Ideas

"We come from the sea. It's not a memory. It's a feeling. It's in our DNA," Joan Jonas told IDEAS producer Mary Lynk at her home in Nova Scotia. The arts icon, now 88, has been celebrated for her work since the late 1960s. She splits her time between a Soho loft in NYC, and the "magical landscape" of Cape Breton, where she can be by her muse: the ocean.

In 2024, she received her crowning recognition in the U.S., when New York's Museum of Modern Art organized a major retrospective of her work. Part of Jonas' MoMA retrospective called Moving Off the Land II has been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The exhibit will tour across Canada this summer, beginning in Cape Breton.

Even in the name of love, we can justify hatred, even murder, of the other. But why do we hate others? Scholars have identified a list of 10 reasons why one group may hate another group. They also have suggestions on how to break the cycle of hate. 

Guests in this episode are scholars from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR):

Prerna Singh, professor of political science, Brown University, U.S.

Victoria Esses, professor of psychology, Western University, London, Ontario 

Stephen Reicher, professor of social psychology, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

Fifty years ago, the movie Jaws put sharks on our radar in a very real way. It broke box office records and tapped into an underlying fear of sharks and the unknown lurking in the ocean. Turns out, sharks were already developing a villainous reputation before Jaws. In this documentary, producer Molly Segal explores the long history people have with the ocean, and our tendency across cultures and times to create 'sea monsters' out of the depths of the ocean. 

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.

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’s Faculty of Health Sciences. He was the moderator of the panel presentation, All the Lonely People: the Search for Belonging in an Uncertain World.

Mandy Lee Catron is from the School of Creative Writing, at UBC.

Dr. John Oliffe is a professor and Canada Research Chair in Men’s Health Promotion at the School of Nursing, at UBC.

Dr. Carrie Jenkins is a professor in the Department of Philosophy at UBC.

Dr. Marina Adshade is an assistant professor of teaching at the Vancouver School of Economics, at UBC.

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 failure is not final, just part of the arc. It's where we try. Fully. Openly. Without guarantee."

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.

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.

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.

For over 200 years, the Dandy has been a provocateur, someone who pushes against the boundaries of culture, masculinity and politics. From Beau Brummell to Oscar Wilde to contemporary Black activists, IDEAS contributor Pedro Mendes tracks the subversive role the Dandy plays in challenging the status quo. *This episode originally aired on April 15, 2021.

Guests in this episode:

Rose Callahan, photographer and director  

André Churchwell, vice chancellor for equity, diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer for Vanderbilt University 

Chris Breward, director of National Museums Scotland and the author of The Suit: Form, Function and Style 

Ian Kelly, writer, actor and historical biographer. His works include Beau Brummell: The Ultimate Dandy 

Monica Miller, professor of English and Africana Studies at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity