Big Ideas

The initial vision of the internet was that it would empower individuals and expose the wrongdoings of state and corporate interests. But the same technologies that had been used for public uprisings against oppressive governments are now being used by those governments against political demonstrators, 

whistle-blowers and dissidents.

Due to copyright reasons there is no podcast or stream for these lectures on the Big Ideas website. Please head to the CBC Massey Lecture website.

For years, headlines about social media have been dominated by its adverse effects on society: From the virulent spread of misinformation, to the way your 

data is tracked and mined. You would think that if users were so unhappy, they would just quit. But social media are engineered to be ‘addiction 

machines’.

Due to copyright reasons there is no podcast or stream for these lectures on the Big Ideas website. Please head to the CBC Massey Lecture website.

The economic model of social media is organized around personal data surveillance. And that has consequences. These systems that claim to capture our reality are actually shaping our reality and our understanding of the world. Ron Deibert presents the second CBC Massey lecture with a focus on surveillance capitalism. Social media are not only used to sell products, but also to push ideologies.

Due to copyright reasons there is no podcast or stream for these lectures on the Big Ideas website. Please head to the CBC Massey Lecture website.

There are dire consequences to living in an always-on, hyper-connected digital society. Digital technologies have created a new machine-based civilization that is increasingly linked to a growing number of social and political maladies. Accountability is weak and insecurity is endemic. Ron Deibert exposes the disturbing impact of the internet and social media on politics, the economy, the environment and humanity.

Due to copyright reasons there is no podcast or stream for these lectures on the Big Ideas website. Please head to the CBC Massey Lecture website.

Ageing gets a bad wrap in our youth obsessed society but Ashton Applewhite says we're saddled with outdated ideas. Our attitudes to growing older come from a time when lifespans were so much shorter. She promotes positive ageing and campaigns against age discrimination.

The partition of India, after the British left, in 1947, triggered a huge and violent mass migration. More than a million people died. The trauma and legacy of this event lives on today.

Should we use pills and brain stimulation to solve social and moral challenges in the 21st century?

Are we losing our ability to write well and is it because we don’t follow the rules? Professor Steven Pinker says loosen up, rules are made to be broken. But he takes aim at writing which confuses rather than informs . Why is it so difficult to read the writing of lawyers, academics and bureaucrats? The techniques of classic style are a good start for improving the quality of writing.

When you look in the mirror you might see your mothers eyes or your father’s chin. But have you inherited more than these physical characteristics? Beyond a genetic predisposition to illness , can you inherit a tendency to be religious or obese? Are the life experiences of previous generations shaping the way you behave now?

Four hundred years after his death, Shakespeare’s plays are still being performed in every part of the world and his characters and plots are re-worked in movies and television. Shakespearean actor and theatre director John Bell describes his life-long dedication to the Bard.