Ideas

The process of making peace is often imperfect, and can shape the future in both positive and destructive ways. In a five-part series called Inventing Peace, Nahlah Ayed asks panelists to reflect on one pivotal 20th century effort to make peace, and its relevance for our own time. This first episode focuses on the “constructive ambiguity” of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998.

Thanks to AI, it's easier than ever to avoid reading books — but that convenience may come with a cost. IDEAS explores how our digital landscape, coupled with the decline of reading, is changing the way we think. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 19, 2026.

If you like this episode, listen to our podcast with Geoffrey Hinton, the 'godfather of artificial intelligence' who says AI must develop empathy and 'maternal instincts' or we risk human extinction.

Guests in this episode:

Adriaan Van der Weel is a professor emeritus by special appointment at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He's also the co-author of The Ljubljana Manifesto on Higher-Level Reading.

Maryanne Wolf is director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and the author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).

Naomi Baron is a professor emerita of World Languages and Cultures at American University and the author of Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters (2026).

Leah Sargeant is an author and senior policy analyst at the Niskanen Center.

Shannon Vallor is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also appointed in Philosophy. She is the author of The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (2024).

Whether mechanical or digital, a button delivers the promise of power — but it's far from simple. The small and mighty technology has a riveting history, a story of control, power, freedom and oppression. From the podcast Media Objects, this episode traces the evolution of the button, and asks what happens when every command is reduced to a single press. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 13, 2025.

Jeans are a quintessential fashion staple for the Canadian tuxedo — and a symbol of rebellion. But the world's most popular garment comes at an environmental cost. It takes around 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans. And that's not all. Fashion expert Pedro Mendes explores the 150-year history of jeans and the 'authenticity' they are supposed to represent. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 13, 2019.

Read: How jeans became one of the most polluting garments in the world

"Geometry is the cilantro of math. People are not neutral about it," says Jordan Ellenberg. The mathematician is aware not everyone loves math like he does. But his book is not about the kind of geometry some people feel intimidated by. It's about geometry as a way of thinking. As a method of reasoning and argument. And as a system for making sense of the world. *This episode originally aired on May 11, 2022.

Guest in this episode:

Jordan Ellenberg is a mathematician is a child prodigy. He scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his college entrance exams — the SAT's — at the age of 12. He's a Guggenheim Fellow, a Harvard graduate, and a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He's also the author of Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.

If the house always wins, why do we play? This documentary asks experts and observers to reflect on the casino as reality and metaphor. Skill versus luck, attention and distraction, fortune paired with loss: the casino reflects us, individually and culturally, back to ourselves. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 21, 2019.

Read: Machines of Chance: How casino culture plays with us

Brutalism has become the subject of architecture tours, a coffee-table art book darling, and a highly sought-after living environment. But concrete is a complicated material, both appreciated and demonized. IDEAS explores the implications of Brutalism’s 21st century hipster aesthetic in a world of housing challenges, environmental crisis, and economic polarization. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 11, 2024.

Guests in this episode:

Joseph Bogdan is principal emeritus at BNKC Architects, Urban Design Consultants.

Elisabeth Bogdan is subject lead at Sotheby's Institute of Art London.

Stasia Bogdan is a senior leader for healthcare capital planning and design at Unity Health Toronto.

Nick Thoburn is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Manchester. He's also the author of Brutalism as Found: Housing, Form and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens (Goldsmiths Press, 2022).

Zahireen Tarefdar is a Toronto-based creative and enthusiast of the Ontario Science Centre.

Bogs, marshes, and swamps have long been cast as toxic wastelands, from the dead marshes in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to the vegetal monster from the DC comic. But in fact wetlands store more carbon than forests. Experts argue wetlands are crucial to our future. It's time to rewrite this squelchy story. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 17, 2022.

Humans used fire as a tool. Now we fear its destruction. But we're responsible for changing the climate, argues John Vailliant, "in a way that favours fire way more than it favours us." The author unpacks how fire made humans who we are — and how humans are changing fire in his book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.

*This episode originally aired on May 29, 2024.

In 1989 the Canadian government was set to spring into action to address climate change. “If we don’t move now, it will be a disaster,” said then-Conservative environment minister Lucien Bouchard. “We are dealing with the survival of the species.” This podcast features David Suzuki’s prescient radio series, It’s a Matter of Survival from nearly four decades ago. It includes conversations with notable politicians and environmental experts of the day.

Listen to the first episode in this series: Suzuki's Survival Guide | A Warning

For other episodes from David Suzuki's radio days, stream audio here.