The Sunday Edition for April 21, 2019
Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.
Notre-Dame de Paris is France's "symphony in stone" — Michael's essay: "Much of the history of France has played out within its great walls and the plaza in front. Its two stone towers, miraculously saved, are as recognizable as the Eiffel Tower or the paintings of Picasso."
Brexiteers are hell-bent on a no-deal Brexit. Remainers want a new referendum. It's a tragedy wrapped inside a farce: Great Britain won the most consequential war in human history, but can't seem to extricate itself from the European Union. Fintan O'Toole is the literary and drama critic for the Irish Times; his most recent book is Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain.
Alexandra Oliver finds poetry in old films, the loneliness of new parenthood and the aftermath of disaster: Canadian poet Alexandra Oliver uses old forms to explore contemporary concerns like the consequences of technology, living in the suburbs, and leaving places behind. Her recent books include Meeting the Tormentors in Safeway, and Let the Empire Down.
What we think is being recycled is not being recycled at all: Most of us dutifully set out our blue boxes in the belief that some of the waste we generate will be put to good use. The truth is that most of it piles up in landfills, is incinerated, or ends up in a floating mound of plastic in the ocean. Dianne Saxe is an environmental lawyer whose recent job as Ontario's environmental commissioner was just eliminated.
Your reaction to: our interview with Anna MacQuarrie, the parent of three children who disrupt their elementary school classrooms.
Why tiny Iceland is a global giant in the field of music: You would be hard-pressed to find a country that produces more world-class musicians and composers than Iceland. Kjartan Olafsson, professor of composition and theory at the Iceland Academy of the Arts, taught many of the current generation of music prodigies. He's our guide to who they are, and how they are making their mark.
Music this week by: J.S. Bach, Tafelmusik, Notre-Dame de Paris organist Olivier Latry, Collegium Vocale Gent, John Eliot Gardiner, Trinity Boys Choir, Oscar Peterson, Bjork, Sigur Ros, Antonio Vivaldi, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Johann Johannsson and Vikingur Olafsson.