''The Nature of Things'' (also, ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'') is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed be ...

of documentary programs. It debuted on CBC Television on 6 November 1960. Many of the programs document nature and the effect that humans have on it, although the program's overall scope includes documentaries on any aspect of

science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

. The program "was one of the first mainstream programs to present scientific evidence on a number of environmental issues, including nuclear power and genetic engineering". The series is named after an epic poem by Roman philosopher

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

: "De rerum natura"—'' On the Nature of Things''.

History

The first host was

Donald Ivey Donald G. Ivey (6 February 1922 - 25 June 2018) was the principal of the University of Toronto's New College from 1963 to 1974. Career After receiving his PhD in 1949, he joined the University of Toronto’s Department of Physics as Assistant P ...

, with Patterson Hume co-hosting many episodes. Following Ivey's departure, the second season continued with several guest hosts, including

Lister Sinclair Lister Sheddon Sinclair, OC (January 9, 1921 – October 16, 2006) was a Canadian broadcaster, playwright and polymath. Early life Sinclair was born in Bombay, India, to Scottish parents. His father, William Sheddon Sinclair, was a chemical eng ...

, Donald Crowdis, and John Livingston. Since 1979, it has been hosted and narrated by David Suzuki. Suzuki has announced his retirement from the series at the end of the 2022 season; the CBC has announced that he will be succeeded by co-hosts Sarika Cullis-Suzuki and Anthony Morgan. The series has won many awards and Suzuki has won three Gemini Awards and one

ACTRA Award The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television and radio industries.

as best host. Documentarian William Whitehead has also been a frequent writer for the series. In 1979 the show was merged with David Suzuki's ''

Science Magazine ''Science'', also widely referred to as ''Science Magazine'', is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, ...

'' series and expanded to an hour. Suzuki reluctantly left the radio show '' Quirks and Quarks''. He enjoyed radio as a medium because it was less restricted compared to television, but saw benefits in switching to television. He stated that television had a greater impact as it reached more people, and this was important because he wanted to make science accessible to the general public. The goal of ''The Nature of Things with David Suzuki'' was to translate the confusing and complex scientific language into concepts that the general public could understand. This would give people the information that they need in order to make informed decisions about how science and technology should be managed. There is one new episode every week which all contribute to a scientific understanding of how the world works. They are created not only for entertainment, but also to encourage and popularize education. An episode in January 2018 was widely criticized by scientists and Native Americans for its uncritical presentation of the

Solutrean hypothesis The Solutrean hypothesis on the peopling of the Americas claims that the earliest human migration to the Americas took place from Europe, with Solutreans traveling along pack ice in the Atlantic Ocean. This hypothesis contrasts with the mainstre ...

Notable episodes

* '' Wild Africa'', 1970 – a film shown in two parts which won the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Best DocumentaryMaria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To ...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . pp. 89–91. * "''

Reefer Madness ''Reefer Madness'' (originally made as ''Tell Your Children'' and sometimes titled ''The Burning Question'', ''Dope Addict'', ''Doped Youth'', and ''Love Madness'') is a 1936 American propaganda film about drugs, revolving around the melodramat ...

'' 2", 15 October 1998 – on the effects of

medical marijuana Medical cannabis, or medical marijuana (MMJ), is cannabis and cannabinoids that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has not been rigorously tested due to production and governmental restrictions ...

and people dealing with its legalization * "The Investigation of Swissair 111", 2 September 2003 * '' Darwin's Brave New World'', 1 November 2009 – a three-part miniseries on the life of

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

as he wrote ''

The Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life''),The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by Me ...

'' * "The Downside of High", 2010 – on marijuana's negative effects towards mental illness * "Untangling Alzheimer's", 17 July 2014 – a medical investigation from a very personal perspective * '' Wild Canada'', 2014 – a four-part miniseries focusing on high-definition video footage of Canadian nature and wildlife

Episodes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nature of Things, The 1960 Canadian television series debuts CBC Television original programming Canadian Screen Award-winning television shows Nature educational television series 1960s Canadian documentary television series 1970s Canadian documentary television series 1980s Canadian documentary television series 1990s Canadian documentary television series 2000s Canadian documentary television series 2010s Canadian documentary television series 2020s Canadian documentary television series English-language television shows Science education television series