The Massey Lectures are revered in Canada as being a focal point for sharing some of the most forward thinking insights into socioeconomic issues. The speaker for the 2005 Massey Lectures was Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Throughout these lectures, Lewis discusses AIDS, women, children, and education in Africa; and challenges the traditional mindset that has gone into policy making. These are not simple libertarian claims, but well founded thoughts into the realities of modern Africa. No matter what your background, if you have any interest in the global world, you owe it to yourself to listen to last year’s lecture.
Fortunately, for this month of November, the CBC is giving free access to those lectures in the form of MP3 downloads. Otherwise, they are only accessible through direct purchase here. You may download the lectures from here:
2005 Massey Lectures – Part 1 (51MB)
2005 Massey Lectures – Part 2 (47MB)
2005 Massey Lectures – Part 3 (24MB)
2005 Massey Lectures – Part 4 (24MB)
2005 Massey Lectures – Part 5 (23MB)
At the very least, listen to the first lecture. I could nearly guarantee that you will feel compelled to listen further.