The 2009 Massey Lectures: The Wayfinders (by Wade Davis)

CBC – These lectures set out to ask “why ancient wisdom matters in the modern world.” The phrase is somewhat flawed, implying if it does that these many remarkable peoples we have encountered are somehow vestigial, archaic voices stranded in time, having at best a vague advisory role to play in contemporary life. In truth, all the cultures I have referenced in these lectures – the Tibetans and the San, the Arhuacos, Wiwas and Kogi, the Kiowa, Barasana, Makuna, Penan, Rendille, Tahltan, Gitxsan, Wet’suwet’en, Haida, Inuit, and all the peoples of Polynesia – are very much alive and fighting not only for their cultural survival but also to take part in a global dialogue that will define the future of life on earth …

Wade Davis is the bestselling author of several books, including The Serpent and the Rainbow, Light at the Edge of the World, and The Clouded Leopard. He is an award-winning anthropologist, ethnobotanist, filmmaker and photographer, and his writing and photographs have been widely published. Davis currently holds the post of National Geographic Explorer in Residence, and divides his time between Washington, D.C. and northern British Columbia.

Five Lectures (click for audio podcast):

Link to source

Sample episode (Episode 5 – “Century of the Wind”)

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  1. CBC Shop says:

    To order The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World on CD, visit http://www.cbcshop.ca
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPg27LLpEj4