Ideas

The founder of University of California Berkeley's Artificial Intelligence lab Stuart Russell is this year's presenter of the BBC Reith Lectures. His series examines how AI is rapidly becoming integral to the economy, military, and daily life. He argues that we have a responsibility to put moral limits on AI as we continue to cede ethical decision-making to machines.

One year ago today, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building under the false belief that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen. In this episode adapting the podcast The Flamethrowers, presenter Justin Ling traces the relationship between American right-wing radio and Donald Trump's style and tactics in garnering support.

Some people describe it as a war. To others, it’s a race. Maybe it’s a sickness that needs to be cured, or a puzzle that needs to be solved. There are a lot of metaphors for the fight against climate change, and picking the right one might be the key to making real progress. *This episode originally aired on April 1, 2021.

When stories are left out of the historical record, we are all the poorer for that, says 2021 CBC Massey lecturer Esi Edugyan. Her six-part lectures will air on IDEAS starting January 24. As a prequel, the acclaimed novelist joins Nahlah Ayed to talk about the importance of origin stories and about the people and things that shaped her as a writer.

To celebrate the New Year, Nahlah Ayed welcomes IDEAS producers into the virtual studio to share their passion for upcoming projects. You'll hear an eclectic range of topics — from the power of touch, to the meaning of home, to an exploration of the pesky problems bias presents.

In his letters and poetry, Austrian writer Rainer Maria Rilke urged readers to “love the questions” instead of searching for answers, and to “sing out” with pain solitude causes them. His writing seems tailor-made for our own era — a dark interval of uncertainty, solitude, and grief. *This episode originally aired on May 13, 2021.

In 2021, B.C. has faced a deadly heat wave and catastrophic floods. Kim Stanley Robinson predicted both of them in his science fiction novel The Ministry for the Future. After returning from COP 26 in Glasgow, Robinson reflects on the crisis we’re in and how to achieve "the best-case scenario you could still believe in."

Philosophers Tracy Llanera and James Tartaglia offer their cheerful defence of nihilism, the easy-to-carry, portable, multi-purpose, and aerodynamic attitude to life, the universe, and pretty much everything. To achieve it, they take up the classic objections to nihilism in turn, and attempt to make each of them disappear into... nothingness! *This episode originally aired on May 25, 2021.

The prison at Guantanamo Bay remains open. And while advocates including former detainees fight to close it down, the legacy of detention and torture live on. This is the first of a three-part series in which IDEAS producer, Naheed Mustafa, peers into the house the War on Terror built. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 3, 2021.

Stakes are high for readers and scholars as the identity of a groundbreaking poet, Louise Labé, is debated in France and beyond. Sexy, wry, and bold, her poems cut across time. They also upend assumptions about how female desire was expressed in the past. *This episode originally aired on October 1, 2020.