Ideas

Hina Jilani is one of the world’s leading human rights lawyers. She has played several prominent roles for the UN, including eight years as the Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders. Despite attempts on her life, nothing will stop her from fighting injustice to help make a better world.

Is there beauty in a Reverse Frankensteiner? Truth in a Crossface Chickenwing? Meaning in a Turnbuckle Thrust? These are questions for professional wrestlers, and professional philosophers. This episode brings both groups together, for a rough 'n tumble cage match of philosophical inquiry. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 5, 2022.

Chris Brookes was a masterful radio storyteller from St. John’s, Newfoundland who helped change the way we make, and listen, to radio. He died from an accidental fall on Monday, April 10, 2023. In tribute of his audio legacy, IDEAS revisits a 2009 documentary, Hark!, about an audio exploration of what Elizabethan England may have sounded like.

The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have been divided by a largely invisible border since 1998. Now after 25 years of relative quiet, while the return of the border is less likely than ever, the fear of that old familiar sectarian rancour is back. This episode is part two in our series, Walking the Border: Walls That Divide Us. *Originally aired on September 9, 2019.

It was 25 years ago today that the Good Friday peace agreement was signed, yet the so-called peace walls remain in Northern Ireland. Host Nahlah Ayed went to Belfast to find out if the walls are helping or hindering community reconciliation between Catholic and Protestant, Republican and Unionist. *This episode originally aired on September 2, 2019.

Handel's Messiah is possibly the most famous and popular piece of classical music of all time. Yet it's full of secrets and surprises. The founding director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir Ivars Taurins, and veteran CBC Radio producer Robert Harris, reveal the hidden treasures of this celebrated piece. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 8, 2015.

*Please note that this episode features descriptions of a sexual assault that some listeners may find disturbing.* 17-century artist Artemisia Gentileschi upended traditional depictions of women in her paintings by creating gutsy, strong female figures. With her paintbrush as in her life, she fought gender inequality and helped to reimagine womanhood and what it could mean to be a female artist. *This episode originally aired on May 24, 2022.

The plague of Athens struck in 430 BC, violently killing up to half of the Greek city's population. The chronicler Thucydides documented the grim symptoms, as well as the social and psychological fallout. His vivid account holds enduring lessons for us today. *This episode originally aired on June 23, 2020.

What good is philosophy in times of war? Ukrainian scholar Mychailo Wynnyckyj and Yale philosopher Jason Stanley share their thoughts on how philosophy can illuminate the Ukrainian crisis — and inform our response to the war.

The Middle English Dictionary was 71 years in the making. Eventually published by the University of Michigan in 2001, it featured 15,000 pages, 55,000 definitions, and had 900,000 examples of usage gleaned from 400 years of medieval texts. Join IDEAS on a romp through the Middle English Dictionary. *This episode was originally broadcast in 2004.