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Big Ideas offers lectures on a variety of thought-provoking topics which range across politics, culture, economics, art history, science.... By nature of its lecture format, pacing and inquisitive app... more
FAQs about Big Ideas (Audio):How many episodes does Big Ideas (Audio) have?The podcast currently has 306 episodes available.
March 30, 2012Daniel Kahneman on The Machinery of the MindDaniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow, on The Machinery of the Mind. Kahneman is Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University and the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics....more48minPlay
March 28, 2012Darin Barney on Citizenship in the Technological RepublicMcGill University professor, Darin Barney, delivers the 2007 Hart House Lecture entitled One Nation Under Google. His lecture looks at many important issues, including how we are used by technology and how technology challenges citizenship. Barney is the Canada Research Chair in Technology & Citizenship....more52minPlay
March 23, 2012George Dyson on the Origins of the Digital UniverseScience historian and author (Darwin Among the Machines) George Dyson on the Origins of the Digital Universe. The talk focuses on the work done at The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton New Jersey by such renowned scientists as John von Neumann and Kurt Godel....more53minPlay
March 21, 2012Alberto Manguel on The Screen of HalAlberto Manguel delivers the final lecture in the 2007 Massey Lecture series, entitled The Screen of Hal....more53minPlay
March 16, 2012John Duffy on the emerging politics of technologyJohn Duffy, advisor to former Prime Minister Paul Martin and founder of StrategyCorp, tackles the subject of The Emerging Politics of Technology in a lecture produced in collaboration with the Literary Review of Canada. Duffy has spent years pondering the role of technology in our thinking about policy and politics. And he believes that the politics of technology is at the forefront of Canada's public policy debates. But is technology beyond political and democratic control? And if not, how can we ensure that the cost and benefit of new technological developments do not deepen the already growing inequalities in our society?...more1h 2minPlay
March 02, 2012Graham Farmelo on Paul Dirac and Mathematical BeautyAdjunct Professor of Physics at Northeastern University in Boston, Graham Farmelo, on Paul Dirac and the Religion of Mathematical Beauty. Apart from Einstein, Paul Dirac was probably the greatest theoretical physicist of the 20th century. Dirac, co-inventor of quantum mechanics, is now best known for conceiving of anti-matter and also for his deeply eccentric behavior. For him, the most important attribute of a fundamental theory was its mathematical beauty, an idea that he said was "almost a religion" to him....more55minPlay
February 22, 2012Charles Taylor on Religion and ViolenceProfessor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University, Charles Taylor, on Religion and Violence....more50minPlay
February 17, 2012Steven Pinker on Thinking About Our SocietySteven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature, delivers a lecture entitled Thinking About Our Society: Why Violence Has Declined. Pinker (Psychology - Harvard University) explores the essence of human nature and what lies behind the statistically unmistakable reduction in violence over the past few centuries....more41minPlay
February 10, 2012Charles Taylor and Jonathan Sacks on The Future of ReligionProfessor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University, Charles Taylor and Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, Jonathan Sacks discuss The Future of Religion in a Secular Age. The New Atheists, the state of marriage, the dangers of religion in the political sphere and the difference between religious thinking and magical thinking are all discussed....more55minPlay
February 10, 2012Ray Jayawardhana on Alien PlanetsAuthor and astronomer Ray Jayawardhana discusses Alien Planets and his latest book Strange New Worlds. The lecture focuses on techniques for detecting planets orbiting distant stars....more47minPlay
FAQs about Big Ideas (Audio):How many episodes does Big Ideas (Audio) have?The podcast currently has 306 episodes available.