Tapestry from CBC Radio: Recent Episodes
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Tapestry is your guide through the messy business of being human. You’ll hear surprising conversations and rediscover your connection to something larger than yourself. Tapestry: your time to pause and go deep.
In this finale episode of Tapestry, Mary Hynes and co-host Chris Howden send off the show in style with some of our favourite interview moments, well wishes from past guests, and emotional calls from listeners — all in front of a live studio audience.
For Tapestry's penultimate episode, we peek behind the curtain. Tapestry producers Rosie Fernandez, Arman Aghbali, and McKenna Hadley-Burke take the hosting reins to share what the show has meant to them, alongside three stories on unexpected gifts and goodbyes.
The Irish poet John O'Donohue is in a league of his own here at Tapestry — he stars in the single most requested episode we’ve ever broadcast. O’Donohue, an ex-priest, was also a beautiful writer, and a wildly eloquent partner in conversation. Talking to Mary Hynes in 2004, O’Donohue shares his poetry and soulful wisdom about what it means to live a good life and die a good death.
When he reached the peak of Snowmass Mountain, Fred Bryant made sure the moment lived with him forever. Bryant is a social psychologist and a leading expert on the science of savouring.Later, Shane Sinclair is the founder and director of the Compassion Research Lab at the University of Calgary. He is putting compassion under the microscope to understand how healthcare workers can provide better experiences for their patients.
Writer, artist and priest Malcolm Doney has been tackling life's biggest questions about love, loss, meaning and purpose. Together with co-author Martin Wroe, Doney wrote a guide to living in harmony with the unknown called Hold On, Let Go: How to Find Your Life.
Three stories on writing, music, and paying it forward. Plus, we have a big announcement.
What wisdom can ancient mythology bring to the debate over artificial intelligence? How Pandora’s tale and the Golem of Prague tell us about the fear of the unknown, hubris, and the inanimate made animate.
Joon Park is a chaplain who doesn’t fit the stereotype. Not only is he the religion guy on call after many years as an atheist, there's also the fact he uses Star Trek: The Next Generation, as a guide for being present with his patients. Park is part of the chaplaincy team at Tampa General Hospital. He says he still loses his faith from time to time — but it always seems to come back.
Two artists, Makoto Fujimura and Naoko Fukumaru, share about how repairing broken items with gold-dusted lacquer can help mend broken spirits.
Can you remember the last time you had a good cry? Pastor and author Benjamin Perry says it's probably been a while since many of us have let ourselves feel our feelings deeply enough to have a good sob. Perry is the author of Cry, Baby: Why Our Tears Matter and is a minister at Middle Church in New York City.
Writer Susan Cain explores the idea that longing and sorrow can make you more human and more whole. Cain is the author of Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.
Former Miss Canada Tara Teng spent years in the world of beauty pageants. But it wasn’t until she left her religion that she began to repair her relationship with her body. Teng is an embodiment coach in Vancouver, and the author of Your Body is a Revolution: Healing Our Relationships With Our Bodies, Each Other, and the World.
Noise canceling headphones are only becoming more sophisticated, but media studies professor Mack Hagood is concerned about the consequences of picking and choosing which sounds we get to hear.
Hagood is the author of Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Control. Even though he enjoys listening to podcasts and music on his headphones, he says they cut off the possibility of “sonic spontaneity.”
“We've really become consumers of sound, rather than people who just simply experience the sounds around us,” he said.
Brother Phap Huu is a buddhist monk who left his family in Mississauga, Ont. to study under Vietnamese peace activist and monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Huu tells us what drew him to make that fateful choice when he was only 13 years old.
Before Deanne Fitzpatrick discovered the art of rug-hooking, she had planned to become a therapist. These days her therapy comes from making things with her own two hands. Mark Farmer says we should drop the idea of a bucket list. He’s planning something a little more humble to celebrate his days on earth. He calls it his Goodbye Tour.
MrBeast is the most popular YouTuber on the planet, who is making his reputation on viral acts of charity. But are his charitable acts really about giving, or are they about boosting his reputation while exploiting those in need? Tapestry spoke to three experts and a group of kids on what makes MrBeast so compelling, and why it’s worth thinking more critically about him.
Ron Rolheiser grew up in Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan, on the family farm. Ordained in 1972, he’s spent many years since then teaching philosophy and theology and has become known as one of the most important voices in spirituality today. Ron Rolheiser is a faculty member - and former president - at the Oblate School of Theology, in San Antonio Texas. Rolheiser has a new book, Ron Rolheiser: Essential Spiritual Writings, and he spoke to Tapestry host Mary Hynes about discussing the spiritual with the secular. And what it means to move beyond the supposed sophistication of atheism.
John Francis Leader is a psychologist and cognitive scientist at University College Dublin. He’s the director of the Mixed Reality Therapy research project where they use virtual reality as a therapeutic tool with their patients. Leader describes the approach as “theme park meets therapy.” Fay Nugent had a serious fear of heights for years. The simple act of getting on an escalator was terrifying. Nugent heard about a clinical trial for virtual reality therapy at Oxford University and gave it a try. Could a four hour virtual reality session really ease her fears and change her life?
Anis Mojgani is the poet laureate of Oregon and the creator of the Tele-poem Hotline, a phone line that through April, delivered a new poem each day through the phone lines. Anis and several Canadian poet laureates discuss that feeling of receiving and finding poetry in the real world — and what we lose when we ignore poetry.
Until now, a lot of forays into genderless fashion have been subdued and shapeless, featuring neutral colours and boxy silhouettes. The author and activist behind the #DeGenderFashion movement says a truly gender-fluid approach to dressing could allow room for a much more expressive wardrobe.
It’s one of the most beguiling and mysterious objects in all of human storytelling, and it has been inspiring people for centuries. But if you come across the words "Holy Grail" today, chances are someone's been shopping. But it can mean so much more. Later we hear from the NakedPastor.
As we near the end of Ramadan, Tapestry gets a glimpse into an important experience during one of Islam's holiest months: watching television.Ahmad Hayat, an assistant professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, says watching television is a common leisure activity after iftar — the fast-breaking meal after sunset.Later, Tapestry’s Sameer Chhabra visits a mosque in Toronto to talk about fasting survival tips. And we revisit a conversation with writer Abdullah Shihipar on the popularity of the word "inshallah," meaning “God-willing.”CBC Ottawa’s Halima Sogbesan shares the story of one woman’s experience of memorizing the Qur’an.
Whenever that feeling of uncertainty about the life we've created creeps in, it can be easy to try to solve it with quick fixes like getting a new haircut, ending a relationship, finding a new job, or moving to a new city. But what if those uncomfortable periods are actually an opportunity? Casey Tygrett, author of The Gift of Restlessness: A Spirituality for Unsettled Seasons, has been examining the very human state of being restless. He says that, although it can be intensely uncomfortable, it can also be a kind of gift.
Tricia Hersey thinks grind culture is an assault on your basic humanity. Hersey, also known as The Nap Bishop, is the author of the book Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. She says resting is a deeply spiritual act.You might find Oorbee Roy wearing a sari when she heads over to her local skate park in Toronto. The 48-year-old mother of two shares how she picked up skateboarding — and why she's not putting her board down any time soon.
Why are people still drawn to paper planners in such a digital age? Rowena Sunga owns a stationery store in Toronto’s west end and meets a lot of people who are looking for ways to tame the chaos of life by writing it all down. The calligrapher Salman Khattak shares why he believes the act of doing something with your hands is a profound human experience.
Andrew Jamieson had so much going for him: a loving family and a successful business. But when Andrew hit midlife, midlife hit back! He did get through it with the help of a lot of therapy. Now a therapist himself and the author of the book Midlife: Humanity’s Secret Weapon, Andrew shares how the midlife crisis can be a kind of rebirth — a desperately needed stage in the evolution of the human being.
Wherever the word ‘parenting’ is found, judgment and guilt and stress won’t be far behind. Dorsa Amir is a development scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the UC Berkeley department of psychology. And as a parent herself, she’s been offering what she calls “anti-advice” to parents - because someone has to say it: “You can ease up a little bit. You’re doing fine!”
This year was the first time Ireland celebrated a national holiday dedicated to St. Brigit. Theologian Mary Condren says there is rich feminist symbolism in St. Brigit, whether you consider her a Celtic goddess or a Catholic Saint. Julian Munro is many things: a United Church member, a divinity student, a non-ordained Christian minister, and a drag clown known as King Julez. Munro says transitioning is a holy act and that drag has become one of their most profound spiritual practices.
Why is Lord of the Rings and fantasy novels so intriguing to conservatives and the far right? Journalist John Last has been researching the links between The Lord of the Rings and Italian fascist movements. He talks about how the Italian prime minister’s love for Tolkien is interwoven with her politics.
The psychologist Monnica Williams co-created a series of graduate courses in Psychedelics and Spirituality Studies at the University of Ottawa. She has a special interest in the use of psychedelics to heal racial trauma. As an only child, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff figured that having a big group of friends was the way to feel fulfilled in life. When she finally found herself in a large friend group she was surprised by what it was really like.
Psychology professor and Denmark native Marie Helweg-Larsen shares how Danish words can encourage better living by helping us settle, set boundaries, create community, and tune into shared moments.Sometimes we need more than words during really difficult periods of life. Katie Thornton shares the history of European funerary fashion — and how death rituals can help us move through grief.
Astrophysicist and Jesuit priest Adam Hincks shares the value he's found in studying both the Bible and the Big Bang.
The word ‘psyche’ comes from the Greek and Latin, meaning soul or spirit — so why is any talk of ‘the soul' so absent from modern-day psychology and psychiatry?Psychologist David Rosmarin shares how and why he's trying to bring spirituality back into his profession. Michelle Huang shares an unconventional method for advancing her own mental health and inner child work — with a little help from an AI chatbot and her childhood journal entries.
The scholar of religion Karen Armstrong says rational thinking has brought all kinds of wondrous things to the world. But when the scientific worldview began to take over in philosophy and spirituality, something vital was lost — the sense of wonder.
Maybe you’ve used the phrase yourself: "It’s purely platonic." Plato would not be impressed. The word he lent his name to was supposed to mean a love so powerful it transcends the physical. Marisa G. Franco is a psychologist, and a professor at the University of Maryland. She is the author of the book Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make – and Keep – Friends.Something is happening to men that’s leading them to have fewer friends than women. Producer Arman Aghbali looked into two recent books examining friendship among men: Hua Hsu is the author of Stay True. Michael Pedersen is the author of Boy Friends.
In the last few decades, cities across North America have lost many of their beloved third places — spaces outside the home or work where people can go to find community. But this isn't happening because people don't want to hang out anymore. Nathan Allebach says this problem has a lot to do with how we build our cities and who profits from our public spaces.
Footage from Iran shows girls and women removing their hijabs in protest. But when the videos end up on Tiktok some of the complexity around the veil is going to get lost. Tapestry spoke with Homa Hoodfar, on the meanings of the veil in Iran and Islam. Peak into our voicemail as we hear from Iranians across Canada on their hopes and fears. Kiana Karimi speaks about what it means to discipline your hope so it’ll be there for you when you need it most.
Author and meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn shares the value of staying in the here and now and making peace with paying attention.
A German town’s Passion Play is back on to fulfill a holy promise. Max Miller, host and creator of the YouTube channel Tasting History, brings the past into the present by recreating historic dishes.
Author Patty Krawec shares how going back and acknowledging harmful histories helps pave the way for a more hopeful future.
Author Brandon Grafius says there are spiritual lessons to be found in scary texts and something hopeful hidden in the horrifying. Kevin Ball reflects on if there's another way to talk about a person's passing.
Chris Stedman studies the way people are re-imagining religion online. He says that while current fashions like the Holy Trinity Bikini with the words Father and Son on the top and Holy Spirit on the bottom seem to be mocking religion, something more profound might be going on.
Kyle Hide is the co-creator of the Instagram account I NEED GOD IN EVERY MOMENT OF MY LIFE. They say that despite the humorous - though some may say sacrilegious - images, there’s a real yearning for new ways to experience religion.
The new surge of interest in Catholicism for young people online has also taken another unexpected turn with a group calling themselves “trad caths” short for “traditional Catholics.” They are new converts, or reverts to an older style of Catholicism, one that the church thought it had put behind it with Vatican II. Molly Olmstead explains
Religion scholar Joseph Laycock has been playing Dungeons and Dragons for a long time. He says that even though D&D was once a source of a moral panic, there is nothing satanic about it. Instead, Laycock sees the game as its own kind of spiritual practice. He says the imagination has always occupied a strange place in spirituality - as though it’s either a divine gift or some kind of curse.
Cat Van Wert and Mike McPhaden both play D&D with their respective families. They share the moments when Dungeons and Dragons felt like more than a game.
Tapestry producer Arman Aghbali brings us the story of one player's attempt to resurrect his character and the spiritual challenge that occurred along the way.
Tapestry features two documentaries this week: Strange Heart tells the story of a woman who, since receiving a heart transplant six years ago, reports that she hasn’t felt emotion and hasn’t experienced love in quite the same way. And Windhorse follows a couple in Nova Scotia as they give back the land they bought 30 years ago to Indigenous communities.
You may have heard about the bride and groom who spent their catering budget on a special appearance by Mickey and Minnie Mouse. We suspected there might be something profound at the heart of all this, in both the fervent desire to have a Disney wedding and in the ridicule that followed. We spoke to a professor of religion who studies how Disney itself functions as a kind of religion.
Early in the pandemic, Rob Kenney thought a series of “how-to” videos might be of some use to people who lacked a father figure in their lives. Two-and-a-half years later, he finds himself the adopted internet dad to some four-million kids.
Julian Barnes’ latest novel, Elizabeth Finch, asks the question, what if civilization took a wrong turn in the 4th Century, by choosing Christianity over Hellenistic and Roman paganism?
Daniela Gesundheit splits her time between California and Toronto as part of the indie band Snowblink. She also is a cantor, the person who leads people in singing and prayer in a synagogue. There were conversations about what it means to be human happening in synagogue that she felt were too big to be confined to religion, and so she turned to music to help her further explore her spiritual questions.
Despite the challenges we face in 2022 — declining environment included — Kevin Kelly, an author, futurist and founding editor of Wired magazine, says he still believes in a brighter tomorrow.
To that end, every year, he provides a list of advice on how you can improve your own life. Tapestry host Mary Hynes asks Kelly about his most recent list, and why even 20 years on from some flopped predictions, he stays optimistic.
Assistant professor of religion Alexander Hampton and opera singer Nicole Percifield teamed up at the University of Toronto to launch the Dawn Chorus project — incorporating birdsong recorded by students into a composition sung by Percifield, to celebrate and raise awareness of the wildlife existing within urban centres.
For churchgoers, COVID brought some big adjustments. Lockdowns and social distancing meant that many believers stayed at home — either sleeping in, or watching the service over Zoom. But a few pastors responded to the moment by seizing it. They built new churches in virtual reality.
Plus: how the pandemic has shaped religious practices — for the worse, but also for the better.
Weeks into the war, Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary in Kyiv, blowing out most of the windows and causing extensive damage to the buildings. Reverend Ivan Rusyn is president of the seminary. His faith in God has only gotten stronger – but he has a different perspective on pacifism than he did before the war.
Joy Clarkson reveals how she came up with the title for her latest book by embracing a teasing insult on Twitter. In "Aggressively Happy: A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life", she argues that a headstrong pursuit of happiness is not only an appropriate response to the weariness of life, it’s a necessary one.
Bunmi Laditan is a writer and poet best known for her satirical Twitter account @HonestToddler. She retraces her spiritual path from her family's background as Yoruba Christians, to Judaism and beyond, and shares humourous and heartfelt selections from her book, "Help Me God, I'm a Parent: Honest Prayers for Hectic Days and Endless Nights."
Toronto Raptors and Argos chaplain Herbie Kuhn believes he has an immense duty to the players he supports. And sometimes that means he can’t ask God to intervene, even in the diciest games.
Carine Abouseif had to reassess her relationship to exercise over the pandemic, especially as commutes and gym classes were replaced by exercise videos. Carine dives into the history of these videos, and how they've changed our relationship to our bodies.
With a double-major from Harvard in astrophysics and folklore, Moiya McTier bills herself as the 'folklorist to the stars, and astrophysicist for the folks'. Later, Chief Fred Sangris, an elder of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, reflects on traditional Dene wayfinding – navigating by way of the stars.
Abdullah Shihipar discusses the implicit balance between faith and agency in the Arabic word “inshallah” (God-willing), and why he encourages non-Muslim friends to start using the expression. He is also pretty sure that all cats are Muslim.
When difficult things happen, there’s an understandable human impulse to make it to the other side of catastrophe as quickly as you can. But biochemist and biologist Beronda Montgomery says we could stand to learn something about slowing down from trees.
John Stackhouse says he knows there are so many reasons to view his faith, Christianity, with skepticism. But Stackhouse wants to meet those misgivings head-on in the book, Can I Believe?: Christianity for the Hesitant. Later, Kate Bowler says she lived life looking for the best, but when that proved impossible, now she searches for "good enough."
Technology is designed to grab your attention — but that's not all you end up paying, according to James Williams. He worked for Google for more than a decade before becoming an Oxford scholar. He is the author of Stand Out of Our Light: Freedom and Resistance in the Attention Economy. And for the French philosopher Simone Weil, the act of paying attention was a moral imperative — so much so that some argue it cost her her life.
Strangers can change our lives every day in sometimes small ways, and in other times, ways that leave a legacy. Colleen Kinder is the editor of Letter to a Stranger: Essays to the Ones Who Haunt us, a collection of letters to those strangers who are hard to forget.
How do you keep up with the news while protecting your mental health? Cynthia Wallace has some suggestions. And funeral pianist Amy Boyes shares the surprising things she’s learned about the power of music when it’s time to say goodbye.
David Chalmers is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University. He argues that there’s nothing ‘virtual’ about virtual reality. It's all real. Later we hear from the co-screenwriter of the movie Free Guy — Matt Lieberman. He speaks to Tapestry about how you might spot the difference between the life you’re living right now and a computer simulation.
Dr. Marc Agronin on his new book "The End of Old Age," and how to preserve the memory of a loved one in such a way that the loved one can talk back, long after they're gone.
Nalini Nadkarni is a canopy biologist who has always found sanctuary in trees. Beyond her scientific studies, she’s extolled the spiritual benefits of being around our flora friends – a feeling that’s prevailed across many religions.
Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation. It suggests longing and homesickness, but that doesn't quite capture it. For Pamela Petro, it's a sense of incompleteness that can make you feel unfulfilled in the present. Though Petro was not born in Wales, she explores her connection to Wales in her memoir The Long Field.
And Tapestry producer Kent Hoffman explores his feelings of hiraeth through his own ties to Wales and his thoughts on moving on.
Chenxing Han is the author of Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists. Later, we visit a couple Toronto moms to see how they're faring two years into the pandemic with producer Arman Aghabli’s documentary Being Everything.
Productivity expert Oliver Burkeman changed the way he looked at time management and believes you should too. He is the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.
Faith Hill asks the question, if we can't stop frantic self-improvement two years into a pandemic… when can we? She is an associate editor at The Atlantic.
One of the world’s great spiritual teachers died late last month, but when Tapestry first ran this episode in 2017, Thich Nhat Hanh had just turned 91. Tapestry marked the occasion with a special episode: Coming Home to the Present: the Life and Work of Thich Nhat Hanh.
Swearing around members of a congregation? "Parish" the thought. But could profanity sometimes have a place on the pulpit?
Rev. Dr. Allan Rudy-Froese of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary believes swear words can sometimes be the most honest words. Daniel Benson, a minister in the United Church of Canada, says swear words can express moments when other words won't do it.
Two spiritual leaders discuss swearing and the role it plays in society and in the authenticity of their ministry. Plus, Olly Robertson, a researcher at Oxford who specializes in swearing, weighs in on the science of swearing.
How do you forget your favourite person in the world? Alex remembers everything about the day a speeding police car killed his brother. But his brother, alive? Those memories are lost. And now, 30 years later, Alex wants them back. In this emotional four-part series, Alex unearths his childhood grief — with help from family, friends, and a therapist who witnessed his brother’s death. What happens when trauma and memory collide? Sorry About The Kid is a deeply personal meditation on the losses that define us. Hosted by Alex McKinnon. Produced with Mira Burt-Wintonick (WireTap, Love Me). More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/sorryaboutthekid
When the first lockdown hit New York City in 2020, freelance writer Max Falkowitz was stuck by himself. He’s single and lives alone, and Falkowitz was struck by how little he touched living beings anymore. He went from hugging friends to walking cautiously alongside them.
To take up his unwanted free time, Falkowitz decided to hunt for a hobby. He started with growing house plants but it wasn’t all-consuming enough. Bonsai, the Japanese art of cultivating tiny trees, seemed to be a specific enough venture, with enough depth that Falkowitz dove in.
Falkwotiz found that tending to his miniature cedars, redwoods, and pines, helped him feel better. He tells Tapestry that the experience not only brought him closer to an understanding of life and death, but brought him community.
Until now, a lot of forays into genderless fashion have been subdued and shapeless, featuring neutral colours and boxy silhouettes. The author and activist behind the #DeGenderFashion movement says a truly gender-fluid approach to dressing could allow room for a much more expressive wardrobe.
Christmas music, whether you love it or hate it, has a power over us we can't control, and science can back it up. Musicologist Joe Bennett at the Berklee College of Music in Boston has done a brief analysis on how we can define what a contemporary Christmas song even is, and the patterns and themes that seem to hit us at the heart. What makes "White Christmas" tick? Joe has a guitar and the answer.
Olly Robertson, a research assistant in The Oxford Psychological Interventions for Children and Adolescents research group at University of Oxford, meanwhile has written about the science of Christmas cheer, and why things like mistletoe, the Christmas tree, and of course the music have such an emotional impact.
The American Religious Sounds Project tries to answer the hard question: What does religion sound like? The researchers are inviting the listener to imagine religion as something that people do in all kinds of different spaces, as opposed to something people are.
Meanwhile, across Canada, church congregations are windling and costs to maintain their buildings continue to rise. So where does that leave the approximately 27 thousand buildings across Canada? Kendra Fry helps congregations see their buildings reborn as community hubs for everyone to use — religious or not.
"These buildings are incredibly important. They are often located literally geographically at the centre of their communities," said Fry. "The reason that not-for-profits use them is because of their location, because of their price, and not surprisingly, because of their accessibility."
It could be a game-changer in making cities and towns more liveable in Canada and around the world.
There are a lot of things about religion that don’t make much sense to the non-believer, like, potentially, dietary laws. Why would a supreme being care whether or not I eat … pork? And the believer would respond: It’s more meaningful than God inspecting what’s on your plate. Aymann Ismail on bringing your spirituality into the supermarket and trying Impossible Pork for the first time.
Michele Dawson Haber and her sister Ruti grew up with a pretty great step-father. But whenever they asked questions about their biological father their mom would be evasive. Then one day Michele and Ruti found out their mom had kept a box full of letters… and their journey began.
Many of us are taught from a young age that marriage is the key to happiness. But what if this commonly held belief isn’t true? Social psychologist Bella DePaulo breaks down the stereotypes about single life.
Later, following the George Floyd protests across the world last year, television shows about police officers have become, for many viewers, a lot more complicated to watch. Media researcher Tiara Sukhan breaks down the line between reality and escapism.
Christine Bader and Eva Dienel are sharing the stories of a future of work that works for everyone with a project called The Life I Want. And, Kate Soper takes a critical look at the so-called 'the good life' that really may not be so good for our health, our planet, or our way of being in her latest book Post-Growth Living For an Alternative Hedonism.
John Shelby Spong died this past summer at the age of 90. By popular demand, here are his conservations with Tapestry from 2007 and 2009.
Science journalist Annie Murphy Paul, author of The Extended Mind, wants to dispel us of our brain fixation. Meanwhile assistant professor Julia Kam, who runs the Internal Attention Lab at the University of Calgary, emphasizes how important it is to let the mind wander.
Sasha Sagan says so many things that we don’t think about are rituals, and they can be magic. She says if we look closer, we can find it.
The space race is back! But it’s not being run by NASA or Russia. Headlining new flights into the upper atmosphere are billionaires. Concordia’s Ted McCormick says there’s danger in leaving space exploration up to the richest among us. And Canadian video game designer Craig Adams releases a project about how to think about the future in a rapidly changing world.
Have you ever felt uncomfortable asking a stranger for directions because you don’t want to bother them? Social psychologist Vanessa Bohns says we might want to think again because we have far more influence over others than we think. Peter Marra saw Disney’s The Little Mermaid in theatres many times as a child. But it was only as an adult with a PhD in film studies that he truly recognized the influence the movie had on his queer identity.
A.G. Holdier believes that Marvel films and Disney princess movies would satisfy the existential inclinations of Friedrich Nietzsche and other philosophers because they deal with what it means to be human.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...they had a lot of resilience. For Chris Knight, the chief film critic for the National Post newspaper, the life lessons found in Star Wars are now hitting pretty close to home.
Next week on Thanksgiving Sunday, Tapestry producer Kent Hoffman tells his story on The Doc Project on how he managed to find comfort in rituals again during a time of loss in the pandemic.
J.B. MacKinnon has travelled the world to try and discover what might be inconceivable to many – what if, one day, the world stops shopping? Thad Russell’s parents built an off grid home, but their plan to live a more modest life wasn’t as nearly simple as they hoped.
Father James Martin is a noted advocate for the LGBTQ community. He says there is much the Catholic church can do now to offer its support, even without changing church doctrine. Father Martin explains the difference between sadness and despair, and what The Lord of the Rings can teach us about morality.
Given the enormous costs of intoxication, why has the consumption of alcohol remained at the heart of social life? Author Edward Slingerland says it was essential to human evolution.
A documentary brings the sounds of nature into an Australian prison, a queer dancer tries to make space for other LGBTQ artists, and what it’s like when your grandfather is revered as a saint by his church.