The Blue Hour

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Curtis Collins, Executive Director of the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, British Columbia. Few museum directors have experienced Canada’s artistic and cultural life as broadly as Curtis Collins. Over more than three decades, he has led galleries, museums and arts institutions across six provinces and one territory—from Fredericton to Dawson City, from Regina to Whistler—while also teaching at universities across the country and helping shape major exhibitions, publications and public programs devoted to Canadian art. Curtis has led the Audain Art Museum since 2018 and now serves as its Executive Director. During a remarkable period of growth, he has overseen exhibitions including Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob, Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast, The Coast Mountains: Recent Works by Edward Burtynsky and Karin Bubaš: Garden of Shadows. He is also the co-author, with 7IDANsuu James Hart, of the recent publication 7IDANsuu James Hart: A Monumental Practice, the first publication devoted to Hart’s extraordinary career. In our conversation, we speak about these artists, exhibitions and his recent publication, as well as the Museum’s Tuesday Night Talks and his research for The Tlingit: Four Centuries of Art, a major exhibition planned for 2028. We also reflect on Curtis’s journey through museums across Canada and the many ways museums bring artists, ideas and audiences together.

In this conversation, I speak with Sonia Del Re, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Canada. Sonia Del Re holds a Master’s degree in Museology and a PhD in Art History. She first interned at the National Gallery of Canada in 2004–05 and officially joined its curatorial team in 2006. Today, she oversees a remarkable collection of more than 27,000 works of art on paper, created around the world between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. Her curatorial work spans Dutch landscapes, the Carracci, Chagall, Pre-Raphaelite drawings, Picasso’s Vollard Suite, Venetian portraiture, early European monsters, and, most recently, Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault. In our conversation, we speak about drawings, prints, the life of the vault, curatorial research, and what works on paper can reveal about artists, history, and the intimate life of images.

Professor Philip Stamp is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics, known as PITP, which he returned to Canada to establish in 2002. Mostly raised in New Zealand and educated in the United Kingdom, Professor Stamp began his academic life in philosophy and literature before turning to theoretical physics. He has since worked as a physicist in France, Spain, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Japan, Canada, and the United States. His research explores many aspects of quantum mechanics, including macroscopic quantum phenomena, quantum tunnelling, quantum gravity, and quantum cosmology. In this episode, we speak about his recent work with collaborators on superfluid helium and quantum vacuum tunnelling. The research uses an ultra-thin film of superfluid helium to examine the Schwinger effect, a famous prediction in quantum electrodynamics in which, under extreme conditions, the quantum vacuum may produce particle–antiparticle pairs. In Professor Stamp’s work, this idea is approached through vortex and anti-vortex pairs emerging in a quantum liquid. Our conversation turns to the meaning of the quantum vacuum, the difficulty of observing the Schwinger effect directly, the relationship between theory and experiment in physics, and finally, the strange beauty of a universe that is, in Professor Stamp’s words, both magical and real.

The Blue Hour: Sackbuts, Soundscapes, Bells, and Reformation Germany My interview with Professor Alex Fisher is now available as a podcast. In this conversation, I speak with Professor Fisher about bells, early music, soundscapes, weather, ritual, and the religious worlds of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany. Alex Fisher is Professor in the UBC School of Music, where he coordinates Early Music. He is both a distinguished musicologist and a performing musician. Trained as a trombonist, he later specialized in the Renaissance sackbut and has performed with leading early music ensembles. He is also a co-founder of Cappella Borealis. As a scholar, Professor Fisher studies the musical, religious, and cultural worlds of early modern Germany, with particular interests in soundscapes, ritual, and the relationship between music and religious identity during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. His work has appeared in leading journals, including the Journal of Musicology, Early Music History, and the Sixteenth Century Journal. His books include Music and Religious Identity in Counter-Reformation Augsburg and Music, Piety, and Propaganda: The Soundscapes of Counter-Reformation Bavaria. We focus especially on two of his more recent publications: his chapter “Bells” in Information: A Historical Companion, published by Princeton University Press in 2021, and his article “Hearing the Trumpets of the Church Militant: Weather Bells and Supernatural Audition in Post-Reformation Germany,” published in the Sixteenth Century Journal in 2022. Together, they invite us to think about bells not simply as musical instruments, but as technologies of communication, symbols of civic and religious life, and, for many centuries, voices believed to reach both human and supernatural listeners.

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Paul Bartha, Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, about precautionary reasoning and analogical reasoning. Dr. Bartha works in Logic, Decision Theory and Philosophy of Science, and is one of the leading philosophers of analogical reasoning. He is the author of *By Parallel Reasoning: The Construction and Evaluation of Analogical Arguments*, published by Oxford University Press, as well as the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry “Analogy and Analogical Reasoning.” Together, these works examine how analogies help us draw conclusions in science, philosophy, and everyday life. More recently, his work has turned to precautionary reasoning, especially decisions involving environmental risk. In his presentation “Modeling Precautionary Decisions,” he examines how we should reason when the possible outcomes may be catastrophic, the probabilities uncertain, and the usual tools of decision-making inadequate.

In this conversation, I speak with Dr. Claudio Vellutini, Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of British Columbia School of Music, about opera in Vienna and the cultural exchanges that shaped one of Europe’s most influential musical centres. Drawing on his recent chapter in *Vienna: A Musical History* and his book *Entangled Histories: Opera and Cultural Exchange between Vienna and the Italian States after Napoleon*, Claudio traces the development of opera in Vienna from the seventeenth century to the present day. We discuss the arrival of Italian opera at the Habsburg court, the role of theatres and institutions in shaping Vienna’s musical identity, and why opera has remained such a powerful cultural force for more than four centuries.

This was one of those conversations that unfolded naturally — not as a formal interview, but as a beautiful and generous talk about a life lived with curiosity, discipline, and a commitment to practice. Dr. Tom DeMarco is a family physician in Whistler, but our conversation moved far beyond medicine. We spoke about rural health, the intimacy of family practice, decades of work in Canadian communities, and the strange privilege of knowing people across the span of their lives — people who, with time, become almost like family. We also spoke about cycling, travel, birds, language, aging, and the philosophy that can emerge from attending to patients, landscapes, the body, and time. What stayed was the wisdom Dr. Demarco offered without ever sounding like he was trying to be wise. This is a conversation about medicine, but also about how to live: how to remain curious, how to keep moving, how to listen carefully, and how a life can become meaningful through ordinary acts of care. Partial transcript available on https://thehourisblue.com/blog/

In this episode of The Blue Hour, Farha Guerrero introduces Gyaahlaang G̱udee, an episode from X̱aad Kast, the podcast of Dr. Jasḵwaan Bedard, featuring her own reflections, research, and teaching on X̱aad Kíl, the Old Massett / Northern Haida language. Dr. Bedard is a Haida language educator and advocate from G̱aw Tlagée, Massett, Haida Gwaii. She is an Assistant Professor in the Indigenous Languages Program in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University. Her work focuses on Indigenous language revitalization, X̱aad Kíl, immersion, pedagogy, translation, and language learning guided by Haida community, laws, and values. The episode is titled Gyaahlaang G̱udee, with Dr. J. The title means “Radio” in X̱aad Kíl. This episode is drawn mostly from Chapters 3 and 4 of Dr. Bedard’s 2025 dissertation, A Haida Research Framework for Learning X̱aad Kíl.

Ève Poudrier is an Associate Professor in the School of Music at the University of British Columbia. In this episode, we discuss francophone folk songs, oral traditions, and the preservation of French-language musical heritage.

Jaymie Matthews is an astrophysicist and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. His work focuses on stellar seismology — the study of star vibrations — and he is closely associated with MOST, the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars telescope, Canada’s first space telescope. In this conversation, we discuss how astronomers study the hidden interiors of stars, what tiny changes in starlight can reveal, and how space telescopes such as MOST helped open new ways of observing the universe. We also explore exoplanets, stellar pulsations, the relationship between light and sound in astronomy, and the way small missions can make a large scientific impact. The conversation also touches on Jaymie’s long career at UBC, his work as a public communicator of astronomy, his recognition as an Officer of the Order of Canada, and the larger question of how science, imagination, and wonder meet when we look at the night sky. Recorded live on CiTR 101.9 FM.

Michelle Kunimoto is an astrophysicist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. Her research focuses on exoplanets — planets beyond our solar system — using data from missions such as NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. In this conversation, we discuss exoplanet demographics, occurrence rates, the transit method, planetary evolution, false positives, hot Jupiters, super-Earths, rogue planets, and the enormous datasets transforming modern astronomy. We also explore how astronomers infer hidden worlds through tiny changes in starlight, why our own solar system may be unusual, and how future missions such as the Roman Space Telescope and Habitable Worlds Observatory may reshape our understanding of potentially habitable planets. The conversation also touches on Michelle’s path from UBC to MIT and back again, the role of Star Trek and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in inspiring scientific curiosity, and the philosophical implications of working in one of the youngest and fastest-evolving fields in astronomy. Recorded live on CiTR 101.9 FM.

A conversation about music theory, popular music, and the history of music notation as an object of aesthetic and visual significance.

Why are certain people and places vulnerable? Who is responsible for remedying the situation? And what is fair? Why is historical research important? Tina Loo is a professor in the department of history at the University of British Columbia. She is a leading scholar of Canadian and environmental history. Her work has focused on the nature and impacts of the state’s actions to manage human and non-human environments in the interests of development. She is also recognized for her outstanding and innovative teaching techniques and commitment to mentoring.In her latest, book, Moved by the State, Forced Relocation and Making a Good Life in Canada she explores the contradiction between intention and consequence as resettlement played out among Inuit in the central Arctic, fishing families in Newfoundland’s outports, farmers and loggers in Quebec’s Gaspé region, Black residents of Halifax’s Africville, and Chinese Canadians in Vancouver’s East Side. In the process, she reveals the optimistic belief underpinning postwar relocations: the power of the interventionist state to do good.For information about her research, visit: https://history.ubc.ca/profile/tina-loo/Audio played:"Why basic research matters" with Natalie Davis"Manitoba's Sayisi Dene: Forced relocation, racism, survival from CBC archives (1978)""Northeast Falsecreek plan""Why do you love history?" produced by the UBC History Department"The People Tree" Interview clip with Tina Loo

Why are the health of our oceans important for our survival? Why does it matter to find creative ways of protecting them? Rashid Sumaila is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Ocean and Fisheries Economics at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia. His research focuses on bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, marine protected areas, illegal fishing, climate change, marine plastic pollution, and oil spills. You can can learn more about his work through The Institute of Oceans and Fisheries on the website https://oceans.ubc.caAudio Played:"Collapse of Newfoundland cod fisheries" End of the Line Documentary"How can we help less developed economies" Wassily Leontief, 1973 Nobel Prize Winner (Economics) and Creator of the input-output technique"How More Efficient fishing can protect the ocean" produced by National Geographic

How do geochemists study the chemical composition of earth? How do geochemists better our understanding of the earth's interior, natural resources, climate change, human impacts on the environments, and hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes? Dominique Weis is a professor in the UBC Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of British Columbia. She is a renowned leader in the application of trace elements and radiogenic isotopes analysis. Her analytical insight has enabled new discoveries into Earth systems such as mantle plumes and hotspot volcanoes. Through the analysis of a wide range of materials such as honey, salmon, or belongings, her expertise allows the opening of new lines of research into health, local pollution/food security, and archeology/Indigenous-led studies. She is a Canada Research Chair in the Geochemistry of the Earth’s mantleFor more information on Dominique Weis's research, visit: https://www.eoas.ubc.ca/people/dominiqueweisand the Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research at: https://pcigr.eos.ubc.caAudio Played:"An Isotopic Talk and Tour: The Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research" produced by PCIGR"Clair Patterson The Clean Room: Inside Look | Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" Produced by National Geographic

What strategies are used to improve physical activity following a stroke? How is stroke research put into practise? What kinds of stroke recovery programs see the best outcomes?Janice Eng is a professor in the UBC Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She is a world leader in stroke recovery research, from basic neurobiology to novel clinical interventions and treatment programs, and has implemented these programs globally. Professor Eng is the Canada Research Chair in Neurological Rehabilitation, has been recognized for excellence in mentoring early career faculty, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.For more information about Janice Eng's research visit: https://neurorehab.med.ubc.ca/our-people/dr-eng/Audio played:"Stroke Recovery Through Exercise featuring UBC Vitality study participant Marco Chorbajian" produced by UBC"Hero in You" Interview with Rick Hansen, produced by the BC Hall of Fame"Excerpt from Awakening the Mind: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" produced by the World Science Festival

What strategies are used to improve physical activity following a stroke? How is stroke research put into practise? What kinds of stroke recovery programs see the best outcomes?Janice Eng is a professor in the UBC Department of Physical Therapy at the University of British Columbia. She is a world leader in stroke recovery research, from basic neurobiology to novel clinical interventions and treatment programs, and has implemented these programs globally. Professor Eng is the Canada Research Chair in Neurological Rehabilitation, has been recognized for excellence in mentoring early career faculty, and is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.For more information about Janice Eng's research visit: https://neurorehab.med.ubc.ca/our-people/dr-eng/Audio played:"Stroke Recovery Through Exercise featuring UBC Vitality study participant Marco Chorbajian" produced by UBC"Hero in You" Interview with Rick Hansen, produced by the BC Hall of Fame"Excerpt from Awakening the Mind: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" produced by the World Science Festival

Who was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky? Why did he have such an important influence in world literature? How is his work still revered and interpreted today? Why is Russian literature of the 19th century still on many best-seller lists?Katherine Bowers is an expert in Russian literature and culture. Her research interests include genre, narrative, and imagined geography. Her first monograph, Writing Fear: Russian Realism and the Gothic (University of Toronto Press, forthcoming), examines the way Russian realist writers used narrative models from European gothic fiction in their work. Dr Bowers is the Vice-President of the North American Dostoevsky Society and serves as a Member-at-Large on the Executive Board of the Canadian Association of Slavists.Dr Bowers’s monograph about the influence of gothic writing on Russian realism is in press. Her new book project is about science fiction, Arctic space, and alternative temporalities.Dr Bowers is actively involved in Dostoevsky studies. She edits the blog of the North American Dostoevsky Society, The Bloggers Karamazov. In 2021 a new volume she co-edited with Kate Holland will be published: Dostoevsky at 200: The Novel in Modernity. Additionally Drs Holland and Bowers have received a SSHRC Insight Grant (2019-25) Digital Dostoevsky, a digital humanities research project investigating Dostoevsky’s corpus.Websites: https://cenes.ubc.ca/profile/katherine-bowers/http://blogs.ubc.ca/cp150/Audio Played: “Crime and Punishment at 150? – interview with Katherine Bowers on University of British Columbia Faculty of Arts Spotlight page, 19 Oct 2016""Irvin Weil, a professor emeritus from a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Slavic Languages""Anne Hruska, lecture at University of Berkeley""Reading from Crime and Punishment, by George Guidall, Audiobook Classics on Youtube""Joseph Frank, American literary scholar and leading expert on Dostoevsky from Stanford University archives"

What is Perimenopause? What are later life ovulation disturbances? How can women better understand their menstrual cycles during all phases of their life?Jerilynn C. Prior is a Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of British Columbia, working on women’s health. She studies menstrual cycles, the effects of ovulation and its later life disturbances. She is the Scientific Director and Founder of the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research. The Centre publishes scientific results and disseminates information directly to women.She has studied women’s menstrual cycles, perimenopause, menopause and the causes for and treatment of osteoporosis. She has shown that regular cycles (with enough estrogen) commonly do not produce sufficient progesterone (anovulation or short luteal phases). She is widely sought as a speaker for professional and lay audiences and is the author of the award-winning book Estrogen’s Storm Season: Stories of Perimenopause, a fiction book designed to inform and empower perimenopausal women.More information can be found on the Centre for Menstrual Cycle and Ovulation Research can be found at: www.cemcor.caAudio played:"The Puzzle of Perimenopause, Keeping a Daily Diary" produced in 1995 in partnership with UBC Biomedical Communications and CEMCOR."Ursula Franklin" produced by Historica Canada’s Heritage Minutes"The ABCs of Osteoporosis Prevention for Premenopausal Women", produced by CEMCOR

Shari L. Forbes is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Forensic Thanatology at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR). She is the Director of the first human taphonomy facility in Canada for Recherche en Sciences Thanatologiques [Expérimentales et Sociales], also referred to as REST[ES]. She is an advocate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI) and has a deep commitment to the implementation of EDI values in academia. She has encouraged young adults to become engaged in science through her roles as an Ambassador for the Sydney Science Festival, the National Youth Science Forum, and Science Rendezvous.Prof. Forbes’ research investigates the chemical processes that occur in soft tissue decomposition. Her research aims to increase the knowledge base relating to decomposition chemistry to identify an accurate biochemical signature for estimating time since death. She has studied these processes in terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric environments throughout Australia, Canada and the USA. Her current research focuses on identifying an accurate chemical profile of decomposition odour using advanced chemical instrumentation. Her research assists police canine units to enhance their training protocols for cadaver-detection dogs deployed to forensic and mass disaster investigations. Her expertise is regularly requested to assist police with locating and recovering buried or concealed evidence, including human remains, drugs, explosives, weapons, and currency. [biography taken from Shariforbes.com]Audio played:"What happens to your body after you die" by Science Insider"The Story of Ada Lovelace" produced by the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET)"Visiting the Brewarrina First Traps" produced by Now-ness.

Born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the turbulent apartheid years, Dr. Bonny Norton learnt at an early age the complex relationship between language, power, and identity. Now a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Distinguished University Scholar in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at UBC,her passion for social justice and the role of language education in social change has fuelled her extensive body of research in North America and Africa. Her research is centrally concerned with the promotion of multilingual literacy for children, youth, and adults, and is informed by her seminal work on identity and language learning, described in her 2010 AERA award as “changing the face of second language research”. Her work has introduced novel conceptions of identity to the field of language education, and has been the subject of journal special issues in the USA (1997, 2003, 2017), Japan (2002), China (2007), and Europe (2016). Her publications have been translated into French, Chinese, Portuguese, and German. Dr. Norton’s construct of investment has had a profound impact on international scholarship, and is the topic of a special issue of the leading journal, Langage et Société (2016). Her theory, based on extensive research, holds that while a language learner may be highly motivated (a psychological construct), the learner may not be invested (a sociological construct) in the language practices of a given classroom or community, which may, for example, be racist, sexist, or homophobic. A highly productive scholar, her publications include 5 books, 4 journal special issues, and 125 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Her current research addresses multilingual literacy for children in African and Canadian communities, and is included in the 2014 special issue she guest edited for the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development on “Multilingual literacy and social change in African communities” and her 2017 co-edited special issue of the Modern Language Journal on “Transdisciplinarity and language teacher identity”. https://www.storybookscanada.ca/Audio played:“Bridging Classroom and Community: Languages and Cultures in Action” offered in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Western University in London, Ontario, CanadaUNESCO celebrates International Literacy Day every September 8th. In 2019 its focus was on ‘Literacy and multilingualism’ Embracing linguistic diversity in education and literacy development is central to addressing these literacy challenges and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.Professor Zubeida Desai, Dean of Education, University of the Western Cape, interview from HIGHER EDUCATION TODAY -- Language and Education produced by the University of the District of Columbia and the University of Cape Town"Multilingual approaches to teaching and learning," at Purnululu Independent Aboriginal Community School in Australia, teaching literacy across all levels of the school, produced by AITSL.

Dolph Schluter is an evolutionary biologist who studies adaptive radiation — the evolution of ecological diversity in groups of organisms that are multiplying rapidly. Dolph’s research suggests that ecologically induced adaptation can result in the evolution of new species. He has worked on Darwin’s finches and helped to develop the three-spined stickleback as an experimental model for studies of adaptive radiation.Dolph and his team investigate the ecological forces that drive the rapid origin of new species and allow them to persist, the genetic basis of species differences, and the wider ecological impacts of adaptive radiation.His studies of sticklebacks and other species have allowed Dolph to build a model of a process that he terms ecological speciation, in which adaptation to different environments generates new species. He is the author of The Ecology of Adaptive Radiation (2000) and The Analysis of Biological Data (second edition, 2015). [ Biography taken from The Royal Society]. For more information about his research lab in the UBC department of Zoology, visit: https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~schluter/

Leslie Anthony is a Whistler-based writer, editor, biologist and occasional filmmaker. A former editor at Powder, Bike and SKIER magazines, he continues his residence on the masthead of numerous ski and outdoor publications globally. At home, Anthony oversees award-winning Mountain Life Annual, pens a weekly column in Pique Newsmagazine, and writes broadly on travel, adventure, science and the environment in magazines like Canadian Geographic. Author of two previously acclaimed titles, Snakebit and White Planet, his latest book is The Aliens Among Us: How invasive species are transforming the planet—and ourselves.

How does literature nourish science? When does physics become poetry? An event of cosmic proportions from 5x15, as masterful storyteller Carlo Rovelli discusses life & the universe. Readings from The Order of Time & Seven Brief Lessons of Physics.

On Herculaneum

On fisheries and economics

On medieval history