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 5pm ET.
<p>Animals — what on earth are they thinking? A panel of scientists explore the notion of animal cognition from what your dog means when it wags its tail, to the incredible problem-solving skills of crows, as part of the Aspen Ideas Festival. <em>*This episode originally aired on November 5, 2021.</em></p>
<p>Ahead of the U.S. presidential election, there are growing fears that American democracy is headed toward a crisis point. In this 2022 episode, <em>IDEAS</em> contributor Melissa Gismondi unpacks the idea that America as we've known it may be ending, while exploring where the country may be headed, and what — if anything — can save it.</p>
<p>Canadian conservatism remains a contested territory, even for those who see themselves firmly entrenched in its ideas and history. <em>IDEAS&nbsp;</em>examines how contemporary conservatism has shifted over the last decades —&nbsp;and how conservatives are wrestling with their own movement's internal pressures, including a sustained call for a return to socially conservative values.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Award-winning writer Pankaj Mishra argues that self-serving narratives of Western countries have masked agendas of imperialism and exploitation, resulting in widespread suspicion of liberal democracy itself. He is the winner of the 2024 Weston International Award, which he received in September. After delivering a talk, Mishra joined <em>IDEAS </em>host Nahlah Ayed onstage to have a conversation.</p>
<p>An ideology that emerged with catastrophic consequences 100 years ago, has become a rising political force globally. With the possible re-election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, some observers believe that if he were to win again, a fascist would be inhabiting the most powerful political post in the world. IDEAS examines the ideology of fascism — and why it poses such a danger now.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The crisis in journalism has been blamed for the social and political polarization visible the world over. But newer forms of journalism may point a way out of the quagmire that the media itself has dug everyone into. <em>IDEAS </em>contributor Anik See explores how we got here and where we may be heading in a two-part series.</p>
<p>The crisis in journalism has been blamed for the social and political polarization visible the world over. But newer forms of journalism may point a way out of the quagmire that the media itself has dug everyone into.<em> IDEAS </em>contributor Anik See explores how we got here and where we may be heading in a two-part series.</p>
<p>The dominant story in archaeology has long been that humans came to North America around 12,000 years ago. But Indigenous archaeologist Paulette Steeves points to mounting evidence suggesting it was more like 130,000 years ago. <em>*This episode originally aired on Jan. 13, 2022.</em></p>
<p>Our relationship with wetlands is nothing if not troubled; swamps, bogs, and marshes have long been cast as wastelands, paved over to make way for agriculture and human development. But with wetlands proving crucial for life, artists, ecologists and activists say we need to rewrite this squelchy story. <em>*This episode originally aired on Oct. 17, 2022.</em></p>
<p>They've remained a minority among humans since the dawn of our species, coping with systems and tools arranged for right-handers, and sometimes thriving as a result of their difference. <em>IDEAS</em> explores the history — and latest mysteries — of the 'sinister 10 per cent' to find out what makes a left-hander special.<em> *This episode originally aired on May 2, 2022.</em></p>
<p>American arts pioneer Joan Jonas is a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s. This year, New York's Museum of Modern Art organized a major retrospective of her work, which will be on tour in Canada. One of her exhibits is inspired in part by her love for Cape Breton — a 'magical landscape' where she lives in the summer.</p>
<p>Our complicated feelings about life and death are captured in art that uses human remains, says anthropologist Myriam Nafte. Her PhD research looked at how contemporary Western artists incorporate human body parts. This 2014 episode was the first to kick off our decade-long series<em> Ideas from the Trenches</em>, featuring groundbreaking work by PhD students across Canada. Nafte is now an associate adjunct professor at McMaster University.&nbsp;</p>
<p>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 <em>Fire Weather</em>, a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.</p>
<p>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.<em> *This episode originally aired on Oct. 4, 2022.</em></p>
<p>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.<em> *This episode originally aired on May 2, 2019.</em></p>
<p>Choose your country. It’s the first step towards finding the healthy variety of patriotic love. But what sort of ‘choice’ is it?<em> IDEAS </em>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.&nbsp;</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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. <em>IDEAS</em> examines the impact and legacy of the manifesto, and its relevance today. <em>*This episode originally aired on October 13, 2020.</em>...
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.&nbsp;</p>
<p>"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.&nbsp;</p>
<p>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,<em> Left Is Not Woke</em>, moral philosopher Susan Neiman argues that the "woke" ideology represents a fundamental break from traditional leftist ideals. <em>*This episode originally aired on April 12, 2023.</em></p>
<p>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." <em>*This episode originally aired on June 21, 2024.</em></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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? <em>IDEAS</em> producer Naheed Mustafa explores whether there’s space for collective decision-making in an era marked by anger and disagreement.</p>
<p>It's been 60 years since French thinker Gaston Bachelard’s <em>The Poetics of Space </em>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.<em>*This episode originally aired on March 7, 2022.</em></p>
<p>Eight composers, five instruments, and a world of metal. <em>IDEAS </em>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. <em>*This episode originally aired on May 28, 2024.</em></p>
<p><em>IDEAS</em> 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?<em> *This is part two of a two-part series.</em></p>
<p>Two hundred years ago, Wilhelm von Humboldt created the public education system as we know it today.&nbsp;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.<em>&nbsp;*This is part one of a two-part series.</em></p>
<p>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?<em> IDEAS </em>examines the corporate tendency to "bureaumania.”</p>
