half and you'll arrive at Hay River. It's a small town in the Northwest Territories, surrounded by pristine, Northern beauty ... dense boreal forest, a freshwater lake and cascading waterfalls.
Pt 3: Coffee - Lots of you probably couldn't make it through a morning without coffee. And some of you might not want to.
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Pt 2: In Memoriam: Hay River Documentary - Drive up the MacKenzie Highway, right to the top of Alberta. Then keep heading north for another hour-and-a-half and you'll arrive at Hay River. It's a small town in the Northwest Territories, surrounded by pristine, Northern beauty ... dense boreal forest, a freshwater lake and cascading waterfalls.
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Pt 3: Coffee - Lots of you probably couldn't make it through a morning without coffee. And some of you might not want to.
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Friday December 11, 2009
December 11, 2009
Pt 1: Misleading Parliament - We started the segment with a clip from Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin. His testimony kicked off what's turned out to be a tough month for Defence Minister Peter MacKay. Within hours of that testimony, Mr. MacKay was facing pointed questions about allegations that he did know -- or should have -- known that Afghan prisoners were being abused by The Afghan Security Police in 2006 and 2007 after Canadian Forces handed them over.
Pt 2: Cold Case # 2 - For 13 years, Danielle and Justin Greavette have been consumed with a single question -- Who killed their father. Wayne Greavette died instantly on December 12th, 1996, when a booby-trapped flashlight filled with explosives and roofing nails blew up in his face. The police investigation did not produce any arrests.
Pt 3: The Faith Instinct - Richard Dawkins is known for two things -- his passionate defense of evolution, and his belief that God is a dangerous delusion. For him, those two beliefs are inextricably linked. And that is where Nicholas Wade comes in.
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Pt 2: Cold Case # 2 - For 13 years, Danielle and Justin Greavette have been consumed with a single question -- Who killed their father. Wayne Greavette died instantly on December 12th, 1996, when a booby-trapped flashlight filled with explosives and roofing nails blew up in his face. The police investigation did not produce any arrests.
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Pt 3: The Faith Instinct - Richard Dawkins is known for two things -- his passionate defense of evolution, and his belief that God is a dangerous delusion. For him, those two beliefs are inextricably linked. And that is where Nicholas Wade comes in.
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Thursday December 10, 2009
December 10, 2009
Pt 1: Alberta Climate Change - Renner - Rob Renner may be the bravest man in Copenhagen next week. After all, he's Alberta's environment minister. And he's on his way to a climate change conference where Canada in general, Alberta specifically and the province's oil sands in particular are being painted as public enemy number one.
Pt 2: Korea English Teachers - Dann Gaymer has been living and teaching in South Korea for three years. And like other English teachers there, he's watching his back. That's because of what some view as a growing anti-foreigner sentiment in the country... a mood that foreign teachers say is being fueled by a group known as The Anti-English Spectrum.
Pt 3: Letters - It's time for our weekly dip into the mail and our Friday host, Linden McIntyre joined Anna Maria in studio to share your thoughts on the program.
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Pt 2: Korea English Teachers - Dann Gaymer has been living and teaching in South Korea for three years. And like other English teachers there, he's watching his back. That's because of what some view as a growing anti-foreigner sentiment in the country... a mood that foreign teachers say is being fueled by a group known as The Anti-English Spectrum.
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Pt 3: Letters - It's time for our weekly dip into the mail and our Friday host, Linden McIntyre joined Anna Maria in studio to share your thoughts on the program.
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Monday December 7, 2009
December 07, 2009
Pt 1: Road to Copenhagen- It has indeed been a long and winding road to Copenhagen, where the United Nations' climate change conference opened today. It's the 15th Conference of the Parties or COP 15, as its known in climate circles.
Pt 2: Taser Talk Tape - For years, the company that produces the stun gun known as the Taser has said that the electrical charge from the gun will incapacitate -- but not damage -- the heart. An American jury thought otherwise. And for the first time, Taser International lost a case of product liability.
Pt 3: Management Myth - We continue our on-going series Work In Progress this morning by introducing you to a man named Matthew Stewart. By his own admission, he was woefully ill-prepared for the world of management consulting. He didn't have a business degree. He wasn't much interested in business. And the closest he had come to running one - - was a series of summer jobs in what he calls "the less appetizing ends" of the fast-food industry.
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Pt 2: Taser Talk Tape - For years, the company that produces the stun gun known as the Taser has said that the electrical charge from the gun will incapacitate -- but not damage -- the heart. An American jury thought otherwise. And for the first time, Taser International lost a case of product liability.
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Pt 3: Management Myth - We continue our on-going series Work In Progress this morning by introducing you to a man named Matthew Stewart. By his own admission, he was woefully ill-prepared for the world of management consulting. He didn't have a business degree. He wasn't much interested in business. And the closest he had come to running one - - was a series of summer jobs in what he calls "the less appetizing ends" of the fast-food industry.
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Thursday December 3, 2009
December 03, 2009
Pt 1: The Meaning of Gay - We started this segment with a scene from Modern Family, a sitcom about three families, including a gay couple who have just brought home the daughter they have adopted. It's the first time a network show has featured two gay men raising a child.
Pt 2: Guerrilla Diplomacy - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Beijing on day two of his trip to China. He's hoping to pull off a delicate diplomatic maneuver by improving trade ties and talking about human rights. It appears he's making some headway. China notified Canada, it has granted approved destination status, something the Canadian tourism industry has long requested.
Pt 3: Letters - This is Thursday, the day we turn part of the program over to you. And we're happy to welcome back Linden MacIntyre. He's the co-host of CBC Television's The Fifth Estate and a Giller-Prize winning novelist. He's also the Friday host of The Current for the next few weeks.
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Pt 2: Guerrilla Diplomacy - Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Beijing on day two of his trip to China. He's hoping to pull off a delicate diplomatic maneuver by improving trade ties and talking about human rights. It appears he's making some headway. China notified Canada, it has granted approved destination status, something the Canadian tourism industry has long requested.
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Pt 3: Letters - This is Thursday, the day we turn part of the program over to you. And we're happy to welcome back Linden MacIntyre. He's the co-host of CBC Television's The Fifth Estate and a Giller-Prize winning novelist. He's also the Friday host of The Current for the next few weeks.
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Wednesday November 25, 2009
November 25, 2009
Pt 1: Afghan Detainees Repsonse - It's been a tough week for the Conservative government and today they launch a counter-attack inside a parliamentary committee with several military witnesses. Ever since diplomat Richard Colvin alleged that Afghan detainees were being routinely tortured by Afghan authorities ... that Canadian government officials knew about it and that they continued handing over those detainees anyway ... the opposition has been relentless in its attack.
Pt 2: Asian Carp - Asian Carp were introduced to the Mississippi River in the 1970s to help deal with excessive algae. But Asian Carp eat nearly half of their body weight in plankton every day. So it didn't take long for them to start pushing out other species and creating environmental havoc.
Pt 3: Honeybees - Van Morrison's classic song, Tupelo Honey is a confection made by honeybees in the American southeast. But honeybees make much more than tasty sweets. From the Arctic to the equator, they are nature's most prolific pollinators. By some accounts, every third bite of food we take is due to the fruit of the pollinating labour of bees.
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Pt 2: Asian Carp - Asian Carp were introduced to the Mississippi River in the 1970s to help deal with excessive algae. But Asian Carp eat nearly half of their body weight in plankton every day. So it didn't take long for them to start pushing out other species and creating environmental havoc.
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Pt 3: Honeybees - Van Morrison's classic song, Tupelo Honey is a confection made by honeybees in the American southeast. But honeybees make much more than tasty sweets. From the Arctic to the equator, they are nature's most prolific pollinators. By some accounts, every third bite of food we take is due to the fruit of the pollinating labour of bees.
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Tuesday November 24, 2009
November 24, 2009
Pt 1: Case Against Canada -It's been almost a week now and the political fall-out from Richard Colvin's testimony is still being felt. He's a Canadian diplomat who was posted in Afghanistan. And he told a Parliamentary Committee that he had warned Canadian officials on numerous occasions that Afghan detainees were being tortured after Canadian Forces turned them over to Afghan authorities.
Pt 2: Home Inspections - Before Manuel Salgado and Nora Calcaneo bought their house in North Vancouver, they hired a home inspector to check it out. The inspector advised them that some repairs would be needed and that the work would cost about twenty-thousand dollars. They bought the house for 1.1 million dollars. But it turned out that it was in worse shape than they had been led to believe. So they spent 200-thousand dollars fixing structural defects that weren't identified in the inspection and then sued their home inspector.
Pt 3: David Plouffe - Last week, Susan Ormiston opened up her e-mail and found a message from David Plouffe, Barack Obama's Chief Campaign Manager. It reads, in part, Susan -- After nearly 1,000 submissions, 20 amazing finalists, and more than 3 million views, we have the winner of the Organizing for America Health Reform Video Challenge.
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Pt 2: Home Inspections - Before Manuel Salgado and Nora Calcaneo bought their house in North Vancouver, they hired a home inspector to check it out. The inspector advised them that some repairs would be needed and that the work would cost about twenty-thousand dollars. They bought the house for 1.1 million dollars. But it turned out that it was in worse shape than they had been led to believe. So they spent 200-thousand dollars fixing structural defects that weren't identified in the inspection and then sued their home inspector.
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Pt 3: David Plouffe - Last week, Susan Ormiston opened up her e-mail and found a message from David Plouffe, Barack Obama's Chief Campaign Manager. It reads, in part, Susan -- After nearly 1,000 submissions, 20 amazing finalists, and more than 3 million views, we have the winner of the Organizing for America Health Reform Video Challenge.
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Friday November 20, 2009
November 20, 2009
Pt 1: Jim Prentice - Two weeks from Monday, the most important climate conference in twelve years will open in Copenhagen, Denmark. The United Nations climate change conference was supposed to be the place where 192 countries would hammer out a new climate treaty that would take effect when the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012.
Pt 2: Afghan Detainees - We started this segment with a clip of Defence Minister Peter MacKay under fire during Question Period yesterday. And the "witch-hunt" he's talking about is the political fallout from the testimony of Richard Colvin, a Canadian diplomat who was posted in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Colvin told a House of Commons committee that it's likely all of the detainees Canadian soldiers turned over to Afghan authorities between 2006 and 2007 were tortured. Colvin also said that he tried to get Ottawa's attention but that no one seemed interested.
Pt 3: 2012 Panel - We started this segment with a clip of Director Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic vision of the year 2012. The movie is in theatres now. And in a nutshell, it's about the end of the world. Among other things, it depicts the destruction of Vatican City, the heart of Roman Catholicism. And that has sparked a lot of criticism ... especially after Roland Emmerich said he chose to focus his lens on Rome -- instead of, say, Mecca -- because he worried that a Muslim cleric might declare a fatwa calling for his head.
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Pt 2: Afghan Detainees - We started this segment with a clip of Defence Minister Peter MacKay under fire during Question Period yesterday. And the "witch-hunt" he's talking about is the political fallout from the testimony of Richard Colvin, a Canadian diplomat who was posted in Afghanistan. On Wednesday, Colvin told a House of Commons committee that it's likely all of the detainees Canadian soldiers turned over to Afghan authorities between 2006 and 2007 were tortured. Colvin also said that he tried to get Ottawa's attention but that no one seemed interested.
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Pt 3: 2012 Panel - We started this segment with a clip of Director Roland Emmerich's apocalyptic vision of the year 2012. The movie is in theatres now. And in a nutshell, it's about the end of the world. Among other things, it depicts the destruction of Vatican City, the heart of Roman Catholicism. And that has sparked a lot of criticism ... especially after Roland Emmerich said he chose to focus his lens on Rome -- instead of, say, Mecca -- because he worried that a Muslim cleric might declare a fatwa calling for his head.
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Thursday November 19, 2009
November 19, 2009
Pt 1: Malalai Joya - Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another term as Afghanistan's President this morning. This against the backdrop of explosive news here in Canada that in 2006 and 2007, senior government officials including the prime minister's office and the defense ministry were told Afghan detainees taken by Canadian troops and handed to Afghan officials were subject to beatings and electric shocks.
Pt 2: Letters - It's Thursday. That's mail day on The Current. And our Friday host this week is CBC Television's Susan Ormiston.
Pt 3: Climate Cover-Up - And we had more letters in response to last Friday's program, which was hosted by David Suzuki. The program looked at climate change and the prospects for the upcoming United Nation's climate change conference in Copenhagen. The program elicited a lot of reaction, much of it scathing.
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Pt 2: Letters - It's Thursday. That's mail day on The Current. And our Friday host this week is CBC Television's Susan Ormiston.
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Pt 3: Climate Cover-Up - And we had more letters in response to last Friday's program, which was hosted by David Suzuki. The program looked at climate change and the prospects for the upcoming United Nation's climate change conference in Copenhagen. The program elicited a lot of reaction, much of it scathing.
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Tuesday November 17, 2009
November 17, 2009
Pt 1: 9/11 Zeitgeist - New Yorkers are still adjusting to the news that five of the men accused of carrying out the 9/11 attacks will be tried in a civilian court near the site of the former World Trade Center. President Barack Obama made the announcement late on Friday. It's an extension of his plan to close the U.S. Military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Pt 2: Women of Zimbabwe - On the face of it, there appears to be cause for optimism in Zimbabwe. Thanks to a power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai, who is now Prime Minister -- there are reports of food on the shelves and a modicum of political stability.
Pt 3: Vatican & Alien Life - We started this segment with some tape of director Ron Howard and actors Ewan MacGregor and Tom Hanks talking about the movie Angels and Demons and what they see as a deep divide between science and religion as mechanisms for understanding the world. But in real life, the disconnect between the two may not be quite so dramatic at least according to the Catholic Church.
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Pt 2: Women of Zimbabwe - On the face of it, there appears to be cause for optimism in Zimbabwe. Thanks to a power-sharing agreement between President Robert Mugabe and former opposition leader Morgan Tsvangarai, who is now Prime Minister -- there are reports of food on the shelves and a modicum of political stability.
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Pt 3: Vatican & Alien Life - We started this segment with some tape of director Ron Howard and actors Ewan MacGregor and Tom Hanks talking about the movie Angels and Demons and what they see as a deep divide between science and religion as mechanisms for understanding the world. But in real life, the disconnect between the two may not be quite so dramatic at least according to the Catholic Church.
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Thursday November 12, 2009
November 12, 2009
Pt 1: H1N1 Workplace Relations - Stay home ... Go to work ... it's a tougher call than you might think. And the H1N1 flu pandemic has a lot of people second-guessing themselves. Earlier this week, the Alberta Government outlined a new protocol for its employees. Miss three consecutive days of work and you must swear before a Commissioner of Oaths that the reason you didn't come in is that you were sick with the flu. We heard from Gerald Kastendieck who is a spokesperson for the Alberta Government.
Pt 2: Linden MacIntyre - Giller Prize Winner - For thirty years, the issue of trust -- often breach of trust -- has dominated Linden MacIntyre's journalistic work. It's also the central theme of his novel, The Bishop's Man, which won the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian literature this week.
Pt 3: Letters - David Suzuki has a long list of credentials that follow his name ... award-winning scientist, environmentalist, broadcaster and author. He is the host of CBC Television's The Nature of Things ... the program celebrates fifty years of programming this year. And this morning David Suzuki joined Anna Maria in studio for our weekly look at the mail -- as this week's Friday host of The Current.
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Pt 2: Linden MacIntyre - Giller Prize Winner - For thirty years, the issue of trust -- often breach of trust -- has dominated Linden MacIntyre's journalistic work. It's also the central theme of his novel, The Bishop's Man, which won the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize for excellence in Canadian literature this week.
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Pt 3: Letters - David Suzuki has a long list of credentials that follow his name ... award-winning scientist, environmentalist, broadcaster and author. He is the host of CBC Television's The Nature of Things ... the program celebrates fifty years of programming this year. And this morning David Suzuki joined Anna Maria in studio for our weekly look at the mail -- as this week's Friday host of The Current.
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Wednesday November 11, 2009
November 11, 2009
Pt 1: Northern Rescues - We started this segment with a clip of Captain Michael Young, the Deputy Officer in Charge of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at the Canadian Forces base in Trenton, Ontario. He co-ordinated the rescue of Jupi Angootealuk, a 17-year-old boy from Coral Harbour, Nunavut who spent three days stranded on an ice floe along northern edge of Hudson Bay.
Pt 2: The Currie Libel Trial - We started this segment with an editorial that was printed on the front page of the Port Hope Evening Guide on June 13th, 1927. World War One had been over for nine years. But it still managed to spark what would become one of the most sensational libel trials in Canadian history ... a courtroom battle that raised issues of responsibility and accountability in war that still resonate today.
Pt 3: Legalizing Marijuana - We started this segment with Harry Anslinger, speaking not long after he became the first Commissioner of the newly formed U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics back in 1930. The idea of a war on drugs has been a consistent and powerful feature of American politics ever since.
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Pt 2: The Currie Libel Trial - We started this segment with an editorial that was printed on the front page of the Port Hope Evening Guide on June 13th, 1927. World War One had been over for nine years. But it still managed to spark what would become one of the most sensational libel trials in Canadian history ... a courtroom battle that raised issues of responsibility and accountability in war that still resonate today.
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Pt 3: Legalizing Marijuana - We started this segment with Harry Anslinger, speaking not long after he became the first Commissioner of the newly formed U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics back in 1930. The idea of a war on drugs has been a consistent and powerful feature of American politics ever since.
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Friday November 6, 2009
November 06, 2009
Pt 1: Fort Hood - It was the deadliest act of violence committed on a US military base in American history. Yesterday a barrage of gunfire left 13 people dead and wounded 28 more at the U.S. Military Base in Fort Hood, Texas.
Pt 2: IRA Bombing and Forgiveness - We started this segment with some tape of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher responding to the bombing 25 years ago at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The man who planted that bomb was an IRA operative named Patrick Magee. His intent was to kill British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She survived. But the bomb killed five people and injured many others. Patrick Magee received 8 life sentences for the bombing. But he was released 10 years ago, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
Pt 3: Nurture Shock - There are heaps of parenting books and mounds of interactive DVDs out there. But when it comes right down to it, most parents end up going with their gut ... at least some of the time.
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Pt 2: IRA Bombing and Forgiveness - We started this segment with some tape of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher responding to the bombing 25 years ago at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England. The man who planted that bomb was an IRA operative named Patrick Magee. His intent was to kill British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. She survived. But the bomb killed five people and injured many others. Patrick Magee received 8 life sentences for the bombing. But he was released 10 years ago, under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
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Pt 3: Nurture Shock - There are heaps of parenting books and mounds of interactive DVDs out there. But when it comes right down to it, most parents end up going with their gut ... at least some of the time.
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Tuesday November 3, 2009
November 03, 2009
Pt 1: Afghanistan Look Ahead - In his first speech since being declared winner in a much disputed presidential election, Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai is pledging to tackle corruption in his government, however he has made no specific commitments in his speech today.
Pt 2: Military Recruitment - For the military they are 'information sessions'. Others call it active recruiting. Call it what you will, in Quebec, a coalition of students' and teachers' unions is hoping to ban the Canadian military from high school and CEGEP - or junior college - campuses across the province.
Pt 3: Clinton Speaks - Every President of the United States lives under the burning light of intense scrutiny. And by any standards, Bill Clinton's two terms in office were scorchers, including having the dubious distinction of being only the second U.S. president ever impeached.
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Pt 2: Military Recruitment - For the military they are 'information sessions'. Others call it active recruiting. Call it what you will, in Quebec, a coalition of students' and teachers' unions is hoping to ban the Canadian military from high school and CEGEP - or junior college - campuses across the province.
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Pt 3: Clinton Speaks - Every President of the United States lives under the burning light of intense scrutiny. And by any standards, Bill Clinton's two terms in office were scorchers, including having the dubious distinction of being only the second U.S. president ever impeached.
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Wednesday October 28, 2009
October 28, 2009
Pt 1: Paul Pritchard - We started this segment with sound from the video shot by Paul Pritchard ... the one that shows Robert Dziekanski, angry and confused, at the Vancouver airport two years ago. Moments later, Robert Dziekanski is stunned by Police using a Taser. He struggles with them. And then he dies. All of that is on the video.
Pt 2: Shopkeeper- We started this segment with a clip of David Chen. He owns a small grocery store in Toronto's Chinatown. And he says he has complained to police for years about shoplifting in the neighbourhood.
Pt 3: Hacking Work - We continue our on-going series Work In Progress this morning with a look at a particular breed of worker ... people who hack the companies for which they work, in a bid -- they say -- to save them.
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Pt 2: Shopkeeper- We started this segment with a clip of David Chen. He owns a small grocery store in Toronto's Chinatown. And he says he has complained to police for years about shoplifting in the neighbourhood.
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Pt 3: Hacking Work - We continue our on-going series Work In Progress this morning with a look at a particular breed of worker ... people who hack the companies for which they work, in a bid -- they say -- to save them.
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Friday October 23, 2009
October 23, 2009
Pt 1: WCB Frustration - We started this segment with a clip from Brent Mcgillis who is an injured ironworker living in Edmonton.
Pt 2: Montreal Mayoral Race- Montreal's municipal elections are a little more than a week away. And as you might have guessed from Mayor Tremblay's ad, this is an ... um ... interesting time in the city's politics. Allegations of corruption, collusion and bribery are running rampant. The former opposition leader says the mafia controls City Hall. Mayor Tremblay says he's worried for his family's safety.
Pt 3: All Boys School- We started this segment with a clip from Chris Spence. He's the Director of Education with the Toronto District School Board. And he has a solution for the problem he just outlined. It's called "The Male Leadership Academy." And it would be the first publicly funded, non-religious all-boys school in Ontario ... if it gets the go-ahead for next fall.
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Pt 2: Montreal Mayoral Race- Montreal's municipal elections are a little more than a week away. And as you might have guessed from Mayor Tremblay's ad, this is an ... um ... interesting time in the city's politics. Allegations of corruption, collusion and bribery are running rampant. The former opposition leader says the mafia controls City Hall. Mayor Tremblay says he's worried for his family's safety.
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Pt 3: All Boys School- We started this segment with a clip from Chris Spence. He's the Director of Education with the Toronto District School Board. And he has a solution for the problem he just outlined. It's called "The Male Leadership Academy." And it would be the first publicly funded, non-religious all-boys school in Ontario ... if it gets the go-ahead for next fall.
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Thursday October 15, 2009
October 15, 2009
Pt 1: Canadian General Vance - Gone are the days when Canadians soldiers took most of the heat of battle in southern Afghanistan. Soon after coming to office, U.S. President Barack Obama said that he would send 21-thousand American troops to help stabilize the troubled nation.
Pt 2: Burlesque West- When you think of the Canadian version of 'sin city', Vancouver isn't top of mind for most. But post-war Vancouver was a hotbed of vaudville glamour and a major centre for an emerging exotic dancing scene.
Pt 3: Work Couple - Boris Worm and Heike Lotze are a couple of fish experts who are hooked on each other. The married couple are two of Canada's leading marine biologists. They both track fish populations... they both hope to influence government policy when it comes to conserving ocean fish stocks and they both work at Dalhousie University.
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Pt 2: Burlesque West- When you think of the Canadian version of 'sin city', Vancouver isn't top of mind for most. But post-war Vancouver was a hotbed of vaudville glamour and a major centre for an emerging exotic dancing scene.
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Pt 3: Work Couple - Boris Worm and Heike Lotze are a couple of fish experts who are hooked on each other. The married couple are two of Canada's leading marine biologists. They both track fish populations... they both hope to influence government policy when it comes to conserving ocean fish stocks and they both work at Dalhousie University.
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Friday October 9, 2009
October 9, 2009
Pt 1: Paul Martin - Six years ago, after years as finance minister in the government of Jean Chretien, Paul Martin became leader of the Liberal and the Prime Minister of Canada. A lot of history has happened in the last half-dozen years. A long and bloody war in Afghanistan, the near collapse of the entire world economy and a couple of new Liberal leaders as well. To talk about Canada and the world is Canada's 21st Prime Minister Paul Martin. He was in Toronto.
Pt 2: Greed is Good - We started this segment with a clip of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's 1987 movie Wall Street. It's an iconic speech from a time when stock-brokers were making money hand-over-fist while scandals rocked the real Wall Street and Americans marveled at what was being called a culture of greed.
Pt 3: Suncor NEP- The bitterness has faded over the years ... at least a little bit. But even 30 years later, the National Energy Program is still a sore point for Albertans. So you have to think that Rick George is a pretty brave man. He's the CEO of Suncor, Canada's largest energy company and a pioneer in the oil sands industry. And this week, he's calling for a new National Energy Program. Rick George was in Toronto this morning to tell us about it.
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Pt 2: Greed is Good - We started this segment with a clip of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's 1987 movie Wall Street. It's an iconic speech from a time when stock-brokers were making money hand-over-fist while scandals rocked the real Wall Street and Americans marveled at what was being called a culture of greed.
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Pt 3: Suncor NEP- The bitterness has faded over the years ... at least a little bit. But even 30 years later, the National Energy Program is still a sore point for Albertans. So you have to think that Rick George is a pretty brave man. He's the CEO of Suncor, Canada's largest energy company and a pioneer in the oil sands industry. And this week, he's calling for a new National Energy Program. Rick George was in Toronto this morning to tell us about it.
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Monday October 5, 2009
October 5, 2009
Pt 1: Pre-mature Births - The numbers are startling, about a million babies die each year because they are born prematurely. And the rate of premature births is on the rise all over the world. When the numbers are broken down by region, North America -- that's Canada and the United States taken together -- ranks a close second ... right behind Africa ... in the percentage of babies born prematurely.
Pt 2: Angela Davis - During the radical protest movements of the 1960's and 70's in the U.S., there was no woman more famous or notorious than Angela Davis. She was active in the civil rights movement ... a member of the radical and often violent Black Panthers.
Pt 3: Forest Offsets - We started this segment with a clip of Moses Kiptala. He's a farmer in Eastern Uganda. Seventeen years ago, he and a group of other farmers were pushed off their land in the name of conservation ... evicted so that the Ugandan Government could establish Mount Elgon National Park. Mount Elgon is an important watershed. And it supports a rich variety of vegetation. So the land there is highly contested.
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Pt 2: Angela Davis - During the radical protest movements of the 1960's and 70's in the U.S., there was no woman more famous or notorious than Angela Davis. She was active in the civil rights movement ... a member of the radical and often violent Black Panthers.
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Pt 3: Forest Offsets - We started this segment with a clip of Moses Kiptala. He's a farmer in Eastern Uganda. Seventeen years ago, he and a group of other farmers were pushed off their land in the name of conservation ... evicted so that the Ugandan Government could establish Mount Elgon National Park. Mount Elgon is an important watershed. And it supports a rich variety of vegetation. So the land there is highly contested.
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Friday October 2, 2009
October 02, 2009
Pt 1: Cultural Competence - We started this segment with some voices of newcomers to Canada at an English class in Toronto. The questions we asked them were similar to the ones Canadian officials put to Suaad Hagi Mohamud when they were trying to determine if she was who she said she was. And the question we're left with now is whether it's fair to assume that there is a common set of cultural reference points that all -- or even most -- Canadians share.
Pt 2: Egg on Mao - China's military might was on full display yesterday. Nearly 200,000 people took part in the pageantry, including soldiers marching in mathematical precision and school children releasing thousands of balloons into a perfect, cloudless, blue sky. It's the sort of thing China's Communist Party does once a decade to celebrate China's national day.
Pt 3: Frans de Waal - We started this segment with a clip of legendary economist Milton Friedman at the height of his powers in 1979. And the idea that self-interest, greed and even a little ruthlessness will get you ahead is still a powerful one. But according to Frans de Waal, when you look at human beings as a species, the warm and fuzzy stuff matters ... a lot.
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Pt 2: Egg on Mao - China's military might was on full display yesterday. Nearly 200,000 people took part in the pageantry, including soldiers marching in mathematical precision and school children releasing thousands of balloons into a perfect, cloudless, blue sky. It's the sort of thing China's Communist Party does once a decade to celebrate China's national day.
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Pt 3: Frans de Waal - We started this segment with a clip of legendary economist Milton Friedman at the height of his powers in 1979. And the idea that self-interest, greed and even a little ruthlessness will get you ahead is still a powerful one. But according to Frans de Waal, when you look at human beings as a species, the warm and fuzzy stuff matters ... a lot.
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Thursday October 1, 2009
October 01, 2009
Pt 1: Bishop Charges - The diocese of Antigonish is considered one of the most devoutly Catholic areas in Canada. And for many of the people who live there, the historic settlement which included Bishop Lahey's apology, was supposed to bring peace to them after one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in Canadian history.
Pt 2: Eco Stunts - We started this segment with a clip from a documentary, No Impact Man, that follows Colin Beavan and his family as they try to make it through a year leaving as little environmental impact as possible. That means no electricity, no packaged food, no transportation that's not human-powered. And that's while living in New York City, a place where you can't exactly live off the land.
Pt 3: Letters - It's Thursday, time for our weekly look at the mail. And our Friday host, for one last week, Jan Wong joined Anna Maria in studio to read some of your letters.
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Pt 2: Eco Stunts - We started this segment with a clip from a documentary, No Impact Man, that follows Colin Beavan and his family as they try to make it through a year leaving as little environmental impact as possible. That means no electricity, no packaged food, no transportation that's not human-powered. And that's while living in New York City, a place where you can't exactly live off the land.
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Pt 3: Letters - It's Thursday, time for our weekly look at the mail. And our Friday host, for one last week, Jan Wong joined Anna Maria in studio to read some of your letters.
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Wednesday September 30, 2009
September 30, 2009
Pt 1: Canadian Blood Services vs. Gay Donors - If you are a regular blood donor, you're probably familiar with the exhaustive list of questions involved. Do you feel well today? In the last 12 months, have you been in jail or prison? Have you ever handled monkeys or their bodily fluids? And then there's question number 19 ... which reads, "Male donors: Have you had sex with a man, even one time since 1977?"
Pt 2: Gay Murder in Iraq - Hamid is a 35-year-old gay man who lives in Iraq ... a country where human rights groups and activists say members of the gay community are being hunted down and killed by death squads. In April, Hamid's partner was abducted. Hamid told the story of what happened to Human Rights Watch. We aired a reading of what he told them. (We should warn you, it's a disturbing story that may not be suitable for children.)
Pt 3: Scott Expedition - We started this segment with a reading of part of letter written nearly a century ago by Charles Wright. At the time, Charles Wright -- or Silas as he was known to the rest of the crew -- was the only Canadian member of the Scott Expedition ... the legendary and ultimately doomed effort to be the first men to reach the South Pole.
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Pt 2: Gay Murder in Iraq - Hamid is a 35-year-old gay man who lives in Iraq ... a country where human rights groups and activists say members of the gay community are being hunted down and killed by death squads. In April, Hamid's partner was abducted. Hamid told the story of what happened to Human Rights Watch. We aired a reading of what he told them. (We should warn you, it's a disturbing story that may not be suitable for children.)
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Pt 3: Scott Expedition - We started this segment with a reading of part of letter written nearly a century ago by Charles Wright. At the time, Charles Wright -- or Silas as he was known to the rest of the crew -- was the only Canadian member of the Scott Expedition ... the legendary and ultimately doomed effort to be the first men to reach the South Pole.
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Friday September 25, 2009
September 25, 2009
Pt 1: Medical Exiles -Kathleen Kelly is an American who married a Canadian. They now live on Bowen Island in British Columbia with their six-year-old son. It sounds idyllic. The trouble is, she'd like to have the ability to go home -- to California. But she says she can't because of her son's health. And in her view, that makes her a medical exile. Kathleen Kelly was in Vancouver this morning.
Pt 2: Cellared in Canada - If you take a quick glance at a handful of bottles in the Canadian wine section at your local wine store, you'll probably run into a label that reads "Cellared in Canada." It sounds simple enough. But, there's a lot more -- or a lot less -- than meets the eye. "Cellared in Canada" defines wines that are bottled in Canada by Canadian wine-makers ... using foreign grapes.
Pt 3: Conservationist Success - On the face of it, there's not much cause for optimism when it comes to biodiversity. The scientific consensus is that the earth is in the midst of the sixth great extinction. And in case you were wondering, the last one was about 65 million years ago ... the one that got the dinosaurs.
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Pt 2: Cellared in Canada - If you take a quick glance at a handful of bottles in the Canadian wine section at your local wine store, you'll probably run into a label that reads "Cellared in Canada." It sounds simple enough. But, there's a lot more -- or a lot less -- than meets the eye. "Cellared in Canada" defines wines that are bottled in Canada by Canadian wine-makers ... using foreign grapes.
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Pt 3: Conservationist Success - On the face of it, there's not much cause for optimism when it comes to biodiversity. The scientific consensus is that the earth is in the midst of the sixth great extinction. And in case you were wondering, the last one was about 65 million years ago ... the one that got the dinosaurs.
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Thursday September 24, 2009
September 24, 2009
Pt 1: Justice Reform- Getting tough on crime is popular in Ottawa these days. Two years ago, the Federal Government commissioned a report to look at ways of improving Canada's Prison System. The government took the resulting recommendations. And in June, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan introduced a bill to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. The idea -- according to the government -- was to improve public safety and make prisoners more accountable for their actions. For instance, no more statutory release, they have to earn their parole. In the end, the bill did not pass.
Pt 2: Olympics & Homelessness - Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is well-known for its problems with homelessness and drug addiction. And this morning, many of the people who live and work there are talking about a proposed new law that would change how the police deal with the homeless. Among other things, under extreme weather conditions, it would give police the power to take homeless people to shelters against their will. With the 2010 Olympics fast approaching, critics are questioning the timing of the proposed law.
Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is our mail day on The Current and our producer John Chipman, joined Jan Wong in studio to help get through the mail.
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Pt 2: Olympics & Homelessness - Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is well-known for its problems with homelessness and drug addiction. And this morning, many of the people who live and work there are talking about a proposed new law that would change how the police deal with the homeless. Among other things, under extreme weather conditions, it would give police the power to take homeless people to shelters against their will. With the 2010 Olympics fast approaching, critics are questioning the timing of the proposed law.
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Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is our mail day on The Current and our producer John Chipman, joined Jan Wong in studio to help get through the mail.
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Monday September 14, 2009
September 14, 2009
Pt 1: Will This Session Matter? - For some of you, the thought of heading back to the polls again this fall probably feels a lot like watching a sitcom in repeats. After all, we just had an election last October. That's four elections in five-and-a-half years.
Pt 2: Language of Finance- A year ago today, the final touches were being put on the bankruptcy papers that would seal the fate of Lehman Brothers ... the shock waves that followed wiped out millions of jobs and plunged the world into a deep recession. And, suddenly, understanding how the global economy works seemed a whole lot more important.
Pt 3: Beatrice Mtetwa - Beatrice Mtetwa is one formidable woman. She has been arrested, jailed, beaten ... all in the pursuit of human rights and freedom of the press. Beatrice Mtetwa is a Human Rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, a profession that essentially guarantees personal suffering and loss. Her colleagues call her fearless.
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Pt 2: Language of Finance- A year ago today, the final touches were being put on the bankruptcy papers that would seal the fate of Lehman Brothers ... the shock waves that followed wiped out millions of jobs and plunged the world into a deep recession. And, suddenly, understanding how the global economy works seemed a whole lot more important.
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Pt 3: Beatrice Mtetwa - Beatrice Mtetwa is one formidable woman. She has been arrested, jailed, beaten ... all in the pursuit of human rights and freedom of the press. Beatrice Mtetwa is a Human Rights lawyer in Zimbabwe, a profession that essentially guarantees personal suffering and loss. Her colleagues call her fearless.
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Friday September 11, 2009
September 11, 2009
Pt 1: Translators in War - Working in a war zone is a dangerous business, particularly for local translators and interpreters who - so often - are targeted precisely because they are locals. Our next guest knows that all too well. He is an Afghan national who worked as a translator for coalition forces in Afghanistan. He fled to Canada 18 months ago after he started getting death threats. And he is telling his story for the first time this morning. We agreed to withhold his name because of concerns for his safety. We called him Amid.
Pt 2: Renegade Nuns - The Vatican has launched a pair of sweeping investigations into Catholic sisters in the United States. Investigations that some in the church believe are aimed at reigning in those who have broken with traditional church teachings. But others say the investigations are good for the church, and long overdue.
Pt 3: End of Newspapers - The Daily Newspaper passed away slowly -- almost imperceptibly -- right before our eyes. A reliable companion at the breakfast table, on the commuter train, even in the bathroom. A purveyor of muckraking, rabble-rousing and ambulance-chasing that was by turns objective and opinionated. It will be remembered as an essential and unwavering part of modern life. It is survived by countless devoted readers and employees, all wondering ... what next?
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Pt 2: Renegade Nuns - The Vatican has launched a pair of sweeping investigations into Catholic sisters in the United States. Investigations that some in the church believe are aimed at reigning in those who have broken with traditional church teachings. But others say the investigations are good for the church, and long overdue.
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Pt 3: End of Newspapers - The Daily Newspaper passed away slowly -- almost imperceptibly -- right before our eyes. A reliable companion at the breakfast table, on the commuter train, even in the bathroom. A purveyor of muckraking, rabble-rousing and ambulance-chasing that was by turns objective and opinionated. It will be remembered as an essential and unwavering part of modern life. It is survived by countless devoted readers and employees, all wondering ... what next?
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Tuesday September 8, 2009
September 8, 2009
Pt 1: Failing Kids - We started this segment with some tape of Patrick Mascoe, an elementary school teacher in Ottawa. And he's not the only one who has noticed that the F-word -- and by that we mean "Fail" -- is something you don't hear a lot in classrooms these days. Across Canada, the practice of holding back students who haven't met the requirements to complete a grade is fading.
Pt 2: Work In Progress - Documentary - We're going to take you on a journey through the world of work this year on The Current. We'll have documentaries, profiles and interviews about work ... what we do, why we do it, how our work is changing and what we get out of it. Dick Miller is going to get us started this morning. He's The Current's Documentary Editor and he was in Toronto. His documentary is called, Work In Progress.
Pt 3: Soap & Water and Common Sense - Bonnie Henry has traced the path of the Ebola virus in Northern Uganda. She has held the hands of grieving relatives during the SARS outbreak in Toronto. Now, she is at the centre of Canada's fight against the H1N1 influenza pandemic.
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Pt 2: Work In Progress - Documentary - We're going to take you on a journey through the world of work this year on The Current. We'll have documentaries, profiles and interviews about work ... what we do, why we do it, how our work is changing and what we get out of it. Dick Miller is going to get us started this morning. He's The Current's Documentary Editor and he was in Toronto. His documentary is called, Work In Progress.
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Pt 3: Soap & Water and Common Sense - Bonnie Henry has traced the path of the Ebola virus in Northern Uganda. She has held the hands of grieving relatives during the SARS outbreak in Toronto. Now, she is at the centre of Canada's fight against the H1N1 influenza pandemic.
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Monday September 7, 2009
September 7, 2009
Pt 1: Resume Fraud -Okay, let's see. Professional Experience ... "Former War Correspondent, National Radio Host, Investigative Reporter."
Pt 2: What Remains - Documentary - Mattawa is a small forestry town in northern Ontario. And it has seen its share of troubles. Mills have been closing and jobs have been lost. And now, the town is fixated on another, very different problem. The man who used to be Mattawa's only funeral director is facing 74 criminal charges related to improper burials. Before the charges were laid, he was known around town as an "upstanding citizen."
Pt 3: Nation of Wimps - Parents across the country are getting ready to send their kids back to school tomorrow ... And getting ready to do whatever it takes to help them succeed. But according to Hara Estroff Marano, that desire to help our children in any way we can might be doing more harm than good. She is the Editor of Psychology Today. And she's worried about the long-term effects of what she calls "over-parenting."
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Pt 2: What Remains - Documentary - Mattawa is a small forestry town in northern Ontario. And it has seen its share of troubles. Mills have been closing and jobs have been lost. And now, the town is fixated on another, very different problem. The man who used to be Mattawa's only funeral director is facing 74 criminal charges related to improper burials. Before the charges were laid, he was known around town as an "upstanding citizen."
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Pt 3: Nation of Wimps - Parents across the country are getting ready to send their kids back to school tomorrow ... And getting ready to do whatever it takes to help them succeed. But according to Hara Estroff Marano, that desire to help our children in any way we can might be doing more harm than good. She is the Editor of Psychology Today. And she's worried about the long-term effects of what she calls "over-parenting."
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Tuesday September 1, 2009
September 1, 2009
Pt 1: Rats - It's been fifty years since Alberta had to cope with a rat infestation. Thanks to a few happy geographical accidents and a very dedicated rat patrol, Alberta boasts of being "rat-free" since the 1950s. But this morning, the whiff of rats in the distance is wafting through the province and the vermin are at the gates.
Pt 2: The Super Committed - Two Documentaries : A Day in The Life of Tyler Johnson and A Quixotic Candidate
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Pt 2: The Super Committed - Two Documentaries : A Day in The Life of Tyler Johnson and A Quixotic Candidate
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Monday August 24, 2009
August 24, 2009
Pt 1: Hurricane Bill - Hurricane Bill has been downgraded to a tropical storm after racing through Newfoundland and Labrador last night. The Canadian Hurricane Centre says Bill Left the province's Avalon Peninsula earlier this morning and is moving out to sea northeast of St. John's.
Pt 2: Harper Foreign Policy - Summer is usually a pretty quiet time in Canadian politics. The House of Commons takes a break. MPs hit the BBQ circuit. And pundits start to question their purpose in life. But not so for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In June, he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and urged Parliament to greenlight a free trade deal with the country.
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Pt 2: Harper Foreign Policy - Summer is usually a pretty quiet time in Canadian politics. The House of Commons takes a break. MPs hit the BBQ circuit. And pundits start to question their purpose in life. But not so for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In June, he met with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and urged Parliament to greenlight a free trade deal with the country.
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Wednesday August 19, 2009
August 19, 2009
Pt 1: CMA President -One of Canada's most influential healthcare organizations is about to get a new leader. Later today, Anne Doig will become the new president of the Canadian Medical Association just as the debate over health care reaches a fever pitch. It's been an interesting road for the Saskatchewan family doctor, who's also a mother of six.
Pt 2: The Merchant of Death- We started this segment with the sound of bloody warfare in Monrovia during the first few days of Liberia's civil war. When the war ended 15 years later, more than 200,000 Liberians were dead.
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Pt 2: The Merchant of Death- We started this segment with the sound of bloody warfare in Monrovia during the first few days of Liberia's civil war. When the war ended 15 years later, more than 200,000 Liberians were dead.
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Monday August 17, 2009
August 17, 2009
Pt 1: Wither Liberals Panel - No one likes to work in the summer. But if you're a politician, you're pretty much expected to be out there on the BBQ circuit ... shaking hands, eating overcooked hamburgers and trying to win new votes. Many Liberals had high hopes for Michael Ignatieff's ability to win friends and influence people.
Pt 2: Bernie Madoff - For more than 20 years, Bernie Madoff made impressive returns on his investors' money ... the kind of returns that we now know really were too good to be true. Eight years ago -- back in 2001 -- Erin Arvedlund was the first journalist from a major publication to start asking questions about how Bernie Madoff was getting such good results.
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Pt 2: Bernie Madoff - For more than 20 years, Bernie Madoff made impressive returns on his investors' money ... the kind of returns that we now know really were too good to be true. Eight years ago -- back in 2001 -- Erin Arvedlund was the first journalist from a major publication to start asking questions about how Bernie Madoff was getting such good results.
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Wednesday August 12, 2009
August 12, 2009
Pt 1: Traditional Healing & H1N1 - All over the world, health professionals are preparing for the fall when the number of cases of H1N1 or swine flu is expected to surge. On Monday, the first human trials of the swine flu vaccine were carried out.
Pt 2: David Wessel: In Fed We Trust - We started this segment with a clip of Ben Bernanke, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, testifying before Congress last month.
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Pt 2: David Wessel: In Fed We Trust - We started this segment with a clip of Ben Bernanke, the Chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve, testifying before Congress last month.
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Wednesday August 5, 2009
August 05, 2009
Pt 1: BC Fires - This morning, an aggressive, 33-square-kilometre fire is bearing down on Lillooet ... a small town in British Columbia's interior. Throughout most of the province, tinder-dry conditions and record-breaking temperatures have proven to be a combustible mix. More than 500 fires are currently burning including one north of Kelowna that is now more than 75 square-kilometres in size. And more than 5,000 people have had to evacuate their homes.
Pt 2: Lehman Brothers - For more than one hundred-and-fifty years, Lehman Brothers was an integral part of the American business landscape. Over time, it grew into the fourth largest investment bank in the world ... one that operated at the highest levels of Wall Street's economic stratosphere. Then, on September 15th of last year, it all came crashing down, dragging the entire global economy down with it.
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Pt 2: Lehman Brothers - For more than one hundred-and-fifty years, Lehman Brothers was an integral part of the American business landscape. Over time, it grew into the fourth largest investment bank in the world ... one that operated at the highest levels of Wall Street's economic stratosphere. Then, on September 15th of last year, it all came crashing down, dragging the entire global economy down with it.
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Monday July 27, 2009
July 27, 2009
Pt 1: Our Relationship with Garbage - About 24,000 civic workers walked off the job on June 22, including garbage collectors, water and sewer workers, and city-run daycare providers. But it's the issue of garbage -- how much of it we make and where we put it -- that has received the most attention.
Pt 2: Fame - Documentary - From Susan Boyle to Michael Jackson, you'd think we'd all have our heads around this whole fame thing by now
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Pt 2: Fame - Documentary - From Susan Boyle to Michael Jackson, you'd think we'd all have our heads around this whole fame thing by now
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Friday July 24, 2009
July 24, 2009
Pt 1: Kingston Murders - Until police laid murder charges this week, a Kingston car crash near the end of June was believed to be an accident, although a suspicious one. Investigators were baffled by how a black 4-door Nissan managed to fall -- possibly backwards -- into a shallow part of the Rideau canal. Inside: the bodies of three teenaged sisters and an older female relative.
Pt 2: The Lost Art of Lost - For more and more of us, the idea of hitting the road without packing a Global Positioning System - a GPS device - strikes fear in our hearts. The ubiquity of GPS in everything from cars, to cameras, to cell phones, means it's becoming increasingly unlikely we'll ever get lost again.
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Pt 2: The Lost Art of Lost - For more and more of us, the idea of hitting the road without packing a Global Positioning System - a GPS device - strikes fear in our hearts. The ubiquity of GPS in everything from cars, to cameras, to cell phones, means it's becoming increasingly unlikely we'll ever get lost again.
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Tuesday June 23, 2009
June 23, 2009
Pt 1: Love + Prison Breaks - Last Thursday, police surrounded a car on an isolated stretch of road just north of Kingston, Ontario. Inside, they found an escaped convict named Andrew John Wood and Erin Danto, a woman who now stands accused of helping him escape. Andrew John Wood is serving a sentence for second-degree murder at the Frontenac Institution, a minimum-security facility in Kingston.
Pt 2: MS Drug Doc - Given the current economic climate, you may be thinking long and hard about taking any big risks right now. But Cliff Geise isn't. He's a businessman in Edmonton. He's been a risk-taker most all his life.
Pt 3: Kidney Transplant - Canadian doctor Jeffrey Veale has revolutionized the kidney donation system in the United States through a kidney transplant chain. And he says it's time for Canada to do the same.
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Pt 2: MS Drug Doc - Given the current economic climate, you may be thinking long and hard about taking any big risks right now. But Cliff Geise isn't. He's a businessman in Edmonton. He's been a risk-taker most all his life.
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Pt 3: Kidney Transplant - Canadian doctor Jeffrey Veale has revolutionized the kidney donation system in the United States through a kidney transplant chain. And he says it's time for Canada to do the same.
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Friday June 19, 2009
June 19, 2009
Pt 1: Uighurs in Bermuda- When you think of Bermuda, chances are you conjure up a warm island-paradise full of swaying palm trees and calm ocean breezes. But things aren't so peaceful there right now.
Pt 2: The Daddy Shift - We started this segment with some voices of a few Canadian dads reflecting on the modern meaning of masculinity, fatherhood and the decision to stay home with their kids.
Pt 3: The God Debate - The best-seller list has not been kind to God lately. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins took aim at the big guy in The God Delusion. Then the well known writer Christopher Hitchens - never one to shy away from a fight - followed up with God is Not Great.
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Pt 2: The Daddy Shift - We started this segment with some voices of a few Canadian dads reflecting on the modern meaning of masculinity, fatherhood and the decision to stay home with their kids.
Download Flash Player to view this content.
Pt 3: The God Debate - The best-seller list has not been kind to God lately. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins took aim at the big guy in The God Delusion. Then the well known writer Christopher Hitchens - never one to shy away from a fight - followed up with God is Not Great.
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Sunday June 14, 2009
June 15, 2009
Pt 1: Isotopes - Christopher O'Brien is kicking off his week with a dive into the unknown. He's the head of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine and he says he has no idea what kind of supply of medical isotopes will be coming in this week. And that means he has no idea what to tell the thousands of patients who are in line for cardiac and cancer tests.
Pt 2: Iran Elections - As you've been hearing on the news, the official announcement that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken the presidency of Iran for a second term has led to riots in the streets or Tehran and beyond.
Pt 3: Our Turn to Eat - We started this segment with clip from a public reading from a new book called, It's Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower. The event was held yesterday at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi. The book has created quite a stir in the Country, at least among those who've been able to get a hold of it. It tells the story of John Githongo, Kenya's former anti-corruption commissioner.
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Pt 2: Iran Elections - As you've been hearing on the news, the official announcement that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken the presidency of Iran for a second term has led to riots in the streets or Tehran and beyond.
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Pt 3: Our Turn to Eat - We started this segment with clip from a public reading from a new book called, It's Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower. The event was held yesterday at the Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi. The book has created quite a stir in the Country, at least among those who've been able to get a hold of it. It tells the story of John Githongo, Kenya's former anti-corruption commissioner.
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Friday June 12, 2009
June 12, 2009
Pt 1: Swine Flu in the North - For the first time in 41 years, the world is facing a global flu epidemic. Yesterday, the World Health Organization raised its alert level for the H1N1 or swine flu virus from five to six because of the growing number of infections. There are close to three thousand confirmed cases here in Canada.
Pt 2: Peru Oil Standoff - We started this segment with some sound from earlier this week as security forces clashed with the mostly indigenous inhabitants of Peru's northern Amazon region.
Pt 3: Rubber Duckie Death - When the full weight of summer hits and the air quality - in many places - takes a dive because of pollution and smog ... we head indoors, seal up our windows and take refuge in the hermetically sealed bubbles of our homes.
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Pt 2: Peru Oil Standoff - We started this segment with some sound from earlier this week as security forces clashed with the mostly indigenous inhabitants of Peru's northern Amazon region.
Download Flash Player to view this content.
Pt 3: Rubber Duckie Death - When the full weight of summer hits and the air quality - in many places - takes a dive because of pollution and smog ... we head indoors, seal up our windows and take refuge in the hermetically sealed bubbles of our homes.
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Thursday June 11, 2009
June 11, 2009
Pt 1: Youth & Politics - It's no wonder political staffers get the blues. It's a profession that thrives on youth or at least the boundless energy and all-consuming professional devotion that tends to come with youth.
Pt 2: Fordlandia - There are few things as quintessentially American as a Model T Ford . And few things that have had such a profound effect on American industry. By the 1920s, Henry Ford had perfected the assembly lines used to build the car. And by 1927 -- when the last Model T was made -- he controlled ever aspect of the materials used to make it ... all except the rubber for the tires.
Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is mail day on The Current and our Friday host Evan Solomon joined Anna Maria in studio to help get through our mail.
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Pt 2: Fordlandia - There are few things as quintessentially American as a Model T Ford . And few things that have had such a profound effect on American industry. By the 1920s, Henry Ford had perfected the assembly lines used to build the car. And by 1927 -- when the last Model T was made -- he controlled ever aspect of the materials used to make it ... all except the rubber for the tires.
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Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is mail day on The Current and our Friday host Evan Solomon joined Anna Maria in studio to help get through our mail.
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Monday June 1, 2009
June 1, 2009
Pt 1: Debating Aid - The song, Do they know it's Christmas debuted in 1984 ... the year the world mobilized to confront a famine in Ethiopia. It made international aid a top of mind issue in a way it has rarely been. The scale of the response was driven by stark images of starving children and the media-spectacle of pop stars such as Bob Geldof who insisted we all had to do something.
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Pt 2: Tiananmen Anniversary - Twenty years ago this week, a rising wave of pro-democracy demonstrations ended with a massacre. Shortly after midnight on June 4th, 1989, tanks rolled in to Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Chinese soldiers began firing into the crowd. And the square became the site of bloody carnage. By some estimates, as many as 3,000 people were killed, although the Chinese Government still disputes that number as well as reports of the number of people arrested and imprisoned in the weeks and months that followed.
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Pt 3: Air France- An Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France has gone missing over the Atlantic. Charles de Gaulle airport says it lost contact with the Airbus 330 flying from Rio de Janeiro overnight. Brazil's air force has started to seach for the missing plane. to give us a sense of what may have happened to this plane, we were joined by David Gleave. He is with Aviation Safety Investigations and we reached him in Gatwick, England.
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Friday May 29, 2009
May 29, 2009
Pt 1: Jon & Kate Plus Eight - We started this segment with some clips from the show, Jon and Kate plus eight during happier times. They are, as you may well know, the stars of their own reality television series called Jon and Kate plus eight.
Pt 2: Women Doctors - For many Canadians, finding a family doctor may be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The experience can be unpleasant, time-consuming and often fruitless. Most people attribute that to a simple shortage of doctors.
Pt 3: Che Guevara - It's been more than forty years since Che Guevara was executed in the jungles of Bolivia. But thanks to a single image -- one that is now reputed to be the most reproduced photograph in human history -- Che's picture has taken on a life of its own.
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Pt 2: Women Doctors - For many Canadians, finding a family doctor may be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. The experience can be unpleasant, time-consuming and often fruitless. Most people attribute that to a simple shortage of doctors.
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Pt 3: Che Guevara - It's been more than forty years since Che Guevara was executed in the jungles of Bolivia. But thanks to a single image -- one that is now reputed to be the most reproduced photograph in human history -- Che's picture has taken on a life of its own.
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Wednesday May 27, 2009
May 27, 2009
Pt 1: North Korea Panel - As you've been hearing on the news, the latest out of North Korea is a threat to launch missile strikes against South Korea as the South agreed to join the U.S. in intercepting any ships suspected of carrying material related to North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Pt 2: Gaia - We started this segment with a clip from the pitch for the CBC-sponsored campaign for one million acts of green. The idea is to encourage as many people as possible to take individual actions that -- when taken together -- would have a significant impact on the health of the planet.
Pt 3: Tanya's Trial - Last fall, Detective Wendy Leaver had what she thought was an open-and-shut case. A man was accused of forcibly confining and brutally assaulting a young woman named Tanya. And as long as Tanya made it to court to testify, Detective Leaver thought she'd have a good chance at a conviction.
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Pt 2: Gaia - We started this segment with a clip from the pitch for the CBC-sponsored campaign for one million acts of green. The idea is to encourage as many people as possible to take individual actions that -- when taken together -- would have a significant impact on the health of the planet.
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Pt 3: Tanya's Trial - Last fall, Detective Wendy Leaver had what she thought was an open-and-shut case. A man was accused of forcibly confining and brutally assaulting a young woman named Tanya. And as long as Tanya made it to court to testify, Detective Leaver thought she'd have a good chance at a conviction.
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Tuesday May 26, 2009
May 26, 2009
Pt 1: Polar Bear Skin - It could be a case of an error in judgment, or just bad luck. Either way, Dwight Hickey is a wanted man in the United States. He's from Fredericton and he's facing extradition to the U.S. for allegedly importing and selling goods from an endangered species.
Pt 2: Overeating - In the 1990s, Pringles boasted loudly and proudly about the will-power-busting qualities of its potato chips. The slogan, "Once you pop, you can't stop" was a hugely successful campaign. But it masked a crucial question that is as old as the story of Pavlov's dog. Why can't we stop?
Pt 3: Street Fighters - Fourteen months ago, Bear Stearns went from a seemingly healthy Wall Street powerhouse to practically insolvent ... all in about 72 hours. In the process, the world got its first glimpse of what was to come... as a localized financial crisis became a global economic meltdown that would wreak havoc around the world. Much of it happened between 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 13th and 7:05 p.m. on Sunday, March 16th of 2008.
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Pt 2: Overeating - In the 1990s, Pringles boasted loudly and proudly about the will-power-busting qualities of its potato chips. The slogan, "Once you pop, you can't stop" was a hugely successful campaign. But it masked a crucial question that is as old as the story of Pavlov's dog. Why can't we stop?
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Pt 3: Street Fighters - Fourteen months ago, Bear Stearns went from a seemingly healthy Wall Street powerhouse to practically insolvent ... all in about 72 hours. In the process, the world got its first glimpse of what was to come... as a localized financial crisis became a global economic meltdown that would wreak havoc around the world. Much of it happened between 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 13th and 7:05 p.m. on Sunday, March 16th of 2008.
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Friday May 22, 2009
May 22, 2009
Pt 1: Racism, Children & State - A little over a year ago -- back in March, 2008 -- Winnipeg's Child and Family Services got a call about a young girl who -- for two days in a row -- had come to school with a swastika on her arm. The CFS took the girl into custody along with her younger brother.
Pt 2: Fake Medical Journals - The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine looks pretty much as it sounds - like an authentic peer-reviewed scientific journal. It published scientific articles and reviews of research. It had its own honorary editorial board made up of established well-known scientists. And it was published by Elsevier, one of the biggest and most credible names in the scientific publishing business.
Pt 3: Gitmo Montana - U.S. President Barack Obama has taken a lot of heat this week over his bid to shut down the U.S. Military Prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yesterday, he came out swinging in his own defense.
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Pt 2: Fake Medical Journals - The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine looks pretty much as it sounds - like an authentic peer-reviewed scientific journal. It published scientific articles and reviews of research. It had its own honorary editorial board made up of established well-known scientists. And it was published by Elsevier, one of the biggest and most credible names in the scientific publishing business.
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Pt 3: Gitmo Montana - U.S. President Barack Obama has taken a lot of heat this week over his bid to shut down the U.S. Military Prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Yesterday, he came out swinging in his own defense.
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Monday May 18, 2009
May 18, 2009
Pt 1: Jarislowsky - He doesn't have a blackberry. He barely uses e-mail. But when it comes to money matters, Stephen Jarislowsky is on top of things. He is one of Canada's wealthiest people and leading philanthropists. He runs an investment counseling firm that manages more than 50-Billion-dollars worth of funds. So in a time of economic turmoil, Stephen Jarislowsky's advice on how to survive an economic downturn is worth noting. He wants Ottawa to pump what he calls "an astronomical" amount of money into the economy.
Pt 2: Gennen Roth - Last December, news broke of a sprawling Ponzi scheme involving a Wall Street giant and a legion of well-heeled investors. The mastermind was former NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff.
Pt 3: David Cay Johnston - It's become normal to hear about disastrous quarterly results, layoffs and dwindling stock options. So last month, when banking giant Goldman Sachs posted a first quarter profit of 1.8 Billion dollars and said it wanted to pay off half of a 10-Billion dollar loan from the U.S. Government, even the most diligent Wall Street watchers were surprised.
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Pt 2: Gennen Roth - Last December, news broke of a sprawling Ponzi scheme involving a Wall Street giant and a legion of well-heeled investors. The mastermind was former NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff.
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Pt 3: David Cay Johnston - It's become normal to hear about disastrous quarterly results, layoffs and dwindling stock options. So last month, when banking giant Goldman Sachs posted a first quarter profit of 1.8 Billion dollars and said it wanted to pay off half of a 10-Billion dollar loan from the U.S. Government, even the most diligent Wall Street watchers were surprised.
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Tuesday May 12, 2009
May 12, 2009
Pt 1: Pakistani Women Panel - As the fighting in Pakistan's Swat Valley rages on, hundreds-of-thousands of civilians are just trying to stay out of the cross-fire. At least 360,000 people have fled their homes since a military offensive that began last week.
Pt 2: Break a Terrorist - We started this segment with some sounds from Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's spectacularly bloody playbook. He was the chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq and responsible for blowing up the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad that killed Sergio Viera de Mello. He was responsible for the beheading American contractor Nicholas Berg, and destroying the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra. He also killed hundreds of civilians and coalition soldiers.
Pt 3: Obama and Gay Rights - We started this segment witha clip from a documentary about his life, gay rights activist Harvey Milk speaking in November of 1977... right after he became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. One year later, Harvey Milk was assassinated. But his message lived on.
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Pt 2: Break a Terrorist - We started this segment with some sounds from Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's spectacularly bloody playbook. He was the chief of Al Qaeda in Iraq and responsible for blowing up the United Nations' headquarters in Baghdad that killed Sergio Viera de Mello. He was responsible for the beheading American contractor Nicholas Berg, and destroying the Golden Dome Mosque in Samarra. He also killed hundreds of civilians and coalition soldiers.
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Pt 3: Obama and Gay Rights - We started this segment witha clip from a documentary about his life, gay rights activist Harvey Milk speaking in November of 1977... right after he became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. One year later, Harvey Milk was assassinated. But his message lived on.
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Monday May 11, 2009
May 11, 2009
Pt 1: Wait Times -For once, it was a good news story that put wait times in Canada's health care system back in the news. Last week, Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital announced the expansion of a pilot program that will cut the time it takes to diagnose a case of breast cancer and set-up a treatment program from about five weeks to one day. The program was made possible by a private donation of 12.5 million dollars from breast cancer survivor Emmanuelle Gattuso. We aired an example of one hospital that has figured out a way to cut wait times for the diagnosis of one disease with the help of a private benefactor.
Pt 2: Wait Times (cont'd) - We continued our discussion about waiting in the Canadian health care system. Doctor Robert Ouellet is The President of the Canadian Medical Association and he was in Montreal. And Doctor Michael Rachlis is a Health Policy Analyst and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He's also the author of Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada's Health Care System and he was in Toronto.
Pt 3: Running Shoe - It's marathon season again. Runs of all duration are springing up across the country. And the number of people participating is on the rise. If you are a runner -- even a casual one -- you'll know that there is an awe-inspiring -- if sometimes bewildering -- range of running shoes out there from which to choose. All part of a 20-Billion-dollar industry dedicated to finding the perfect fit for your feet.
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Pt 2: Wait Times (cont'd) - We continued our discussion about waiting in the Canadian health care system. Doctor Robert Ouellet is The President of the Canadian Medical Association and he was in Montreal. And Doctor Michael Rachlis is a Health Policy Analyst and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He's also the author of Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada's Health Care System and he was in Toronto.
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Pt 3: Running Shoe - It's marathon season again. Runs of all duration are springing up across the country. And the number of people participating is on the rise. If you are a runner -- even a casual one -- you'll know that there is an awe-inspiring -- if sometimes bewildering -- range of running shoes out there from which to choose. All part of a 20-Billion-dollar industry dedicated to finding the perfect fit for your feet.
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Wednesday May 6, 2009
May 6, 2009
Pt 1: 100 Days of Parliament - One hundred days ago today, Governor General Michaelle Jean walked into the Senate Chamber and opened the current parliamentary session with the speech from the throne. We aired a clip.
Pt 2: Canadian Mining - It has been two weeks since Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were set free after being held hostage in western Africa for four months. The two career Canadian diplomats working for the UN were kidnapped on December 14th of last year in Niger. They were released on April 22nd in neighbouring Mali. Many questions continue to hang over their release ... among them, whether it was part of an exchange for Al Qaeda prisoners and whether a ransom was paid.
Pt 3: Peacekeeping in DRC -After 15 years, the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken a devastating toll on the country. Some five million people have died. More than a million are displaced in the eastern part of the country.
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Pt 2: Canadian Mining - It has been two weeks since Robert Fowler and Louis Guay were set free after being held hostage in western Africa for four months. The two career Canadian diplomats working for the UN were kidnapped on December 14th of last year in Niger. They were released on April 22nd in neighbouring Mali. Many questions continue to hang over their release ... among them, whether it was part of an exchange for Al Qaeda prisoners and whether a ransom was paid.
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Pt 3: Peacekeeping in DRC -After 15 years, the Civil War in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken a devastating toll on the country. Some five million people have died. More than a million are displaced in the eastern part of the country.
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Tuesday May 5, 2009
May 5, 2009
Pt 1: Detainee Complaint - He is known only as Detainee 3. He was captured by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in April 2006 and he was among the three detainees to be transferred to Afghan authorities.
Pt 2: The Vaccine Rush and Vaccine Risks - There are now 140 confirmed cases of swine flu in Canada, including a young girl from the Edmonton area who has been hospitalized with the first severe case of swine flu in the country. As the outbreak continues to spread, companies and governments all over the world are on the hunt for a vaccine. Typically, a vaccine can take months or even years to develop and even longer to be approved for use but some pharmaceutical companies say that by using newer processes and technologies, it might be possible to develop initial doses of a vaccine for the swine flu in as little as 13 to 16 weeks.
Pt 3: The Death of a Goddess - The Yamuna River in northern India is much more than a river. In the Hindu religion, it is a she and she is a goddess. Every year, Hindu pilgrims take a holy dip into Goddess Yamuna to cleanse themselves of a lifetime of sin but when The Current's contributor Kennedy Jawoko went for a look, as part of our on-going series Watershed, he found that the goddess could use some cleaning up. Here's Kennedy Jawoko's documentary The Death of a Goddess.
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Pt 2: The Vaccine Rush and Vaccine Risks - There are now 140 confirmed cases of swine flu in Canada, including a young girl from the Edmonton area who has been hospitalized with the first severe case of swine flu in the country. As the outbreak continues to spread, companies and governments all over the world are on the hunt for a vaccine. Typically, a vaccine can take months or even years to develop and even longer to be approved for use but some pharmaceutical companies say that by using newer processes and technologies, it might be possible to develop initial doses of a vaccine for the swine flu in as little as 13 to 16 weeks.
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Pt 3: The Death of a Goddess - The Yamuna River in northern India is much more than a river. In the Hindu religion, it is a she and she is a goddess. Every year, Hindu pilgrims take a holy dip into Goddess Yamuna to cleanse themselves of a lifetime of sin but when The Current's contributor Kennedy Jawoko went for a look, as part of our on-going series Watershed, he found that the goddess could use some cleaning up. Here's Kennedy Jawoko's documentary The Death of a Goddess.
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Thursday November 13, 2008
November 13, 2008
Pt 1: Mellissa Fung - It is the richest city in the middle east a shimmering collection of glass and concrete rising out of the desert of the United Arab Emirates, an engineering marvel of man-made islands in decorative shapes sprinkled like a folly along its coast.
Pt 2: Mellissa Fung (Cont'd) - CBC reporter Mellissa Fung was kidnapped and held hostage for 28 days in Afghanistan. Yesterday, Anna Maria spoke with her about that experience, and we continued that conversation by asking Mellissa if she developed any kind of relationship with her kidnappers.
Pt 3: Mellissa Fung (Cont'd) - We concluded our conversation with Mellissa Fung. After she was freed, Mellissa was brought to the Afghan security offices in Kabul. Anna Maria started this part by asking her how she felt at that moment.
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Pt 2: Mellissa Fung (Cont'd) - CBC reporter Mellissa Fung was kidnapped and held hostage for 28 days in Afghanistan. Yesterday, Anna Maria spoke with her about that experience, and we continued that conversation by asking Mellissa if she developed any kind of relationship with her kidnappers.
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Pt 3: Mellissa Fung (Cont'd) - We concluded our conversation with Mellissa Fung. After she was freed, Mellissa was brought to the Afghan security offices in Kabul. Anna Maria started this part by asking her how she felt at that moment.
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Wednesday November 12, 2008
November 12, 2008
Pt 1: Bailout Transparency - Since the financial crisis hit in September, it seems the United States economy is earning a bad rap over bailouts. You might remember the
original bailout price tag was pegged at $700 billion dollars. But as it starts to look more like 2 trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money is being spent, Americans are rhyming off a new word: transparency.
Pt 2: Avichay Sharon Feature - At any Israeli checkpoint, the sound of Palestinian protest speaks volumes about how an Israeli soldier stands at the line separating Israel and the Palestinian territories. And for Avichay Sharon, the fine line between war and peace has him asking questions about what's right and wrong.
Pt 3: The Changeling - The life and crimes of Canadian Gordon Stewart Northcott is the subject of a book writer Tony Mostrom is currently working on. He was in Los Angeles this morning.
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Pt 2: Avichay Sharon Feature - At any Israeli checkpoint, the sound of Palestinian protest speaks volumes about how an Israeli soldier stands at the line separating Israel and the Palestinian territories. And for Avichay Sharon, the fine line between war and peace has him asking questions about what's right and wrong.
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Pt 3: The Changeling - The life and crimes of Canadian Gordon Stewart Northcott is the subject of a book writer Tony Mostrom is currently working on. He was in Los Angeles this morning.
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Monday November 10, 2008
November 10, 2008
Pt 1: Mellissa Fung Kidnapping - Over the weekend CBC television reporter Mellissa Fung was freed after nearly a month of captivity in Afghanistan. She was kidnapped by armed men while visiting a refugee camp on October 12th and held captive until this past Saturday in the Taliban controlled Wardac Province, southwest of Kabul.
Pt 2: UN Spying - We started this segment with a clip of former US Secretary-of-State Colin Powell speaking to the United Nations Security Council on February 5th, 2003. It was the Bush Administration's last ditch effort to get the UN onside with its plans to invade Iraq. But it wasn't the only attempt to influence the council.
Pt 3: IAEA - For more than half-a-century, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been the world's nuclear watchdog. Among other things, it monitors rogue regimes around the world, looking for evidence of nuclear weapons programs and trying to keep radioactive materials out of the hands of terrorists.
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Pt 2: UN Spying - We started this segment with a clip of former US Secretary-of-State Colin Powell speaking to the United Nations Security Council on February 5th, 2003. It was the Bush Administration's last ditch effort to get the UN onside with its plans to invade Iraq. But it wasn't the only attempt to influence the council.
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Pt 3: IAEA - For more than half-a-century, the International Atomic Energy Agency has been the world's nuclear watchdog. Among other things, it monitors rogue regimes around the world, looking for evidence of nuclear weapons programs and trying to keep radioactive materials out of the hands of terrorists.
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Thursday November 6, 2008
November 06, 2008
Pt 1: Post America - When the man who is about to become the most powerful person on earth picks up a book about the future of international relations, people tend to take note. The book Barack Obama has been spotted with lately is The Post American World. In it, Fareed Zakaria argues that the United States' once dominant position is waning ... not because the U.S. is getting weaker, but because the rest of the world is getting stronger.
Pt 2: Dow vs. Quebec - Two years ago, the government of Quebec partially banned a herbicide called 2-4-D. It's used extensively in agriculture, but the Quebec government banned so-called cosmetic applications such as using it to keep lawns free of weeds. At the time, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Several cities in Canada had already banned 2-4-D. The Quebec ban had a long list of supporters, including the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Medical Association. And Ontario wants to introduce a ban of its own, too.
Pt 3: Letters - It's time now for a look at the mail. And Anna Maria was joined in studio by our Friday host, Indira Naidoo Harris to help read today's mail.
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Pt 2: Dow vs. Quebec - Two years ago, the government of Quebec partially banned a herbicide called 2-4-D. It's used extensively in agriculture, but the Quebec government banned so-called cosmetic applications such as using it to keep lawns free of weeds. At the time, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Several cities in Canada had already banned 2-4-D. The Quebec ban had a long list of supporters, including the Canadian Cancer Society and the Canadian Medical Association. And Ontario wants to introduce a ban of its own, too.
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Pt 3: Letters - It's time now for a look at the mail. And Anna Maria was joined in studio by our Friday host, Indira Naidoo Harris to help read today's mail.
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Tuesday November 4, 2008
November 04, 2008
Pt 1: Editorial Board - Across the United States today, election officials are bracing for what could be the biggest voter turnout in American history. Most Americans have made up their minds, including the major U.S. newspapers which have endorsed candidates. Some media in this Country have done the same.
Pt 2: Sour Gas - For people in northeastern, British Columbia, Halloween brought something more sinister than the usual ghosts and goblins this year. For the third time in less than a month, a natural gas pipeline that runs just outside the town of Dawson Creek was sabotaged on Friday.
Pt 3: Neuromythology - We live in a time when neuro-scientists are busying themselves with the task of understanding our brains, figuring out how a collection of neurons and synapses somehow adds up to consciousness.
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Pt 2: Sour Gas - For people in northeastern, British Columbia, Halloween brought something more sinister than the usual ghosts and goblins this year. For the third time in less than a month, a natural gas pipeline that runs just outside the town of Dawson Creek was sabotaged on Friday.
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Pt 3: Neuromythology - We live in a time when neuro-scientists are busying themselves with the task of understanding our brains, figuring out how a collection of neurons and synapses somehow adds up to consciousness.
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Monday November 3, 2008
November 03, 2008
Pt 1: American Pensions - Leaving aside the debate over American social security, it is indeed a scary time to be thinking of retirement no matter which side of the border you find yourself on. But the thing is, it might actually be scarier if you've heeded that advice. Because for most Canadians, sensible financial planning has meant putting your money in RRSPs or company pension funds.
Pt 2: All Politics Are Tribal - The battle for the U.S. Presidency has once again come down to a handful of highly coveted swing states. But half-a-world away, in the slums of Nairobi, the election is playing out a little differently. On the outskirts of Kenya's largest city, Barack Obama's run for the presidency is stoking long-simmering ethnic tensions between the Luo and the Kikuyu. Earlier this year, the two groups clashed violently for days after a Kikuyu President was returned to power. Hundreds died and eventually, a fragile power-sharing agreement was reached.
Pt 3: Vice Presidents of America-Over the last eight years, Dick Cheney has made himself the most powerful Vice President in American history the quintessential man behind the curtain. He used the office in ways no other Vice President had ever tried and even went so far as to assert that he stood apart from the Executive Branch of Government. In just a few months, Dick Cheney will walk away from the Vice Presidency.
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Pt 2: All Politics Are Tribal - The battle for the U.S. Presidency has once again come down to a handful of highly coveted swing states. But half-a-world away, in the slums of Nairobi, the election is playing out a little differently. On the outskirts of Kenya's largest city, Barack Obama's run for the presidency is stoking long-simmering ethnic tensions between the Luo and the Kikuyu. Earlier this year, the two groups clashed violently for days after a Kikuyu President was returned to power. Hundreds died and eventually, a fragile power-sharing agreement was reached.
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Pt 3: Vice Presidents of America-Over the last eight years, Dick Cheney has made himself the most powerful Vice President in American history the quintessential man behind the curtain. He used the office in ways no other Vice President had ever tried and even went so far as to assert that he stood apart from the Executive Branch of Government. In just a few months, Dick Cheney will walk away from the Vice Presidency.
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Friday October 31, 2008
October 31, 2008
Pt 1: Is God a Republication? - Here in the United States, there's a strict separation of church and state. But the line between politics and religion is a lot fuzzier.That's been especially true under the Bush Administration, which has embraced the Religious Right over the last eight years.
Pt 2: Broken Dreams - New York City -- the place where we broadcasted this day's show from-- is uniquely vulnerable to the American economic crisis that's wreaking havoc all over the world.
Pt 3: Hope, Not Fear - The work I've been doing as the Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University is all about mentoring students and encouraging them to challenge orthodoxy and stand up to the resulting backlash. Challenging orthodoxy is something that, well, it comes pretty naturally to Irshad. But standing up to a backlash is a skill I've had to develop over the years.
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Pt 2: Broken Dreams - New York City -- the place where we broadcasted this day's show from-- is uniquely vulnerable to the American economic crisis that's wreaking havoc all over the world.
Download Flash Player to view this content.
Pt 3: Hope, Not Fear - The work I've been doing as the Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University is all about mentoring students and encouraging them to challenge orthodoxy and stand up to the resulting backlash. Challenging orthodoxy is something that, well, it comes pretty naturally to Irshad. But standing up to a backlash is a skill I've had to develop over the years.
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Thursday October 30, 2008
October 30, 2008
Pt 1: Voter Purges - Ah, the fateful night of November 4th, 2000 , when Americans got their first sense of how something called a hanging chad could mess up their democracy so spectacularly. It took more than a month before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and George Bush became the 43rd President of the United States.
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Pt 2: HPV Vaccine - Thirty six years ago -- back in 1972 -- a German researcher named Harald zur Hausen put forward an unconventional hypothesis. He suggested that a virus could cause cancer. At the time, the idea was written off by many of his peers. But he kept at it. And eleven years later, he made a revolutionary discovery. He found that two strains of the oncogenic human papilloma virus -- or HPV -- were responsible for about 70 per cent of the cases of cervical cancer, a disease that kills 250 thousand woman a year worldwide.
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Pt 3: Letters - Irshad Manji joined Anna Maria for a look at The Current's letter pack. She is a Canadian author, journalist and feminist. She is also the Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University, a program that encourages young leaders to challenge authority and conventions. Irshad Manji is also this week's Friday host of The Current and she was in New York City.
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Pt 2: HPV Vaccine - Thirty six years ago -- back in 1972 -- a German researcher named Harald zur Hausen put forward an unconventional hypothesis. He suggested that a virus could cause cancer. At the time, the idea was written off by many of his peers. But he kept at it. And eleven years later, he made a revolutionary discovery. He found that two strains of the oncogenic human papilloma virus -- or HPV -- were responsible for about 70 per cent of the cases of cervical cancer, a disease that kills 250 thousand woman a year worldwide.
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Pt 3: Letters - Irshad Manji joined Anna Maria for a look at The Current's letter pack. She is a Canadian author, journalist and feminist. She is also the Director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University, a program that encourages young leaders to challenge authority and conventions. Irshad Manji is also this week's Friday host of The Current and she was in New York City.
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Tuesday October 28, 2008
October 28, 2008
Pt 1: Paul Martin - When he was Finance Minister, Paul Martin was adamant that his deficit-slaying project wasn't about program costs, balance sheets or credit ratings. It was about protecting Canada from the unknown, making the country's finances secure enough to withstand any unforeseen problems lurking around the corner. Problems like the global financial crisis that now has economists and finance ministers talking matter-of-factly about something that was unthinkable just weeks ago, running deficits.
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Pt 2: Violence in the Congo - The Democratic Republic of Congo's vast resource wealth should make it the envy of much of the world. Instead, it's turned the country into a battleground, a land plundered by a succession of warring factions, from within and beyond the country's borders.
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Pt 3: Rowboat - How idyllic- rowing across open water in a boat with your sweetheart. Okay, well, how about spending 145 days rowing 10,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean in a seven-metre boat with your fiancé, completely exposed to the elements, tossed around like a cork by hurricanes and straining at the oars for hours a day, often against stiff headwinds or hostile currents?
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Violence in the Congo - The Democratic Republic of Congo's vast resource wealth should make it the envy of much of the world. Instead, it's turned the country into a battleground, a land plundered by a succession of warring factions, from within and beyond the country's borders.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Rowboat - How idyllic- rowing across open water in a boat with your sweetheart. Okay, well, how about spending 145 days rowing 10,000 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean in a seven-metre boat with your fiancé, completely exposed to the elements, tossed around like a cork by hurricanes and straining at the oars for hours a day, often against stiff headwinds or hostile currents?
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Read more »
Monday October 27, 2008
October 27, 2008
Pt 1: Deficit Diagnosis - The experts all seem to agree that we are in the midst of dark times and can expect them to grow darker still. We're hearing the word deficit echo throughout the country as a sign that our revenues aren't what we hoped they would be and we'll have to spend more than we're taking in to keep the economic ship as we know it on an even keel.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Unlikely Soldiers - In the summer of 1943, two young Canadian men were sent on a secret and extremely dangerous mission into occupied France, part of a covert effort to stoke an uprising across Europe and end Nazi rule throughout the continent. The risk of capture was high, so both men carried suicide pills. Their life expectancy was short.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Impact of These Unlikely Soldiers - In our last part, we heard the heroic and tragic story of Frank Pickersgill and Ken Macalister - two young, Canadian men sent to infiltrate Nazi-occupied France, who died in a cellar at Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Unlikely Soldiers - In the summer of 1943, two young Canadian men were sent on a secret and extremely dangerous mission into occupied France, part of a covert effort to stoke an uprising across Europe and end Nazi rule throughout the continent. The risk of capture was high, so both men carried suicide pills. Their life expectancy was short.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Impact of These Unlikely Soldiers - In our last part, we heard the heroic and tragic story of Frank Pickersgill and Ken Macalister - two young, Canadian men sent to infiltrate Nazi-occupied France, who died in a cellar at Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Thursday October 16, 2008
October 16, 2008
Pt 1: Voter Turnout - For 37 days, many pundits joked that Canadians were enduring an election campaign that no one really wanted. Now the numbers are in and no one is laughing. According to Elections Canada, only 59 per cent of eligible voters bothered to go to the polls on Tuesday. That's the lowest voter turnout for any federal election since Confederation.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Omar Khadr - After a series of delays, Omar Khadr is set to stand trial for war crimes next month at the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in Afghanistan back in 2002. He's accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier while fighting alongside the Taliban. But according to Terence McKenna, there are big problems with the case against Omar Khadr.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Miracles of Rose Prince - Every summer, nearly a thousand people gather on a beautiful, lonely hillside in northern British Columbia. First Nations, pilgrims, priests, and bishops are drawn to Lejac. They pray to an aboriginal "Saint" that the Vatican has not recognized a dead woman whose body never decayed. They worship on holy ground that was once home to an Indian residential school. They look for miracles.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Omar Khadr - After a series of delays, Omar Khadr is set to stand trial for war crimes next month at the United States military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in Afghanistan back in 2002. He's accused of throwing a grenade that killed an American soldier while fighting alongside the Taliban. But according to Terence McKenna, there are big problems with the case against Omar Khadr.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Miracles of Rose Prince - Every summer, nearly a thousand people gather on a beautiful, lonely hillside in northern British Columbia. First Nations, pilgrims, priests, and bishops are drawn to Lejac. They pray to an aboriginal "Saint" that the Vatican has not recognized a dead woman whose body never decayed. They worship on holy ground that was once home to an Indian residential school. They look for miracles.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Wednesday October 15, 2008
October 15, 2008
Pt 1: Conservative - Canadians woke up this morning to a world that looks an awful lot like it did 37 days ago, Stephen Harper is still our Prime Minister. And Canada's 40th Parliament will be a minority, just like the 39th. But the more things stay the same, the more they change.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Liberals - It wasn't all that long ago that the Liberal Party was known as Canada's "natural governing party." But this morning, all the diminished expectations in the world can't hide the fact that it's a tough day to be a Liberal, especially if you're Stephane Dion.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: NDP Insiders - The NDP came away with 38 seats last night. That's the best the party has done in 20 years. But it still leaves the party in third place or fourth if you include the Bloc Quebecois. For their thoughts on what lessons the NDP should draw from that, Anna Maria was joined by Libby Davies. She's an New Democratic MP who won her seat in Vancouver on October 14th. And Bill Blaikie was a long-time NDP MP who did not run in this campaign. He was in Winnipeg.
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Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Liberals - It wasn't all that long ago that the Liberal Party was known as Canada's "natural governing party." But this morning, all the diminished expectations in the world can't hide the fact that it's a tough day to be a Liberal, especially if you're Stephane Dion.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: NDP Insiders - The NDP came away with 38 seats last night. That's the best the party has done in 20 years. But it still leaves the party in third place or fourth if you include the Bloc Quebecois. For their thoughts on what lessons the NDP should draw from that, Anna Maria was joined by Libby Davies. She's an New Democratic MP who won her seat in Vancouver on October 14th. And Bill Blaikie was a long-time NDP MP who did not run in this campaign. He was in Winnipeg.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Tuesday October 14, 2008
October 14, 2008
Pt 1: Memories and Moondust - Two summers ago, on his second Afghanistan tour, and two days after his 33rd birthday, Master Corporal Jeff Walsh lost his life. This morning, his family hopes a military trial at CFB Shilo in Manitoba will help them finally overcome the difficult circumstances surrounding Jeff Walsh's death.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Mafia Boy - For a few panicked hours one day in February, 2000, the websites of Yahoo, CNN, E-bay, E-trade and Dell crashed and burned, targets of North America's largest hacker attack.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Ransom of the Jews - About 22-million people live in Romania. Fewer than 10-thousand of them are Jewish. Pretty outstanding, considering that after WWII Romania had the second largest number of Jews in the world.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Mafia Boy - For a few panicked hours one day in February, 2000, the websites of Yahoo, CNN, E-bay, E-trade and Dell crashed and burned, targets of North America's largest hacker attack.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Ransom of the Jews - About 22-million people live in Romania. Fewer than 10-thousand of them are Jewish. Pretty outstanding, considering that after WWII Romania had the second largest number of Jews in the world.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Monday October 13, 2008
October 13, 2008
Pt 1: Election Panel - The saying goes, "A week is an eternity in politics." Well, the events of the past week lend credence to another old maxim, "Be careful what you wish for."
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: North Saskatchewan River - A few weeks ago, we opened The Current's season-long probe of water issues -- a series called Watershed -- by wading in the source waters of the Bow River.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: In Praise of Fat - That rather jaunty piece of nutritional advice comes from a song that was sent to schools in the early 1960s, part of a campaign to keep kids fit and eating healthy. In the decades since, that message has spread like low-fat margarine on a slice of multigrain bread. You can even hear that message dutifully echoed on a once-epicurean genre of television, cooking shows.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: North Saskatchewan River - A few weeks ago, we opened The Current's season-long probe of water issues -- a series called Watershed -- by wading in the source waters of the Bow River.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: In Praise of Fat - That rather jaunty piece of nutritional advice comes from a song that was sent to schools in the early 1960s, part of a campaign to keep kids fit and eating healthy. In the decades since, that message has spread like low-fat margarine on a slice of multigrain bread. You can even hear that message dutifully echoed on a once-epicurean genre of television, cooking shows.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Monday October 6, 2008
October 6, 2008
Pt 1: Julie Couillard - It's a story that has got it all ... Sex, violence, political intrigue. But for Julie Couillard -- the woman at the centre of the story -- it's about her life.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Medical Officers - Five-and-a-half years ago, when Torontonians -- and indeed many Canadians -- were wracked with anxiety over the SARS outbreak, they looked to the late Sheela Basrur for information and reassurance. She was Toronto's Medical Officer of Health and people came to rely on her as an authoritative voice they could trust, someone who was clearly in charge.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Sri Lanka Military - One of Asia's longest running civil wars may be coming to an end. Sri Lankan military forces are within three kilometres of the headquarters of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and now say military victory is in sight.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Medical Officers - Five-and-a-half years ago, when Torontonians -- and indeed many Canadians -- were wracked with anxiety over the SARS outbreak, they looked to the late Sheela Basrur for information and reassurance. She was Toronto's Medical Officer of Health and people came to rely on her as an authoritative voice they could trust, someone who was clearly in charge.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Sri Lanka Military - One of Asia's longest running civil wars may be coming to an end. Sri Lankan military forces are within three kilometres of the headquarters of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and now say military victory is in sight.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Wednesday October 1, 2008
October 1, 2008
Pt 1: Rhetoric and Lying in Politics - A little political duet, courtesy of Stephen Harper and then-Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Mr. Howard was speaking on March 18th, 2003. Stephen Harper two days later.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Jeffrey Sachs - The ever-spiralling American credit crisis has taken down some big game. It's shuttered the doors of some of the world's biggest and most storied investment banks sown panic across three continents and wiped tens-of-billions of dollars off global stock exchanges.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Candian Association of Petroleum Producers - The Alberta tar sands are churning out jobs, high wages and profits like nothing else in Canada. They're also spewing greenhouse gas emissions and toxic tailings like nothing else in Canada.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Jeffrey Sachs - The ever-spiralling American credit crisis has taken down some big game. It's shuttered the doors of some of the world's biggest and most storied investment banks sown panic across three continents and wiped tens-of-billions of dollars off global stock exchanges.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Candian Association of Petroleum Producers - The Alberta tar sands are churning out jobs, high wages and profits like nothing else in Canada. They're also spewing greenhouse gas emissions and toxic tailings like nothing else in Canada.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Monday September 29, 2008
September 29, 2008
Pt 1: Native Issues - About half of all aboriginal Canadians live on less than 10,000 dollars a year. Unemployment among natives is three times the national rate. And Statistics Canada estimates that more than half of all native children live in poverty and that three-quarters of them drop out of school before finishing Grade 12.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Six O'Clock in Alabama - Documentary - Over the summer, the United Nations leveled a stunning allegation against the state of Alabama. According to the UN, state officials are "strikingly indifferent" to the risk of executing innocent convicts and may have already sent innocent people to their deaths.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Bush Stopped Drinking - On July 6th, 1986, George Bush quit drinking for good.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Six O'Clock in Alabama - Documentary - Over the summer, the United Nations leveled a stunning allegation against the state of Alabama. According to the UN, state officials are "strikingly indifferent" to the risk of executing innocent convicts and may have already sent innocent people to their deaths.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Bush Stopped Drinking - On July 6th, 1986, George Bush quit drinking for good.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Friday September 19, 2008
September 19, 2008
Pt 1: Afghanistan and the Canadian Election - There has been plenty of news out of Afghanistan lately. A Taliban and Al Qaeda resurgence, increasing NATO and American air strikes and growing civilian casualties. Ninety-seven Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have died in the conflict there so far. But despite all that, the federal election campaign seems to have turned a heated, complicated, and divisive policy debate into a discussion about scheduling.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Air Power in Afghanistan - With more air-strikes, come more civilian deaths. An estimated 1445 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. And the United Nations estimates that nearly a quarter of those deaths are the result of air-strikes.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Halima Bashir - Feature Interview - For the last six years Darfur has been associated with horror - massacres, ethnic cleansing, torched homes, rape and horsemen on the rampage.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Air Power in Afghanistan - With more air-strikes, come more civilian deaths. An estimated 1445 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year. And the United Nations estimates that nearly a quarter of those deaths are the result of air-strikes.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Halima Bashir - Feature Interview - For the last six years Darfur has been associated with horror - massacres, ethnic cleansing, torched homes, rape and horsemen on the rampage.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Wednesday September 17, 2008
September 17, 2008
Pt 1: Stephane Dion - There was a time -- not too long ago in fact -- when some people worried that Canada was becoming a de facto one-party state. Throughout the 1990s, the Liberal Party had an unassailable hold on the political centre, while both the left and the right were divided.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Super Committed - Throughout the federal election campaign, The Current is going to be introducing you to a few people we think are well worth getting to know. We're calling them "The Super-Committed", people with a passion for politics and a commitment to making this election matter.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: World in Song - English playwright William Congreve once wrote that, "music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." For the Velvet Underground, it's less complicated. Rock and roll makes life worth living.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Super Committed - Throughout the federal election campaign, The Current is going to be introducing you to a few people we think are well worth getting to know. We're calling them "The Super-Committed", people with a passion for politics and a commitment to making this election matter.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: World in Song - English playwright William Congreve once wrote that, "music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." For the Velvet Underground, it's less complicated. Rock and roll makes life worth living.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Thursday September 11, 2008
September 11, 2008
Pt 1: NDP Leader - Jack Layton - On the first day of the election campaign, Jack Layton said that if Stephen Harper was going to quit his job, he was going to apply for it. So consider this a job interview.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Bottlemania - It bubbles out of the earth for free. Huge multinational companies make billions serving our unquenchable thirst for it. Activists call it the very essence of environmental ruin. And politicians worry about our addiction to something that puts such an immense strain on our cities.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is mail day here at The Current and Jan Wong is here to help me sort through what you've sent us. She's an author and a journalist and she's back this week as our Friday host.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Bottlemania - It bubbles out of the earth for free. Huge multinational companies make billions serving our unquenchable thirst for it. Activists call it the very essence of environmental ruin. And politicians worry about our addiction to something that puts such an immense strain on our cities.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Letters - Thursday is mail day here at The Current and Jan Wong is here to help me sort through what you've sent us. She's an author and a journalist and she's back this week as our Friday host.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Tuesday September 9, 2008
September 9, 2008
Pt 1: Killed Bills - When Canada's 39th Parliament was officially dissolved on Sunday, it left behind some unfinished business. Specifically, 35 bills that are now in a kind of legislative purgatory. Among them is Bill C-61, the Digital Copyright Bill. If passed, it would have given independent artists more rights over their intellectual property in the digital realm. Duncan McKie explains it. He's the CEO of the Canadian Independent Record Production Association.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Ice Cartel - Yes, you heard right. I'm talking about ice, baby - the packaged stuff for sale at corner stores and gas stations, the cubes you use to fill up a picnic cooler or a bath tub of beer.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Forsaken - The idea of moving from one country to another in search of work is, by now, almost second nature. But back in the 1930s, that kind of mobility ended up destroying thousands of lives. And yet, it's a story few of us even know about. It was during the Great Depression when tens-of-thousands of Americans -- and also many Canadians -- moved to Stalin's Russia in search of work and a better life.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Ice Cartel - Yes, you heard right. I'm talking about ice, baby - the packaged stuff for sale at corner stores and gas stations, the cubes you use to fill up a picnic cooler or a bath tub of beer.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: The Forsaken - The idea of moving from one country to another in search of work is, by now, almost second nature. But back in the 1930s, that kind of mobility ended up destroying thousands of lives. And yet, it's a story few of us even know about. It was during the Great Depression when tens-of-thousands of Americans -- and also many Canadians -- moved to Stalin's Russia in search of work and a better life.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Monday September 8, 2008
September 8, 2008
Pt 1: Election Panel - It feels like only...oh, about two years and eight months since our last federal election. And yet here we are again. After weeks of speculation, Stephen Harper went for a walk yesterday and now we're going to the polls on October 14th. Not surprisingly, the party leaders don't agree on much except that the reason we're here is because of Canada's limping economy and that one of the defining questions of the campaign will be who has the goods to lead us through what could be a few lean years.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Alaska Pipeline Deal - Governor Sarah Palin was at church earlier this year asking parishioners to help her get God on the side of a 2,700 kilometre long natural gas pipeline from Alaska to Alberta. Two weeks ago, just a day before she was tapped to be John McCain's running mate, Governor Palin signed a piece of legislation giving a Canadian pipeline company called TransCanada half-a-billion dollars to start the process.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Political Primatologist - With elections on both sides of the border, we've got power and influence on the brain here at The Current. Thankfully, so does Frans De Waal. He's one of the world's leading primatologists. He's spent more than 30 years studying chimpanzees and bonobos.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Alaska Pipeline Deal - Governor Sarah Palin was at church earlier this year asking parishioners to help her get God on the side of a 2,700 kilometre long natural gas pipeline from Alaska to Alberta. Two weeks ago, just a day before she was tapped to be John McCain's running mate, Governor Palin signed a piece of legislation giving a Canadian pipeline company called TransCanada half-a-billion dollars to start the process.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Political Primatologist - With elections on both sides of the border, we've got power and influence on the brain here at The Current. Thankfully, so does Frans De Waal. He's one of the world's leading primatologists. He's spent more than 30 years studying chimpanzees and bonobos.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
Thursday September 4, 2008
September 4, 2008
Pt 1: Politics of Motherhood - Sarah Palin is many things State Governor, Republican campaign ballast, mooseburger devotee and as of last night, Vice Presidential candidate. But from the moment she was tapped to be John McCain's running mate, her status as a mother-of-five and soon-to-be grandmother-of-one has been her defining political feature. For a few hours at least, it was supposed to be an asset something that would bring women flocking to an otherwise alienating Republican ticket. But it turns out that her reproductive status cuts both ways and still carries a lot of baggage.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Letters - It's Thursday, our traditional mail day on The Current. And here to help, Anna Maria Tremonti was joined with actor, director and this week's Friday host, Nicholas Campbell.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary - The Sri Lankan Government is pulling out all the stops in its bid to end the country's 25-year-old civil war once and for all. For several weeks now, government forces have been pushing deeper into rebel-held territory across the country's north where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have run a de facto independent state, along with a guerilla insurgency bent on carving out an official homeland for the country's minority Tamils. The government's offensive has pushed the rebels back from several key positions and sent tens-of-thousands of civilians fleeing deeper into rebel-held territory. The Tamil Tigers have fought back with a brazen air attack just last week. But some government officials say they still hope to defeat them by the end of the year.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 2: Letters - It's Thursday, our traditional mail day on The Current. And here to help, Anna Maria Tremonti was joined with actor, director and this week's Friday host, Nicholas Campbell.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Pt 3: Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary - The Sri Lankan Government is pulling out all the stops in its bid to end the country's 25-year-old civil war once and for all. For several weeks now, government forces have been pushing deeper into rebel-held territory across the country's north where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have run a de facto independent state, along with a guerilla insurgency bent on carving out an official homeland for the country's minority Tamils. The government's offensive has pushed the rebels back from several key positions and sent tens-of-thousands of civilians fleeing deeper into rebel-held territory. The Tamil Tigers have fought back with a brazen air attack just last week. But some government officials say they still hope to defeat them by the end of the year.
[an error occurred while processing this directive]
Read more »
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| The Current Review: Weekdays at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) | |
| Shift: Mondays at 9:30 a.m. & Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. (June 27 - August 31) | |
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