Ideas

Our homes have been stripped of their essential humanity, says Leilani Farha, this year's CBC Massey Lecturer. Today housing has become a commodity — one fuelling the biggest industry in the world. In her lectures, Housing Inc.: A Global Takeover and Our Fight for Home , Farha calls on all of us to envision a new ideology for home — one rooted in dignity, humanity and law. “Home is required for hu...

What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot? From people who’ve married their bots or who grieve their loved ones with the help of AI, host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of the people who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds, and even beds. And asks what do we gain and what do we stand to lose? Our intima...

Sometimes the universe hands us a gift. Over the past year, our podcast listeners spent a total of 526,915 hours listening to our program. That's 21,954.8 days and that translates to 60 years of listening to us. So what better way to mark IDEAS ' 60th year then to look back on the highlights and lowlights of the past six decades. To give you a hint on some of the picks, on the bad list: online ide...

" IDEAS is often a surprise" says Cathy Pike. It's why she's been a longtime listener. To our delight, IDEAS was there for her just at the right time. After listening to an episode about Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophy about "the art of passing by," Cathy says she decided not to send an email that she realized she would have regretted. "The program gave me pause and I’m grateful for th...

This podcast features an all-star, and bestselling, lineup of CBC Massey Lecturers from the past decade: Payam Akhavan (2017) and the police officer who pulled over to the side of the road to keep listening; Sally Armstrong (2019) and the women’s rights groups listening to her talks in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and China; Ron Deibert (2020) and his conviction that ‘philosophical’ radio is more cruci...

That's not something you expect to hear in an interview. But the Harvard historian and author of All That She Carried , Tiya Miles did not hesitate to say these words to IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed. What prompted the bold statement comes down to a question — seemingly for Miles the perfect one to ask. Their conversation resonated with many listeners, including a potter in Australia who shares how this...

Not many people like to think about traffic but Joanna Oda says this very topic on  IDEAS in 2005 permanently changed the way she views medical care as a doctor. "It helped me understand how things that make sense for you as an individual contribute to a collective problem." She adds, the episode introduced her to the idea that one car has a big impact. This episode is the first episode in ou...

Numbers get their due credit in this podcast. Even if we're not aware of them, numbers are essential to how we experience the world. IDEAS explores the most bizarre, surprising, mind-blowing and fundamental numbers in the universe. This panel discussion was recorded live at The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. Guests in this episode: Asimina Arvanitaki is a particl...

For the past decade, Canadians have been split 50/50 on new pipelines — that's changed. Two recent opinion polls found roughly three quarters of eligible voters in Canada want at least one new pipeline built to export more fossil fuels. Yet, 70 per cent of people consider climate change a serious threat. IDEAS producer Tom Howell explores the incompatibilities and future scenarios. *This episode o...

Alexandria has been the source of invention, innovation, and beauty for millennia — capturing the imagination of Napoleon, the Prophet Muhammad and, of course, Alexander the Great. He envisioned a place that thrived on cultural, intellectual, economic, political and religious exchange. IDEAS examines the big ideas of this port city in Egypt with Islam Issa, author of Alexandria: The City That Chan...

If you inherited $120 million dollars, could you give away 75 per cent of your wealth? Abigail Disney did. She's an heiress to the Disney fortune. The philanthropist, filmmaker and activist offers an insider perspective into the twisted perils of extreme wealth — on society and the human psyche. Listen to more episodes in this series: Listen to Part One: How did we get here? Listen to Part Three:...

Egg freezing is considered a kind of "fertility insurance" for the future — a way to buy more time to make a decision about having a family. However, as IDEAS contributor Alison Motluk discovers, uncertainty around parenthood is just one of many reasons why egg freezing is one of the fastest-growing reproductive technologies in the world. She explores those reasons and digs into the social politic...

Renowned natural history writer Robert Macfarlane traveled to Ecuador, India and Quebec, pondering the question of whether rivers are living beings — the premise behind much of the movement to legally recognize the rights of nature. He found that the answer to that question is more complicated and wondrous — and more life-altering and world-changing — than he could have imagined. *This episode ori...

Even if you aren't a fan of Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , you know about the Tin man, the ruby red shoes and that the dog is named Toto. The classic story was an instant bestseller in 1900 and its popularity is still going strong with not one but a two-part prequel. For over 125 years, there have been derivative works of Oz, from Broadway musicals, films, comic books and more. IDEAS...

Ancient history just got an upgrade. Forget the ruins, empires and great thinkers of the Classical period and make way for escaped slaves, subversive pirates, and freethinking religious sects. These nonconformist communities rejected hierarchy and political order in favour of creating a more equitable society. Author, religious scholar and historian Christopher Zeichmann offers an alternative lens...

The yellow traffic light is a perfect example of imperfection — with intention. While driving you have to think fast. Do you speed up or stop, whether that means easily or slamming on the brakes? Every driver has their answer and what lies in the middle is a vast perceptual field. A great deal of thought has gone into the engineering of the ambiguous yellow light, as IDEAS producer Seán Foley foun...

North Korea is no place for evangelical Christians today. But when journalist Jonathan Cheng peeled back decades he found out Christianity is at the heart of the Kim family’s rise to power and continuing dynasty. Cheng has spent 15 years and two trips to North Korea to piece this all together. His book is called Korean Messiah. Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal,...

If you want to hear what a laughing rat sounds like this podcast is for you. From why the sound of laughter triggers us to join in, to how a laughing yoga class starts, to the difference between AHA and HAHA in science, IDEAS contributor Peter Brown takes us on a joyride to reveal the mystery of laugher. Will this podcast make you laugh? Most likely. But it's better than catching a cold. *This epi...

Africa is a centre of world history — a fact that's been deliberately obscured, says journalist Howard W. French. In this talk based on his book, The Second Emancipation , he explores the surprisingly early seeds of 20th century Pan-African thought, and how Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana went from reluctant student to influential leader of a free Ghana. Howard W. French delivered the Black History Month l...

From Joan of Arc to Kim Kardashian, and Davy Crockett to Donald Trump, celebrity culture has deep and wide roots. Famous people who elicited Kardashian-level feelings of love and hate in the public were present centuries ago — long before screens and social media. Though, as we find out in this podcast, they all share similar qualities. *This episode originally aired on June 30, 2022. Irina Dumitr...

Heated Rivalry , Love is Blind or Boyfriend on Demand all underline the global appetite for passionate swooning. But let’s not forget the source for all of it: the romance novel. It may have a reputation problem but sales in 2023 reached 39 million copies or romance fiction globally — ringing in at $1.5 billion dollars. The books and readership continue to evolve as popularity increases. What is i...

In the days before her medically-assisted death, journalist Elaine Dewar made it her mission to finish writing her book revealing ignored history. For more than three years, the author investigated how Canada's health care system cruelly mistreated Indigenous people — including forcing them to use segregated hospitals. Dewar's extensive research uncovers not only a shameful past, but that our coll...

For thousands of years, estuaries were central to Indigenous agriculture on the West Coast. Then, when colonists arrived, they diked many of these ecosystems to create western farmland. Now, Cowichan Tribes is working with a group of scientists and conservationists to restore an estuary as an ecosystem and a food system — and the project has sparked an unexpected controversy. At the heart of the d...

Simone Weil had a radical solution to end fascism that surged through Europe in the aftermath of the First World War: abolish political parties. She argued political parties were not democratic, they were dangerous. IDEAS producer Nicola Luksic explores the French philosopher's enduring insights to help us better understand the current political climate. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 20,...

It's safe to say right now the majority of us are feeling the pinch. Grocery and fuel prices are on the rise and the income gap between the wealthy, and everyone else, continues to grow. And yet, aside from the U.S., Canada is the strongest economy of the G7. A prosperous country doesn't necessarily translate to a fuller wallet for its citizens. Host Nahlah Ayed and panelists discuss how 'prosperi...