Ideas

She’s famous for her caustic quips and her love of cocktails, but there was a lot more to Dorothy Parker than her time at the famed Algonquin Round Table. The icon of New York in the 1920s spent decades in Hollywood as a screenwriter, won awards for her short stories and was a committed social activist, who ended up being blacklisted because of her ties to communist causes. She was also a war correspondent.

Guests in this episode:

Kevin Fitzpatrick is the founder and president of the Dorothy Parker Society.

Michelle Dean is a screenwriter, critic and author of Sharp! The Women who made an Art of Having an Opinion.

Nina Miller is a former English professor at Iowa State University, and the author of Making Love Modern: The Intimate Public Worlds of New York's Literary Women.

Ellen Meister is a novelist and the author of Dorothy Parker Drank Here and Farewell, Dorothy Parker.

Gail Crowther is a researcher, writer and the author of Dorothy Parker in Hollywood.

Blind life is an individual experience. But from neighbourhood walks to international travel, blind people want momentum, adventure, and a sense of place, like everyone else. This podcast features an artist and a scientist imagining bolder ways forward.

Guest in this episode:

Alex Bulmer is a Blind writer and theatre artist. Her play Perceptual Archaeology or How to Travel Blind, is included in the collection Rebellious Bodies and Radical Acts. She is at work on a multimedia project called May I Take Your Arm.

Joshua Miele is a Blind scientist, inventor and a MacArthur Fellow who’s designing accessibility tech from inside the experience of disability. He's also the author of Connecting Dots: A Blind Life.

Augusto Pinochet became Chile's leader after a bloody, U.S.-supported coup killed socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973. He defended the coup. But as he attempted to control the narrative, stories of violence were already casting a shadow over his new regime. We continue our series on authoritarianism exploring Pinochet’s popularity with centre-right Western leaders, the referendum that removed him from power, and the story of his eventual arrest and trial.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests on this podcast:

Carolina Echeverría is a Chilean-Canadian artist, author and cultural mediator whose work explores memory, migration and belonging.

Teresa Macías is a professor in the school of social work at York University. Her expertise is on the enduring legacies of human rights violations from the Pinochet dictatorship.

Kevin Coleman is an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto.

Authoritarian politics continue to intensify. But so do acts of resistance. This podcast focusses on the resisters who are pushing for accountability as they fight against state violence. They are from Argentina, South Africa and India. Some work alone or in groups trying to stave off ever-encroaching authoritarian rule.

Guests in this episode:

Maria del Carmen Verdu is an Argentine human rights activist fighting against state violence.

Fatima Hassan is a South African human rights lawyer and activist with the Health Justice Initiative.

Bill McKibben is an American author, environmentalist, and educator. He is the founder of Third Act, which organizes seniors for action on climate and democracy.

Siddharth Varadarajan is a founding editor of The Wire, a news website in India.

Not everyone gives birth. But everyone is born. Yet we rarely talk about the history of childbirth. So author Lucy Inglis researched its bloody, triumphant, political past. Her book Born: A History of Childbirth argues that birth has a deep global history that proves it has always been a highwire act, shaped by both nature and culture. IDEAS explores the visceral, intimate realities of childbirth that have always been in evidence. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 22, 2026.

Historian Marci Shore doesn't hesitate to use the word 'fascism' to describe the present moment. The former Yale professor left the U.S. after President Trump was re-elected. She now teaches at the University of Toronto and tells her students why "we shouldn't fetishize" the term. Shore argues concepts and terminologies born from history like fascism is how we process the world, but it's critical we allow for today's nuances and differences.

This podcast includes Marci Shore in conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed and Shore's lecture “Thoughts From a Post Truth World," part of the series “Democracy in Peril: A Way Forward Against Authoritarianism," organized by the University of Manitoba, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

Marci Shore is Chair of European Intellectual History at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Seabird biologist Bill Montevecchi has been ranked in the world’s top two per cent of scientists. Montevecchi died at the age of 80 in July 2026. In his honour, we share this 2023 documentary by producer Mary Lynk that shines a light on the renowned scientist's humanity and brilliance. Lynk followed Montevecchi on a wild two-day adventure in Newfoundland, climbing steep cliffs to spy on famous seabird colonies, and venturing on a heart-pounding overnight rescue mission of young storm petrels along the coastline.

After seizing power in a 1971 coup, Ugandan military commander Idi Amin promised a return to democracy — but he delivered a brutal dictatorship. Known for his erratic and sadistic behaviour, Amin’s reign was defined by ethnic purges, forced expulsions and total economic collapse. We continue our series, How to Defeat Authoritarianism, exploring the legacy of Idi Amin and the conflation of personality with totalitarian politics.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

Guests on this podcast:

Nam Kiwanuka is a Ugandan-Canadian journalist, host and producer with TVO.

Nakanyike Musisi is a professor of African History at the University of Toronto, and internationally recognized scholar of African gender, political, and social history.

Derek Peterson is a professor of history and African studies at the University of Michigan, and author of A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda.

After seizing power in a 1971 coup, Ugandan military commander Idi Amin promised a return to democracy — but he delivered a brutal dictatorship. Known for his erratic and sadistic behaviour, Amin’s reign was defined by ethnic purges, forced expulsions and total economic collapse. We continue our series, How to Defeat Authoritarianism, exploring the legacy of Idi Amin and the conflation of personality with totalitarian politics.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests on the podcast:

Nam Kiwanuka is an award-winning Ugandan-Canadian journalist, host and producer with TVO.

Nakanyike Musisi is a professor of African history at the University of Toronto, and an internationally recognized scholar of African gender, political, and social history.

Derek Peterson is a professor of history and African studies at the University of Michigan. He is also the author of A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda.

What has become of the America that has for so long been held up as a shining example of ideals? In conversation at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival, documentary maker Ken Burns and American scholar and author Eddie Glaude unpack the vexed contradictions at the heart of American democracy, from the founding of the Republic in 1776 until today.