IDEAS schedule for June 2023
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Thursday, June 1
MAN UP! THE MASCULINITY CRISIS, PART TWO
Recent books, articles and films point in a similar disturbing direction: "what's wrong with men?," "boys adrift," "patriarchy blues." Social scientists have over the decades noticed this trend: that men are dropping out of the workforce, and their addiction rates are climbing. Men are also three times more likely to commit suicide than women. In Canada, female undergraduates are outperforming males. In Sweden, researchers say there's a pojkkristen or "boy crisis." While scholars agree there is indeed a problem, they don't necessarily agree on the cause. But if we trace the history of conceptions about masculinity, the evidence suggests that masculinity itself has always been in crisis.
Friday, June 2
JAY PITTER: THE FUTURE OF CULTURE
Social equity and public spaces may seem worlds apart, but that's where Jay Pitter enters. She's an award-winning placemaker who works at the crossroads of urban design She delivered a public talk for the Ontario Heritage Trust called The Future of Culture Is … on how we define heritage, whose heritage is protected and how to confront the complexity of colonial heritage symbols.
Monday, June 5
MEXICO'S GOTHIC TURN
There's a burgeoning genre of fiction coming from Mexico — stories that merge socio-political history and the impact of drug-related violence with fantastical stories of eerie ghosts, zombies, monstrous cannibals and vicious vampires. Recent PhD graduate Alejandro Soifer's thesis is aptly titled "Mexican Gothic: Narco Narratives, Necro Markets and Vampires with Machine Guns." He explores what monsters and fantastical fiction can do to help us understand real-world horror. *This episode is part of an on-going series called IDEAS from the Trenches.
Tuesday, June 6
FATE IS THE HUNTER
This episode is a deep dive into Fate Is the Hunter, Ernest K. Gann's celebrated memoir of flying and the capricious hand of fortune. The book is a nail-biting account of the early days of aviation. It's also a meditation on the mysteries and indifference of luck. Gann was a commercial pilot from 1938 to 1952. He loved piloting an aircraft, but time after time, flying nearly cost him his life. Gann wonders: why did I survive when so many other pilots perished? What does it mean? *This episode originally aired Nov. 28, 2022.
Wednesday, June 7
IN A LIMINAL SPACE
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, a small online community of photographers, artists, and editors started creating and sharing pictures of what they described as "liminal spaces." Empty hallways, abandoned atriums, old arcades and decrepit stairways. Interest in 'liminal spaces' surged throughout the pandemic, and now there are thousands of images and videos circulating online of unsettling, eerie, or nostalgia-inducing scenes. This documentary from Matthew Lazin-Ryder looks at why liminal spaces are such a hit in the age of COVID, and how they reflect a sense of timelessness and eeriness in today's world.*This episode originally aired on March 1, 2022.
Thursday, June 8
DAVID SUZUKI HAS SOMETHING TO SAY
David Suzuki hosted The Nature of Things on CBC television for 44 years, and now he's retired. Along the way he taught all of us how to think about the planet we call home, about the mysteries of nature and the dangers that face us when we fail to take care of our world. He taught us about joy and curiosity, and above all, about the moral responsibility that comes with being alive. "The future doesn't exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we're the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today."
Friday, June 9
A DEMON ATTACK IN OLD QUEBEC
Historian Mairi Cowan investigates a rumoured demon attack as described by French settlers in Quebec in 1660. She rebuilds the scene of the 'crime' in her mind's eye, playing out the action to the extent her evidence allows, and discovering unexpected truths about daily life in old Quebec along the way. With contributions from fellow scholars Sarah Ferber, Colin Coates, and Scott Berthelette. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 14, 2022.
Monday, June 12
IS OVERPOPULATION KILLING THE PLANET?
In the fall of 2022, the world's population hit the eight billion mark — only 11 years since it surpassed seven billion. This milestone should have raised questions about the environmental impact of having so many people on the planet — in particular with climate change and biodiversity. But it did not. Is the reason we are unable to curb carbon emissions because of our dependency on fossil fuels, which in turn has made it possible for such a large population to exist in the first place? This documentary by journalist Bruce Livesey explores the complex issues around population growth — from its connection to energy sources, and the often racist reactions to the subject it has engendered in the past, to why the issue is not discussed at all.
Tuesday, June 13
SISTINE CHAPEL: JEANNIE MARSHALL
Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel may be one of the most exalted works of art in the world, but Michelangelo's own relationship with it was complicated. Canadian writer and Rome resident Jeannie Marshall had a complicated relationship with it, reflecting her family's tormented relationship with the Catholic Church. Fellow Canadian and Rome resident Megan Williams met with her to visit the Sistine Chapel and talk about Marshall's book, All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel — a reflection on the power of art to move and provoke us and to transcend even the historical, social and religious context that so powerfully shaped it.
Wednesday, June 14
POT, POLICY AND PANDEMICS: ANDRÉ PICARD ON 40 YEARS OF HEALTH JOURNALISM
André Picard reflects on 40 years of health journalism. He is the renowned health columnist for The Globe and Mail, where he has been a staff writer since 1987. And he is the author of six bestselling books. Picard delivers the 2023 Dalton Camp Lecture in Journalism, at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick. In a wide-ranging and compelling talk, he discusses how health care has changed over the decades, and where he believes it's headed in the future.
Thursday, June 15
MAN UP! THE MASCULINITY CRISIS, PART THREE
Recent books, articles and films point in a similar disturbing direction: "what's wrong with men?", "boys adrift", "patriarchy blues". Social scientists have over the decades noticed this trend: that men are dropping out of the workforce, and their ddiction rates are climbing. Men are also three times more likely to commit suicide than women. In Canada, female undergraduates are outperforming males. In Sweden, researchers say there's a pojkkristen or "boy crisis". While scholars agree there is indeed a problem, they don't necessarily agree on the cause. But if we trace the history of conceptions about masculinity, the evidence suggests that masculinity itself has always been in crisis.
Friday, June 16
WHEN WE KILL HISTORY
History has long been used to prop up epic origin stories. The civilizing mission of empire, the honour and bravery of revolution, and the harrowing tales of heroism are all component parts of the myths that nations tell about who they are and how they came to be. But the study of history has gradually transformed over the years to include counternarratives and critiques of empire and revolution. Heroes often end up looking less than heroic. The pendulum is now swinging back with the growing politicization of history and efforts throughout western nations to revert to "virtuous origin" stories. What happens, then, when we sanitize history and remove criticism and doubt from the myth? If we kill history, how can we look to the future?
Monday, June 19
CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE: TIYA MILES
Tiya Miles writes a different kind of history in her prize-winning book, All That She Carried. Rather than turn to official records of slavery in the United States, the records of slave owners for example, she turns to a physical artifact: a cotton sack with embroidered words mentioning three women: Rose, the mother of Ashley who was sold at age 9; and Ruth Middleton, who in 1921 embroidered the names onto the sack. Harvard historian Tiya Miles scours the historical documentary record to discover who these women were and how love sustained them all from the time of slavery to emancipation to Jim Crow. Her book has won multiple awards, including the National Book Award, and the Cundill History Prize. *This episode originally aired on Feb 21, 2023.
Tuesday, June 20
SUMMER SOLSTICE
At the height of summer, days stretch out and sun-drenched hours drift by with a dreamy quality. Just before the longest day of the year, Paolo Pietropaulo, host of In Concert on CBC Radio, presents a musical meditation on the meaning of summer. With classical and contemporary music, he explores the dreamlike timelessness, the late-night reverie, and the wistful sense of melancholy as autumn approaches.
Wednesday, June 21
THE OLD STONE AGE IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
Algoma University professor Paulette Steeves guides us through the mounting evidence suggesting the standard history of human presence in North and South America must be wrong. Drawing from archaeological studies and oral sources, Steeves attempts to reclaim the story of the Pleistocene Epoch from colonial scholars, who have traditionally dated human settlement on this continent to approximately 12,000 years ago. In her book, The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere, Steeves argues that human migration may have occurred closer to 130,000 years ago. She also recommends more humility on the part of the archaeology profession. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 13, 2022.
Thursday, June 22
NIETZSCHE AND THE NARWHAL
Our brains tell us human intelligence is unique in understanding this complicated world — that our intellects make us superior to all other animals. It allows us to imagine and build remarkable technologies. Write poetry and ponder the stars. But all that brain power has also allowed us to carry out unspeakable atrocities and could lead to our extinction. That realization has led one Canadian scientist to conclude human intelligence is the worst thing to have ever happened to the Earth.
Friday, June 23
KILLAMS 2023
Meet the five winners of this year's Killam Prizes, the $100,000 award given to a Canadian professor in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Natural Sciences fields. Pieter Cullis's discoveries allowed the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine against COVID to function; Sarah Otto came up with the math to explain how sexual reproduction evolved; Ajay Heble built a new field of critical theory focused on improvization in music; Praveen Jain's inventions make it plausible for solar power to replace fossil fuels; and Charles M. Morin came up with psychological and behavioural treatments for insomnia, replacing medications.
Monday, June 26
IDEAS launches a four-part series, Another Country: Change and Resilience in Nunavik
THE PEOPLE OF PUVIRNITUQ, WORKING TOGETHER FOR THEMSELVES
Outside the co-op store in Puvirnituq, an Inuit community on the shores of Hudson's Bay, there's a sign that reads "Puvirnitumiut Katujjuiyut Immiguutut": the people of Puvirnituq, working together for themselves. Both autonomy and cooperation are crucial to the history and ethos of this community. This spring, IDEAS visited Puvirnituq to learn how its residents have fought to shape their own future in a rapidly changing world — from refusing to let the Hudson's Bay Company move their community in the 50s, to resisting the Quebec government in the 70s, to continuing to fight for their "birthright inheritance" today.
Tuesday, June 27
SANAAQ: THE FIRST NOVEL IN INUKTITUT
In the early 1950s, 22-year-old Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk began compiling Inuktitut phrases as a language guide for missionaries. Then she created fictional characters and began imagining their lives, loves and encounters during a period of profound change. Those stories would eventually become Sanaaq — the first novel written in Inuktitut syllabics in Canada. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Qiallak Nappaaluk, Mitiarjuk's daughter and the mayor of her home community of Kangirsujuaq; Minnie Akparook, who was born in Nunavik in 1952 and lived through the period of rapid colonization the novel describes; and Norma Dunning, the first Inuk winner of the Governor General Literary Award for Fiction.
Wednesday, June 28
WORDS HAVE POWER: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MITIARJUK NAPPAALUK
When Nunavik writer Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk wrote Sanaaq, the first novel written in Inuktitut in Canada, that was just the beginning. Over the course of her extraordinary life, she wrote more than 20 books, many of them aimed at young Inuit readers. Her work contains both rich philosophical insights and practical instructions for how to survive in the north. She was also a teacher, an artist, a thinker with profound ideas about justice and community, and a passionate defender of Inuktitut. In the third episode of a special series on Nunavik's artistic and political history, IDEAS speaks with Qiallak Nappaaluk, Mitiarjuk's daughter and the mayor of her home community Kangirsujuaq; Lisa Qiluqqi Koperqualuk, the president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada; and Nelly Duvicq, a teacher in Nunavik.
Thursday, June 29
BOBBY KENUAJUAK: ANOTHER COUNTRY
Bobby Kenuajuak was a promising young filmmaker with a grand ambition: to change the narrative about his people and his land. His first film, at the age of 23, was a touching ode to a young Northern village on the cusp of change, and, to the traditions of land as old as time. Bobby went on to become a videographer who left a trail of beautiful images, but his award-winning film is virtually forgotten. A quarter century later, Bobby is remembered as a pioneer, whose tragic end confounds a hopeful beginning.
Friday, June 30
O CANADA: JOYCE WIELAND AND THE ART OF NATIONHOOD
In the 1960s and 70s, artist Joyce Wieland painted, sculpted, stitched and stretched the Canadian flag and our sense of national identity. Her artworks asked what it really means to be Canadian. She offered a vision of what the country could be, and of the need to preserve its distinctness from the United States. Her works were at once celebratory and a warning. A quarter century after Wieland's death, Canadians are once again wrestling with questions of who and what we are as a nation. In this documentary by Alisa Siegel, art historians, curators and friends explore Joyce Wieland's provocative ideas about Canadian nationhood then and now. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 12, 2022.
