FALL LECTURE: Live to See the Day - Mark Medley. September 29, 2026

Why do people pursue impossible goals?

An imaginative study of human nature, Live to See the Day is a globe-trotting exploration of what drives certain people to pursue a dream beyond all logic, reason, or reward.

In Live to See the Day, journalist Mark Medley sets out to find people who straddle the line between determination and delusion, who have devoted their lives to dreams they know have little chance of coming true, or that will only come to pass in decades—if not centuries—from now. Over the course of five years, and through interviews with more than 250 people, he immersed himself in a question we all reckon with personally in our lives: how to push forward when the world is telling you to give up. Travelling to the jungles of Indonesia to encounter a photographer who has devoted his life to pursuing a mystery ape; to the forests of Norway, where a time-bending artist is amassing books that will only be read a hundred years from now; to the deserts of the American Southwest, where he shadows a grizzled treasure hunter who has spent his life searching for a legendary lost fortune, Medley asks: What keeps these people going? Why start a race they know they’ll never finish?

Paddling across a quiet volcanic lake in Sumatra, under the eye-blue sky on a scorching day in the Superstition Mountains, and at the launch of a historic space mission on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, Medley finds people with almost bottomless reserves of patience and perseverance. Captivating, funny, and full of curiosity and heart, Live to See the Day is ultimately an examination of hope and what it means to live a rewarding life.

Mark Medley - Biography

Mark Medley is Deputy Editor of the Globe's Opinion section. He previously served as the Globe’s Books Editor, and prior to joining the paper in 2014, he spent more than seven years at the National Post, where he served as an arts reporter and Books Editor. A graduate of Queen’s and Ryerson University, his work has appeared in publications including Toronto Life, The Walrus and across the Postmedia chain of newspapers, and he frequently serves as a host and interviewer at literary festivals across the country.

Live to See the Day, Mark’s first book, was published in 2026 by McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House and was an instant national bestseller. He lives with his family in Toronto.