Flying Solo

   

July 28, 2011

Mark Federman on Privacy and Publicly

   

March 23, 2011

Interview with Norman Doidge

   

February 11, 2011

Pier Giorgio diCicco on Having a Little Bit of Faith

   

January 25, 2011

Interview with Jean Bethke Elshtain

   

January 5, 2011

Interview with Misha Glouberman

   

October 12, 2010

Interview with Rinaldo Wallcott

   

September 4, 2010

Interview with Jesse Hirsh

   

July 29, 2010

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

July 16, 2010

Interview with Nick Mount

   

June 24, 2010

Interview with Suanne Kelman

   

June 5, 2010

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

May 31, 2010

Interview Jean Bethke Elshtain

   

May 13, 2010

Interview with Jean Bethke Elshtain

   

April 20, 2010

Interview with Jean Bethke Elshtain

   

April 3, 2010

Interview with Jean Bethke Elshtain

   

March 25, 2010

Interview with Mark Federman

   

March 16, 2010

Interview with Jonathan Kay

   

March 15, 2010

Interview with Nada Conic

   

March 5, 2010

Interview with Jesse Hirsh

   

February 16, 2010

Interview with Jordan Peterson

   

February 11, 2010

Interview with Jesse Hirsh

   

January 31, 2010

Interview with Mark Federman

   

January 31, 2010

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

January 15, 2010

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

December 28, 2009

Interview with Jonathan Kay

   

December 18, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

December 4, 2009

Interview with Jesse Hirsh

   

December 2, 2009

Interview with Jesse Hirsh

   

December 1, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

November 1, 2009

Interview with James Laxer

   

October 25, 2009

Interview with David Peck

   

October 18, 2009

Interview with Russell Smith

   

October 3, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

September 28, 2009

Interview with Robert Jan Van Pelt

   

September 20, 2009

Norman Doidge on Poetry in Analysis

   

September 18, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

September 7, 2009

Interview with Robert Jan Van Pelt

   

August 31, 2009

Pier Giorgio diCicco on Risking the Unexpected

   

August 25, 2009

Interview with Russell Smith

   

August 24, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

August 20, 2009

Norman Doidge On Nabokov vs. Dostoyevski

   

August 11, 2009

Interview with Katherine Ashenburg

   

August 3, 2009

Suanne Kelman on Media Bias

   

July 31, 2009

Interview with Norman Doidge

   

July 24, 2009

Interview with Mark Federman

   

July 17, 2009

Geoffrey Clarfield on Singing in Africa

   

July 8, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

July 7, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

June 22, 2009

Suanne Kelman on Making Choices

   

June 12, 2009

Interview with Norman Doidge

   

June 7, 2009

Suanne Kelman on Hidden Commerce in the News

   

May 28, 2009

Pier Giorgio diCicco on Reverence

   

May 24, 2009

Mark Federman on a New World in the Making

   

May 21, 2009

Interview with Sholom Glouberman

   

May 14, 2009

Mark Federman on Phonetic Literacy

   

May 13, 2009

Suanne Kelman on Journalists Then and Now 1

   

May 6, 2009

"The people of southern Borneo who although they have fished and never eaten meat for 3000 years are just like you and me and look forward to the future with optimism and hope in their hearts" Geoffrey Clarfield is "an anthropologist at large." For more than thirty years he has explored and analyzed cultural and social differences, first as an ethnomusicologist in North Africa and the Middle East, then as an anthropologist among the camel herders of the Horn of Africa and finally as a development professional designing and implementing projects in the developing world. Clarfield lived and worked for 20 years in Africa and the Middle East, spending years at a time among remote peoples as well as among the decision makers in various capital cities. He shares his insights in articles published in Canadian and British magazines and newspapers.(Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

May 3, 2009

Hal Niedzviecki on Being a Depressed Optimist

   

April 26, 2009

"I think I wanted to get away from the order. I wanted chaos. I wanted cultural and geographical chaos" Geoffrey Clarfield is "an anthropologist at large." For more than thirty years he has explored and analyzed cultural and social differences, first as an ethnomusicologist in North Africa and the Middle East, then as an anthropologist among the camel herders of the Horn of Africa and finally as a development professional designing and implementing projects in the developing world. Clarfield lived and worked for 20 years in Africa and the Middle East, spending years at a time among remote peoples as well as among the decision makers in various capital cities. He shares his insights in articles published in Canadian and British magazines and newspapers.(Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

April 26, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

April 20, 2009

Nalo Hopkinson on Conundrum of Race

   

April 19, 2009

Katherine Ashenburg on the "Great Unwashed". Katherine Ashenberg, is a prize-winning author of three non-fiction books and hundreds of articles on subjects that range from travel to mourning customs to architecture. Her work life began with a Ph.D. dissertation about Dickens and Christmas, but she quickly left the academic world for successive careers as a CBC radio producer; as the arts and books editor; at the The Globe and Mail and most recently as a freelance writer, lecturer and teacher. She is the author of the recently published "The Dirt on Clean". Her book lets us imagine what our past smelled like and how we have crossed the line into a world that might be too clean for our own good. (Recorded on October 30, 2007)

   

April 10, 2009

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

April 6, 2009

Interview with Rinaldo Walcott

   

March 31, 2009

Interview with Suanne Kelman

   

March 26, 2009

Interview with Rinaldo Walcott

   

March 23, 2009

Interview with Ato Quayson

   

March 19, 2009

Pier Giorgio diCicco on Being Blessed

   

March 10, 2009

David Peck on Apprehending the Moment

   

March 8, 2009

Interview with Rinaldo Walcott

   

March 2, 2009

Robert Jan Van Pelt on Nazi Spirit

   

March 1, 2009

"There's this terrible schism between popular art and academically respected art" Russell Smith was born in South Africa. He grew up in Halifax and has lives in Toronto since 1989. He is the author of six works of fiction. A well-known journalist and cultural commentator, he writes the weekly "Virtual Culture" column in the Globe and Mail and is also the editor of the online men's magazine XYYZ.ca.(Recorded on March 06, 2008)

   

February 20, 2009

Interview with Nalo Hopkinson

   

February 16, 2009

Geoffrey Clarfield on What I've Learned From Africans

   

February 6, 2009

Nalo Hopkinson on Being Black

   

January 29, 2009

Russell Smith on Making Things Up

   

January 20, 2009

Interview with Jordan Peterson

   

January 5, 2009

"Protestants and Jews would say too me cynically, you Catholics, you get laid on Friday night, you go to confession on Saturday morning, get laid on Saturday night. You're all hypocrites" Called Canada's eminent Man of Letters, Barry Callaghan is best known for his short stories. In his youth, he has worked as a journalist, documentary maker. For many years he has taught English at the York University while also editing Exile, a literary magazine. "Between Trains" is his latest collection of short stories.(Recorded on October 30,2007)

   

December 25, 2008

"The thing that really appeals to me the most is sense of mystery, wonder at the incomprehensible" David Peck is many things. Most prominently he is an award winning magician. When not doing magic, David Peck is involved with a number of development projects around the world. He is also public speaker as well as someone who pursues his abiding interests at the intersection between philosophy and faith. (Recorded on November 20, 2007)

   

December 22, 2008

Pier Giorgio diCicco on Memories of Italy

   

December 17, 2008

Mark Federman on a New Kind of Leadership

   

December 11, 2008

"It's privilege that I'm talking about. A certain type of privilege that I do not get to take part in just by the nature of living in the skin I'm in" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.(Recorded on March 07, 2008)

   

December 8, 2008

Poignant and pithy shorts excerpted from "host-less" interviews created for tvo.org.

   

December 4, 2008

"All art has to point to something else, it has to reveal something about ourselves that we don't necessarily know. In a way it's about a shock of recognition" David Peck is many things. Most prominently he is an award winning magician. When not doing magic, David Peck is involved with a number of development projects around the world. He is also a public speaker as well as someone who pursues his abiding interests at the intersection between philosophy and faith. (Recorded on November 20, 2007)

   

November 27, 2008

Mark Federman on the Future of Belief

   

"This is a fascinating idea that we see over and over again in peep culture, that you're not representing yourself, but representing who you'd like to be" Hal Niedzviecki is a writer, culture commentator and editor . He is co-founder of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts and edited the magazine from 1995 to 2002. He is also co-founder of the annual Canzine festival of Underground Culture, and served as director of the festival from 1995 to 2002. He continues to be involved with the magazine and festival as President of the Broken Pencil Board of Directors and Special Projects Coordinator. (Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

"With culture and taste become increasingly fragmented, there is no longer one aesthetic that can bring people together" Nick Mount teaches English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "When Canadian Literature Moved to New York" an account of mass migration of Canadian writers to the US at the end of 19th century. He teaches a very popular first year English course "Literature for our time". He was one of the 10 finalists of the 2006 TVO's Best Lecturer Competition. (Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

"We really need a prophet to come down from the mountain and say, I found a way to deal with this internet thing and it's set out in these ten simple rules" Jesse Hirsh is an internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster based in Toronto. He owns and operates the consulting firm Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using open source intelligence to develop internet strategies. Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. (Recorded on August 13th, 2008)

   

"Black youth have imbibed an attitude of defeat, the idea that there is nowhere to go" Ato Quayson is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, where he has been since August 2005. He did his BA at the University of Ghana and took his PhD from Cambridge University in 1995. He then went on to the University of Oxford as a Research Fellow, returning to Cambridge in Sept. 1995 to become a Fellow at Pembroke College and a member of the Faculty of English where he eventually became a Reader in Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies. Prof. Quayson has published widely on African literature, postcolonial studies and literary theory. (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

"My mother and brother are what we call brownin, light skinned with black African features" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.

   

Nick Mount on What Art Can and Cannot Do

   

"We're demanding from each other qualities that we instinctively don't have and haven't inherited" Catherine Gildiner wrote her doctoral thesis on the influence of Darwin on Freud, and has been a clinical psychologist in private practice for several years. She has written psychological advice column for Chatelaine magazine. Her first book, the memoir Too Close to the Falls, was published in Canada, the US and the UK to wide acclaim. The second volume of he memoirs, After the Falls is coming out this Fall. She is also the author of the novel Seduction (Random House). She posts regular updates to her Web site. She lives with her husband and her three children in Toronto, and is on a competitive rowing team. (Recorded on November 10, 2008)

   

"I finally realized that it was killing me to work as hard as I was working, and whenever I didn't work I felt anxious" Catherine Gildiner wrote her doctoral thesis on the influence of Darwin on Freud, and has been a clinical psychologist in private practice for several years. She has written psychological advice column for Chatelaine magazine. Her first book, the memoir Too Close to the Falls, was published in Canada, the US and the UK to wide acclaim. The second volume of he memoirs, After the Falls is coming out this Fall. She is also the author of the novel Seduction (Random House). She posts regular updates to her Web site. She lives with her husband and her three children in Toronto, and is on a competitive rowing team. (Recorded on November 10, 2008)

   

"What the Holocaust taught us is we know that a man can listen too Bach at night and go on to do his job at Auchwitz in the morning" Nick Mount teaches English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "When Canadian Literature Moved to New York" an account of mass migration of Canadian writers to the US at the end of 19th century. He teaches a very popular first year English course "Literature for our time". He was one of the 10 finalists of the 2006 TVO's Best Lecturer Competition. (Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

"The internet is about big companies owning and controlling so much of what should public property, but in fact the entire internet is private property" Jesse Hirsh is an internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster based in Toronto. He owns and operates the consulting firm Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using open source intelligence to develop internet strategies. Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. (Recorded on August 13th, 2008)

   

"It's true that calamity and disorder are very good for Journalism" Suanne Kelman worked for many years on the CBC radio show Sunday Morning as well as on the flagship program The Journal. She has written for Toronto Life, Toronto, Destinations, R.O.B. Magazine, Chatelaine, Shape and other magazines and newspapers. Before and after joining the School of Journalism at Ryerson University, she produced several documentaries for the CBC radio program Ideas. She is the only member of the School of Journalism ever to have written a gossip column ("The Tatler", for the Globe and Mail). She is the author of,"All in the Family: A Cultural History of Family Life". (Recorded on November 02, 2007)

   

"You can't have dignity without privacy and you can't have privacy if you don't believe in human dignity" Hal Niedzviecki is a writer, culture commentator and editor . He is co-founder of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts and edited the magazine from 1995 to 2002. He is also co-founder of the annual Canzine festival of Underground Culture, and served as director of the festival from 1995 to 2002. He continues to be involved with the magazine and festival as President of the Broken Pencil Board of Directors and Special Projects Coordinator. (Recorded on June 15, 2007)

   

"One if the worst things you can do is intervene in one of these pregnant silences where the persons about to give birth to a feeling or insight they've spent their entire life avoiding having" Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, author, essayist and poet. He is on the Research Faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. He is the author of the bestseller, "The Brain That Changes Itself". He is a native of Toronto. (Recorded on August 18, 2008)

   

"There are democratic movements which are empowered and facilitated by the internet. But the internet won't deliver democracy" Jesse Hirsh is an internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster based in Toronto. He owns and operates the consulting firm Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using open source intelligence to develop internet strategies. Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. (Recorded on August 13th, 2008)

   

"These three women wearing not much more than glitter all converge on this man. His face lights up and he starts dancing down the road with them" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world. (Recorded on March 07, 2008)

   

"We're now seeing people taking responsibility and control for themselves in the way they end their lives. It's no longer given over just De facto to the medical establishment" Mark Federman has more than twenty-five years' experience thinking, writing and consulting about the impact of new technologies on how we work and learn. His research is focused on our present conditions of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity, or "UCaPP." Until recently Mark Federman played the role of Chief Strategist at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the co- author of "McLuhan for Managers - New Tools for New Thinking". (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"The more problems there are, the more unexpected disasters are happening.That in some way the better the story becomes" Robert Jan Van Pelt was born in Holland. He is an architectural historian and teaches at the University of Waterloo's School of Architecture. He has also authored many books on Auschwitz and the Holocaust and is considered the world's leading expert on the subject.

   

"Google is our brain on the outside... just like in a lobotomy, when we take out a part of our gray matter, it's going to make us a little bit stupid" Jesse Hirsh is an internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster based in Toronto. He owns and operates the consulting firm Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using open source intelligence to develop internet strategies. Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. (Recorded on August 13th, 2008)

   

"Phonetic literacy is one of the most profound inventions, technologies of human kind" Mark Federman has more than twenty-five years' experience thinking, writing and consulting about the impact of new technologies on how we work and learn His research is focused on our present conditions of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity, or "UCaPP." Until recently Mark Federman played the role of Chief Strategist at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the co- author of McLuhan for Managers - New Tools for New Thinking. (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"People who are 23 or younger are living in a world in which the internet never didn't exist. Everyone who matters is a click away, a text message away, a posting on a facebook wall away from everyone else" Mark Federman has more than twenty-five years' experience thinking, writing and consulting about the impact of new technologies on how we work and learn His research is focused on our present conditions of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity, or "UCaPP." Until recently Mark Federman played the role of Chief Strategist at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the co- author of McLuhan for Managers - New Tools for New Thinking. (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"I didn't grow up with the feeling that somehow my humanity was in doubt merely because of the color of my skin" Ato Quayson is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, where he has been since August 2005. He did his BA at the University of Ghana and took his PhD from Cambridge University in 1995. He then went on to the University of Oxford as a Research Fellow, returning to Cambridge in Sept. 1995 to become a Fellow at Pembroke College and a member of the Faculty of English where he eventually became a Reader in Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies. Prof. Quayson has published widely on African literature, postcolonial studies and literary theory. (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

"If we lose our ability to name it, we've lost a great deal" Jean Bethke Elshtain, a political philosopher, is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at The University of Chicago. She grew up in the small village of Timnath, Colorado (population 185). She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Politics in 1973. She joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst where she taught from 1973 to 1988. She joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1988 as the first woman to hold an endowed professorship in the history of that institution. She was appointed to her current position at the University of Chicago in 1995. She has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Yale University, and Harvard University. She is the recipient of nine honorary degrees. Professor Elshtain was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. She has published 13 books among them, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought (1981); Women and War (1987); Just War Theory (1991); Democracy on Trial (1993), a CBC Massey Lecture ; Just War against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World (2003); Sovereignty: God, State, Self (2008) (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

"All cultures, have hypothesized and dreamed, not for a utopia, but a really practical society that is meaningful for everybody" Jesse Hirsh is an internet strategist, researcher, and broadcaster based in Toronto. He owns and operates the consulting firm Openflows Networks Ltd., which specializes in using open source intelligence to develop internet strategies. Educated at the McLuhan Program at the University of Toronto, his passion is educating people on the potential benefits and perils of technology. (Recorded on August 13th, 2008)

   

"I do understand why some people get their backs against the wall when they're asked where they're from " Rinaldo Walcott is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. His areas of specialization are cultural studies and cultural theory; queer and gender theory, and transnational and diaspora studies. He is the author of Black like Who?: Writing Black Canada and the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism. (Recorded on August 13, 2008)

   

"The best interpretations I think are in some respect minimalist interpretations. They're short, they're to the point and ...when you've heard them you never forget them" Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, author, essayist and poet. He is on the Research Faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. He is the author of the bestseller, "The Brain That Changes Itself". He is a native of Toronto. (Recorded on August 18, 2008)

   

"The folks who came through the prism of slavery and spread out over the world. The way in which we survived, the fact we have survived and thrived, we are still here. I love that" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.(Recorded on March 07,2008)

   

"The persistent myth of Canada is that it's a country that's defined by community rather than by individuals" Nick Mount teaches English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "When Canadian Literature Moved to New York" an account of mass migration of Canadian writers to the US at the end of 19th century. He teaches a very popular first year English course "Literature for our time". He was one of the 10 finalists of the 2006 TVO's Best Lecturer Competition. (Recorded on June 15,2007)

   

"The United States runs an empire. The United States denies it runs an empire. It is inconceivable to Americans that they can run an empire" James Laxer is one of Canada's leading political thinkers and the author of fourteen books. In 1969, he was one of the founders of the Waffle Group, Canada's largest New Left political movement. In 1971, at the age of 29, he ran second for the national leadership of the New Democratic Party. From 1978 to 1981, he was the host of TVO's interview program The Real Story. Between 1981 and 1983, Laxer was the research director of the federal New Democratic Party. A professor of political science at York University and a frequent commentator on the economy, he lives in Toronto. (Recorded on June 13, 2008)

   

"Illusion suggests technique, It suggests optics. It suggests that magic is really a puzzle to be solved" David Peck is many things. Most prominently he is an award winning magician. When not doing magic, David Peck is involved with a number of development projects around the world. He is also public speaker as well as someone who pursues his abiding interests at the intersection between philosophy and faith. (Recorded on November 20, 2007)

   

"You will not become your potential without being loved and feeling loved" Pier Giorgio Di Cicco was born in Arezzo, Italy, raised in Montreal, Baltimore and Toronto and did post-graduate work at the University of Toronto. In 1984, he removed himself from the world of letters and became an Augustinian Brother, and was subsequently ordained to the Roman Catholic Priesthood. He has published numerous collections of poetry since 1976. He is variously engaged in urban issues. (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"You see the potential of something and than you see the depressing reality of where it's going" Hal Niedzviecki is a writer, culture commentator and editor . He is co-founder of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts and edited the magazine from 1995 to 02. He is also co-founder of the annual Canzine festival of Underground Culture, and served as director of the festival from 1995 to 2002. He continues to be involved with the magazine and festival as President of the Broken Pencil Board of Directors and Special Projects Coordinator. (Recorded on June 15, 2007)

   

"What a good education should do is give the student a sense that they belong to an intellectual conversation that's bigger than themselves" Nick Mount teaches English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of "When Canadian Literature Moved to New York" an account of mass migration of Canadian writers to the US at the end of 19th century. He teaches a very popular first year English course "Literature for our time". He was one of the 10 finalists of the 2006 TVO's Best Lecturer Competition. (Recorded on June 15, 2007)

   

"I've been criticized, time and time again for the behaviour of my fictious characters because people assume that their values are mine" Russell Smith was born in South Africa. He grew up in Halifax and has lives in Toronto since 1989. He is the author of six works of fiction. A well-known journalist and cultural commentator, he writes the weekly "Virtual Culture" column in the Globe and Mail and is also the editor of the online men's magazine XYYZ.ca.(Recorded on March 06, 2008)

   

"Equality is an idea that we must keep reaching for. We never know when we actually arrive at it but more and more people believe they can live the life they want to live" Rinaldo Walcott is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. His areas of specialization are cultural studies and cultural theory; queer and gender theory, and transnational and diaspora studies. He is the author of Black like Who?: Writing Black Canada and the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism. (Recorded on August 13, 2008)

   

"In locker-rooms you'd think that you wouldn't have to put up signs saying don't take pictures of each other naked while changing, but, apparently you do" Hal Niedzviecki is a writer, culture commentator and editor . He is co-founder of Broken Pencil, the magazine of zine culture and the independent arts and edited the magazine from 1995 to 2002. He is also co-founder of the annual Canzine festival of Underground Culture, and served as director of the festival from 1995 to 2002. He continues to be involved with the magazine and festival as President of the Broken Pencil Board of Directors and Special Projects Coordinator. (Recorded on June 15, 2007)

   

"You want a rule book, you want to know what is the right word for black today? There isn't one" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.

   

"There's a gap, an emptiness and people search for some transcendent something, a kind of ecstasy through political life" Jean Bethke Elshtain, a political philosopher, is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at The University of Chicago. She grew up in the small village of Timnath, Colorado (population 185). She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Politics in 1973. She joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst where she taught from 1973 to 1988. She joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1988 as the first woman to hold an endowed professorship in the history of that institution. She was appointed to her current position at the University of Chicago in 1995. She has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Yale University, and Harvard University. She is the recipient of nine honorary degrees. Professor Elshtain was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. She has published 13 books among them, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought (1981); Women and War (1987); Just War Theory (1991); Democracy on Trial (1993), a CBC Massey Lecture ; Just War against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World (2003); Sovereignty: God, State, Self (2008) (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

"Even in our singularities our lives are complex" Ato Quayson is Professor of English and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto, where he has been since August 2005. He did his BA at the University of Ghana and took his PhD from Cambridge University in 1995. He then went on to the University of Oxford as a Research Fellow, returning to Cambridge in Sept. 1995 to become a Fellow at Pembroke College and a member of the Faculty of English where he eventually became a Reader in Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies. Prof. Quayson has published widely on African literature, postcolonial studies and literary theory. (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

Jonathan Kay is comment pages editor of the National Post . In 2002, he was awarded Canada's National Newspaper Award for Critical Writing. In 2004, he received a National Newspaper Award for Editorial Writing. Jonathan Kay was born and raised in Montreal. He graduated from McGill University in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in metallurgincal engineering, economics and Japanese language . In 1994 he received a Master's Degree in Metallurgical Engineering . He continued at Yale Law School, where he received his law degree in 1997. Before joining National Post, Jonathan worked as a lawyer with the New York City office of Goodman Phillips Vineberg. His forthcoming book, to be published in 2010 by HarperCollins, is "Among the Truthers: Alternative Theories of 9/11 and the People Who Believe Them."

   

" The poor got dirtier and the rich got cleaner and it became a way to divide them." Katherine Ashenburg, is a prize-winning author of three non-fiction books and hundreds of articles on subjects that range from travel to mourning customs to architecture. Her work life began with a Ph.D. dissertation about Dickens and Christmas, but she quickly left the academic world for successive careers as a CBC radio producer; as the arts and books editor; at the The Globe and Mail and most recently as a freelance writer, lecturer and teacher. She is the author of the recently published "The Dirt on Clean". Her book lets us imagine what our past smelled like and how we have crossed the line into a world that might be too clean for our own good.(Recorded on October 30, 2007)

   

"The history of trans-Atlantic slavery I think produces a tremendous amount of self-doubt for many black people" Rinaldo Walcott is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. His areas of specialization are cultural studies and cultural theory; queer and gender theory, and transnational and diaspora studies. He is the author of Black like Who?: Writing Black Canada and the editor of Rude: Contemporary Black Canadian Cultural Criticism. (Recorded on August 13, 2008)

   

"Journalism is reaping a harvest it sowed when it stopped paying attention to ordinary people" Suanne Kelman worked for many years on the CBC radio show Sunday Morning as well as on the flagship program The Journal. She has written for Toronto Life, Toronto, Destinations, R.O.B. Magazine, Chatelaine, Shape and other magazines and newspapers. Before and after joining the School of Journalism at Ryerson University, she produced several documentaries for the CBC radio program Ideas. She is the only member of the School of Journalism ever to have written a gossip column ("The Tatler", for the Globe and Mail). She is the author of "All in the Family: A Cultural History of Family Life". She contributes regularly to the Literary Review of Canada, serves often as a judge for radio, television and writing awards, lectures on fiction to reading clubs. (Recorded on November 02, 2007)

   

"Even more so now do we judge houses by the number of bathrooms, the household shrine" Katherine Ashenberg, is a prize-winning author of three non-fiction books and hundreds of articles on subjects that range from travel to mourning customs to architecture. Her work life began with a Ph.D. dissertation about Dickens and Christmas, but she quickly left the academic world for successive careers as a CBC radio producer; as the arts and books editor; at the The Globe and Mail and most recently as a freelance writer, lecturer and teacher. She is the author of the recently published "The Dirt on Clean". Her book lets us imagine what our past smelled like and how we have crossed the line into a world that might be too clean for our own good.(Recorded on October 30, 2007)

   

"Our city counselor was able to get an agreement that was more beneficial to either of us than either victory would have been" Misha Glouberman is a facilitator and designer of participatory events. He's hosted panels, discussions, and events with health care workers, transit activists, professional dancers, homeless parents, Open Source software advocates, graffiti artists, Copyright experts, and Star Trek fans, to name just a few. His working style combines analytic rigour (he worked for many years as a database designer, and has a degree in philosophy from Harvard College) with a creative people-centered approach (he has taught classes in improvised music and theater for many years). He hosts "The Trampoline Hall Lectures", an interactive show popular with the arts and literary set in Toronto and New York, as well as "Terrible Noises for Beautiful People", a series of participatory sound events for non-musicians, among other projects. He believes himself to be Canada's foremost charades instructor, a claim that has thus far gone unchallenged. (Recorded on June 13, 2008)

   

"A west African man said to me," you don't know who your kin are". I felt a loss of it" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.

   

"We were going too create a new man and anything that must be done to achieve this end is morally and ethically correct" James Laxer is one of Canada's leading political thinkers and the author of fourteen books. In 1969, he was one of the founders of the Waffle Group, Canada's largest New Left political movement. In 1971, at the age of 29, he ran second for the national leadership of the New Democratic Party. From 1978 to 1981, he was the host of TVO's interview program The Real Story. Between 1981 and 1983, Laxer was the research director of the federal New Democratic Party. A professor of political science at York University and a frequent commentator on the economy, he lives in Toronto. (Recorded on June 13, 2008)

   

"There is not a kind of pressure for conformity of the kind that one sees in the United States. That's always attracted me to Canada" James Laxer is one of Canada's leading political thinkers and the author of fourteen books. In 1969, he was one of the founders of the Waffle Group, Canada's largest New Left political movement. In 1971, at the age of 29, he ran second for the national leadership of the New Democratic Party. From 1978 to 1981, he was the host of TVO's interview program The Real Story. Between 1981 and 1983, Laxer was the research director of the federal New Democratic Party. A professor of political science at York University and a frequent commentator on the economy, he lives in Toronto. (Recorded on June 13, 2008)

   

"There's a certain strand in contemporary liberalism associated with those who have a grandiose view of how we can achieve some kind of perfect justice" Jean Bethke Elshtain, a political philosopher, is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political Ethics at The University of Chicago. She grew up in the small village of Timnath, Colorado (population 185). She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Politics in 1973. She joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst where she taught from 1973 to 1988. She joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in 1988 as the first woman to hold an endowed professorship in the history of that institution. She was appointed to her current position at the University of Chicago in 1995. She has been a visiting professor at Oberlin College, Yale University, and Harvard University. She is the recipient of nine honorary degrees. Professor Elshtain was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996. She has published 13 books among them, Public Man, Private Woman: Women in Social and Political Thought (1981); Women and War (1987); Just War Theory (1991); Democracy on Trial (1993), a CBC Massey Lecture ; Just War against Terror: The Burden of American Power in a Violent World (2003); Sovereignty: God, State, Self (2008) (Recorded on November 05, 2008)

   

Jonathan Kay is comment pages editor of the National Post . In 2002, he was awarded Canada's National Newspaper Award for Critical Writing. In 2004, he received a National Newspaper Award for Editorial Writing. Jonathan Kay was born and raised in Montreal. He graduated from McGill University in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in metallurgincal engineering, economics and Japanese language . In 1994 he received a Master's Degree in Metallurgical Engineering . He continued at Yale Law School, where he received his law degree in 1997. Before joining National Post, Jonathan worked as a lawyer with the New York City office of Goodman Phillips Vineberg. His forthcoming book, to be published in 2010 by HarperCollins, is "Among the Truthers: Alternative Theories of 9/11 and the People Who Believe Them."

   

"Civic encounter is under siege both in and outside the city" Pier Giorgio Di Cicco was born in Arezzo, Italy, raised in Montreal, Baltimore and Toronto and did post-graduate work at the University of Toronto. In 1984, he removed himself from the world of letters and became an Augustinian Brother, and was subsequently ordained to the Roman Catholic Priesthood. He has published numerous collections of poetry since 1976. He is variously engaged in urban issues. (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"Nabokov says that novels really should ultimately be about more normal people. Now, think of how absurd this is, this is by the author of, "Lolita", whose written a book about a pedophilic psychopath" Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, author, essayist and poet. He is on the Research Faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry. He is the author of the bestseller, "The Brain That Changes Itself". He is a native of Toronto. (Recorded on August 18, 2008)

   

"I work with nurses and doctors and help them understand how other people think about the work they do" Sholom Glouberman is Philosopher in Residence at Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care, He has a BA from McGill and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cornell University. For the past 25 years he has applied philosophical methods and conceptual analysis to organizations and systems. In recent years, he has focused increasingly on the notoriously intractable area of health and health care as the single most challenging and little-charted frontier. (Recorded on March 06, 2008)

   

"People are participating in the construction of not only their own identity, but the identity of people within their social networks" Mark Federman has more than twenty-five years' experience thinking, writing and consulting about the impact of new technologies on how we work and learn His research is focused on our present conditions of ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive proximity, or "UCaPP." Until recently Mark Federman played the role of Chief Strategist at the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto. He is the co- author of McLuhan for Managers - New Tools for New Thinking. (Recorded on March 10, 2008)

   

"My Christian family was very formal and my Jewish family was very close and intimate" James Laxer is one of Canada's leading political thinkers and the author of fourteen books. In 1969, he was one of the founders of the Waffle Group, Canada's largest New Left political movement. In 1971, at the age of 29, he ran second for the national leadership of the New Democratic Party. From 1978 to 1981, he was the host of TVO's interview program The Real Story. Between 1981 and 1983, Laxer was the research director of the federal New Democratic Party. A professor of political science at York University and a frequent commentator on the economy, he lives in Toronto. (Recorded on June 13, 2008)

   

"There's a certain type of privilege that I do not get to take part in just by the nature of living in the skin I'm in" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world.(Recorded on March 07,2008)

   

"The idea of slavery is a powerful one. It's one that were suppose to have forgotten ... but... five hundred years later, you just don't forget" Caribbean-Canadian writer, Nalo Hopkinson is the author of "Midnight Robber" which garnered her award nominations from both Hugo and Nebula. She also received the John W Campbell award for Best New Writer. Her latest novel, "New Moons Arms", was published in 2007. Of late she has sold her house in Toronto and is traveling the world. (Recorded on March 07, 2008)

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Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.

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Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.

    Watch Video

Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.

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Rodolphe el-Khoury is Canada Research Chair in Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Toronto and partner in the design firm Khoury Levit Fong. He is the author of numerous critically acclaimed books in architectural history and theory and a regular contributor to professional and academic journals. His books include, Monolithic Architecture, Architecture: in Fashion, Shaping the City; Studies in History, Theory and Urban Design, and See Through Ledoux, Architecture, Theatre, and the Pursuit of Transparency. He has received several awards and international recognition for his design work at Office dA, ReK Productions and currently at KLF. el-Khoury is particularly interested in architectural applications for advanced information technology aiming for enhanced responsiveness and sustainability in the build environment.

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Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.

    Watch Video

Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.

    Watch Video

Ronald de Sousa (BA, Oxon, PhD Princeton) was born British in Switzerland and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the author of Rationality of Emotion (1987) and of Why Think? Evolution and the Rational Mind (2007). He has published over a hundred articles and lectured in some twenty countries. His current research focuses on the philosophy of biology, emotions and sexuality. When not distracted by those topics, he is supposed to be finishing a book on Emotional Truth.