The joy of walking backwards - Michael's essay; Iroquois Falls at the edge - Documentary; Mail - Dr. Vera Peters and "slob ice"; "I am Ahmed": Muslim assimilation in Europe

Michael's essay - The joy of walking backwards: (00:00:25) Michael's new year's resolutions include shedding a few pounds. His solution: to walk backwards. Because everything else has failed. 

Iroquois Falls at the edge - A Karin Wells documentary: (00:05:05) It once boasted it had the largest, most efficient paper mills in the world. But the company has pulled the plug. And now, in the middle of a frigid northern Ontario winter, everyone is scrambling for ideas about how to re-invent a one industry town.   

Mail - Dr. Vera Peters and "slob ice": (00:32:31) Listeners respond to our documentary about a pioneering Canadian doctor who radically changed the way breast cancer is treated. Also, a listener from Newfoundland tells us about the view out his window of "slob ice packed into the rock islands across the tickle". Michael talks to an expert in slob ice; retired fisherman and sealer Jack Troake in Twillingate, Newfoundland.

"I am Ahmed": Muslim assimilation in Europe: (00:40:36)  In the wake of the vicious terrorist attacks in Paris, the question of the Muslim presence in France and indeed, in all of Europe, has been thrown into sharp relief. Of 500 million people in the European Union, there are 20 million Muslims. Many consider themselves fully integrated; others are disaffected, even alienated, from mainstream society. Cultural differences, discrimination and unemployment can create fertile ground for the recruitment of young jihadis. Guests from France, England, Germany and Switzerland join Michael to talk about a crucial test facing Europe.