Big Ideas (Audio) artwork

Big Ideas (Audio)

322 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 10 years ago - ★★★★★ - 76 ratings

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.

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Episodes

Robert Adams on the novel Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry.

September 07, 2013 04:30 - 30.6 MB

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the novel Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry.

Christopher Hitchens on The Three New Commandments

August 24, 2013 04:30 - 19 MB

Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, on The Three New Commandments.

Robert Adams on the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

August 10, 2013 04:30 - 30.6 MB

Robert Adams, author of A Love of Reading, discusses the novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

Hazel Carby on Belonging to Britain

July 27, 2013 04:30 - 18.4 MB

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

July 13, 2013 04:30 - 28.6 MB

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

Thomas Merritt audio podcast

July 03, 2013 20:00 - 15.3 MB

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.

June 29, 2013 04:30 - 18.6 MB

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

June 22, 2013 04:30 - 16.5 MB

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

June 15, 2013 04:30 - 7.33 MB

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?

June 01, 2013 04:30 - 17 MB

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 the novel Herzog by Saul Bellow.

May 18, 2013 04:30 - 29.6 MB

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

Simon Winchester on A Crack in the Edge of the World

April 27, 2013 04:30 - 19.1 MB

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

April 20, 2013 04:30 - 30.3 MB

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

Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on ,Until the End of the World"

April 13, 2013 04:30 - 22 MB

Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek delivers his contribution to the Nuit Blanche symposium inspired by Wim Wenders film, Until the End of the World.

Robert Adams on the novel The Corrections

April 06, 2013 04:30 - 28.5 MB

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

Jordan Peterson on Slaying the Dragon Within Us

March 23, 2013 04:30 - 19.5 MB

Jordan Peterson on Slaying the Dragon Within Us. Peterson, a University of Toronto professor of psychology, talks about fear of the unknown and fear of dealing with problems.

Salmon Akhtar on The Trauma of Geographical Dislocation

March 23, 2013 04:30 - 18 MB

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

Steven Pinker on The Blank Slate

March 16, 2013 04:30 - 20.5 MB

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

Marc Abrahams, editor of The Annals of Improbably Research

March 09, 2013 04:30 - 11.9 MB

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 think".

Maude Barlow on Water: The Most Pressing Women's Issue

March 02, 2013 04:30 - 17.5 MB

Maude Barlow, National Chair of the citizens' advocacy organization The Council of Canadians, on Water: The Most Pressing Women's Issue of All.

Julia Belluz on social media's impact on health decisions

March 02, 2013 04:30 - 16.9 MB

Journalist Julia Belluz looks at the impact of social media on decisions about health in the Annual Hart House Hancock Lecture. Her lecture, entitled Who Lives and Who Dies: Will Social Media Decide?, was delivered at the Hart House Great Hall on October 31, 2012.

Kwame McKenzie on Immigration Sickness

February 23, 2013 04:30 - 20 MB

Kwame McKenzie, Medical Director of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, on Immigration Sickness. What psychological and social attributes help us predict who will be a good at being an immigrant?

Ken Cramer on Alfred Adler

February 23, 2013 04:30 - 14 MB

Ken Cramer - Psychology, University of Windsor -on Alfred Adler: The Most Famous Personality Theorist You Likely Never Heard Of

Nick Mount on T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land

February 16, 2013 04:30 - 16.6 MB

University of Toronto English professor, Nick Mount, explores T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

Susannah Varmuza on the evolving field of Epigenetics

February 09, 2013 04:30 - 7.72 MB

University of Toronto Zoology researcher, Susannah Varmuza, discusses the evolving field of Epigenetics and what research into such things as mouse coat colour is telling scientists about the age-old "nature versus nurture" debate.

Clare Hasenkampf on Chromosomes Dividing

January 26, 2013 04:35 - 15.3 MB

Clare Hasenkampf of the Biology Department at University of Toronto Scarborough presents her lecture Chromosomes Dividing: How It Is Done and Why It Matters.

Lt. General (ret.) Andrew Leslie on Lessons From Afghanistan

January 26, 2013 04:30 - 17.6 MB

Lieutenant General (retired) Andrew Leslie, the Former Chief of Transformation for the Canadian Armed Forces, discusses the lessons that can be learned from the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan. He explores how these lessons need to be applied to the Canadian Force's priorities in the face of future budget cuts.

Richard Kearney on Narrative Imagination and Catharsis

January 19, 2013 04:30 - 15 MB

In his lecture entitled "Narrative Imagination and Catharsis", philosopher Richard Kearney takes the examples of Joyce's Ulysses, Homer's Odyssey and Shakespeare's Hamlet to illustrate his thesis on the healing power of art. His lecture was part of an event called Imagination's Truths and was recorded at the Isabel Bader Theatre on October 13, 2012.

Oliver Sacks on Musicophilia

January 19, 2013 04:30 - 15.5 MB

Neurologist and best-selling author, Oliver Sacks, discusses his book Musicophilia. and the ways our brains interact with and understand music.

Noam Chomsky on The Imperial Presidency

January 12, 2013 04:30 - 27.7 MB

American author and political activist, Noam Chomsky, speking at a benefit for Canadian Dimension Magazine, delivers a talk entitled The Imperial Presidency. Recorded at University of Toronto on Nov 21/04.

Jesse Hirsh, Lee Rainie - Is Social Media Good for Democracy

January 07, 2013 04:30 - 19.7 MB

The 2012 Keith Davey Forum on Public Affairs, moderated by Steve Paikin and featuring Lee Rainie and Jesse Hirsh. They address the question, Is Social Media Good for Democracy?

Philip Ball on How Science Became Interested in Everything

January 05, 2013 04:30 - 17 MB

Science writer Philip Ball on his book Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. Ball explores how the history of science was influenced by the cultural accetance or rejection of human curiosity.

Samantha Nutt - interviewed by Carol Off

December 29, 2012 04:30 - 10.2 MB

Samantha Nutt, Founder and Executive Director of War Child, is interviewed by Carol Off following her talk at the Grandest Challenge symposium.

Stephen Lewis - interviewed by Gillian Findlay

December 29, 2012 04:30 - 8.24 MB

Stephen Lewis of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, is interviewed by Gillian Findlay following his talk at the Grandest Challenge symposium.

David Weinberger:Knowledge at the End of the Information Age

December 29, 2012 04:00 - 18 MB

The 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".

Jordan Peterson on Music and the Patterns of the Mind and W.

December 29, 2012 04:00 - 16.4 MB

Jordan Peterson on Music and the Patterns of the Mind and World. Peterson, a University of Toronto professor of psychology, discusses the way in which music is perceived by humans. He compares the way we respond to visual arts, particularly the paintings of Picasso, to our perceptions of music in an effort to show how our brains respond differently to varied art forms.

Jill Tarter on the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence

December 27, 2012 04:00 - 19.6 MB

Dr. Jill Tarter, Director at the Centre for SETI Research, discusses the ongoing Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and how new tools including the Allen Telescope Array and the Keplar Spacecraft are helping to make the search much more likely to succeed.

Stephen Lewis on Climate Change

December 22, 2012 04:30 - 17.7 MB

Stephen Lewis, social sciences scholar in residence at McMaster University, delivers a talk entitled, Climate Change; the New Big Thing.

Samantha Nutt, Founder and Executive Director of War Child

December 15, 2012 04:30 - 9.22 MB

Samantha Nutt, Founder and Executive Director of War Child Canada, and author of the book Damned Nations speaks at The Grandest Challenge Symposium.

Stephen Lewis of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law

December 15, 2012 04:30 - 9.25 MB

Stephen Lewis of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law, and author of Race Against Time speaks at The Grandest Challenge Symposium.

Jordan Peterson on Redemption and Psychology in Christianity

December 15, 2012 04:30 - 16.1 MB

University of Toronto Psychology Professor, Jordan Peterson, on Redemption and Psychology in Christianity. Dr. Peterson's lecture was the keynote address at the 2012 Meaning Conference held in Toronto.

Rupinder Brar on Relativity, Einstein, and How to Stay Young

December 15, 2012 04:00 - 15.3 MB

Rupinder Brar lectures on the topic of Einstein's special relativity theory and it's explanation of time dilation and simultaneity. The lecture is entitled Relativity, Einstein, the Speed of Light and How to Stay Young.

Julian Barbour on Does Time Exist?

December 08, 2012 04:30 - 18.7 MB

Julian Barbour, visiting professor at the University of Oxford and the author of The End of Time, addresses the question, Does Time Exist? Barbour explores the history of scientific thought on the concept of time and presents his own interpretations of what time is.

Margaret Atwood: Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

December 08, 2012 04:00 - 19.4 MB

Preeminent author, Margaret Atwood, delivers the 2008 Massey Lecture, "Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth".

Tyler Cowen and Andrew Coyne on The Great Stagnation

December 01, 2012 04:30 - 18.9 MB

Tyler Cowen discusses his book The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick and Will (Eventually) Feel Better. Andrew Coyne (National Post) presents a rebuttal and the pair discuss Cowen's thesis focusing on issues of productivity, innovation and government policy (moderated by Wendy Dobson).

Senator Hugh Segal on Fighting Poverty in Canada

November 24, 2012 04:30 - 19.7 MB

In a lecture entitled "Fighting Poverty", Senator Hugh Segal explains why we need a new national approach to tackling poverty arguing that the costs and consequences of poverty are much larger than direct spending on social programs. Segal has been a long-time proponent of establishing a Guaranteed Annual Income. This lecture was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.

Louis A. Perez, Jr. on Cuban culture and revolution

November 17, 2012 04:30 - 18.6 MB

Louis A. Perez, Jr. of the Department of History at the University of North Carolina, speaks about Cuban culture and revolution.

John Hancock on Our Capitalist Revolution

November 17, 2012 04:30 - 20.9 MB

John Hancock, Senior Counsellor at the World Trade Organization, delivers a lecture entitled "Our Capitalist Revolution". Together with rapid growth, dazzling technologies and widening circles of development, global capitalism is delivering a turbulent, unequal, out-of-control world, which - Hancock argues - is just what we demanded. His lecture was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.

Jacalyn Duffin on the History of the Stethoscope

November 17, 2012 04:00 - 16.3 MB

Jacalyn Duffin of the Department of Medicine at Queen's University on History of the Stethoscope and the Meaning of Life.

Douglas Thomas on A New Culture of Learning

November 10, 2012 04:30 - 19.4 MB

Douglas Thomas, author of A New Culture of Learning, delivers a lecture on the intersections of technology, culture and education. This lecture is part of Learning 2030, TVO's special series on the future of education and was recorded on October 28, 2012.