The Sunday Magazine

The Sunday Edition -- June 3, 2018

Listen to the full episode.
(The Associated Press, Peter Fleming, Errol Young)

On this week's episode:

Michael's essay: What the world lost when Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated
"It is hard in these callous and polarizing times to convey Bobby Kennedy's national popularity. He was literally mobbed everywhere he appeared; his cufflinks were torn off, his shoes taken for souvenirs."

Exploring the root causes of inequality
For all too many people facing uncertain futures in Western societies, the economy is failing. But for the extremely wealthy, it's working just fine. Business professor Peter Fleming says the public sphere has been plundered and the billionaire class left further engorged with wealth. He's the author of The Death of Homo Economicus: Work, Debt and the Myth of Endless Accumulation.

I spent hundreds of hours preparing for moot court. When I got there, I was told to smile more.
Amanda Byrd faced many challenges as a law student, but she'll never forget what the judges told her after a moot court trial. Her essay is called "Smile, Girl, You're In Court."

Inside the inky world of fountain pen lovers
Fountain pens are not a refuge for the enemies of progress. They are alive and well in the digital age; in fact, the market for fountain pens was a billion dollars in 2016. Aparita Bhandari explores the passion for pens in her documentary, "Down The Rabbit Hole."

Integrating deaf Canadians in the workplace is easier than employers realize, says advocate
The unemployment rate for deaf Canadians is 40%, because most employers have trouble imagining how a deaf person would function on the job. Jim Roots, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of the Deaf, says modern technology has removed barriers to workplace communication. He talks to Michael through American Sign Language translator, Roxanne Whiting.

How Ireland creates writers, and writers created Ireland
From Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde to Edna O'Brien and John Banville, the Irish are a literary people. Poets like William Butler Yeats inspired the romantic visions behind the 1916 Easter Rising. Declan Kiberd is Ireland's most renowned cultural and literary critic; his latest book is called After Ireland: Writing the Nation from Beckett to the Present.

50 years ago, the women of Canada's 'Abortion Caravan' stormed Parliament for reproductive rights
Last week's historic vote to overturn Ireland's ban on abortion grabbed attention around the world. And it reminded us of a gem in our documentary vault. In 1970, a group of Canadian women set out on a cross-country trek to Ottawa in what became known as the Abortion Caravan. Karin Wells's 2010 documentary is called "The Women are Coming."

Your reaction to: Yair Rosenberg on the killings in Gaza, and the "5-second rule".

Music this week by: Claude Bolling, the Ensemble Amati, the Andrew Collins Trio, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong, Yo-Yo Ma, Suzie Vinnick, and Thompson Egbo Egbo.