Synopsis
Big Ideas offers lectures on a variety of thought-provoking topics which range across politics, culture, economics, art history, science.... By nature of its lecture format, pacing and inquisitive approach, it is the antithesis of the prevailing sound-bite television norm. The simple, bold concept is a victory of substance over style. Big Ideas airs Saturdays and Sundays at 5:00 PM EST on TVO - Canada's largest educational broadcaster.
Episodes
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John Ralston Saul on what defines Canada as a nation
16/05/2009 Duration: 56minJohn Ralson Saul argues that Canada is a Metis nation, critically influenced and shaped by aboriginal ideas.
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Gwynne Dyer on global warming and his book Climate Wars
09/05/2009 Duration: 01h11minJournalist and historian, Gwynne Dyer, discusses his book Climate Wars, outlining the impact that climate change is likely to have on international relations. Dyer focuses particularly on the military conflicts that he sees resulting from global warming.
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Leo Panitch on the lessons of Marxism
02/05/2009 Duration: 43minLeo Panitch delivers this year's Phyllis Clarke Memorial Lecture entitled "Still a Marxist After All: Lessons and Insights for our Time".
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Hazel Carby on the British slave trade and the question of identity for people of West Indian heritage in the U.K.
25/04/2009 Duration: 46minIn her lecture, Belonging to Britain, 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. Carby is a professor of African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University.
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Bernard-Henry Levy's
18/04/2009 Duration: 50minPhilosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Levy critiques present-day leftist politics for its anti-liberalism, anti-Americanism, and for being soft on radical Islamism.
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Merv Mosher - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Statistics: What's the Point?
29/03/2009 Duration: 44minMerv Mosher from the Kinesiology and Health Science department at York University in Toronto is profiled and delivers his lecture entitled, Statistics: What's the Point?
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Rod Carley - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Adapting Shakespeare within a Modern Canadian Context
28/03/2009 Duration: 45minTop ten finalist, Professor Rod Carley, from the Communication Arts department at Canadore College in North Bay is profiled and delivers his competition lecture entitled, Adapting Shakespeare Within a Modern Canadian Context.
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Clare Hasenkampf - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Chromosomes Dividing: How It Is Done and Why It Matters
22/03/2009 Duration: 44minClare Hasenkampf from the Biological Sciences department at the University of Toronto Scarborough delivers her competition lecture entitled "Chromosomes Dividing: How It Is Done and Why It Matters".
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Darryl Davies - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Explaining Crime
21/03/2009 Duration: 43minDarryl Davies from the Sociology and Anthropology department at Carleton University in Ottawa delivers his competition lecture entitled "Explaining Crime".
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Shawn Lehman - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Primate Infanticide: Adaptation or Social Pathology?
15/03/2009 Duration: 43minShawn Lehman from the Anthropology department at the University of Toronto St. George delivers his competition lecture entitled "Primate Infanticide: Adaptation or Social Pathology?"
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Paul Stevens - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Milton's Satan
14/03/2009 Duration: 44minPaul Stevens from the English department at the University of Toronto St. George delivers his competition lecture entitled "Milton's Satan".
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Doug Richards - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Stretching: The Truth
08/03/2009 Duration: 45minDoug Richards from the Physical Education and Health department at the University of Toronto St. George delivers his competition lecture entitled "Stretching: The Truth".
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James Allard - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Frankenstein: Five Ways
07/03/2009 Duration: 46minJames Allard from the English Language and Literature department at Brock University in St. Catharines delivers his competition lecture entitled "Frankenstein: Five Ways".
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Anton Allahar - Best Lecturer Finalist - on Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?
01/03/2009 Duration: 45minAnton Allahar from the Sociology department at the University of Western Ontario in London delivers his competition lecture entitled "Why Isn't the Whole World Developed?"
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Matthew Bellamy - Best Lecturer Finalist - on A Watershed Moment: Canada and the Second World War
28/02/2009 Duration: 35minMatthew Bellamy from the History department at Carleton University in Ottawa delivers his competition lecture entitled "A Watershed Moment: Canada and the Second World War".
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Toby Miller on electronic waste
21/02/2009 Duration: 51minProfessor of Media and Cultural Studies, Toby Miller, examines the environmental impact of our obsession with technology.
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Jean Bethke Elshtain on religion and democracy
14/02/2009 Duration: 39min"Religion and Democracy: Antagonists or Allies?" is the topic of the 2008 Seymour Martin Lipset Memorial Lecture.
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David Weinberger on Knowledge at the End of the Information Age
07/02/2009 Duration: 52minThe author of "Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder", David Weinberger, delivers a lecture entitled "Knowledge at the End of the Information Age". In this talk Weinberger argues that the internet is both profoundly weird, and deeply familiar. He claims that, by changing the way we receive information from the broadcast era's one-way monologue into a multi-directional conversation, the internet has humanized information.
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Maude Barlow on the global water crisis
31/01/2009 Duration: 36minBarlow argues that access to safe drinking water should be a basic human right and makes a compelling case for why the global water crisis will be the greatest environmental and human crisis of this century.
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Lewis Lapham on education
24/01/2009 Duration: 22minLewis Lapham laments the state of the American education system.