Ideas

CBC•www.cbc.ca

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.

Last refreshed: June 19th, 2026 at 11:05 PM

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Episodes

Journalist Connie Walker on uncovering her family's dark history

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. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 2, 2024.

Jun 20, 2025•54 min

Inside our loneliness epidemic

Some experts are calling loneliness an epidemic in Canada and throughout much of the world. Social isolation is a public health risk with consequences for individuals, communities and for our social systems. A multi-disciplinary panel, hosted at the University of British Columbia, examine loneliness from perspectives of men's and women's health, interpersonal relations, climate change and public policy. Guests in this episode: Dr. Kiffer Card is an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University’...

Jun 18, 2025•54 min

Perdita Felicien on how to navigate life’s biggest hurdles

Champion hurdler Perdita Felicien has climbed to the summits of international glory throughout her track career, and endured the excruciating lows of defeat. Those peak experiences inform the talk she gave at Crows Theatre in Toronto, in which she parses the comparison of sport to life, and life to sport. In her words: "It isn't that sport is life exactly. It's that it reveals life. It's the part of life where we play with purpose. Where effort is visible. Where character is tested. Where failur...

Jun 17, 2025•54 min

The making of an ‘authoritarian personality’

A groundbreaking study conducted in the wake of the Second World War by a group of scholars rocked the academic world when it was published in 1950 — but fell out of favour. Now a new generation of scholars is reviving the lessons of The Authoritarian Personality to understand who is drawn in by fascist propaganda.

Jun 16, 2025•54 min

Canadian universities as safe havens for scholars-in-exile

There is a growing number of researchers who are 'forcibly displaced' worldwide. Thirty-four Canadian universities and colleges are currently hosting scholars who’ve left their jobs and homes to find safety. Scholars-in-exile from dozens of countries gathered at Carleton University in Ottawa to discuss ways to support free thinking and research whenever it is threatened.

Jun 13, 2025•54 min

Black history, vividly told through the colour blue

From planting periwinkles on the graves of slaves, to the blues itself, the colour blue has been core to Black Americans’ pursuit of joy in the face of being dehumanized by slavery, argues Harvard professor Imani Perry. In her latest book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of my People , she unpacks the deep, centuries-long connection between Black people and the colour blue, from the complex history of indigo dye to how the blues became a crowning achievement of Black American culture...

Jun 12, 2025•56 min

New to IDEAS? Start here

IDEAS is a place for people who like to think. We value curiosity and deep conversation. And we work hard to bring you the ideas that shape and re-shape our world. No topic is off-limits. New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 5 pm ET.

Apr 18, 2025•2 min

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