Listen to the broadcast of , 2009

Michael Enright, Host

Cate Cochran, Producer

Jean Dalrymple, Producer

Dean Ples, Associate Producer - Technician

Peter Kavanagh, Producer

Mark Ulster, Producer

Karen Levine, Documentary Editor

Marjorie Nichol, Executive Producer

Welcome to The Sunday Edition for Oct. 25, 2009. Graham Greene once said that heresy is another word for freedom of thought. And by that definition, Abdullah A Naim is a true heretic. A respected writer and law professor, he is also a very brave man. Born in Sudan, he has spent the last several years preaching reform of Islam. He argues that the core of Islam is compatible with Western values. And that devout Muslims are content to live peacefully in secular states. Such assertions could put him in harm's way. His native country for example, doesn't take kindly to heretics and in fact executed Professor A Naim's teacher and mentor back in the 80s. In our first hour a moderate takes on militant Islam.

Our middle hour focuses on John Irving, one of the most popular novelists on the planet. Since his breakout work The World According To Garp, he has come to dominate best-seller lists and has seen his work successfully translated to the screen. But numbers aren't his thing. He is a highly disciplined craftsman who is more concerned with characters and plot than ideas. John Irving joined Michael in our studio to talk about his latest novel and why he never starts a book until he knows the last sentence. Elsewhere, some Swinish thoughts on the media, a ton of your mail about poverty, Mr. Barry's Uke and the pain of body image.

And in our third hour, Ira Basen's look at new media and social networking in News 2:OH, part two. Plus the best music you'll find on any social network. That's The Sunday Edition on CBC Radio One.

The Swine Flu vaccine arrived this week. You might have heard. The media jumped all over it, treating it like an airlift of warm blankets and hot food to

flood-ravaged lowlands in Manitoba. On Thursday, virtually every CBC newscast led with the vaccine story "How To Get It, where to get it, when to get it, who should get it, how often to get it. By the end of the day, the coverage made me want to run screaming to the nearest flu clinic to beg on hands and knees for the needle for me and mine. I kept waiting for reports of refrigerated flu transports being attacked on expressways by terror stricken parents desperate for the precious vials.

We are in the grip of a pandemic, all right, but it's not flu it's fear. For weeks, months even, we have been force fed by government and health agencies in print and the electronic media that things, Swine-wise, are going to get very, very bad this winter. Some months ago, a panel of distinguished American scientists warned that the so-called Second Wave could cause between 30,000 and 90,000 deaths by mid-October. In other words, now. This was duly reported as a quote plausible scenario. Close Quote. Canadians have been warned that the Swine Flu numbers could be in the tens of thousands. But with the Niagara of conflicting information, the o-again, off-again impending threat, it is difficult for most of us to know what to believe.

For example a television host on a US channel said the Swine Flu virus was and I'm quoting "something we have never seen before in history". He made it sound like some creepy, deadly strain for the planet Zerxes. When in fact H1N1 has been around and mutating since the mid-Seventies. Then there are the numbers. In June, in the US, about 11 weeks into the pandemic, there were 144 deaths. After six months, Swine Flu has killed about as many people as seasonal flu does in six days. In other words, the Swine is less a danger than regular seasonal flu.

Next we were told, that the coming winter was when things would get really, really bad. Winter is just ending in Australian and everybody was wondering how Australians managed the Swine; CBC sent a reporter down under. Turns out, the Aussies survived pretty well. Dr. Brian Goldman hosts the ever excellent CBC Radio show White Coat, Black Art. Last month he hosted a gutsy episode called Swinefeld a flu about nothing. He did the math and pointed out that in Australia there were slightly under 200 deaths from Swine Flu in a country of 22-million. By the way, Goldman thinks that refusing to shake hands or bumping elbows, all that protective nonsense, is about as helpful as hiding under a desk during nuclear attack.

I'm more than a little skeptical about Swine Flu predictions of doom. And for a very good reason. In 1976, I wrote a 3,000 word magazine piece for Maclean's suggesting that that year's H1N1 outbreak could equal the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918. Not a career highlight. The virus never got out of the Fort Dixx compound in New Jersey. About 240 soldiers were infected. But about 500 Americans who were vaccinated came down with a disease called Guillain-Barre Syndrome and 25 of them died.

Journalists who make predictions about impending heath perils or pass on such predictions have to take great care. Remember what we told you about Y2K; airplanes falling from the skies, elevators crashing to earth? Remember what we told you about the Great Bird Flu pandemic of 2005 and all those deaths hat never happened? Sadly there's no vaccine against panic.

Since the attacks on September 11, 2001 on New York and Washington by the Islamic Militant Group Al Queda, there has been persistent argument about the relationship between Islam, both the religion and nations governed by Islamic law and what is often referred to as the west. There are a number of hot button issues on both sides of the discussion which can cause mis-understandings and violence. But these are arguments that go on within Islam. Michael spoke with Islamic Scholar and Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law, Emory University, and visiting professor at Georgetown University Law School, Abdullahi A An-Na'im about the argument within the Islamic world and what it means for the rest of us. Abdullahi A An-Na'im spoke with Michael from our Washington Studios.

Time now for some of your mail. We got a lot of response to our look at poverty in Canada and some of the solutions offered by our guest, including Senator Hugh Segal. We love getting your letters and e-mails. Please keep writing. Our Emil address is thesundayedition at CBC dot ca. Or go to www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition, and click on "Contact Us"

Andy Barry, the host of the CBC Toronto's "Metro Morning", performing on his Ukele for our producer Jean Dalrymple.

That is all the time we have left for our first hour this October 25th morning. Next, all the latest news and weathers. Then John Irving will be by to talk about his new novel. He is of course one of the best loved writers of our time. The World According to Garp, the Cider House Rules, A Prayer for Owen Meany. And now, "Last Night in Twisted River". John Irving, next hour. I'm Michael Enright. Don't you go anywhere.

Good morning and welcome to the second hour of The Sunday Edition. I'm Michael Enright. In a few minutes The World According to John Irving. Garp, of course, made him a literary superstar. And he's been a best seller ever since. He'll be by to talk about his latest novel, "Last Night in Twisted River".

But first, some of your thoughts on Tafelmusik and James Elroy.

We've got time for some more of your mail. We received letters in response to our interviews with Jeanne Lamon of Tafelmusik and author James Ellroy, as well as Ira Basin's documentary: News 2.0. We love getting your letters and e-mails, so keep them coming. Our Emil address is thesundayedition at CBC dot ca. Or just go to cbc.ca/thesundayedition and clik on "contact us".

Four decades ago Stanford University in California unveiled the world's first personal computer - which changed the way all of us work with words. Well, most of us anyway. But not John Irving. The author of blockbuster novels like The World According to Garp, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and The Cider House Rules, doesn't use a computer. He writes longhand, and types his manuscripts on one of a few cherished Selectric typewriters. It hasn't affected his productivity though. This fall, forty one years after his first novel was published, John Irving's 12th novel is in bookstores and bound for the bestseller lists. Last Night in Twisted River begins in 1954 in a logging camp in northern New Hampshire. It spans five decades, chronicling the complicated lives of Danny Angel, a young writer, his father, Dominic, a cook, and Ketchum, an irascible and illiterate logger.

In the masquerade ball called life, we all wear disguises. Some more dramatic than others. Some appealing. Some not. We turn ourselves inside out, trying to present a picture to the world that we imagine serves our interests. Kyla Hanington put her costume on many years ago. It's given her plenty of trouble, and a few gifts. Her essay this morning is called My Life in a Fat Suit.

In the weeks to come on The Sunday Edition Generation Next. 20 years after the Berlin wall came tumbling down, and communist power turned to dust, young people all over Eastern Europe still grapple with the weight of a Soviet past. And like kids everywhere, they conjure the future.

From Romania, Ukraine, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Karin Wells and David Gutnick bring us the present tense sounds, experiences, ideas and dreams of the first post-communist generation. Over the next six weeks on The Sunday Edition. Generation Next: young minds, bodies and souls after Communism. Lennon means John now.

And that wraps up the second hour of The Sunday Edition. After the news and weather, we will be back. Only yesterday, when I was a young reporter, we were told that it was important to be first. But it was more important to be right. In our next hour, Ira Basin asks if those days are gone forever. In the new world of "I-reporters" and "twittercasts", will there be any room left for what we used to call professional journalism? Part 2 of Ira Basin's documentary report: News 2 point oh, next hour. I'm Michael Enright.

Welcome back to The Sunday Edition. I'm Michael Enright. In our third and final hour this morning - Ira Basin and

"News 2.0", Part 2.

It's been a long while now since tweet was a sound a bird made, and a new friend was someone with whom you'd recently spent some good times. Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, You Tube - the reigning monarchs of social media - have changed our language and the way we relate to each other. They're revolutionizing how we make revolutions, and they're revolutionizing the news business. It used to be that the tools of the journalistic trade were held by trained, paid professionals whose stories wouldn't air unless they were approved by editors, even lawyers. But an army of so-called citizen journalists is on the march. They can report whatever they want, and it's up to you to determine if its true or not. The whole idea of news - how we deliver it and how we consume it - is being re-invented. Here's Ira Basen with a reprise of the second installment of "News 2.0: The future of news in an age of social media.

And that's our program for this October 25th morning. Time to thank all the people who put it on the radio this week. The Sunday Edition is produced by Cate Cochran, Jean Dalrymple, Peter Kavanagh, Dean Ples and Mark Ulster. Our documentary editor is Karen Levine. And the executive producer of the Sunday Edition is Marjorie Nichol. In the weeks to come on The Sunday Edition Generation Next. 20 years after the Berlin wall crumbled, and communist power turned to dust, young people all over Eastern Europe still grapple with the weight of a Soviet past. And like kids everywhere, they ponder the future. Over the next six weeks, from Romania, Ukraine, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Karin Wells and David Gutnick bring us the sounds, experiences, ideas and dreams of the first post-communist generation. Thank you for spending your morning, or part of it, with us. The Sunday Edition, number 573, will be here in seven days. I'm Michael Enright.