In 1853, Mary Ann Shadd Cary became the first Black woman publisher in Canada with her newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. As a lawyer, publisher, and educator, she laid the groundwork for Black liberation in Canada. Descendants and other guests share her remarkable story. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 7, 2023.

Award-winning journalist and author Brandi Morin says reconciliation in Canada is on life support. She's calling for a revolution against the apathy and ignorance that she says keeps Indigenous people from healing and succeeding.

Chava Rosenfarb, Holocaust survivor and Canadian Yiddish writer, was born 100 years ago in Łódź, Poland. In 2023, Łódź celebrated “The Year of Chava Rosenfarb." In this episode, producer Allison Dempster revisits a 2001 IDEAS documentary that profiles Rosenfarb’s legacy and the politics of Holocaust remembrance in Poland today. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 29, 2024.

Maria Chapdelaine — the fictional character from rural Quebec became a global phenomenon in the 1920s, and has inspired movies, plays — even an opera. Yet the book remains far less known in English Canada and the English-speaking world. IDEAS examines the many lives that Maria Chapdelaine has lived, and continues to live.

Enslaved in 1840s Virginia, Henry Brown has himself nailed into a postal crate and mailed to a free state. But that’s less than half his story. In freedom, he becomes Henry Box Brown, and uses his escape box as the basis for a subversive magic act that sees him tour the stages of the UK and Canada — his final home. 

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 that she thinks could hold a greater place today. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 18, 2023.

As Canadians once again find themselves explaining why their country deserves to exist, a group of proud Quebecers brave the winter in Sherbrooke to raise their nation’s largest-ever flag. IDEAS' Tom Howell joins in, as he continues his series on where the patriotic spirit belongs in people’s lives today.

Aaju Peter was 11 years old when she was taken from her Inuk community in Greenland and sent away to learn the ways of the West. She lost her language and culture. The activist, lawyer, designer, musician, filmmaker, and prolific teacher takes IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a tour of Iqaluit and into a journey to decolonization that continues still.

Is it too late to save the planet? Anthropologist Wade Davis doesn't think so — he's inspired by the ability of nature to adapt, and he thinks people can change, too. He says that means looking for all the information we can get. Part two of IDEAS producer Philip Coulter’s conversation with Wade Davis. 

How do conversations happen differently in the north? What’s unique about Inuit approaches to silence — and to nation-to-nation conversations? IDEAS explores dialogue from Ian Williams' first Massey Lecture in Iqaluit with lawyer and activist Aaju Peter and actor and producer Simeonie Kisa-Knicklebein.