Broadcast time:
Sundays at 9:11 a.m. (9:41 NT) on CBC Radio One

I met folk singer Oscar Brand at a Mariposa Folk Festival in 1962 and I've followed and marveled at his career ever since.

In the intervening decades he has gone from respected performer, to music statesmen to folk-singing legend. Along the way he has gone into the Guiness book of records as the longest-running radio host in history-- 65 years at a New York weekly folk-song program that introduced other legends-- Bob Dylan for example.

He also wrote a song that became a second Canadian anthem. Oscar was born in Winnipeg 90 years ago this morning and we celebrated his birthday in our First Hour of the show.

Our Middle Hour this week dedicated to another birthday boy, Charles Dickens. He will be 198 today on Sunday. The most popular writer of his era, Dickens had a secret and turbulent private life.

On the one hand, he worked to better the lot of poor women, all the while tormenting the long-suffering woman who was his wife.

In Hour Two, we aired Karin Wells' documentary of Dickens and the fallen women. Then we'll have an interview with novelist Gaynor Arnold about her novel, The Girl in the Blue Dress.

Elsewhere on the show, we heared from a Canadian doctor who argues that our health care system is on life support because we overuse it; we had some thoughts on the state of labour; we read some of your mail; and had a conversation with our man in Haiti.

NOTE:

Search The Sunday Edition:

Want to know what's coming up on The Sunday Edition? Subscribe to our newsletter and receive weekly e-mails that tell you what's on this week's program.

Simply click here to sign up at the CBC Member Centre. Then you can subscribe to The Sunday Edition newsletter, as well as other newsletters from CBC News and programs.