An electrifying collection of thought-provoking interviews from recent broadcasts of CBC Radio's Ideas. In these remarkable dialogues — most of them in the company of Ideas host Paul Kennedy — some of the great intellectuals of our time reflect, interject, and project on the course of human civilization, addressing topics such as social engineering and human rights, the directions of science and technology, the influence of art, music, and literature, and the quest for truth.

Compiled and edited by Bernie Lucht, this volume explores the ideas of nineteen inspiring international and Canadian thinkers, including Louise Arbour, David Schindler, Jerome Kagan, John Gray, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Leonore Tieffer, Nat Hentoff, Theodore Dalrymple, Mark Lilla, and many others.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) was a Canadian-born American economist, public servant, and writer. Born in Iona Station, Ontario, he earned a B.Sc. degree (1931) from the Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph and M.Sc (1933) and a Ph.D. degree (1934) from the University of California, Berkeley, and later studied in England at Cambridge University. He became a U.S. citizen in 1937 and would serve in Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations. He was also Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University, where he taught for many years, a U.S. ambassador to India (1963-63), and the author of many books of economics, including American Capitalism, The Great Crash, 1929, The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State, and Economics and the Public Purpose, as well as hundreds of essays, a memoir, and a number of novels. He was awarded numerous honorary degrees, twice received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1946 and 2000, and was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1997.

Bernie Lucht's profile page

"Listeners to the show can appreciate how difficult it must have been to narrow the candidates for inclusion in this book to only 18. Assuredly, those who were chosen are worthy indeed."

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"The ideas and opinions the program’s guests present motivate people to care about what’s happening around the world."

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