Big Ideas

December 15 2007: Eric Thurman

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 16:00:00 EST

Microcredit expert and consultant, Eric Thurman, discusses the ideas behind his book, A Billion Bootstraps.

December 8 2007: H. Jay Melosh

Sat, 8 Dec 2007 16:00:00 EST

What killed the dinosaurs? And is humanity headed for a similar fate? These questions are addressed by H. Jay Melosh, a Professor of Theoretical Geophysics at the University of Arizona, in this lecture entitled, Death of the Dinos: Giant Impacts and Biological Crises. With the help of sophisticated computer simulations Melosh presents his 'hot' new theory on the KT extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

October 16 2004: Robert Adams - The Stubborn Season

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

The irrepressible Robert Adams presents his review of Lauren B. Davis' The Stubborn Season. Set in Toronto, The Stubborn Season tells the story of a young woman growing up during the height of the Great Depression.

October 2 2004: Robert Adams - Herzog

Fri, 9 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

Robert Adams tackles Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning author Saul Bellow and his critically acclaimed novel, Herzog.

December 17 2005: Robert Adams - Brick Lane

Fri, 2 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

Robert Adams gives his assessment of by Monica Ali. Short-listed for the 2003 Man Booker Prize, the novel is a finely textured picture of Bangladeshi immigrants in contemporary London.

November 10 2007: Bruce Kuwabara

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:00:00 EST

Award-winning architect, Bruce Kuwabara, discusses emerging models of urbanization and sustainability that are transforming Toronto and other major Canadian cities.

November 17 2007: Ariel Garten

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

Psychotherapist and artist, Ariel Garten, explores the neuroscience of conflict.

November 17 2007: Minelle Mahtani

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:00:00 EST

Minelle Mahtani, Professor of Geography at the University of Toronto, explores issues of mixed race identity.

February 2 2008: Steven Pinker

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

Harvard psychology professor, Steven Pinker, presents a talk on his latest book, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.

January 20 2008: Hope in the Balance, Part 2

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 16:00:00 EST

Stephen Lewis, James Orbinski, and Stephanie Nolen present lectures as part of a recent symposium called "Hope in the Balance: Humanitarianism in the 21st Century".

February 2 2008: Robert J. Sawyer

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

Author Robert J. Sawyer explains how Hollywood's approach to science fiction, starting with George Lucas's Star Wars, has dulled the edge that made science fiction such a pertinent film genre. Sawyer disects the problematic aspects of the original Star Wars film and shows how science fiction books continue to tackle difficult issues while their big screen counterparts take the easy road of big explosions and small ideas.

February 23 2008: Oliver Sacks

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

World-famous neurologist and author, Oliver Sacks, discusses his latest book, Musicophilia, a look at how music can impact on the brain. Sacks' love of music is well known, and now he turns his attention to his patients for whom music can be both treatment and affliction. He describes the power of music to move us, to heal, and to haunt us.

March 1 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - John Schneeberger

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

Loyalist College professor John Schneeberger delivers his competition lecture entitled Creative Menu Design.

March 1 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Tim Conley

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

Brock University professor Tim Conley delivers a lecture entitled Coordinating the Self in Contemporary Poetry.

March 15 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Marc Fournier

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

University of Toronto (Scarborough) psychology professor Marc Fournier delivers his competition lecture entitled Dominance and Depression.

March 8 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - John Mitterer

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

Brock University psychology professor John Mitterer delivers his competition lecture entitled Truth and Humility in Professional Practice.

March 15 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Robert Jan van Pelt

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

University of Waterloo Architecture professor Robert Jan van Pelt delivers his Best Lecturer competition lecture entitled Architecture After Auschwitz.

March 8 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Nick Bontis

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

McMaster University Strategic Management professor Nick Bontis delivers his Best Lecturer competition lecture entitled Knowledge Worker Productivity.

March 22 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Gerald Cupchik

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

University of Toronto (Scarborough) psychology professor Gerald Cupchik delivers his competition lecture entitled Two Faces of Emotion.

March 22 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Finney Cherian

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

University of Windsor education professor Finney Cherian delivers his competition lecture entitled Unbinding Baby Elephants.

March 22 2008: Best Lecturer Finalist - Ken Cramer

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EST

University of Windsor psychology professor Ken Cramer delivers his competition lecture entitled Alfred Adler: The Most Famous Personality Theorist You Likely Never Heard Of.

June 21 2008: Howard Gardner

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:00:00 EST

Howard Gardner is a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and is the author of "Five Minds for the Future". In this lecture he discusses his latest theories on cognition and creativity and outlines why he is currently researching what place the "ethical mind" and the "respectful mind" hold in today's technologically sophisticated and interrelated world.

May 31 2008: Michael Eric Dyson

Sat, 31 May 2008 16:00:00 EST

Michael Eric Dyson, the author of "April 4, 1968", discusses the life and death of Martin Luther King as they pertain to race issues in the U.S. and around the world. 40 years after King's assassination, the race for the leadership of the Democratic Party has returned issues of race to the forefront of American politics and Dyson uses his book as a springboard to examine Barack Obama's candidacy and what it means for America.

October 18 2008: Ovide Mercredi

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EST

In light of the establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada, Ovide Mercredi, chief of the Misipawistic Cree nation and former chief of the Assembly of First Nations, reflects on what true reconciliation means and explains that it will only work if the reconciliation process engages aboriginals as equal partners.

October 4 2008: Strobe Talbott

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EST

Strobe Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., delivers this year's Donner Canadian Foundation lecture drawing upon his recently released book The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States and the Quest for a Global Nation.

October 25 2008: Gabor Mate

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 16:00:00 EST

Drawing on his experience with drug addicted patients from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Dr. Gabor Mate discusses how the medical and legal systems are failing in the so called "war on drugs". Dr. Mate reads from his fourth book, "In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction", and suggests ways in which society's approach to dealing with drugs and drug addicts could be improved.

May 11 2003: Richard Lewontin

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST

Professor Richard C. Lewontin of Harvard University delivers a lecture on the topic of The Co-evolution of Organisms and the Environment.

May 11 2003: Guy Proulx

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Dr. Guy Proulx, Director of Psychology and NeuroRehabilitation at the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care delivers a lecture entitled, Wisdom Versus Dementia: A Walk Through the Aging Brain.

February 10 2001: Alberto Manguel

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST

Alberto Manguel on the duality of Pablo Picasso's artistic brilliance and personal evil.

February 3 2001:Kay Redfield Jamison

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Kay Redfield Jamison of Johns Hopkins University gives a lecture about suicide drawing on the research from her book, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide.

February 18 2006: Clifford Will

Sat, 19 July 2008 16:00:00 EST

Clifford Will delivers a lecture entitled, "Was Einstein Right? Can Einstein?s Theories Survive Today?s Scientific Scrutiny?"

April 15 2001: Mark Kingwell

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Mark Kingwell delivers a lecture on Representations of the Intellectual in Everyday Life. Has pop culture ruined the intellectual?

March 21 2003: Leon Kass

Sat, 26 July 2008 16:00:00 EST

Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President's Council on Bioethics, examines the distinct ethical dilemmas that surround stem cell research. Dr. Kass addresses a fundamental philosophical question: Why not immortality?

March 11 2001: Wendy Steiner

Sat, 12 July 2008 16:00:00 EST

Wendy Steiner, a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania presents a lecture based on her book The Trouble with Beauty.

February 18 2006: Arthur I. Miller

Sat, 05 July 2008 16:00:00 EST

Arthur I. Miller compares Einstein to Picasso. Miller is the author of a book entitled "Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc".

June 28 2008: Norman Doidge

Sat, 28 June 2008 16:00:00 EST

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and best-selling author, Dr. Norman Doidge, discusses the findings in his latest book, The Brain that Changes Itself, an examination of brain neuroplasticity.

September 27 2008: Benjamin Barber

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST

Benjamin Barber's books include , and . Speaking at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Barber explains how the ideal of people as citizens has been undermined by the drive to turn us all into consumers. The title of his talk is, "Consumerism, Globalization and the End of Sovereignty".

September 20 2008: William D. Phillips

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:00:00 EST

"Time and Einstein in the 21st Century: The Coolest Stuff in the Universe" is the title of this exceptionally entertaining lecture. Phillips, who works with the 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.

November 8 2008: Ronald Wright

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:00:00 EST

Ronald Wright, the author of , examines the dichotomy between "America's ideals and the realities". Wright discusses how such conflicts as those between Native Americans and the Europeans who came to settle the new world have shaped the American identity.

April 19 2008: John English

Sat, 19 April 2008 16:00:00 EST

In his lecture entitled "Trudeau's World: The Making of an Internationalist", historian and author John English, discusses Trudeau's path to political prominence and influence, particularly in the domain of international affairs.

April 12 2008: Daniel Bell

Sat, 12 April 2008 16:00:00 EST

Daniel Bell, Professor of Philosophy at Tsinghua University in Beijing presents a lecture on "China's New Confucianism".

April 19 2008: Roy MacSkimming

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST

Author Roy MacSkimming discusses his fictional take on the life of Canada's first Prime Minister John A. MacDonald.

January 24 2004: Lee Smolin

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Lee Smolin of Perimeter Institute delivers his lecture, Why Does Science Work?

January 24 2004: Zach Hall

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:00:00 EST

Zach Hall - Dean of Research at the School of Medicine of University of Southern California discusses, Neuroethics: A Challenge for a New Age.