The Sunday Editionwith Michael Enright

Canadian poet Alexandra Oliver uses old forms to explore contemporary concerns like the consequences of technology, living in the suburbs, and leaving places behind. Her recent books include Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, Let the Empire Down and On the Oven Sits a Maiden.

Most of us dutifully set out our blue boxes in the belief that some of the waste we generate will be put to good use. The truth is that most of it piles up in landfills, is incinerated or ends up in a floating mound of plastic in the ocean, says Diane Saxe, an environmental lawyer whose recent job as Ontario’s environmental commissioner was just eliminated.

Kjartan Olafsson, professor of composition and theory at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, is our guide to who's who among Iceland's current generation of music prodigies, and how they are making their mark.

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

Through Bill 21, Quebec is trying to stop some public employees from wearing religious symbols at work — a move the government insists is to ensure healthy secularism. But host Michael Enright argues it's nothing to applaud.

As a boy, Rod MacLeod was sexually assaulted by a Basilian priest over a period of four years. He refused all offers to settle his case out of court; instead, he went to lawyer Rob Talach, known as "the priest hunter."

Nova Scotia now has more craft distillers per capita than anywhere else in the country, and distillers like Thomas Steinhart are using home-grown flavours like rosehip, mushroom, maple syrup and kelp in their award-winning products. David Gutnick's documentary is called "Home is Where The Gin Is."

Anna MacQuarrie’s adopted children suffered childhood traumas which have left them prone to violent outbursts at school. She believes everyone has a right to an inclusive education, and says when it is done right, violence and disruptions in the classroom can be controlled. In addition to being a parent, Ms. MacQuarrie is a human rights consultant for the advocacy group, Inclusion International.

Novelsit Patrick deWitt's latest book, French Exit, is a tragedy of manners with an absurdist twist. It was shortlisted for the 2018 Giller Prize.

A chronic cough can be exhausting, both physically and emotionally. There are many causes, none of them easily diagnosable. Dr. Jaclyn Smith is a pulmonologist and professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Manchester. She's also a member of the International Society for the Study of Cough.

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

Canadian Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire led the UN forces in Rwanda, and his warnings to the world about the violence fell on deaf ears. Within 100 days in 1994, supporters of the Hutu-majority government killed about 800,000 people, and Dallaire returned to Canada with PTSD and psychological scars he bears to this day.

As Nova Scotia introduces a new bill to automatically make every citizen an organ donor, host Michael Enright asks what's stopping us all from following the province's lead.

Lawyer Verena Tan calls the children of incarcerated Canadians an "invisible group," whose best interests are overlooked by the criminal justice system. In a new report commissioned by the Quaker group Canadian Friends Service Committee, she examined a year's worth of sentencing reports and found no cases where judges referenced the defendant's children.

When the Dionne quintuplets were born in in a tiny village in northern Ontario, they became the darlings of the world. Then they became a spectacle. Writer Shelley Wood has crafted a fictionalized account of their early years, The Quintland Sisters.

With student assaults on teachers on the rise, parents in Newmarket, Ont., are rallying to find a solution. But some say their call for help is being silenced.

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

Deborah Lipstadt's new book on anti-Semitism comes at a time when the ancient hatred is finding new champions around the world. It is a clarion call to take anti-Semitism seriously as an evil that has led to the vilification, persecution and murder of millions of Jews for millennia.

On October 17, 1977, question period was broadcast on television for the first time, turning it from a daily chance to call the government to account, to a puffed-up piece of political theatre.

In Alisa Siegel's documentary, photographer Tony Luciani describes how taking photos of his mother, who is suffering from dementia, brought her a sense of purpose and a feeling of joy. “She was playing again, and to hell with what people think,” he said.

Though standing desks are now ubiquitous in the country's offices, one doctor says there's 'not much evidence' that making the switch has a positive impact on health.

Reporters spent countless news cycles fixated on the Mueller report, to their detriment, says media critic Jay Rosen. As the U.S. heads into another presidential campaign, he shares his recipe for improving political coverage going forward.