Ideas from CBC Radio (Highlights)

The Munk Debates convenes four influential Europeans to tackle the resolution: Be it resolved the European experiment has failed. Arguing for the resolution are: Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University; and Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of the German weekly Die Zeit and a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, TIME and Newsweek. Arguing against the resolution are Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who rose to public prominence as a leader of student revolts in France in the 1960s and is now a highly influential voice in Europe serving as the co-president of the Greens/Free European Alliance Group in the European Parliament; and Peter Mandelson, a Member of the House of Lords, and Chairman of Global Counsel, a strategic advisory firm.

Research seems to indicate that we're genetically inclined to optimism. But what if we're too optimistic to deal with social problems? A Calgary forum mulls the implications. Produced in association with the Calgary Institute for the Humanities at the University of Calgary

For the past 20 years we've been hearing the claims from pop psychology to neuroscience: men and women, boys and girls, have different brains. The books are plentiful: Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, The Female Brain, The Essential Difference. The idea that males and females are hard-wired to learn differently, making them better suited for specific professions, has taken hold. Yet some neuroscientists and psychologists believe this leads to unhealthy gender stereotyping. IDEAS producer Mary O'Connell explores the debate.

Bound in red-leather, a hand-written and vividly illustrated manuscript by Carl Jung documents what he called his "confrontation with the unconscious," beginning around World War I. It was, he claimed, the source of all his later thinking in psychology. But the extent of his dreams, fantasies, arguments, and encounters were revealed only when the astonishing Red Book was published in 2009. Marilyn Powell scouts its dangerous contents.

Public discussion of religion tends to polarize between two extremes: religious fundamentalism, and the aggressive atheism of such writers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But much of what people actually believe falls somewhere in between. It is subtler and more tentative. David Cayley explores the work of five thinkers whose recent books have charted new paths for religion. Part 5: Roger Lundin,(Believing Again: Doubt and Faith in a Secular Age).

Public discussion of religion tends to polarize between two extremes: religious fundamentalism, and the aggressive atheism of such writers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But much of what people actually believe falls somewhere in between. It is subtler and more tentative. David Cayley explores the work of five thinkers whose recent books have charted new paths for religion. Part 4: James Carse (The Religious Case Against Belief)

Public discussion of religion tends to polarize between two extremes: religious fundamentalism, and the aggressive atheism of such writers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But much of what people actually believe falls somewhere in between. It is subtler and more tentative. David Cayley explores the work of five thinkers whose recent books have charted new paths for religion. Part 3: William Cavanaugh (Migrations of the Holy).

Public discussion of religion tends to polarize between two extremes: religious fundamentalism, and the aggressive atheism of such writers as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. But much of what people actually believe falls somewhere in between. It is subtler and more tentative. David Cayley explores the work of five thinkers whose recent books have charted new paths for religion. Part 1: Richard Kearney,(Anatheism: Returning to God After God).

Bound in red-leather, a hand-written and vividly illustrated manuscript by Carl Jung documents what he called his "confrontation with the unconscious," beginning around World War I. It was, he claimed, the source of all his later thinking in psychology. But the extent of his dreams, fantasies, arguments, and encounters were revealed only when the astonishing Red Book was published in 2009. Marilyn Powell scouts its dangerous contents.

Vincent Van Gogh may be the most famous artist of the modern era. For historian Modris Eksteins, he is a symbol for the twentieth century and for today. Eksteins talks to Paul Kennedy about art, forgery, Nazis, truth and certainty.

Coal is dirty, toxic, abundant and cheap. Mining it disfigures the earth. Using it for fuel or electricity generation is unsustainable. Burning it emits deadly pollutants and greenhouse gases, and is the major cause of global warming. Right? Max Allen talks with environmentalists and energy scientists about why much conventional wisdom about coal in the 21st century is just plain wrong.

Coal is dirty, toxic, abundant and cheap. Mining it disfigures the earth. Using it for fuel or electricity generation is unsustainable. Burning it emits deadly pollutants and greenhouse gases, and is the major cause of global warming. Right? Max Allen talks with environmentalists and energy scientists about why much conventional wisdom about coal in the 21st century is just plain wrong.

In 1417, a Renaissance scribe and book hunter discovered an ancient manuscript in a monastery. That book was the Roman poet Lucretius' On the Nature of Things. Renowned scholar Stephen Greenblatt tells us how that discovery changed the world.

Mavis Gallant has written dozens of dazzling, sardonic, heart-breaking short stories. She is acknowledged as a master of the short-story and has been showered with honours. Yet she is not well known in her home country - Canada. Now in her 90th year, she still lives in the same small Parisian apartment she moved into almost 50 years ago. Rome-based writer and journalist Megan Williams spent almost a week with Gallant in Paris, recording material for her documentary portrait: "The Four Seasons of Mavis Gallant."

He arrived in Montreal in 1856 as a fugitive from the law. He became Canada's most successful photographer. A rare combination of canny businessman and master craftsman, William Notman embraced the wondrous new medium of photography and left us a unique record of Canada's social history. A portrait by Montreal writer Elaine Kalman Naves.