Big Ideas Audio
Big Ideas offers lectures on a variety of thought-provoking topics which range across politics, culture, economics, art history, science.... By nature of its lecture format, pacing and inquisitive approach, it is the antithesis of the prevailing sound-bit
Visit Show Website http://www.tvo.org/bigideas/Recently Aired
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Graeme Gibson on our human connection to nature
Graeme Gibson, author of The Bedside Book of Beasts, and ...
Graeme Gibson, author of The Bedside Book of Beasts, and recipient of the Order of Canada, explores the ways we humans relate emotionally, imaginatively, and physically to the natural world. Entitled Echoes of a Working Eden, his lecture also addresses the damage done to us by our abandonment of Nature. It was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.
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Francis Broun on Artemisia
Art historian Francis Broun discusses the work of the 17th ...
Art historian Francis Broun discusses the work of the 17th century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. In this podcast, Broun explores why Artemisia, who was widely respected in her own time, was forgotten and why she has recently been returned to her rightful place as a groundbreaking painter.
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Ian Hacking on The Biosocial Being
Philosopher Ian Hacking delivers the 2011 Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture ...
Philosopher Ian Hacking delivers the 2011 Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture entitled Who Are You? The Biosocial Being. The lecture took place at York University on November 14, 2011.
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Romeo Dallaire and Stephen Lewis on Child Soldiers
Drawing on their vast experiences and first-hand knowledge, distinguished humanitarians ...
Drawing on their vast experiences and first-hand knowledge, distinguished humanitarians Senator Romeo Dallaire and Stephen Lewis, enter into a dialogue about the issues that they have committed their lives to: the eradication of the use of child soldiers and stopping the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Their discussion, moderated by journalist Anna Maria Tremonti, was organized by PEN Canada.
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Daniel Kahneman on The Machinery of the Mind
Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, on The ...
Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, on The Machinery of the Mind. Kahneman is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics.
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Darin Barney on Citizenship in the Technological Republic
McGill University professor, Darin Barney, delivers the 2007 Hart House ...
McGill University professor, Darin Barney, delivers the 2007 Hart House Lecture entitled One Nation Under Google. His lecture looks at many important issues, including how we are used by technology and how technology challenges citizenship. Barney is the Canada Research Chair in Technology & Citizenship.
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George Dyson on the Origins of the Digital Universe
Science historian and author (Darwin Among the Machines) George Dyson ...
Science historian and author (Darwin Among the Machines) George Dyson on the Origins of the Digital Universe. The talk focuses on the work done at The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey by such renowned scientists as John von Neumann and Kurt Godel.
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Alberto Manguel on The Screen of Hal
Alberto Manguel delivers the final lecture in the 2007 Massey ...
Alberto Manguel delivers the final lecture in the 2007 Massey Lecture series, entitled The Screen of Hal.
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John Duffy on the emerging politics of technology
John Duffy, advisor to former Prime Minister Paul Martin and ...
John Duffy, advisor to former Prime Minister Paul Martin and founder of StrategyCorp, tackles the subject of The Emerging Politics of Technology in a lecture produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada. Duffy has spent years pondering the role of technology in our thinking about policy and politics. And he believes that the politics of technology is at the forefront of Canada's public policy debates. But is technology beyond political and democratic control? And if not, how can we ensure that the cost and benefit of new technological developments do not deepen the already growing inequalities in our society?
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Graham Farmelo on Paul Dirac and Mathematical Beauty
Adjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University in Boston, Graham ...
Adjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University in Boston, Graham Farmelo, on Paul Dirac and the Religion of Mathematical Beauty. Apart from Einstein, Paul Dirac was probably the greatest theoretical physicist of the 20th century. Dirac, co-inventor of quantum mechanics, is now best known for conceiving of anti-matter and also for his deeply eccentric behavior. For him, the most important attribute of a fundamental theory was its mathematical beauty, an idea that he said was "almost a religion" to him.
