Ideas

By CBC

What's Ideas about?

IDEAS is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. In the age of clickbait and superficial headlines, it's for people who like to think.

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Ideas episodes:

04.22.2024
Salmon depletion in Yukon River puts First Nations community at risk
Once, there were half a million salmon in the Yukon River, but now they're almost gone. For the Little Salmon Carmacks River Nation, these salmon are an essential part of their culture — and now their livelihood is in peril....
04.19.2024
“Sometimes I think this city is trying to kill me…”
“Sometimes I think this city is trying to kill me…” That’s what a man on the margins once told Robin Mazumder who left his healthcare career behind to become an environmental neuroscientist. He now measures stress, to advocate for wider...
04.18.2024
The "Reconciliation" Generation: Indigenous Youth and the Future for Indigenous People
Indigenous activist Riley Yesno addresses the hopes, disappointments, accomplishments and misuses of ‘reconciliation’ in post-TRC Canada. The Anishnaabe scholar says Indigenous youth who came of age at this time are "meant to be responsible for seeing it through to its...
04.17.2024
The history of bombing civilians — and why it’s still a military tactic
The bombing of civilians has been called one of the "great scandals" of modern warfare. So why, despite nearly a century of drafting laws and signing conventions protecting the sanctity of human life, does bombing civilians remain a widespread military...
04.16.2024
Humboldt's Ghost, Pt 2: The meaning of education
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...
04.15.2024
Humboldt's Ghost, Pt 1: Origins of our 200 year-old public education system
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...
04.12.2024
The 2000 CBC Massey Lectures: The Rights Revolution by Michael Ignatieff
In his 2000 Massey Lectures on The Rights Revolution, Michael Ignatieff confronted the conflicted rise of human rights language in Canadian and global politics. "Has the rights revolution brought us closer together as a nation, or driven us further apart?"...
04.11.2024
Massey at 60: Michael Ignatieff on how human rights language has shaped Canadian politics
Twenty-four years ago, Massey lecturer Michael Ignatieff delivered five talks that explored the powerful rise of the language of 'rights' in Canada and other industrialized nations. Michael Ignatieff speaks with former IDEAS host Paul Kennedy to reflect on his talks...
04.10.2024
Bonus | 2024 Massey lecturer Ian Williams on courageous conversations and taking risks
We've dropped this bonus podcast into the feed to announce that Canadian writer Ian Williams is this year’s Massey lecturer. He spoke with Q host Tom Power to tell us why he’s chosen the topic of 'conversations' for his lecture...
04.10.2024
How the outdoors has inspired women to become trailblazers
Harvard historian Tiya Miles believes the more girls and women are outdoors, the more fulfilling their lives will be. In her book, Wild Girls, Miles shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America.
04.09.2024
Authoritarian study makes a comeback to understand lure of far-right movements
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...
04.08.2024
The Value of Group Therapy
Is group therapy underused in treating mental health? Psychiatrist Molyn Leszcz calls it an “incredibly powerful” approach, where patients heal each other and themselves through support and, sometimes, challenge. Scholar Jess Cotton agrees, tracing the radical roots of an idea...
04.05.2024
Montreal's hidden Confederate history
Montreal was a hotbed of spies and conspirators during the U.S. Civil War. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed and investigative journalist Julian Sher, author of The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln, tour Montreal’s past and present,...
04.04.2024
Living in legal limbo: How states create 'ghost citizens'
What do ghost stories capture about the experience of being stateless? IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed speaks with lawyer and scholar Jamie Chai Yun Liew on how states create “ghost citizens” — and how the long aftermath of colonialism still shapes definitions...
04.03.2024
Betrayal of Faith: The Story of Pierre-Anthoine Pastedechouan
Pastedechouan was an Innu boy taken to France by Catholic clergymen in 1620. What happened to him 400 years ago may well be the template that would later become the residential school system. IDEAS retraces the story of Pastedechouan, revealing...
04.02.2024
Ross Gay on the Necessity of Joy and Delight
For award-winning poet and bestselling author Ross Gay, joy and delight aren’t frivolous or a privilege. He argues they’re absolutely essential to a meaningful life — especially in the face of grief, sadness and suffering.
04.01.2024
What Good Is Philosophy?
"What is good?" is at the heart of philosophy. Asking the question helps us move toward answers about inclusivity, equality, and who gets a voice at the table. Last year, The Munk School at the University of Toronto hosted philosophers...
03.29.2024
Nine Minutes that Changed the World
In 1876, the poet Stéphane Mallarmé published a poem entitled "The Afternoon of a Faun." He doubted anyone could set it to music successfully. But composer Claude Debussy did exactly that. The music runs only about nine minutes long, but...
03.28.2024
Putin Critic Garry Kasparov: Winter is Here
Nearly a decade after Russia annexed Crimea, Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering its third year. As Putin is starting yet another term — Russian opposition activist Gary Kasparov’s warnings from his book, Winter is Coming, are playing out in real time....
03.27.2024
Conflicted: a Ukrainian journalist covers her nation at war
“We face a continual tension between holding the government to account, and not wanting the enemy to undermine us by exploiting bad news," says Ukrainian journalist Veronika Melkozerova. She delivered this year's Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture, focusing her talk...
03.26.2024
Kate Beaton: What's lost when working-class voices are not heard
Kate Beaton and her family have deep roots in hard-working, rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In her 2024 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture, the popular cartoonist points out what is lost when working-class voices are shut out of opportunities in the worlds...
03.25.2024
CBC Massey Lectures: Audience Q&A with Astra Taylor
Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says 2023 CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. She explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, and the threat of authoritarianism, originate from a social order built on insecurity. In this episode,...
03.18.2024
CBC Massey Lectures | #5: Escaping the Burrow
Human beings will never be totally secure, especially not on a planet that has been destabilized. In Astra Taylor's final Massey Lecture, she offers some hope and solutions. Taylor suggests cultivating an ethic of insecurity — one that embraces our...
03.18.2024
CBC Massey Lectures | #1: Cura’s Gift
Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. The Winnipeg-born writer and filmmaker explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, the climate crisis, and the threat of authoritarianism originate from a social order...
03.18.2024
CBC Massey Lectures | #2: Barons or Commoners?
In Astra Taylor's second Massey Lecture, she argues our social order runs on insecurity. But we’re also guaranteed the right to “security of the person.” The wealthy barons of the past and present have defined what security means for themselves...
03.18.2024
CBC Massey Lectures | #3: Consumed by Curiosity
It’s a paradox — we live in the most prosperous era in human history, but it’s also an era of profound insecurity. Massey lecturer Astra Taylor suggests that history shows that increased material security helps people be more open-minded, tolerant,...
03.18.2024
CBC Massey Lectures | #4: Beyond Human Security
The burning of fossil fuels causes the past, present and future to collide in destructive ways. In her fourth CBC Massey Lecture, Astra Taylor tells us that as the climate alters, evolved biological clocks erratically speed up or slow down,...
03.15.2024
Astra Taylor: The Hidden Truth of the World
In conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, the 2023 Massey lecturer Astra Taylor explains how her early years in the unschooling movement shaped her worldview and how Occupy Wall Street taught her that 'thinking' and 'doing' go hand in hand....
03.14.2024
Massey at 60: Randy Boyagoda on Jean Bethke Elshtain
Philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain brought up an important question during the 1993 CBC Massey Lectures: is democracy as we know it in danger? Author and critic Randy Boyagoda and IDEAS producer Sean Foley revisit Elshtain's lectures. This episode is part...
03.13.2024
The Hague: City of Peace and Justice
In a world where peace and justice can be hard to come by, The Hague in The Netherlands projects something special: the city is a base for several world courts, as well as non-governmental organizations, charities and non-profits. It's even...
03.12.2024
The Poetry of Why: Chimwemwe Undi
A conversation with Winnipeg Poet Laureate Chimwemwe Undi about home, belonging, racism, living downtown, and about poetry as a vehicle for life’s big questions — as her first collection of poetry, Scientific Marvel, is set to be published.
03.11.2024
Ian Williams: The Endless Procession of Days
Giller Prize-winning novelist and poet Ian Williams (Reproduction) explores the relationship between the past and future, inspired by the Crow's Theatre's production of Anton Chekhov's classic drama, Uncle Vanya. This episode is part of a public lecture series called IDEAS at Crow's...
03.08.2024
Alanis Obomsawin: The Art of Listening
Indigenous filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin has witnessed nearly a century of change. At 91 years old she continues to produce documentaries featuring Indigenous stories and voices. The Abenaki artist delivered the 2023 Beatty Lecture at McGill University. *This episode originally aired...
03.07.2024
Swinging and Singing: The Violin
For musician and radio producer, David Schulman, the violin can swing and sing like nothing else. Schulman recently travelled to the north of Italy to try and discover the original trees from which Antonio Stradivari made his masterpieces. It’s a...
03.06.2024
Massey at 60: Tanya Talaga
2018 Massey Lecturer Tanya Talaga reflects on the legacy of cultural genocide, and on how the stories of Indigenous peoples offer lessons for Canada today. This episode is part of a series of conversations with — and about — former...
03.05.2024
Papyrus: Exploring the Invention of the Book
The book may well be the greatest invention since the wheel, according to author Irene Vallejo. She traces the history of this miraculous invention with a book of her own, Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World.
03.04.2024
The Way of the Trucker
An Ontario trucking union predicts a shortage of 30,000 truckers in Canada as old hands retire faster than new ones take on the job. IDEAS producer Tom Howell visits a trucking school in northern Ontario, where recruits consider their options,...
03.01.2024
Herodotus: The Power and Peril of Story
Herodotus was committed to understanding the human causes of conflict and war. He gathered stories — some believable, others not — to show how different cultures understand themselves. Readings for this documentary by writer Michael Ondaatje. *This episode originally aired...
02.29.2024
Christina Sharpe on Ordinary Notes — Blackness in Canada
Christina Sharpe's award-winning book, Ordinary Notes, explores the complexity of Black life — blending memoir, history, cultural and political critique. She argues that the experience of Black people is misunderstood — but can be contested, and healed, by Black creativity,...
02.28.2024
A Life-giving Chord: The Power of Gospel Music
A century after the founding of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, the sounds of Black gospel — which from its very beginnings has been steeped in the idea of community — echo at last, from its classrooms. Documentary...
02.27.2024
Healing the Land, Part Two: From Eden Ecology to Indigenous Ecology
More than two years after a devastating fire, IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory around Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st-century wildfires are reshaping the landscape. This two-part series follows the work of the northern St'át'imc Nations, land guardians, and scientists from...
02.26.2024
Healing the Land, Part One: After the Fire
More than two years after a devastating fire, IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory around Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st-century wildfires are reshaping the landscape. This two-part series follows the work of the northern St'át'imc Nations, land guardians, and scientists from...
02.23.2024
How to Flourish in a Broken World
The world is full of problems — our broken healthcare, out-of-reach housing, a democracy in shambles and a dying planet. Is it actually possible to fix this mess? IDEAS hears from people working to fix our most intractable problems at...
02.22.2024
Singing in Dark Times | Sandeep Banerjee
"In the dark times, will there also be singing?" Bertolt Brecht once asked. World literature scholar Sandeep Banerjee explores the power of art in times of war — and how ghost stories can help us imagine another world. This talk kicks...
02.21.2024
Marriage and the Modern Woman
Marriage is on the decline in Canada. And in heterosexual unions, it’s women who more often initiate divorce, and wait longer to remarry. Why is marriage not working for women?
02.20.2024
From Page to Stage: Exploring sex and gender in Shakespeare's work
In the thorny thickets of love and desire, how do Shakespeare’s characters talk to each other? And what’s changed in 400 years? From the Stratford Festival, IDEAS explores the challenges around issues of sex and gender in staging Shakespeare’s plays.
02.19.2024
What’s Up with The Birds?
Fears of technological overreach, environmental decline, and the violent rise of the irrational: our 21st-century anxieties were anticipated in an unlikely 20th-century horror metaphor. “The Birds” – a haunting 1953 short story by Daphne duMaurier, and the truly bizarre 1963...
02.16.2024
Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias
Nothing seems to make a city politician’s eyes light up like the promise of the smart city. In his book, Dream States, journalist John Lorinc questions whether smart technologies live up to the hype and whether ultimately smart cities serve...
02.15.2024
For the Sake of the Common Good: Honouring Lois Wilson
Lois Wilson has lived many lives during her 96 years: a United Church Minister, a Senator, a human rights advocate and an inspiration to many — exhibiting a humility that can only be described as steadfast. For the Sake of the...
02.14.2024
Obtaining Justice Without Demonizing Your Enemies: Martha Minow
In the age of growing polarization, how do you tackle injustice without demonizing your enemies? Former Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow tackles that question in her 2023 Horace E. Read Memorial Lecture.

What's Ideas about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ideas episodes:

Salmon depletion in Yukon River puts First Nations community at risk

“Sometimes I think this city is trying to kill me…”

The "Reconciliation" Generation: Indigenous Youth and the Future for Indigenous People

The history of bombing civilians — and why it’s still a military tactic

Humboldt's Ghost, Pt 2: The meaning of education

Humboldt's Ghost, Pt 1: Origins of our 200 year-old public education system

The 2000 CBC Massey Lectures: The Rights Revolution by Michael Ignatieff

Massey at 60: Michael Ignatieff on how human rights language has shaped Canadian politics

Bonus | 2024 Massey lecturer Ian Williams on courageous conversations and taking risks

How the outdoors has inspired women to become trailblazers

Authoritarian study makes a comeback to understand lure of far-right movements

The Value of Group Therapy

Montreal's hidden Confederate history

Living in legal limbo: How states create 'ghost citizens'

Betrayal of Faith: The Story of Pierre-Anthoine Pastedechouan

Ross Gay on the Necessity of Joy and Delight

What Good Is Philosophy?

Nine Minutes that Changed the World

Putin Critic Garry Kasparov: Winter is Here

Conflicted: a Ukrainian journalist covers her nation at war

Kate Beaton: What's lost when working-class voices are not heard

CBC Massey Lectures: Audience Q&A with Astra Taylor

CBC Massey Lectures | #5: Escaping the Burrow

CBC Massey Lectures | #1: Cura’s Gift

CBC Massey Lectures | #2: Barons or Commoners?

CBC Massey Lectures | #3: Consumed by Curiosity

CBC Massey Lectures | #4: Beyond Human Security

Astra Taylor: The Hidden Truth of the World

Massey at 60: Randy Boyagoda on Jean Bethke Elshtain

The Hague: City of Peace and Justice

The Poetry of Why: Chimwemwe Undi

Ian Williams: The Endless Procession of Days

Alanis Obomsawin: The Art of Listening

Swinging and Singing: The Violin

Massey at 60: Tanya Talaga

Papyrus: Exploring the Invention of the Book

The Way of the Trucker

Herodotus: The Power and Peril of Story

Christina Sharpe on Ordinary Notes — Blackness in Canada

A Life-giving Chord: The Power of Gospel Music

Healing the Land, Part Two: From Eden Ecology to Indigenous Ecology

Healing the Land, Part One: After the Fire

How to Flourish in a Broken World

Singing in Dark Times | Sandeep Banerjee

Marriage and the Modern Woman

From Page to Stage: Exploring sex and gender in Shakespeare's work

What’s Up with The Birds?

Smart Cities, Technology and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias

For the Sake of the Common Good: Honouring Lois Wilson

Obtaining Justice Without Demonizing Your Enemies: Martha Minow