The Sunday Edition for March 1, 2020
Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright:
Michael's essay on mind-boggling wealth: "Wealth begets wealth. The looming question now: Who will be the world's first trillionaire? A trillion dollars is a lot of money. It's just about equal to the GDP of South Korea and Mexico. Right now, of the five richest men in the world, four are American. Chances are good the first trillionaire will be an American — perhaps Mark Zuckerberg who is just 35. The other day, my son and I were tossing around thoughts and ideas about millions and billions. Suddenly he asked, 'Is it immoral to have that much money?' I didn't have an answer."
Reconciling the good and evil embodied in Jean Vanier (and the rest of us): The revelations that the beloved humanitarian, Jean Vanier, engaged in "manipulative sexual relationships" with six women between 1970 and 2005 came as a shock — and a betrayal — to his legions of admirers. Michael Higgins — one of North America's leading thinkers on Catholic theology and papal politics and the author of a biography of Vanier — and Colleen Dulle — a writer at the Jesuit magazine, America — join Michael Enright to discuss the struggle to reconcile the good works of Vanier with his apparent capacity for evil.
A daycare in the forest: It's been said that children growing up in urban environments today don't get nearly enough Vitamin N — that would be nature. La Garderie Nature is doing something about that. It's a daycare centre in the Saguenay region of Quebec where the kids spend their days roaming a forest while their parents are at work. And if they ask for an apple, they'll get a red fruit, not a handheld device. David Gutnick's documentary is called "At the Beginning, the Forest was a Stranger."
The surprising, untold stories of the victims of Jack the Ripper: Our culture has a rather grisly fascination with serial killers. They become the subject of fiction and true crime dramas — some even become a ghoulish kind of cult hero. But there's considerably less interest in the stories of their victims. Hallie Rubenhold flips the script in her award-winning new book — The Five — a gripping piece of social history that focuses on the complex lives of the five women murdered by the most notorious serial killer of all, Jack the Ripper.
Music for discerning adults — or Jazz for people who hate jazz: Not everyone shares Michael's passion for jazz, and that's okay. But University of Toronto linguistics professor, jazz expert and Miles Davis biographer Jack Chambers believes passionately that just about anyone could grow to love jazz if they listen with fresh ears and perhaps a little tutelage. Jack joins Michael for the first installment of "Jazz for People Who Hate Jazz" with a focus on some masterpieces that reveal the magic and breadth of jazz from Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Oscar Peterson and others.
Mail: Standardized patients, housing solutions for the homeless
Music this week by: Philip Glass, Angele Dubeau, Mozart, Benny Goodman, The Boswell Sisters, John Estacio, Benny Carter, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Jane Bunnett, Miles Davis, Sydney Bechet and Oscar Peterson.