The Sunday Magazinewith Piya Chattopadhyay
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The Sunday Magazine for September 27, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with host Piya Chattopadhyay.
Q&A
Throne speech commitment to reconciliation must go beyond empty words: Indigenous lawyer Pam Palmater
The federal government reaffirmed its commitment to walking “the shared path of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples” in its throne speech on Sep. 23. But Mi'kmaw lawyer and professor Pam Palmater says the government’s historical record casts doubts on those promises.
Long-time educator Charles Pascal explores the purpose of public education in society
COVID-19 has proven to be a transformative moment for schooling. And it's forcing big questions about what the purpose of public education should be going forward. To dig into them, Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with long-time educator Charles Pascal, one of the architects of all-day kindergarten in Ontario.
Two names for the same season on Word Processing
In the latest installment of our recurring segment "Word Processing", Wall Street Journal language columnist Ben Zimmer explains why North Americans say “fall” while the British say “autumn”... and the surprising histories of the words that might disrupt any notions about the superiority of the Queen’s English.
In Taiwan's lush landscape, Jessica J. Lee found a deeper understanding of her family's turbulent history
In her memoir Two Trees Make a Forest, Canadian writer and environmental historian Jessica J. Lee returns to her mother's homeland of Taiwan to understand the landscape that shaped her family. The book intertwines her grandparents' histories, the political history of Taiwan, and the island's geological history. She speaks with Piya about home, multiplicity and belonging.
Q&A
How food becomes the 'punctuation between all the talking' in Francesca Ekwuyasi's debut novel
Butter Honey Pig Bread tells the interwoven stories of three Nigerian women torn apart by a traumatic experience. Author Francesca Ekwuyasi speaks to The Sunday Magazine host Piya Chattopadhyay about the role of food in her novel and its significance in people’s relationships and lives.
The Sunday Magazine for September 20, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with host Piya Chattopadhyay.
Bob Rae and Stephen Lewis on the United Nations at 75 and Canada's place in the world
As the United Nations General Assembly marks its 75th session Piya Chattopadhyay speaks with Bob Rae and Stephen Lewis about the organization's role amidst a global pandemic and Canada's place in the world.
Q&A
COVID-19, civil strife, climate change: Omar El Akkad is living in the dystopia he described in his 2017 book
Set in 2074, Omar El Akkad’s 2017 book, American War, envisions a country riddled with plague, climate change and political unrest. The Canadian author, who lives in Oregon, chats with Piya Chattopadhay about what it’s like to live at the confluence of the issues depicted in his prophetic book.
The Sunday Magazine for September 13, 2020
The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay debuts this Sunday!
Immunity, vaccination and the common good: a prescient book is helping people make sense of the pandemic
As the need for a COVID-19 vaccine and fears about vaccination intensify simultaneously, people are turning to the 2014 book On Immunity to better understand this moment. Piya Chattopadhyay talks to author Eula Biss about the underlying fears driving vaccine skepticism, how Biss confronted her own fears as a mother and why she believes vaccination is something we owe each other in an interdependent society.
40 years ago, this family set off from Winnipeg to the Amazon — in a canoe
In 1980, Don Starkell and his teenaged sons, Dana and Jeff, embarked on an epic record-setting journey that would span 13 countries and nearly 20,000 kilometres.
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Join Piya Chattopadhyay as she launches The Sunday Magazine
Starting Sept. 13, Chattopadhyay will present a smart mix of long-form conversations that cut deep and mine the forces driving our society, politics and cultures today. The program will take time for deep exploration, but always make space for music, surprise, delight, and fun
The Sunday Edition for September 6 , 2020
Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Kevin Sylvester.
Latif Nasser on being 'the ambassador to the most childish part of your brain' in his new series
Mississauga, Ontario’s Latif Nasser has a PhD in the history of science and made his name as a science journalist with the groundbreaking and wildly popular podcast, RadioLab, and another podcast he hosts called The Other Latif — about a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay who shares his name. He brings his infectious sense of wonder and energetic curiosity to his latest project: Connected, a documentary series on Netflix that explores the dizzying interconnectedness of things in our world.
A thank you dinner for the 'forgotten' migrant workers who pick Canada's food
Migrant farm workers from the Caribbean and Latin America toil in the blazing sun, but live largely in the shadows. Except when a businesswoman in Leamington, Ont., throws them a party — a feast full of the tastes and sounds of home. Alisa Siegel takes us to that 2019 party in her documentary "The Forgotten Ones."
In conversation with Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens was a renowned and sometimes reviled journalist, essayist, polemicist, committed atheist and contrarian. He eviscerated dictators, fundamentalists, fanatics of all stripes, racists and charlatans. Mother Theresa, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II all felt the pointy end of his prose and rhetoric.
The Sunday Edition for August 30, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Kevin Sylvester.
Searching for another Earth while putting down roots on this one
Exploring the galaxy for exoplanets that have the ability to support life is the least complicated part of Sara Seager's life. The Canadian astrophysicist and MIT planetary scientist explores her complicated childhood, the untimely death of her husband and raising two young boys, while searching the stars in her new memoir The Smallest Lights in the Universe.
'The fiddle is laughing': How this teen and 83-year-old keep Ti-Jean Carignan's music alive
Maxim Bergeron is a teen violin virtuoso from Berlin. Gilles Losier is an 83-year-old Acadian pianist from New Brunswick. The bond between them was forged by the music of legendary Quebec musician Ti-Jean Carignan.
The Sunday Edition for August 23, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Kevin Sylvester.
Major League Baseball isn't doing enough to combat systemic racism says Black sports columnist Shakeia Taylor
From the batting cage to the pitcher's mound, young Black baseball prospects face racist stereotypes and recruiters throughout their training and scouting. Baseball columnist Shakeia Taylor believes that even though the MLB puts on a good show of acting as though it cares about racism, the league is not doing nearly enough to change racist attitudes and provide Black players with equal opportunities.
We guard more secrets about salaries than about sex, and employers want to keep it that way
Those in a hiring position know what everyone earns, but employees are in the dark. That’s because asking people how much money they make is a cultural taboo. Melanie Simms, a professor of work and employment at the University of Glasgow, believes it would be not only helpful, but subversive, if we were transparent about our salaries.
Writer Joan Didion says the only way she can deal with grief is to write through it (reprise)
Novelist, screenwriter, playwright and journalist Joan Didion experienced two horrific losses in less than two years: the sudden death of her husband John Gregory Dunne, then the death of her daughter Quintana. Michael Enright spoke with her after the release of her book Blue Nights, a rumination on motherhood, frailty, ageing and loss.
The Sunday Edition for August 16, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with guest-host Laurie Brown.
