Big Ideas (Audio)

University of Toronto history professor Elspeth Brown with her contribution to 9/11: Ten Reflections after the Passage of Ten Years: An Opportunity to Contemplate and Remember. It was recorded on September 13, 2011. The event was produced by the Munk School of Global Affairs in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of the United States.

University of Toronto graduate student, Louis Century, with his contribution to 9/11: Ten Reflections after the Passage of Ten Years: An Opportunity to Contemplate and Remember. It was recorded on September 13, 2011. The event was produced by the Munk School of Global Affairs in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of the United States.

How Did Taxes Become a Bad Word? The Former Clerk of the Privy Council, Alex Himelfarb, discusses why we should be investing more, not less, in our future. While today's political leaders exalt the benefits of increased tax-cutting, Himelfarb argues that further tax cuts will come with serious consequences, including cuts to services and deeper inequality. According to Himelfarb, what we need is nothing less than a re-think about what our future is worth. His lecture was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada.

Leonard Susskind of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics discusses the indestructability of information and the nature of black holes in a lecture entitled The World As Hologram.

Academic, author and political activist, Noam Chomsky, on the State-Corporate Complex: A Threat to Freedom and Survival. Chomsky's lecture was delivered at the Hart House Great Hall at the University of Toronto on April 7, 2011.

Thomas Homer-Dixon presents his lecture Civilization Far From Equilibrium: Energy, Complexity and Human Survival at the Equinox Summit - Energy 2030.

Philosopher and author, John Gray, on The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death. In the late nineteenth century and as a consequence of Darwinism, many thinkers turned to science to solve the riddle of death. Gray explores humankind's dangerous striving toward a scientific version of immortality.

Freeman Dyson, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University delivers a lecture entitled, Living Through Four Revolutions. Dyson discusses Space Technology, Nuclear Energy, the Genome and the Computer Revolution.

Tariq Ramadan, the well-known, Swiss-born and controversial Muslim philosopher, offers a critique of the discriminatory nature of popular attitudes towards Muslims living in Europe and North America. His lecture was delivered at the Palais des Congres de Montreal on September 8, 2011.

What makes our cultural institutions thrive, what new challenges do they face, and how can we best support them? Arts administrator, Jeff Melanson, explores The Evolving Role of the Arts in Canada. His lecture was produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada and was recorded at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto on May 24, 2011