Why we need to have a conversation about conversations — with writer and poet Ian Williams (CBC Massey Lecture 1)

Ever felt that no one is really listening? At a time when we're more connected than ever, why does it seem like we can barely talk to each other? Civic and civil discourse have deteriorated, and the air is raw with anger and misunderstanding on all sides.

Award-winning Canadian author and poet Ian Williams is reviving the lost art of conversation in his CBC Massey Lecture series What I mean to say — remaking conversation in our time.

These lectures were recorded live across Canada in November 2024. The first lecture Why we need to have a conversation about conversations took place in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Speakers

Ian WilliamsPoet and author, Reproduction (Scotiabank Giller Award winner), Disorientation. Being Black in the World, Word problems (Raymond Souster Award 2021), and moreProfessor of English and director of the Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto

Steve SutherlandCBC local radio host, Sydney, Nova Scotia

Wendy BergfeldtCBC local radio host, Sydney, Nova Scotia

Further information:

Since 1961, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has produced the Massey Lectures featuring leading Canadian thinkers asking questions that make us better human beings. The lectures are a partnership between CBC, House of Anansi Press, and Massey College in the University of Toronto.