Big Ideas (audio)

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

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, 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.

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

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).

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

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

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.

Our second installment of The Grandest Challenge Symposium features James Orbinski, author of An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century. Following Dr. Orbinski's lecture he is joined in conversation by moderator Gillian Findlay.

Taking it's name from the book The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village, this symposium features the book's authors, Dr. Abdallah Daar and Dr. Peter Singer.

Dr. James Maskalyk, author of Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village, speaks at The Grandest Challenge Symposium and is interviewed by moderator Carol Off.

Doug Richards from the Physical Education & Health department at University of Toronto St. George on Stretching: The Truth. Richards discusses the science and the fiction of the benefits of stretching prior to exercise.

Dr. Iain McGilchrist is a renowned psychiatrist and author. Drawing from his book, "The Master and his Emissary", McGilchrist explores how the divided brain is shaping modern civilization. His lecture was delivered at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, on March 7, 2012.

Don Kurtz, of the University of Central Lancashire, discusses asteroseismology in a lecture entitled Songs of the Stars: The Real Music of the Spheres. He explains how sound waves are helping to locate distant Earth-like planets, study solar storms and explain what happens in the core of stars.

Rebecca MacKinnon, co-founder of Global Voices, discusses her book Consent of the Networked which examines issues of internet freedom and security. MacKinnon looks at Internet regulation in China, how Social Media affected the Arab Spring and the fight over SOPA.

Renowned literary theorist, Northrop Frye, delivers the second lecture in his famous course on The Bible and Literature. The lecture is entitled "The Shape of the Bible".

Renowned literary theorist Northrop Frye presents the first lecture in his course on The Bible and Literature. The lecture is entitled "An Approach to the Bible".

William D. Phillips, who works with the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, demonstrates the cooling potential of liquid nitrogen, the laser-based technique known as "optical molasses" and shows how magnetic bottles can help science built more accurate atomic clocks.