Author Ian Williams delivers the 2024 CBC Massey Lectures

Canadian author Ian Williams delivers the final Massey lecture at Koerner Hall in Toronto on Oct. 29, 2024. (CBC)

Ian Williams is done with small talk. He wants to have a national conversation about conversations. 

"It seems incredibly urgent these days, with increasing polarization and online forms of talking," the award-winning novelist and poet said in an interview with Q host Tom Power.

In his five-part lecture series, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation In Our Time, Williams explores how our age has left many of us in what he calls a "drought of loving voices."

In searching for discussions that feel transcendent, not transactional, Williams argues that in great conversations, the content is less important than the interaction: the sincerity and openness of the engagement. 

Williams spoke across Canada this past fall for this year's edition of the CBC Massey Lectures. They're a partnership between CBC, House of Anansi Press and Massey College in the University of Toronto.

Governments must rein in online gambling before it's too late, say public health experts

A new report calls for immediate and co-ordinated action to address the harmful effects of gambling. (Wpadington/Shutterstock)

As the gambling industry continues to grow globally with the rise of online gambling, a recent report from the medical journal The Lancet's commission on gambling is calling on governments to approach gambling as a public health issue. 

According to the report, gambling is linked to a variety of harmful intergenerational effects that extend beyond the individual, and can cause financial ruin, impact relationships, and increase the risks of suicide and domestic violence. 

Statistics Canada estimates that in 2018, nearly two-thirds of Canadians gambled in the past year. The data estimates that about 300,000 Canadians were at moderate-to-severe risk of developing a gambling problem, where gambling starts to negatively affect a person's life.

Since online gambling was legalized in Canada in 2021, there has been a rise in sports betting ads on various media platforms and in sports stadiums, with one investigation by CBC revealing that gambling messages filled up to 21 per cent of each broadcast on average.  

This company wants to cool the planet one balloon at a time. Some scientists aren't buying it

Andrew Song, left, and Kiran Kling, right, prepare one of their balloons for launch. (John Chipman/CBC)

Luke Iseman has a plan to cool the planet, inspired by a science fiction novel, using balloons full of heat-reflecting sulfur dioxide launched into the Earth's stratosphere.

"To me, the question is whether doing nothing is better than doing something, given the reality we're confronted with," said Iseman.

Iseman and Andrew Song are co-founders of a company called Make Sunsets, a solar geoengineering startup that operates out of northern California. Its customers pay to have the company launch balloons full of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere, where it then releases the gas.

But Iseman and Song's idea has drummed up backlash and controversy. Although Make Sunsets says it isn't releasing a large amount of SO2, scientists worry about the possible long-term effects of releasing sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. Some say more research is needed, while others believe geoengineering shouldn't even be an option. 

Tetris Forever makes the case that video game history is best told in playable form

Tetris Forever is a hybrid game and documentary that includes several playable versions of the best-selling puzzle game throughout its 40-year history. (Digital Eclipse)

The story of Tetris, one of the most popular video games of all time, has been told by many over the years including in books, documentaries and a recent semi-biographical movie. But to Chris Kohler, the best way to truly tell its story is to let people play it.

That's the philosophy behind Tetris Forever, a documentary that blends archival footage and original interviews with the people responsible for the game — including creator Alexey Pajitnov — and playable versions of the game that have been released over the last 40 years.

"You know when Willy Wonka beams the chocolate bar through the TV and it's like, 'Just reach out and grab it?' That's what we want to do," said Kohler, editorial director at the video game company Digital Eclipse.

Kohler says documentaries like this are becoming increasingly important as some of the people responsible for gaming's earliest milestones age out. Plus, it's a way for new gamers to discover the stories behind classic games they may have never heard of.