Ideas from CBC Radio (Highlights)

His name was Eric Blair, better known as George Orwell. Who was the man who gave us 'big brother', 'thoughtcrime', 'doublethink'? Steve Wadhams delves into recordings he made with the people who knew Orwell from his earliest days to his final moments.

We have the best communications in history, except for the kind that matters -- nations and states understanding each other. Jennifer Welsh, Paul Heinbecker, Peter Boehm, Arne Kislenko and Daniel Eayrs in conversation from the Stratford Festival.

Science helps us understand ourselves and our own place in the cosmos. But how far does the math take us, and what do science and the humanities tell us when we look at the same questions from different points of view?

Lorena Fontaine is completing her PhD at the University of Manitoba and is battling to revive aboriginal languages. She argues that Canadian indigenous communities have a legal right to the survival of language.

Adrienne Lamb explores the factors altering how we have to live with wildfire. New technology and new ways to think about fire and its behaviour could save lives.

As a teen and then in her 20s, Emma Vosen loved gaming. Now as a PhD candidate, she looks to gamer culture as a microcosm of how sexism is seeded and replicated within broader society.

Trauma is not a story about the past -- it lives in the present: in both the mind and body. Left untreated, it has no expiration date, whether it's trauma arising from childhood abuse or PTSD suffered as an adult.

In his book “Homo Deus”, Yuval Harari argues that humankind is on the verge of transforming itself: advances creating networked intelligences will surpass our own in speed, capability and impact. But where will this leave us?

A look at the work of evolutionary anthropologist and University of Toronto PhD student Iulia Badescu who spent a year camped out in a Ugandan jungle to observe chimp parenting.

Nearly 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville travelled the United States trying to understand its strengths and weaknesses. Less than a month before Americans go to the polls, Paul Kennedy considers the ongoing relevance of Tocqueville's observations.

Philosophy PhD student Andrew Peterson is embedded with scientists at the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University and considers the ethical and moral questions emerging from this cutting edge research.

In a bid to instill civic pride forty years ago, Baltimore was officially named "Charm City". Today, some call Baltimore a war zone -over 300 homicides per year amid 16,000 vacant homes. Mary O'Connell takes us inside America's great racial divide.

Producer John Chipman explores why some people stick to their moral codes more stringently than others, and delves into the latest neuroimaging research to find out what it can tell us about what guides our moral decisions.

Nearly 200 years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville travelled the United States trying to understand its strengths and weaknesses. Less than a month before Americans go to the polls, Paul Kennedy considers the ongoing relevance of Tocqueville's observations.

By reconnecting with his birth mother PhD student Jesse Thistle came to understand the effects of intergenerational trauma. His award-winning research shines a light on the struggles and the resilience of Métis communities in northern Saskatchewan.