Picking the brains of University of British Columbia law professor and member of the Canadian-Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission, Emma Cunliffe. Listen as she works through fundamental questions about the role, oversight and education of police in a democratic society and what this could mean for Alberta. 

Her talk is the 2026 Merv Leitch QC Memorial Lecture at the U of A’s Faculty of Law.

Picking the brain of U of A Law professor Anna Lund about the right to housing not making it from policy to actual people. Plus, Faculty of Nursing assistant professor, Kemi Amodu, on improving  health care among displaced people, racialized women and refugee communities.

Picking the brain of Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute Director, Serhii Plokhy, about the current war between Ukraine and Russia and what previous conflicts can tell us about it.

Recorded at U of A's The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies 

Picking the brains of the Punjabi Sikh writer and organizer, Harsha Walia on the history and forces behind borders and why these lines need to be abolished.

Recorded at the Parkland Conference 2025

Picking the brains of five researchers, Stephanie Olsen, Breanne Aylward, Haemin Park, Marsha Hinds Myrie and Andria Jones on how climate change is shaping mental health. Plus, political theorist David Temin on how the dispossession of Indigenous People through national parks led to land mismanagement, and how to now address this with anti-colonial climate justice.

Lecture recordings made possible thanks to participation by the U of A Sustainability Council and Department of Political Science

Picking the brain of Ermineskin Cree Nation member and the Director of Indigenous Governance in the U of A Faculty of Native Studies, Matthew Wildcat on the real threat of Alberta separatists’ ambitions on Indigenous Peoples. Plus, Grant Notley Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta’s Department of History, Classics, and Religion, Letitia Johnson on how Japanese Canadians were racially restricted in the 1940s and yet continued to contribute to health care across the nation.

The recording of Matthew Wildcat's talk was completed at the 2025 Parkland Conference. 

Picking the brains of the feminist researcher Tracey Nicholls on policing of women from witch hunts to online misogyny. Plus, University of Southern California Adjunct Assistant Professor of Architecture, Peter Ekman on lasting lessons from a highly contentious American-designed Venezuelan town.

Peter Ekman's book Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America’s Postwar Urbanism is available via Cornell University Press

Hosted and produced by Sarah Hoyles
Theme music Quirky Jerk by Jason Shaw

Picking the brains of Canada's first and last Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, on the prejudice, discrimination and hatred Muslims continue to face in Canada and how to address it, plus Alberta Gambling Research Institute senior research fellow, Fiona Nicoll, on the shifting ways Canadians play, regulate and talk about gambling.

Hosted and produced by Sarah Hoyles with editing by Ryan Hendren
Theme music Quirky Jerk by Jason Shaw

Picking the brains of Simon Fraser University Associate Professor of History, Tina Adcock on how exploration of “the North” exposes colonialism and Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University, Dr. Muhannad Ayyash imagines what comes next for protestors after encampments were quashed. 

Hosted and produced by Sarah Hoyles
Theme music Quirky Jerk by Jason Shaw

Picking the brains of SOS Alberta's Heather Ganshorn on parental rights, Education prof Carla Peck on battle over Alberta schools plus Mathematics & Statistical Sciences researchers, Marie Betsy Varughese and Michael Li, on how to predict the flu like the weather.

Hosted and produced by Sarah Hoyles
Theme music Quirky Jerk by Jason Shaw