Hazel Carby looks at the historic relationship between England and Jamaica, including the history of the slave trade in Bristol and the complex question of identity for those of mixed British and West Indian heritage.

Robert Adams on Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Jul 13th, 2013 1h 23m

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie.

Thomas Merritt on genetics, talents and aptitudes

Jul 3rd, 2013 44m 16s

Thomas Merritt, Canada Research Chair in Genomics and Bio-informatics at Laurentian University 19s department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, on the extent to which our genetic makeup is responsible for our talents and aptitudes.

Michael Shermer on Why People Believe Weird Things.

Jun 29th, 2013 54m 2s

The editor of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer, delivers a lecture on his book Why People Believe Weird Things.

Michael Fullan on Schools in Need of Re-Education

Jun 22nd, 2013 47m 45s

Michael Fullan of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education delivers a lecture entitled Schools in Need of Re-Education

Christopher Hitchens on Freedom of Speech

Jun 15th, 2013 41m 46s

Christopher Hitchens voices his opinion on the subject of the Hart House Debating Club debate: Be it resolved: Freedom of speech includes the freedom to hate.

Michael Ruse on Is Darwinism Past its Sell-by Date?

Jun 1st, 2013 49m 19s

Michael Ruse is professor of the philosophy of biology at Florida State University. In this lecture he addresses the question Is Darwinism Past its Sell-by Date?

Robert Adams on Herzog by Saul Bellow.

May 18th, 2013 1h 26m

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the 1964 novel Herzog by Saul Bellow.

Daniel Gottesman on Quantum Computing

May 18th, 2013 54m 52s

Daniel Gottesman of the Perimeter Institute discusses quantum computing and the cryptographic protocols that use quantum physics, and that one day will protect all that which we would want to stay secret.

Jeffrey Rosenthal on The Curious World of Probabilities

May 4th, 2013 44m 34s

The author of Struck by Lightning - and the statistician who crunched the numbers to reveal that a statistically improbable number of lottery retailers were winning major prizes in Ontario - Jeffrey Rosenthal guides us through the maze of numbe

Simon Winchester on A Crack in the Edge of the World

Apr 27th, 2013 55m 15s

Simon Winchester on his book A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906.

Robert Adams on the novel No Great Mischief

Apr 20th, 2013 1h 27m

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the novel No Great Mischief by Alastair MacLeod.

Janna Levin on her book Madman Dreams of Turing Machines

Apr 20th, 2013 47m 4s

Janna Levin on her book Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, the story of two great mathematicians, Kurt Godel and Alan Turing. They were men who had the capacity to think about the most abstract of mathematical truths but had very limited abiliti

Kevin Dutton on The Wisdom of Psychopaths

Apr 13th, 2013 41m 54s

Kevin Dutton on his book The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success.

Robert Adams on the novel The Corrections

Apr 6th, 2013 1h 22m

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the novel The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

Nima Arkani-Hamed on the Large Hadron Collider

Apr 6th, 2013 54m 46s

Nima Arkani-Hamed on the Large Hadron Collider and the Future of Fundamental Physics. Located on the Swiss-French border, the Large Hadron Collider is a circular tunnel 27 km in circumference. It will allow physicists to probe the constituent p

William Rees on Environmental Economics

Mar 23rd, 2013 53m 42s

Ecological footprint is an idea originated by William Rees, an environmental economist from the University of British Columbia. If you need a primer in environmental economics, this lecture is for you.

Salmon Akhtar on The Trauma of Geographical Dislocation

Mar 23rd, 2013 52m 10s

Salmon Akhtar on The Trauma of Geographical Dislocation, how immigration can affect a person's mental health.

Steven Pinker on The Blank Slate

Mar 16th, 2013 59m 30s

Harvard University psychology professor, Steven Pinker, dicusses his book The Blank Slate.

Marc Abrahams, editor of The Annals of Improbably Research

Mar 9th, 2013 34m 17s

Marc Abrahams, editor of The Annals of Improbably Research and one of the organizers of the annual Ig-Nobel Prize ceremonies at Harvard University, discusses the work of scientists and academics that, "first makes you laugh, and then makes you