Ideas

The Trump administration has been targeting higher education for some time now — freezing grants and filing lawsuits against leading universities. But these threats are not limited to the U.S. and there are growing concerns about a potential spillover effect on Canadian campuses. In this podcast, host Nahlah Ayed speaks with three panelists to explore what's at stake with the politicized attacks o...

How? Some scientists believe in the power of nuclear fusion. Environmentally, these machines would have the potential to meet our energy needs with zero carbon cost. But the other advantage is removing a significant motivation behind war — the control of energy sources. Think about it. The Middle East would look a lot different today. This podcast explores what the transition to fusion energy woul...

Elmina is a place in Ghana that poet Sarpong Osei Asamoah describes as a "two-sided wonder." A bustling, lively fishing town in contrast to the painful history of a 400 year old 'slave castle' — a UNESCO World Heritage site. Historically, it's considered 'ground zero' for global economic and racial injustice. This podcast takes you on a tour inside the dark and brutal past of the Elmina castle and...

The ancient Greek story of Jason and Medea starts as a love story and ends as a horror show — just the way the Greeks liked it. The met, fell in love, stole the magical golden fleece (a symbol of authority and kinship) and escaped like a primeval Bonnie and Clyde. Find out why one of our guests calls Jason "an absolute hypocritical pig of a husband" as IDEAS explores their turbulent relationship....

"AIDS exacerbates and accentuates inequality," Stephen Lewis said in his final CBC Massey Lectures he delivered in 2005. Back then the willingness of the world’s richest countries to help in the HIV/AID crisis was in question. The former ambassador to the UN and Canadian political leader died March 31st at 88. He will be remembered for his unwavering efforts to bring international attention to the...

The Queen of Sheba is a holy figure to some; a demon in disguise to others. Her indelible presence has haunted religious scholars and fuelled nationalist visions in East Africa and Southern Arabia. IDEAS explores the many afterlives of the Queen of Sheba — and how ideas about gender and power have shifted in each retelling of her life. Guest in this episode: Shahla Haeri is a professor of anthropo...

St. John Passion — the complex masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach tells the story of Jesus during his final days. It's a work that speaks to the heart of the Christian narrative, which itself lies at the heart of Western culture. Tafelmusik Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins and music broadcaster Robert Harris zoom in on the work from the conductor's perspective to show how the notes translate...

The guided principles on this list are based on Jesuit Bernard Lonergan's philosophy. His thought will likely shape the world for centuries to come, according to John Dadosky who has studied and taught Lonergan’s work for decades. It’s a bold statement to make, but as he points out, Lonergan’s talking about YOU. The prolific thinker dedicated much of his life's work to understanding human consciou...

The face we give to our monsters says much about our anxieties as a culture. But birds? Two classic works of 20th-century horror featured a violent avian army. This podcast looks at why a Daphne du Maurier short story, and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller inspired by it, imagined “The Birds” as humanity’s mortal enemy. Seeded with fears of technological overreach and environmental disaster, and terro...

There are 19 centibillionaires and a growing list of 3,000 billionaires worldwide. So it might not surprise you that the richest one per cent possesses nearly half of the world’s wealth. History has never seen such an extreme concentration of wealth. Some economists argue the battle of the 21st century is between oligarchy and democracy. How did we get here? IDEAS begins a four-part documentary se...

Earthworms are supposed to be a sign of healthy soil. But they're actually an invasive species that can even damage forests. So have we been sold a lie about worms and soil? Not exactly. The relationship between the two depends on the context. And the way we garden — or farm — can make all the difference. IDEAS producer Annie Bender unearths the complicated truth about the not-so lowly earthworm....

In more than 40 years on the front lines of international human rights Alex Neve has heard Canada described as ‘the land of human rights’ — and seen the profound ways Canada has failed to uphold universal human rights, both at home and abroad. In his final Massey Lecture, he lays out his vision for a way forward.

The bombing of civilians has been called one of the "great scandals" of modern warfare. So why, despite nearly a century of drafting laws and signing conventions protecting the sanctity of human life, does bombing civilians remain a widespread military tactic? IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa looks at a century of bombing civilians to try and answer that very question. Guests in this episode: Yuki Ta...

"Our democracy is what’s at stake," says Karen Hao, an engineer who used to work in Silicon Valley. Now she’s an outspoken critic of its AI giants. The investigative journalist argues AI companies run their businesses like empires and it has to stop. In her 2025 bestseller, Empire of AI , Hao digs into the global impact of Big AI and explores how we need to rethink AI to build a better future. Thi...

Fact and fiction may seem poles apart but writers Esi Edugyan and Tiya Miles find the two intertwine perfectly in their award-winning storytelling. Both authors try to imagine past lives in their work, in part so that we may reimagine our own. They may operate in different realms but what they share is the telling of profoundly important stories that would otherwise go untold. It's been a longtime...

Poetry can find you when you need it most. It can be life-altering to read that poem just at the right moment. It was for six IDEAS producers who join Nahlah Ayed in studio to share poems they return to, year after year. This special episode is to mark UNESCO's World Poetry Day, March 21st.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that universal human rights begin in “small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world.” In his fourth Massey Lecture, Alex Neve reflects on moments when people power won the day. * Read this article to learn about the "most powerful" moment in Alex Neve's 40-year-career.

A case before the Supreme Court of Canada is challenging Quebec’s law on secularism. Legal scholar Benjamin Berger is a prominent voice in the study of constitutional and criminal law in Canada. He argues secularism "is a concept that hides more than it shows." In this podcast, Berger examines how secularism obscures the impact of religion on our legal and political systems. "We end up speaking ab...

If journalist Vince Beiser had his way the term 'clean energy' wouldn't exist — it's a misnomer. He argues green energy comes with cost. Sure, solar power or wind power are both better than power from fossil fuels but Beiser points out they are still harmful to the planet and people. "There's no magic solution." Beiser tells IDEAS we need to shift to renewable energy but we also need to recognize...

Port cities are where worlds collide. They are a place of cultural, economic, political and religious contact. They've existed for millennia and facilitated the birth of empires and the rise of a globalized economy. Without port cities, our world would look very different. In the first episode of our series on how port cities shaped the world as we know it, UBC journalism professor Kamal...

“One of your tribe is enough.” That’s what Margaret Rossiter was told when she said she wanted to study female scientists. Nevertheless, Rossiter persisted. She found and documented hundreds of women whose contributions to science had been overlooked, under-credited and misappropriated. Then she made history herself by coining the term “The Matilda Effect” to describe why those women failed to get...

Our inherent human rights belong to us from the moment we are born. There is nothing we need to do to earn them, and they are supposed to apply to us until the day we die. But in his third Massey Lecture, Alex Neve argues the powerful have made human rights a ‘club.’ Visit cbc.ca/masseys for more on this lecture series.

One of the strongest ties between the diaspora and home is music. In Iran, music can be politically contentious. In Canada, it connects a community to its past and to its future. Days after the bombings began in Iran, Nahlah Ayed spoke to three Iranian-Canadian musicians and composers about the role of music in a time of uncertainty. "Music can be an escape, can be a consolation... Like if we are...

Anxiety is an inescapable, fundamental human reaction to an unpredictable future. This is the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, a curmudgeon of the 17th century who believed that without a powerful, sovereign government life would be "nasty, brutish and short." Politics and uncertainty go hand in hand. In this podcast, IDEAS explores how a new take on Hobbes on the topic of anxiety offers a surprising...

Mathematics is everywhere: a common refrain from high school math teachers. But did you ever think math could be linked to literature? And not just in works from the literary greats of the past but for example Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park . The relationship between math and literature are fundamentally creative, says Sarah Hart, a mathematician and author who speaks to Nahlah Ayed about how th...