Ideas

If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were rewritten today, what rights would we add to strive for a more just world? In the final episode of our five-part series, IDEAS looks beyond our fractured present and tries to imagine what new rights we need for the new millennium. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 6, 2025.

In an era of great polarization and cancel culture, our right to freedom of thought and expression is especially resonant. Written over 75 years ago, the UN's Declaration of Human Rights requires an update to reflect the times of today. In this fourth episode in our series on human rights, IDEAS explores the history and future of free expression. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 5, 2024.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to leave any country and to return to it. We also have a right to seek "asylum from persecution" in other countries. Are these rights protected for everyone? At a time when more people are forcibly displaced than at any other point in recorded history, Nahlah Ayed speaks with guests about where the rights to leave, return and seek refuge came from, and what they could mean today. *This is part three in a five-part series examining human rights. It originally aired on Sept. 4, 2024.

Our right to privacy is included in the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, but is it really protected? The document, which is over 75 years old, reads: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with [one's] privacy..." In part two of our five-part series, IDEAS explores the profound implications this right has on our lives, from digital surveillance to sexuality and autonomy. *Episode originally aired on Sept. 3, 2024.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was published more than 75 years ago. It's a different era now. IDEAS explores the rights promised in this document and what rights we need for the future in a five-part series. We start with an examination of what the right to "life, liberty, and security of person" means, and how it could transform our world. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 2, 2024.

The answer is art by artist Divya Mehra, a 2022 recipient of the Sobey Art Award. She explains the meaning behind her inflatable art installation and joins the four finalists to discuss and celebrate where new art is taking us. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 9, 2023.

Guests in this episode:

Azza El Siddique

Stanley Février

Krystle Silverfox

Tyshan Wright

Divya Mehra

For years, people have made the journey to Algonquin Park to see the landscapes that inspired Tom Thomson's famous paintings. IDEAS producer Sean Foley was one of them, exploring the great Canadian artist's muse while also examining Indigenous artists' perspectives of the same landscapes that Thomson and the Group of Seven may have overlooked. *This is the second episode in a two-part exploration of the Canadian painter. It originally aired on Dec. 18, 2018.

Tom Thomson is one of the most mythologized Canadian painters of his time — and ours. Over 100 years ago, the artist died suddenly on Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park, when he was at the peak of his powers. IDEAS producer Sean Foley delves into what we think we know about Tom Thomson and examines the tales that have evolved over the past century. *This episode originally aired Nov. 9, 2018.

Guests in this episode:

Gregory Klages, historian and author of The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction.

Sherrill Grace, Professor Emerita at the University of British Columbia and the author of Inventing Tom Thomson

Ian Dejardin, art historian and the former executive director of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Pete Telford, chairman of the Friends of Leith Church, Leith, Ontario.

"Canada can either now lose complete control — which it almost has, economically, spiritually and a few other things — or it can get itself together," said artist Joyce Wieland in 1971. In the 60s and 70s, the artist painted, sculpted and stitched the Canadian flag and our sense of national identity. Her art called on the need to preserve its distinctness from the United States. Now, a quarter century after her death, the artist's work and words form a clarion call. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 12, 2022.

During the Communist era in Bulgaria, anyone who opposed the government could be arrested, sent to the Gulag. For 20 years, Lilia Topouzova has been collecting the stories of those who survived. She recreated a Bulgarian room where her conversations with survivors can be heard, a space about the absence of memory and what that does to a people.