Ann Douglas will be moderating a panel on risk and resilience in youth at the Toronto Spur Festival. Spur is "a national festival of politics, art, and ideas" designed to spark important conversations between Canadians. "Feisty, multi-partisan, forward-looking, and solution-driven, this national railway of ideas will provide Canada with vital new cultural infrastructure for the 21st century," the organizers note.

About the panel: Bubble Kids. In our efforts to protect and raise our children in an increasingly complex world, technology allows parents to be connected 24/7 and young people always tethered. Children and adolescents have few, if any, chances to experience the world on their own terms and in their own ways. So what happens when they find themselves having to reconcile their daily experience without parental input? In keeping them so safe have we severed their ability to cope independently? Join Dr. Jean Clinton, an associate clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioural neurosciences at McMaster University; Sean Twyford, Project Director, Youth Strategies Branch, for the Ministry of Child and Youth Services; and John Schmitt, vice president of camping and outdoor education at the YMCA GTA, as they discuss anxiety, risk and child development in an age where kids grow up swathed in bubble wrap. Author and parenting columnist Ann Douglas moderates. Early-bird tickets now available.