The Sunday Edition for February 16, 2020

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

Baseball and I are no longer an item — Michael's essay: "I am cutting the umbilical, moving out of the House of Baseball and giving my glove to the Sally Ann thrift store. Baseball and I are no longer an item. Quitting a passion for baseball is going to be harder for me than quitting smoking. But it has to be done. Reasons? It's not the Astros sign-stealing scandal. It's not even the outrageous salaries. It's the accretion, the weight of so many frustrated sighs over the years."

Mark Carney, named UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, says the smart money is on transition from fossil fuels: Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England and former Governor of the Bank of Canada, warns corporations and governments that if they do not have a strategy for mitigating climate change they will face financial consequences. Carney, who begins his next role as the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Change in March, says the smart money is on a transition from fossil fuels and that "it's time to get on with it."

'Made to last': More than 100 years old, Canadian wool company thrives in changing knitting market: It's hard to think of an activity more closely connected to the simple, wholesome pleasures of hearth and home than knitting. But knitting is also a multi-billion-dollar industry, which makes the 163-year-old business of Atlantic Canada's preferred purveyors of wool all the more remarkable. Heather Barrett brings us the story of Briggs and Little Woolen Mills — the pride of Harvey Station, New Brunswick — in her documentary, "Close Knit."

It's a fundamental human right to be able to access your city, says researcher: City life can be hard on the nerves — the noise, the lights, the bustle, the endless miles of glass and concrete. And the traffic — just crossing the street can be a terrifying experience with hulking vehicles hurtling down thoroughfares. Robin Mazumder is a PhD student in cognitive neuroscience, and he researches the toll that bad urban design takes on human psychology — and how urban spaces could be made into sources of delight and solace instead of stress.

'Reconciliation cannot be achieved at gunpoint': B.C. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip on the Wet'suwet'en stand-off: Where there are plans for pipelines in this country, there are protests. The latest flashpoint: the Coastal GasLink pipeline. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the President of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, explains the role of the hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation who oppose the pipeline, and he addresses questions about the law and the rights of Indigenous people.

An English major is not destined to be a barista, these professors say: What will be the most important skills to have in the economy of the future? Things like critical thinking, deep analysis and creativity, according to experts and CEOs — skills acquired by studying the humanities. And yet, those are exactly the programs where enrolment is declining and universities are cutting. But according to the University of Toronto's Nick Mount, "Attacks on the humanities are as old as the humanities." He and two other English profs — Jessica Riddell of Bishop's University and Lisa Dickson of the University of Northern B.C. — talk about the enduring value of a humanities degree.  

Music this week by: Jacqueline Du Pré, Luigi Boccherini, Albert Von Tilzer, Hesperion XX, Stephen Fearing, Rachel Gauk, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tafelmusik, Daniel Hope and the Creaking Tree String Quartet.