Ideas

The final BBC Reith Lecture on the theme of Franklin Roosevelt's Four Freedoms features intelligence specialist Fiona Hill, who served under three U.S. Presidents — Bush, Obama, and Trump. In her lecture, she argues that fear is a weapon of war, and the best way to fight back is through education. *This episode originally aired on April 13, 2023.

At the most recent COP27 global meeting, vulnerable countries counted a win — sort of — with the creation of a fund to pay for loss and damage brought on by climate change. All they need now is for rich nations to pay up. But will they take on moral responsibility? And if not, how can climate justice be achieved? *This episode originally aired on Dec. 12, 2022.

Air of course is all around us. We move through it without noticing it. This episode from 2010 is called The Last Breath. We follow a single breath in its journey around the world, explore how an ice-free Arctic will change life on Earth, and David Suzuki sits down with Margaret Atwood for an entertaining chat conversation about breath, life, and death.

Libraries are under literal attack in Ukraine, and ideological attack amid North America’s culture wars. Oxford librarian and author Richard Ovenden is not about to stay quiet about it. He argues that libraries defend our democratic freedoms, and deserve our defence in return. *This episode originally aired on March 21, 2023.

Scottish journalist and musician Darren McGarvey gives the third of four BBC Reith Lectures on the theme of 'Freedom from Want.' He says it's incumbent upon people to challenge and confront what inequality means. McGarvey argues that expecting compassion from the government is unreasonable — as governments have become hard-wired to avoid compassion. *This episode originally aired on April 6, 2023.

Muhammad Iqbal was popularly known as the intellectual founder of Pakistan, but his greater fame is for his philosophical works in English and his poetry, both in Urdu and Persian. IDEAS looks at the life and work of one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century. *This episode originally aired on January 25, 2023.

Starting in 1493, tens of thousands of Indigenous people began arriving in Europe. British historian Caroline Dodds Pennock pieces together the evidence of their lives and experiences there in her book, On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe. *This episode originally aired on April 5, 2023.

Death is a part of life…and as such, it is all around us. In this episode of Suzuki's Survival Guide: A Retrospective from 2010, David Suzuki takes an unflinching look at death and decomposition, at the way cells die to make way for new life within us, and at what happens to a carrot after we harvest it and eat it. All to unlock the cycle in which the things we are made of are never wasted.

The BBC Reith Lectures return and this year’s theme is The Four Freedoms. Rowan Williams, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, delivers the second BBC Reith Lecture. He argues that the West has forgotten what freedom of religion really means. *This episode originally aired on March 30, 2023.

Democratic backsliding is speeding up. Is there a way to revive civic engagement and resilience and push back against public apathy? IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed talks to former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi about the possibility of renewing civic purpose in Canada, as part of a public lecture hosted by the Samara Centre. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 9, 2022.