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“I have spent the last four years watching people die.”

This is how Stephen Lewis, one of our greatest Canadians and the former UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, begins his Massey lectures.  The Massey lectures are broadcast on CBC radio, and are published in a book as well.  Stephen Lewis was the speaker in 2005… if you listen to his lectures, or purchase the book, you will know why people (including myself) are so impassioned about the AIDS pandemic and the resulting millions of orphans left without families, schooling, possibilities.  (14 million little ones orphaned due to AIDS in Subsaharan Africa alone.) I DARE you to listen to these lectures and not care.

Here is where you can download the Massey lectures.  Stephen Lewis is not only very informative; he is an astounding speaker.  Jrock and three friends of our friends and I went to hear him speak a month ago, and he is pretty amazing. 

You can also see him doing an interview with George Stroumboulopoulos here.  It’s a great clip.  Another great clip is from the CBC production of “Stephen Lewis: The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep.”  Watch it here.

I will warn you, there are a few acronyms in the first Massey lecture… but if you get through the first one, all the rest are easy to listen to. You will be a changed person if you listen to all four.  The videos are, of course, easy to understand.

More information about the Stephen Lewis Foundation here.