The Blue Hour: Winter Conversations 2026–27
A winter of radio conversations moving from neuroplasticity and the changing human brain to wildfire, forest resilience and our changing climate; creativity, culture and the evolution of cognition; space exploration and our changing understanding of the universe; particle physics, the Higgs boson and the fundamental nature of matter; zoology, animal minds and the possibilities of life; kidney disease, transplantation and the intersections of medicine and evolution; and HIV/AIDS, medicine and public health.
Hosted by Farha Guerrero, The Blue Hour is a conversational ideas show on CiTR 101.9 FM at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Tuesdays at 2 p.m. PT
Listen live on CiTR 101.9 FM, and afterwards on CiTR, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Recent interviews, podcasts, and transcripts can be found on The Hour Is Blue.
Tuesday, December 1
Dr. Lara Boyd
Professor and Distinguished University Scholar, Department of Physical Therapy, UBC
Neuroplasticity, motor learning, recovery after stroke, and how learning, behaviour and experience shape the human brain.
Tuesday, December 8
Dr. Lori Daniels
Professor, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, UBC, and Co-Director, Centre for Wildfire Coexistence
Wildfire, forest ecology and resilience, the changing nature of fire in British Columbia, and new approaches to living with wildfire through forest management, restoration and community adaptation.
Tuesday, December 15
Dr. Liane Gabora
Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia Okanagan
Creativity, the origins and evolution of human cognition and culture, and her new book, Dawn of the Creative Mind: The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Innovation (Cambridge University Press, November 2026).
Date to be confirmed
Paolo Ferri
Physicist and former Head of Mission Operations, European Space Agency (ESA)
Space exploration, robotic missions and the science and engineering behind them; the challenges, uncertainty and human side of mission operations; and his recent book, Ai confini dell’universo: Dalle sfere celesti all’esplorazione spaziale (Laterza, 2025), tracing the changing boundaries of our understanding of the cosmos from ancient astronomy to modern space exploration.
Date to be confirmed
Prof. Guido Tonelli
Professor Emeritus of Physics, University of Pisa, physicist at CERN, and former spokesperson of the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider
Particle physics, the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it changed in our understanding of the universe; matter, the quantum vacuum and the fundamental structure of reality; and his recent book, L’eleganza del vuoto: Di cosa è fatto l’universo (Feltrinelli, 2025).
Date to be confirmed
Dr. Maurizio Casiraghi
Full Professor of Zoology, Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences, University of Milano-Bicocca
Zoology, evolution, biodiversity, symbiosis and the relationships between animals and microorganisms; the loss of biodiversity and the prospect of a sixth mass extinction; and recent work including Uniti per la vita: Storie di simbiosi e cooperazione, co-authored with Telmo Pievani (il Mulino, 2025), and the third edition of Zoologia (UTET Università, 2026).
Date to be confirmed
Dr. Giorgio Vallortigara
Full Professor of Neuroscience, University of Trento, and Principal Investigator, Animal Brain and Cognition Group, Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC)
Animal cognition, innate knowledge and the evolution of mind; brain asymmetry and what comparative studies of animals can tell us about cognition and consciousness; and his recent book, The Twofold Brain: Exploring Fundamental Questions about Brain Lateralization, co-authored with Lesley J. Rogers (Routledge, 2026).
Date to be confirmed
Prof. Giuseppe Remuzzi
Director and Scientific Director, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri IRCCS, and Professor of Nephrology, University of Milan
Kidney disease, nephrology and organ transplantation; the changing possibilities of medicine; evolution, chance, cooperation and human health; and his recent collaboration with Telmo Pievani, Se non c’eri, non c’ero (Solferino, 2026).
Tuesday, January 19
Scheduled to be prerecorded in Milan on January 8.
Dr. Telmo Pievani
Distinguished Professor, Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Milan, and Chair of Philosophy of Biological Sciences
Evolution, contingency and the possibilities of life; the intersections of evolutionary science, philosophy and literature; his new book, Multiplicity: A Scientist’s Journey into Evolutionary Space (MIT Press, October 2026); and Sei storie di buona ignoranza (Raffaello Cortina, November 2026), on uncertainty, the value of not knowing and the open questions that continue to drive scientific inquiry.
Tuesday, January 26
Dr. Julio Montaner
UBC-Killam Professor, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, and Executive Director and Physician-in-Chief, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS, combination antiretroviral therapy, Treatment as Prevention, the changing course of the epidemic, and the relationship between research, medicine and public health.
Additional winter conversations will be added as they are confirmed.
Looking ahead on The Blue Hour
See the Fall Conversations 2026.
Recent interviews, podcasts, and transcripts are available on The Hour Is Blue.
Learn more about The Blue Hour on CiTR 101.9 FM.