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The Sunday Magazine

Digging a hole just for fun; Barbara Taylor's "madness years"; Mozart's sister; Equality for Muslim women in C

What the 22-year-old architect of the hole in the ground on the York U campus can teach us all - Michael's essay Historian and academic Barbara Taylor's memoir, The Last Asylum, chronicles her two-decade descent into madness, and her slow crawl back to health. Maria Anna Mozart, like her famous brother, was a brilliant musician, but her career was strangled by convention and gender discrimination. A Karin Wells documentary. Rupa Banerjee of Ryerson University explains the results of a landmark study on gender equality and employment among religious minorities in Canada. Historian Carolyn Harris tells Michael how the Magna Carta came into existence, and why it still matters to this day.
CBC Radio ·
Sunday Edition1:27:54Digging a hole just for fun; Barbara Taylor's "madness years"; Mozart's sister; Equality for Muslim women in Canada; Happy Birthday Magna Carta!

The Sunday Edition for International Women's Day, March 8, 2015, with host Michael Enright

What the 22-year-old architect of the hole in the ground on the York U campus can teach us all - Michael's essay: (00:00:26) Rather than creating a terrorist staging area, Elton McDonald says he dug that hole because he just wanted somewhere to hang out. Michael reflects on the sad fact that we have lost the idea of a "caper" -- of doing something just for the fun of it.

Barbara Taylor's "madness years": (00:04:47) Historian and academic Barbara Taylor has written a memoir of her two-decade descent into madness and her slow crawl back to health. She spent years in intensive psychoanalysis and did time as an "inmate" in one of the last Victorian mental asylums in England. Now, she is a fierce critic of the way in which psychiatric patients have been "de-institutionalized" and a firm believer in the need for some kind of asylum -- a place for shelter and healing. Her book is called The Last Asylum. 

Documentary - The Other Mozart: (00:33:10) Karin Wells brings us a the story of a one-woman play based on the life of Maria Anna Mozart. Known as  "Nannerl", she, like her famous brother, was a brilliant musician; but her talent and career were strangled by convention and gender discrimination.

Shattering stereotypes about Muslim women in Canada: (00:44:28) Researchers have concluded a landmark study on gender equality and employment among religious minorities in Canada. The results sharply dispute a common stereotype. Michael talks to one of the study's co-authors, Rupa Banerjee, associate professor in business management at Ryerson University.

Mail on the "tunnel": (01:00:46) Listeners respond to Michael's essay on a mysterious "tunnel" discovered at the York U campus and on living in an age when fear has become a political commodity. 

Happy Birthday, Magna Carta: (01:04:36) 2015 marks the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta on the fields of Runnymede by King John of England. To mark the occasion, a series of commemorative lectures, tours, books and debates are underway both here and in England. Historian Carolyn Harris tells Michael how the Magna Carta came into existence and why it still matters to this day. She is the author of the upcoming book Magna Carta and Its Gifts to Canada: Democracy, Law, and Human Rights.

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