Tag Archives: CBC

CBC: To Sell A War

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To Sell A War is a documentary which first aired in December 1992 as part of CBC programme The Fifth Estate. The programme was directed by Martyn Gregory and produced by Neil Docherty.

The Fifth Estate

It exposes the Citizens for a Free Kuwait campaign as public relations spin to gain public opinion support for the Gulf War. As well, it reveals that Nurse Nayirah was in fact Nijirah al-Sabah, the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States Saud Nasir Al-Sabah, coached by Hill & Knowlton to forge her infamous testimony about Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators, which was widely reported and repeated throughout the media.

The story that Iraqi troops murdered 312 babies in hospitals by removing them from their incubators broke at a time when American public opinion was wavering over President Bush’s call to arms to defend Kuwait. It tipped the balance and helped persuade the Americans and their allies to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

On-screen participants include John MacArthur (Publisher, Harpers & Queen), Nasir al Sabah (Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US), Congressman John Porter (Co-Chair, Human Rights Caucus), Dr Ibrahim Behbehani (Red Crescent, Kuwait), Dr David Chiu (World Health Organisation, British Columbia Institute of Technology), Dr Ian Pollock (Physicians for Human Rights), Sean Stiles (Amnesty International), Andrew Whiting (Middle East Watch), Dee Alsop (Wirthline Group).

CBC: How to Think About Science

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scienceVia Open Culture a radio series by CBC Ideas on science (and the history and philosophy of science):

If science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it?

Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. David Cayley talks to some of the leading lights of this new field of study.

Below are the 24 episodes, which can be played or downloaded by clicking on the play symbol or the link right after it. Hover over (info) after each episode to see more information or click (info) to go to the episode on the CBC site. The size of each episode is approximately 25 MB with a length of around 50-54 minutes.

Episode 1 – Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer (info)
CBC LogoEpisode 2 – Lorraine Daston (info)
Episode 3 – Margaret Lock (info)
Episode 4 – Ian Hacking & Andrew Pickering (info)
Episode 5 – Ulrich Beck and Bruno Latour (info)
Episode 6 – James Lovelock (info)
Episode 7 – Arthur Zajonc (info)
Episode 8 – Wendell Berry (info)
Episode 9 – Rupert Sheldrake (info)
Episode 10 – Brian Wynne (info)
Episode 11 – Sajay Samuel (info)
Episode 12 – David Abram (info)
Episode 13 – Dean Bavington (info)
Episode 14 – Evelyn Fox Keller (info)
Episode 15 – Barbara Duden & Silya Samerski (info)
Episode 16 – Steven Shapin (info)
Episode 17 – Peter Galison (info)
Episode 18 – Richard Lewontin (info)
Episode 19 – Ruth Hubbard (info)
Episode 20 – Michael Gibbons, Peter Scott, and Janet Atkinson Grosjean (info)
Episode 21 – Christopher Norris and Mary Midgley (info)
Episode 22 – Allan Young (info)
Episode 23 – Lee Smolin (info)
Episode 24 – Nicholas Maxwell (info)

Living Forever: The Longevity Revolution

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TheNatureOfThings

Living Forever: The Longevity Revolution (CBC: The Nature of Things, 52m 24s)

Immortality. Life Extension. The Fountain of Youth. Real science or simply wishful thinking? Is it hope or is it hype?

Scientists from around the world are racing to answer one of humanity’s chief questions: can we turn back the human clock? Hitch a ride on this controversial roller-coaster with charismatic gerontologist Michael Rose as he leads us to where the cutting-edge science in life extension is happening: biotechnology, genetic research, therapeutic cloning and stem-cell research – fields which have moved to the outer reaches of our wildest imagination. In Living Forever we also meet the “believers” among us: the colourful characters who refuse to succumb to the grim reaper. And let’s not forget the specialists who predict whether their clients have what it takes to live past 100.

Just to be clear, Living Forever is not a documentary about 60-year-olds who want to look like young and sexy 25-year-olds. This is a film about stopping, slowing down – even reversing – human aging. It is about the modern quest to create a longer, healthier old age, or – the Holy Grail – eliminating old age altogether.

So, what happens if humans are able to live for another 100 or 500 years? Should we create a race of immortals, just because we have the know-how? At what evolutionary cost? What about the ethical issues? Given humanity’s trajectory thus far, it’s likely that most people will say ethics be damned: let The Longevity Revolution begin.