And the Winner Is… ()

As anyone new to English will tell you, it's a difficult language to learn. And one of the reasons English is so quirky is because it's been influenced by so many other languages and dialects. Today on And the Winner Is… it's the history of English in 28 Minutes, from an award-winning episode of And Sometimes Y.

The year 1905 may not stand out as particularly important in the grand scheme of things, but a lot of monumental events happened that year. Alberta and Saskatchewan joined Canada, London's Bakerloo undergound line began and life became a little more flashy with the invent of the neon sign. This week on And the Winner Is... Lister Sinclair's history of 1905 in a nutshell.

There's a 30 kilometre area surrounding the epicentre of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. It was once home to more than a hundred thousand people. Today, it remains unhabitable. This week, And the Winner Is... features "The Zone of Absolute Exclusion," Philip Coulter's documentary look at the people who once called Chernobyl home.

Do insects sleep? How do cats purr? Why does it hurt to chew tinfoil? Find out the answers to these questions and more on And the Winner Is... This week, the feature is the 1999 Quirks and Quarks Question Show. It's always a listener favourite, and features questions that have boggled the mind for centuries.

In the 1980s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared a War on Drugs. His administration dedicated more than $2 billion to the so-called crisis, vowing to rid their country of drug dealers and users alike. This week on And the Winner Is... we feature Mary O'Connell's award-winning documentary examining the War on Drugs.

Toronto is the city the rest of Canada loves to hate. It's the largest city in the country. It's a financial hub and it is, to some, the centre of the universe. But what is Toronto really like? This week on And the Winner Is... we'll hear an award-winning portrait of the invisible Toronto - from the sounds of the city, to the stories overheard on the subway, to the tales told by the people who live there.

It's National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There are "Think Pink" ribbons, t-shirts and even frying pans, all of which are sold to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. Why then, at time when many cancers are being treated with success, are the statistics for breast cancer so depressing? An estimated 22,000 women will be diagnosed this year. This week on And the Winner Is... the Gabriel Award-winning documentary, "Breaking the Silence: The Politics of Breast Cancer."

This week on And the Winner Is... Part Two of the multi-award winning series "Rozhinkes Mit Mandlin," or "Raisins with Almonds." The winner of a prestigious Major Armstrong Award, the series is an incredible montage of music, readings and interviews reflecting the wit and wisdom of Jewish traditions. This week's episode includes clips of comedian David Steinberg, violinist Isaac Stern and author and Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel.

This week, in honour of the high holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, And the Winner Is... presents the first in an two-part series about Jewish American culture. The multi-award winning special "Rozhinkes Mit Mandlin," or "Raisins with Almonds," was first broadcast in 1980 and is a incredible montage of music, comedy and interviews reflecting Jewish traditions. The show includes Zero Mostel, pianist Artur Rubinstein and, of course, the 2000-year-old Man.

Spillville is a rather unfortunate name for a town, when you think of it. It sounds more like an accident than a place for inspiration. This week on And the Winner Is... the Prix Italia winning documentary SPILLVILLE: THEN AND NOW - about the little Iowa town that for one summer, was home to renowned Czech composer Antonin Dvorak.

There's no denying it, we live in a society afraid of growing old. We've invented Botox to take care of our wrinkles, hair colour to take care of our greys and Viagra to take care of other sagging matters. This week on And the Winner Is... we feature "Growing Oldness." It's a documentary conversation with reknowned psychologist James Hillman, talking about ageing meaningfully. Growing Oldness was a finalist at the 2001 New York Festivals.

Today on the program, we present Part Two of "The Power and the Glory: The Spirituality of Sport." Athletes often look to the sky before a big game, or kiss the cross around their neck. And then there's the guy with the "John 3:16" sign in the stands. There's a clear relationship between sport and religion, but is it a fair relationship? The Power and the Glory: The Spirituality of Sport is the winner of a Bronze Medal at the 2008 New York Festivals.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt took the world by storm at the Beijing Games. He won three Olympic gold medals. And in preparation for every race, Usain Bolt kissed the crucifix around his neck and made the sign of the cross. This week on And the Winner Is..., with new host Marcia Williams, Part One of the Bronze medal-winning special, "The Power and the Glory: The Spirituality of Sports." Some of our most transcendent experiences have to do with sports.

This week on the program, the story of Hana's Suitcase. Hana Brady was born in Nove Mesto, Czechoslovakia in 1931, long before the start of the war in September 1939. She died in Auschwitz in 1944. She was 13. Fifty-seven years later, the suitcase Hana had taken to the concentration camps reappeared.

They're called "the garbage people of Cairo," and they've built a social revolution from things most people throw out. Close to 50,000 people live off Cairo's garbage, from transporters, to sorters, to processors who sell the recycled material back to local factories. The Zebbaleen, as the garbage recyclers are known, have become famous for their recycling efficiency and entrepreneurial success. This week, Rhoda Metcalfe's Gabriel Award-winning documentary, The Garbage People of Cairo.

This week, we present the eighth and final episode of The Wire, the Peabody Award-winning series that looks at the impact of electricity on music. From multi-track recording, to the electric guitar, to the synthesizer, electricity has forever changed the way we make music and the way we listen. In this episode, a look a the future of music, including sampling, mp3s and file sharing.