Ideas

Eighty years ago this week, Japanese Canadians in British Columbia were forced into internment camps by the federal government. It wasn't until 1949 that they were accepted back into B.C. Three generations of Japanese Canadians tell the story of these years and their aftermath. *This two-part documentary originally aired on IDEAS in 1988.

Eighty years ago this week, Japanese Canadians in British Columbia were forced into internment camps by the federal government. It wasn't until 1949 that they were accepted back into B.C. Three generations of Japanese Canadians tell the story of these years and their aftermath. *This two-part documentary originally aired on IDEAS in 1988.

In her 1963 play about truth, lies and state violence, Griselda Gambaro predicted the dark period Argentina was hurtling towards. As part of a collaboration with Soulpepper Theatre Company, we bring you inside a room where innocence doesn’t exist and even the walls themselves can’t be trusted. *This episode originally aired on April 28, 2021.

Alaa Al Aswany is one of Egypt’s most important authors. While his work is banned in his country, including his latest novel about a fictionalized account of the failed Egyptian revolution of 2011, the writer believes it’s only a matter of time before the revolution prevails.

Soulpepper Theatre Company is taking audiences across the globe with eight international audio plays. And IDEAS will be your travelling companion. Moonlodge is the first play of the Around the World in 80 Plays series. *This episode originally aired on April 21, 2021.

The potent Images of the cowboy and the six shooter have shaped the myth of the American West: pioneer freedom and frontier towns. In this first episode of a two-part series, IDEAS contributor Tom Jokinen explores the myth of the West, and how the values of individual freedom and boundless conquest continue to feed America's political ideology through to today. *This episode originally aired on October 15, 2020.

Feminism today is wracked with inequality. Rafia Zakaria, author of Against White Feminism, says feminists must have a reckoning within and that white women must make space for those women who may not be the policymakers or theorists, but who live the feminist struggle every day of their lives.

Ultranationalism requires an enemy. In Poland, that means sexual minorities. Municipalities across the country are passing anti-LGBT measures. But activists are fighting back, despite the legal odds and the physical violence.

In Richard III, Shakespeare shows us how easy it is to fall under the spell of a tyrant. IDEAS explores the parallels between Richard III and the Trump era, and the play’s eerily prescient lessons about complicity, conscience and speaking truth to power. *This episode originally aired on April 2, 2021.

In part two of the BBC Reith Lectures, professor Stuart Russell examines the future of work, as Artificial Intelligence takes over more of the economy. People have been worried about robots displacing workers since at least Aristotle. But in this lecture, Russell argues there's reason for optimism.