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.
Going the whole nine yards, dressing to the nines, being on cloud nine. In pop culture, in ancient folklore, in music, even in sports the number nine is everywhere. In the last episode of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time , we explore nine and its uncanny connections. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 29, 2023.
Five: a simple, easy number with a diabolical side. As we continue our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time , meet the Janus-faced figure of five and find out how the number has acquired its personality for people in the arts and sciences. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 28, 2023.
From curses to charms to incantations and evocations, speaking thrice gives power — today, and in the ancient past. As our number series continues, we enter the powerful and spiritual realm of three. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 27, 2023.
It's a time of reflection and looking ahead. Host Nahlah Ayed invites IDEAS producers into the studio to share ideas they are working on for 2025. You’ll hear about income inequality, Nietzsche, the power of itch, the intrigue of the yellow traffic light and the fascinating story of Henry Box Brown — an enslaved man from Virginia who mailed himself to freedom.
It's nothing — and it's everywhere. Zero has confounded humanity for thousands of years. On IDEAS, we explore the infinite danger and promise of the void in a series called The Greatest Numbers of All Time. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 26, 2023.
A childhood full of Christmasses in Wales has left IDEAS producer Tom Howell pining for a certain kind of nostalgic poem this winter. So he turns to poets to put into words a strange feeling of homesickness, nostalgia, and yearning. *This episode originally aired on December 17, 2020.
A profile of the legendary jazz drummer and composer Jerry Granelli who passed away in 2021. Over his career, he accompanied many of the greats: Mose Allison, Sly Stone and The Grateful Dead. Most famously, he was a member of the Vince Guaraldi Trio that recorded the iconic album: A Charlie Brown Christmas. *This episode originally aired on December 21, 2021.
Christmas is a minefield of deep philosophical quandaries, like — is it ethically correct to lie to children? Who does a gift really benefit the giver, or receiver? How do we really know Santa exists, or doesn't? Join us on a dramatic journey through the philosophy of Christmas. *This episode originally aired on December 23, 2020.
Modern mystic Thomas Merton helped to bring contemplative spirituality to the fore during the convulsions of the 20th century. He spins us a powerful, prophetic Christmas story that we don’t often hear, but one that is central to our modern self-understanding.
CBC's investigative documentary program, The Fifth Estate , turned 50 this year. To commemorate this golden anniversary, a panel of distinguished journalists take us behind the stories and to the current threats facing their profession. As the media landscape continues to shrink, who will hold the powerful to account?
For 14 years, Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar was imprisoned and tortured in a series of prisons. He found refuge in writing poetry. Now, the poems he wrote imagining the fall of the regime are a reality. He tells host Nahlah Ayed how the freedom within is greater than any prison.
The Huarochirí Manuscript is one of the few surviving records of Quechua worldviews in the early modern era. It was once used by the Catholic Church to identify and eradicate “idolatries.” But today, for philosophy professor Jorge Sanchez-Perez, the manuscript is a tool for reconstructing and revitalizing Andean metaphysics. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 6, 2023.
Each year, a cohort of scholars with research careers of "sustained excellence" are honoured with the Killam Prize — seen by some as Canada's version of the Nobel. IDEAS hears from Engineering winner Clement Gosselin, who has developed an innovative robotic arm. Natural Sciences laureate Sylvain Moineau is making breakthroughs using basic science research, and Medical Sciences winner Gerard Wright fights the growing global threat posed by antibiotic resistance. (2 of 2)
Our homes hold our memories and hopes for the future. But today, our homes have become commodities. Leilani Farha, the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, considers what happens when humanity is stripped out of housing — and what it means for us to collectively ‘return home.’ *This episode is part of our IDEAS at Crow’s Theatre series.
We think nothing today of calling healthcare workers “front line workers,” engaged in a “battle” against disease. But the roots of the war metaphor in medicine go way back — entrenched by pop culture icons like the TV show M*A*S*H and Hawkeye’s army. Dr. Jillian Horton explores a less heroic but healthier way forward for doctors and health professionals. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 21, 2023.
Right now, more than 55% of the world's population live in cities. In a few decades, that percentage will rise to 70%. But with rising sea levels and mass migration, not to mention the state of geopolitics, where does all this leave cities of the future? Three experts weigh in.
It's the world's most prominent climate case in history. Iranian-Canadian human rights lawyer Payam Akhavan discusses the legal arguments he made before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on behalf of Bangladesh and small island states. The hearings seek to establish the legal obligations of states to mitigate climate change and the damage done by it — and the legal consequences for states which don’t fulfil those obligations.
In part two of our series about the 1970s journalistic experiment known as the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool, IDEAS turns to journalists who continue to grapple with the challenges that were first highlighted more than five decades ago. Their concerns and critiques about representation and fairness at the heart of those conversations persist in newsrooms today.
In the 1970s, countries in what became known as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) embarked on an ambitious journalistic experiment to create a new kind of journalism — decolonizing the flow of information. The project came with a utopian promise, internal tensions and fierce opponents in the West. IDEAS explores its history and afterlife today in a two-part series.
IDEAS takes a deep dive into Fate Is the Hunter , Ernest K. Gann's celebrated memoir of flying and the capricious hand of fortune. The book is a nail-biting account of his early days in aviation. Gann wonders: why did I survive when so many other pilots perished? *This episode originally aired on Nov. 28, 2022.
Theatrical plays in Elizabethan England set the stage for our modern news culture, argues Stephen Wittek in his post-doctoral work. He says the cross-pollination between theatre and news developed the norms for our contemporary public conversations. The updated episode of Ideas from the Trenches was originally broadcast in 2014.
They were known as school cars and schools on wheels. Trains that brought the classroom to children in the most isolated communities of Northern Ontario. It was a novel six-month experiment that lasted 40 years, from 1926 to 1967. IDEAS producer Alisa Siegel explores remote education, homeschooling and nation-building. *This episode originally aired on January 9, 2023.
The celebrated writer M.G. Vassanji argues that there’s a more fundamental and even slipperier endeavour than establishing one’s identity, and that’s how — if ever — can we establish a sense of belonging? For many, he says, our true home is nowhere... exactly.
She’s one of Canada’s most decorated journalists, having won a Pulitzer Prize, a Peabody and a Columbia-Dupont Prize for her podcast series, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s . Yet Connie Walker had been reluctant to feature stories about her family in her journalism. Until she realized her family's survival in residential schools embodies the defining reality for virtually all Indigenous Peoples in Canada. She discusses this with Nahlah Ayed at the Samara Centre for Democracy's annual, In Defence...
One of the most important roles of a university is to advance research that benefits society. Meet two winners of the prestigious 2024 Killam Prize. Humanities winner Janine Marchessault's work looks at the crisis in Canada’s film and video archives, and Social Sciences winner Tania Li examines how the good intentions of international development affects the rural people of Indonesia. (Pt 1 of 2)
A Danish geneticist who found camels in Greenland meets the Irish author excavating a thousand tales from the streets of Cork, Ireland. This year’s Beatty Lecture is a double-act. Both Eske Willerslev and Cònal Creedon draw from their contrasting expertise and share their personal tales of discovery.
Take a look at the motivations behind homophobia and racial prejudice, and you’ll find a shared emotion: disgust. At a time of increasing social divides, theorists say we need to reckon with an emotion that keeps us safe — and can make the world more dangerous. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 12, 2023.
Medieval Irish tales are sexier, funnier, and bloodier than any of the better-known myths of the medieval era. They reveal a world full of mighty demi-gods, shapeshifting beauties, and determined heroes. In her book, Otherworld , Lisa M Bitel retells Irish tales of wonder and romance, acting as our guide in the tradition of ancient storytelling.
Ninety years ago, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars became the first all-Black team to win the Ontario baseball championship. Now the story of their historic 1934 season, including the racist treatment they endured and their exploits on the field has resurfaced in an online project, and they’re getting their due as trailblazing Black Canadian athletes.
We’re in an era where many people feel an ownership over certain words, and how a community expresses itself; the term ‘appropriation’ has come to create guardrails around what can be said, and by whom. In his fourth Massey Lecture, Ian Williams considers the role of speech and silence in reallocating power, and what it means to truly listen.
