McGill’s Building 21: Thinking beyond the acknowledged, the recognized and the comfortable.

Every story need a listener. Going from personal trauma healing to building a more peaceful and just society.

In March, we had the pleasure of a talk from Michael Lapsley, founder of the Institute for Healing of Memories in South Africa. Here we present the introduction of his talk; for the whole event, including questions from students, please visit our Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxtHb7K3bPw

In part 1 of this series, we discussed what it means for a human to grow up. But we're not the only organisms who develop and grow older. And some of the others have much more extreme changes in their lives than even the most awkward of adolescences.

Dr. Morgan Jackson and Viola H. Ruzzier discuss insect development, memory, and what growing up means for this very different group of beings.

"All children, except one, grow up."

Thus begins the book Peter Pan, the story of the only boy who never grows up. But for the rest of us, what does that term mean, exactly? At what point have you grown sufficiently "up" to be considered an adult? What does the process entail? Is it a good thing or a bad thing (or both)?

Thank you to Souren Vahdatfarimani and Paul Yachnin for their insightful thoughts on the subject.

In many ways, our lives are entirely dependent on others, both human and non-human. We constantly interact with coworkers, friends, partners, family, and complete strangers. But how exactly do all these different relationships affect us?

Listen to what B21 community members Shuting Wang, Arkana Fuentes-Pilafidis, Nakiya Noorbhai, and Viola H. Ruzzier think about the importance of others in the first B21 podcast episode of the year.

The idea of a soul, of the intangible something that makes up a person, has existed for millennia. But souls aren't confined to people -- we talk about soulful food, soulful music, soulful art, and we can describe both people and inanimate things as soulless.

But are we referring to the same concept every time we say the word "soul"? Is one person's definition different from everyone else's? How do religion and spirituality play into this? Can souls outlive people?

Join operatic tenor and McGill professor John MacMaster, archaeology student Katrina Kosyk, and B21 program assistant Viola H. Ruzzier for a fascinating discussion on the soul.

La question du sublime se pose depuis des milliers d'années. Nous le cherchons dans les paysages, les arts, les mathématiques. Nous le trouvons entre la beauté et la peur, le connu et l'inconnu.

Mais qu'est-ce que le sublime, exactement? Quand peut-on le ressentir? Peut-on en faire l'expérience ou simplement l'entrevoir? Réside-t-il à l'intérieur ou à l'extérieur de nous?

Rejoignez une discussion sublime et animée avec Ève-Marie Marceau, Antoine Poulin, Sarah Ambroise, et Viola H. Ruzzier, pendant laquelle nous essayerons de décortiquer ce sentiment vertigineux.

Welcome to Part 1 of our new miniseries, Matterless Matters! In this series we'll be discussing matters that maybe don't matter too much, but are fun and surprisingly deep anyway.

This first episode will ask the following crucial questions: Are mermaids fish or mammals? Why do zombies need to eat, given that they're already dead?

You can find the written version at https://building21.ca/matterless-matters.

Narrated by Dr. Maria Morrison, German professor at McGill University.

How do we define language? What is the difference between language and other types of communication? Is music a language? How does language shape our way of thinking? Join us for this follow-up to one of our latest I'm Not Sure discussions.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word "alien"? Is it something threatening? Something unknown? Something different? Join us along with Prof. Samuele Collu and Vincent Laliberté to dive into this surprisingly ancient question.