Talk about Saving the World
This is our weekly panel series; a new episode is posted every Monday on YouTube and on Facebook.
-
12. Peace Studies in Canada
Many universities teach courses about peace and conflict, and the faculty members who specialize in these matters meet annually to share their research findings. Three of our panelists, Chris Hyrnkow, Peter Venton, and Florence Stratton, had just attended the 2018 conference and the third panelist was a Saskatchewan anthropologist, Susana Barnes, who talked about her experience in East Timor doing peace work. -
72. AIDS in Africa
Ann Swidler is a Berkeley sociologist who believes that Western altruists who want to help Africa should begin by learning about the culture where they go. Otherwise they will be shocked to find their assistance failing. She tells Metta that it is useless to try to change African sex norms, for example, because the historical problem there has been a shortage of people. -
#71. Peacekeeping Ladies
Alison Lucas is a Major in the Canadian Army and Amber Comisso is a Lt. Commander in Canada's Navy. Both have served as peacekeepers abroad, but their jobs did not call upon their special quality -- their gender -- for dealing with women who would have avoided male Canadian soldiers. Still, they say peace operations are more successful when the military includes "ladies." -
#70. Nonviolence in Québec
Normand Beaudet runs a nonviolence resource centre in Montréal that strategizes with various social movements. This summer his assistant is Jamie Latvaitis, a university student who will work in local communities to organize opposition to a proposed pipeline that will ship liquid natural gas across Québec. -
#69: Peace and Nationalism
Retired peace studies professors Nigel Young and Metta Spencer discuss their profession, Young's two new books, and their shared concerns about the probable future of nationalism, the topic of Young's forthcoming book, Postnational Memory: Peace, War; Making Pasts Beyond Borders. -
#68: Sustainable Transport
Ashrith Doman explains to Metta what a fuel cell is and who might choose to use one for what purposes -- as well as the pros and cons of electric vehicles, the cost of installing hydrogen pumps in service stations, and the reason why it may not be useful to convert carbon dioxide into alcohol. -
#67: Carbon Capture
Adele Buckley and Sandra Odendahl are both engineers who are interested in the technology and business end of capturing carbon from smokestacks. (Think "clean coal.") They say it's ready to use and greatly needed now, since thousands of coal-powered plants are still be constructed and will be around for several decades, whatever else happens. -
#66. Improving Peacekeeping
David Last is a Canadian who served in Cyprus and the former Yugoslavia as a UN peacekeeper, then trained peacekeepers from several countries. He argues that a key to reducing violence in the world is to educate military professionals to address the political problems that lead to violence. As professor he's doing that now. -
#65: Hacking the Bomb
Could a hacker break into the nuclear weapons control of the US or Russia and launch a nuclear war? The answer is: Maybe. Andrew Futter, a professor in Britain addressed that question in his book, Hacking the Bomb, and discusses it with Hans-Christian Breede, a professor at Canada's Royal Military College, and Metta Spencer. who chairs Project Save the World. -
#64: Canadian Peace Work 2019
Erika Simpson and Metta discuss their common concerns as academic Canadian peace researchers — the recent meeting of the Canadian Peace Research Association, the recent prepcom for the NPT review conference (which fails, portending another failure next year) and Erika's research at NATO. -
#63: Update from Ukraine
Andre Kamenshikov is a Russian peace worker in Ukraine. He and Metta discuss the attitudes of the people they know about such issues as climate change, the conflict in the Donbas region, the trees along Russia's border with China, and why Andre envied his high school friend for living closer to the subway. -
62 Beautiful Trouble
Nadine Bloch, puppet-maker, peace educator, and author of Beautiful Trouble and SNAP (a guide to nonviolent resistance) shows Metta Spencer that a successful campaign requires two different kinds of approach – conflict resolution and the ability to acquire people power by demanding social change.