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, and author of Race Against Time 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.

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.

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

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