IDEAS is a place for people who like to think. If you value deep conversation and unexpected reveals, this show is for you. From the roots and rise of authoritarianism to near-death experiences to the history of toilets, no topic is off-limits. Hosted by Nahlah Ayed, we’re home to immersive documentaries and fascinating interviews with some of the most consequential thinkers of our time.
With an award-winning team, our podcast has proud roots in its 60-year history with CBC Radio, exploring the IDEAS that make us who we are.
New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 3pm ET.
Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election might have been a surprise to some. But to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, it was the latest chapter in a long relationship between white American masculinity and evangelical Christianity. As the 2024 election draws near, Du Mez shares how exclusion, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism are the basis for the evangelical church.
From horror to hope, two expert speakers discuss the stakes and situation facing us now around climate action. Catherine Abreu is a global climate justice advocate, and director of the International Climate Politics Hub. John Valliant is the author of Fire Weather , a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.
In 1859, an American shot a pig that belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Suddenly the U.S. and British Empire were on the brink of war once again. Over the years, tales about the conflict have been embellished and conspiracy theories were invented. But behind the folklore is a story of peace, diplomacy, and how we make meaning out of history.
Two food security experts imagine what it would take to feed a human colony on Mars in the year 2080 if we colonized the red planet. From greenhouse technologies to nanotechnologies, they figure we could have a well-balanced diet on Mars, and argue there are lessons on how to improve our own battered food systems here on Earth. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 4, 2022.
In 2015, the poet-musician Grzegorz Kwiatkowski made a strange discovery at the site of the former Stutthof concentration camp in Poland — something he calls 'a carpet of abandoned shoes.' But these were more than shoes: they're both artifacts and symbols of the Holocaust — as well as a flashpoint of nationalist denialism and historical amnesia. *This episode originally aired on May 2, 2019.
Choose your country. It’s the first step towards finding the healthy variety of patriotic love. But what sort of ‘choice’ is it? IDEAS producer Tom Howell speaks with exiles, nationalists, dual citizens, and people whose ‘country’ doesn’t officially exist, in a quest for peace on fraught terrain: modern patriotism.
Renowned author Robert Macfarlane has described his work as being about the relationship between landscape and the human heart. As part of a series on the elements in the Anthropocene, Macfarlane talks about how that relationship with earth and water has changed. Humanity has become a transformative force, altering the very nature of the elements, with grave implications for the planet — and us.
In October 1970, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) sparked a nationwide crisis by kidnapping British diplomat James Cross and Quebec Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte, whom they later murdered. In return for Cross, the FLQ issued seven demands, one of which was to broadcast its manifesto. CBC/Radio-Canada complied. IDEAS examines the impact and legacy of the manifesto, and its relevance today. *This episode originally aired on October 13, 2020.
After the Hamas attack on October 7th, encampments popped up across university campuses, followed by intense scrutiny. Underlying the controversies was a simple question: what is a university for? That question has been around for centuries, and it’s come back in full force. Writer Randy Boyagoda makes the case for universities being a place where we can think out loud together.
Twenty-five years ago, reality TV exploded in popularity, and the media panicked. But could shows like Love Is Blind and their like actually help make us more media literate? IDEAS examines the culture, morality, and philosophy of unscripted television. *This episode originally aired on May 6, 2024.
Technology is much more than a tool. Physicist Ursula Franklin argued that it’s a system — one so powerful that it can shape our mindset, our society and our politics. Her observations were prescient when she delivered her Massey Lecture in 1989 and they are all the more relevant today. Ursula Franklin’s friend and collaborator Jane Freeman reflects on the power of Franklin’s message.
"We must mend what has been torn apart, make justice imaginable again in a world so obviously unjust," wrote Albert Camus. In a lecture delivered at Crow's Theatre, lawyer Lex Gill considers how social and cultural movements can nudge the evolution of law and explores how to keep working for justice, regardless of the odds.
In recent years, the word "woke" has evolved from a catchphrase into a political ideology — and a catch-all pejorative routinely wielded on the right against its left-leaning adherents. But in her book, Left Is Not Woke , moral philosopher Susan Neiman argues that the "woke" ideology represents a fundamental break from traditional leftist ideals. *This episode originally aired on April 12, 2023.
The future we want has already existed — we just need to recover it, says Jesse Wente. In a talk, the Anishinaabe arts leader explains how the best of this past gives everyone a blueprint for a better future. "We are evidence that cultures can withstand global systems change: adapt, and rebuild." *This episode originally aired on June 21, 2024.
Educators are wired for hope, according to professor Jessica Riddell. In her lecture delivered at the University of Prince Edward Island, she underscores the importance of slowing down in urgent times, and urges educators to to teach hope, share it, and imagine a better future.
At a time of ever-growing polarization, where people are less and less likely to cross paths with those who don’t agree with them, what does it take to deliberate? IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa explores whether there’s space for collective decision-making in an era marked by anger and disagreement.
It's been 60 years since French thinker Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space made its English-language debut. It’s a hard-to-define book — part architecture, philosophy, psychoanalysis, memoir. And it continues to feed our ongoing need for purposeful solitude and wide-open fields for our imagination. *This episode originally aired on March 7, 2022.
Eight composers, five instruments, and a world of metal. IDEAS explores a project by the University of British Columbia called The Heavy Metal Suite that conveys the challenges and opportunities of the mining industry, through music. Each composer draws inspiration from their country’s mineral resources in their original pieces. *This episode originally aired on May 28, 2024.
Experts in the field of child sex abuse prevention argue that we need to bring pedophilia out of the shadows if we ever want to end abuse. CBC producer John Chipman explores an innovative new program in Kitchener, Ontario that has sex offenders and abuse survivors working together to prevent future harm and promote healing.
IDEAS continues to explore Wilhelm von Humboldt’s public education system with guests, including acclaimed author Gabor Maté, who is a former English teacher. Is this 200-year-old system equipped to meet the challenging demands of the 21st century? And does it still reflect Humboldt’s ideals, especially at the university level? *This is part two of a two-part series.
Two hundred years ago, Wilhelm von Humboldt created the public education system as we know it today. At the heart of his philosophy of education was the concept of Bildung — reaching one's inner potential. Yet over the years, as his public education system was adopted, Bildung may well have been the critical piece left out. *This is part one of a two-part series.
Bureaucracies were created to get the work done and get it done efficiently, according to 19th-century thinker Max Weber. So why are there more and more meaningless executive jobs that contribute nothing but soak up the pay? IDEAS examines the corporate tendency to "bureaumania.”
The late Lois Wilson didn’t tell you what to believe — she just lived by example. And what an example. She was a minister, Senator, human rights advocate — and inspiration. She lived out her Christian faith in concrete terms, on the ground, in the community. Lois Wilson died on Friday at the age of 97.
A final experiment from a dying musician. A painter whose work finds its cultural moment, posthumously. An aged writer intent on ‘getting to know death.’ From David Bowie to little-known creatives, this documentary looks at the ways that an artist’s mortality gives their work new meaning.
New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin calls himself one-sixth Canadian. For 55 years, he and his family have spent their summers in Nova Scotia — what he calls: The Home Place. IDEAS producer Mary Lynk spoke to the 88-year-old author about everything from Trump to the layered Yiddish word: Meeskite.
Theoretical physicist Claudia de Rham has spent her life captivated by gravity. She has taken up flying airplanes, scuba diving and was even an astronaut candidate. Her book, The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity , explores the mysteries of gravity and how it connects us to the universe.
Brutalist architecture has been celebrated as monumental and derided as ‘concrete monstrosity.' But the people who depend on these buildings are often caught in between. IDEAS explores the implications of Brutalism’s 21st-century hipster aesthetic in a world of housing challenges, environmental crisis, and economic polarization.
Without us, horses would be nowhere, and vice-versa. It was a partnership — our brains and their braun — that truly changed the world. Historian Timothy Winegard, author of The Horse , tells Nahlah Ayed how the history of the horse is the history of humankind.
In the 5th century BCE, Herodotus travelled the ancient world gathering stories from a wide range of sources. One of his many prescient observations was how given the right circumstances a political strongman can emerge and seize control — a forewarning for us today.
If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were rewritten today, what rights would we add to strive for a more just world? In the final episode of our five-part series, IDEAS looks beyond our fractured present and tries to imagine what new rights we need for our own millennium.
