Ideas

Complete. Whole. Divine order. That's just the start of what makes the humble dozen extraordinary. It's one of only two numbers ever discovered in mathematics to be “sublime.” Twelve makes a number of appearances in pop culture, in religion, in non-fiction, everything from the 12 days of Christmas to the 12 people it takes to form a criminal jury. Still need convincing of 12’s perfection and indispensability? Check your watch.

More episodes in our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time:

Listen to The Curse of 13

Listen to 27 Club Lore

Listen to The 33,000 Horsepower Gamechanger

Listen to How 4 Makes and Breaks Rules

Guests in this episode:

Glen Van Brummelen is a professor of mathematical sciences at Trinity Western University.

Ainsley Hawthorn is a cultural historian and nonfiction writer. She has a PhD in Near Eastern Civilizations from Yale University.

Has there ever been a number more maligned in western culture than 13? So feared, it's got its own horror-film franchise. So infamously unlucky, a good many of us avoid it en masse. We've just blindly accepted its bad reputation. As part of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time, IDEAS explores where our irrational fear and uncomfortable feelings about 13 began. *All five episodes in our number series will be available daily in our feed this week.*

Listen to 12 is Sublime

Listen to 27 Club Lore

Listen to The 33,000 Horsepower Gamechanger

Listen to How 4 Makes and Breaks Rules

Guests in this episode:

Stephen Winick is a folk life specialist at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.

Barry Markovsky is distinguished professor emeritus of sociology at University of South Carolina. His latest book is Everyday Extraordinary: A Scientist Ponders a Lifetime of Magical, Bizarre, and Paranormal Experiences.

Claire Potter is an author of parenting books, including Getting the Little Blighters to Behave and the creator of the online programme Tiny Bites for parents of picky eaters.

Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is the founder and director of the Jewish Discovery Center in Buffalo, New York. He has written many books including Tefillin: Judaism's Crown.

It's tempting to think suffering should be avoided at all costs, but moral suffering has its own distinct standing. It signals a moral conscience. Every day people consume real time violence, grief, war and genocide through screens and experience moral upending. Without a moral compass there’s no motivation to address necessary issues.

Guests in this episode:

Cynda Rushton is a nurse and a professor of nursing and bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.

Robert Meagher is an emeritus professor at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Thea Lim is a novelist, culture writer, and creative writing teacher in Toronto.

Former IDEAS writer-broadcaster David Cayley passed away at his home on Wednesday June 10, surrounded by family. To honour his legacy, we wanted to share part of a 2006 conversation David had with Irish philosopher Richard Kearney on the space for theism within atheism, and/or atheism within theism.

Richard Kearney is a philosophy professor at Boston College and University College, Dublin. He has written many books on modern philosophy and culture, including The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion and Anatheism: Returning to God After God.

There may be no one alive who saw Houdini perform magic. Yet we still know his name and his legend. Dua Lipa namechecked the escape artist in a 2023 dance hit and she's not alone. Houdini is still a cultural reference point, despite having died 100 years ago. And that’s pretty much what he would have wanted. IDEAS explores why his name persists in our imaginations and how his magic helped his family escape poverty.

Guests in this episode:

Adam Begley is a biographer living in London, and author of Houdini: The Elusive American.

David Ben is a conjuror, writer, and consultant in Toronto. He’s writing a graphic novel featuring an imagined adventure for Houdini.

Katie Bender is a playwright and actor. Her interactive performance about Houdini is called Instructions for a Seance.

Sujata Berry's brother, Sharad was 16 years old when he was killed. He was aboard Air India Flight 182 when it exploded off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985. It's considered the worst terror attack in Canadian history. For Sujata, the shock of his horrific death morphed into an unshakeable grief. The family's sorrow was augmented with the lack of justice for victims' families — a flawed investigation, evidence lost and what Sujata says was "an unsatisfactory verdict." It's taken Sujata 40 years to chip away at her grief and try to understand what happened to her and her family. She explores love, loss and the grief that binds them in her documentary, All that Remains. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 17, 2025.

Read Sujata's personal essay with pictures

Homosexuality is illegal in more than half of African countries — a crime punishable by prison sentences. Or in some cases: death. In the past few years, six African countries have made it illegal just to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. These laws bring up questions of foreign influence, neo-colonialism, and the role the international community could play in nudging human rights on the continent. *This episode originally aired on May 26, 2025.

Want another podcast? Ghana and Uganda have some of the harshest laws against LGBTQ+ people in the world. Despite the threats, listen to how podcasters in both these countries are fighting back and reclaiming sexuality.

Uganda and Ghana have the harshest laws against LGBTQ+ people in the world. Despite the threats, podcasters in both countries are fighting back by creating a space where people can have sex-positive conversations and gender inclusivity. IDEAS contributor Nana aba Duncan was in Uganda and Ghana to find out how the safety, privacy, and independence of the medium offer a path to understanding, validation and community.

In the past few years, six African countries have made it illegal to just advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. What role should the international community play in nudging human rights on the continent? Listen to The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa.

When Jay Pitter was eight years old and out shopping with her mother, she began swaying to the music at the mall. Her mother scolded her for it — signalling that it was undignified for a Black person to act that way in public. That incident was the genesis for Black Public Joy: No Permit Or Permission Required. In her book, she addresses the self-policing Black people can internalise, and reveals how culture, urban planning, and memory shape the way people can access joy in parks, streets, transit, and neighbourhoods.

Guest in this episode:

Jay Pitter is an award-winning placemaker focused on creating joyful public spaces that foster belonging, prosperity, and cultural memory. She advances this work through cultural planning, policy frameworks, and storytelling. Pitter is also an adjunct urban planning professor and has engaged students at Cornell, Princeton, and MIT, advancing new theories of public joy that connect practice, policy, and pedagogy.

Mae West shocked audiences and infuriated censors for more than 70 years. She was pop culture’s original blonde bombshell sex-symbol comedienne provocateur. But she was more than just a corseted sex pot with an affinity for word play. She was a trailblazer, transgressive, funny, smart, sassy, lively, a genius. And she got away with all of it. IDEAS contributor Lynda Shorten explores the legacy of the eccentric Mae West.

Guests in this episode:

Linda Hutcheon is a professor emerita of English and comparative literature at The University of Toronto.

Ramona Curry is an associate professor emerita of English at The University of Illinois.

Pamela Wojeck is a professor of film studies at The University of Notre Dame

Scott C. Miller is a make-up artist and retired undertaker