A Christmas concert; Cancer myths; Talking turkey; Nordic noir; The truth about Africa

A Christmas concert - Michael Enright: 

 The agony and the ecstasy of the annual school Christmas concert - or holiday festival or seasonal salute - or whatever it is called in our undifferentiated times.They combine the expectancy of a first night audience at the opera, with the self-absorption of a beauty contest.

Malignant Metaphor: Confronting Cancer Myths: Science writer Alanna Mitchell decided to study the causes and treatments of cancer when her brother-in-law was diagnosed with melanoma; shortly after her investigation began, her daughter was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Ms. Mitchell found herself grappling with all the fear, guilt, shame, anxiety, confusion, mixed messages and other cultural baggage that come with a cancer diagnosis.

Chris Oke talks turkey about a stint in a processing plant: Hired during a Christmas rush, a young man is inspired to re-evaluate himself and the family business.

Swedes air their society's problems in best-selling crime novels - a Karin Wells documentary: From Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, to Henning Mankell and Stieg Larson, Scandinavian writers have been topping the bestseller lists for decades. In her documentary "The Swedish Motive," Karin looks at how the issues of the day - immigration, violence, the disappearance of the Swedish utopian state - play out in the pages of Nordic Noir.

African economies are doing better than we think - and that's a problem: We tend to think of Africa as mired in poverty, its people stuck in cycles of famine, disease and poor governance. But an economist from Simon Fraser University says most other economists have misunderstood actual GDP growth in many African countries. Morten Jerven says that has led to faulty conclusions and to bad policies that have held back African economies.