Ideas

What's the secret weapon to make political change happen? It's not a trick question, it's simple: perseverance, says BBC Reith Lecturer Rutger Bregman. The historian envisions a "realist utopia" in this lecture and asks listeners to join what he describes as a “conspiracy of decency" — a world where Universal Basic Income, fairer taxation and stronger tech regulation can start to build a...

We live in an "age of immorality," argues historian and author Rutger Bregman. "The moral rot runs deep across elite institutions of every stripe," Bregman says in his first BBC Reith Lecture. His series of lectures describes why he is calling for a moral revolution to counter the culture of cynicism and un-seriousness among global elites. Bregman says history has proven how small determined group...

This podcast seeks answers to the question. If you are left-handed then you are part of the 10 per cent of humankind that detested craft time in elementary school that involved scissors. Left-handed people often have to accommodate their difference in our dominant right-handed world. But that can get tricky if you are training to be a surgeon. Operating rooms and surgical instruments become big ob...

Think of science's most momentous developments in the 20th century — Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum physics, finding evidence of black holes. If you trace the chain of discoveries that led to these breakthroughs back far enough, you’ll end up with the Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli says we can learn a lot from Galileo today. He expla...

"This is a hopeless situation but we are not helpless." This is what drives Sudanese journalist Yousra Elbagir's reporting on her homeland's forgotten war. She uses what she calls "human reporting" to let the world know Sudan is more than conflict and suffering. "Sudanese generosity is our lifeblood. That's what's keeping us alive right now. We are actually surviving in forced starvation through g...

Rome fell, because of... divorce. Or was it immigration? Maybe moral decay. IDEAS producer Matthew Lazin-Ryder explores the political history of 'the fall of Rome' — a hole in time where politicians, activists, and intellectuals can dump any modern anxiety they wish. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 11, 2024.

"Those who remember the disappeared would also disappear." Under dictator Bashar al-Assad, grieving publicly in Syria was punishable. Now the silenced stories of lost loved ones are emerging and there are public spaces to grieve. Syrian architect Ammar Azzouz's friend and colleague Taher Al Sebai was killed on his street in 2011. After 14 years in exile, Azzouz returned home and says it's not just...

Prior to riding horses, no one wore pants. There's a lot to thank horses for in our daily lives. From the Hollywood motion picture to life-saving vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus. Historian Timothy Winegard argues horses are intertwined in our own history to the point that we overlook their importance. His research explains how they shaped societies, economies and cultures. Without us, horses w...

It's getting pretty difficult to read any article online without a paywall in the way. What happened to the internet's great promise to democratize knowledge? On an individual basis, artists, writers and scientists can create without fear of theft thanks to copyright laws. But in practice copyright laws set up barriers, stifle production and prevent equal access to art and research. In this podcas...

We gorge ourselves on the internet, smartphones, social media, information overload — all of it constantly sap us of our emotional and intellectual vitality. Authors Pico Iyer and Jonathan Haidt argue it's vital we disconnect from our addictive online world to pursue a fulfilling, and richer life. By curtailing the noise of technology, media and other worldly distractions there's space to reconnec...

Holmes Rolston III began his career as a Presbyterian minister. But his love of the natural world — and his belief in evolution — didn't sit well with his congregation. He was ultimately fired. The late philosopher spent much of his career working to bridge the gap between science and religion because he said "the future of Earth depends on it." Rolston is the pioneer of environmental ethics, a tu...

Maria Chapdelaine: A Tale of French Canada is one of the most widely read works of fiction ever written in French. It's considered the world's highest-selling French book. Yet today, the 1913 novel remains far less known in English Canada and the English-speaking world. Translated into over 20 languages, the book's character Maria and her story has inspired four film versions, several plays, an op...

Would you 'doo-be-doo' if you know it would help bridge divides? Try vocal improvisation — singing sounds, rhythms and melodies. PhD candidate Erwan Noblet teaches the practice and says it's a great way to open up and connect at another level being together. He believes the human voice has the power to communicate creatively when it's released from everyday verbal tasks. We asked three former poli...

What do you get when you take some of the classic Enlightenment values like reason, fairness, and justice, and substitute them with opinion, privilege and power: The Dark Enlightenment — a movement that is a deliberate oxymoron with a vision to dump democracy and replace it with start-up cities run by CEOs. American blogger Curtis Yarvin, also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is the founder...

Bioethicist Arthur Schafer has thought a lot about life and death. He's helped shape policy on medically assisted death (MAID) in Canada. The philosophy professor argues that an ideal end-of-life legislation would respect individual choice and the wishes of individuals to die according to their own values. "The best ethical argument is that patient autonomy is a fundamental value," Schafer told ho...

Today we bring you our annual New Year's Levee looking ahead at episodes in the works to keep your curiosity satiated. You can anticipate a fresh roster of IDEAS programs to inspire new ways of understanding our world. From the phenomenon of the ‘27 Club’’ to exploring literature from Labrador, to social media influencers who push their intellectual pursuits, find out what our producers are cookin...

Kritika Vashishtha has been pursuing a cure for jet lag and it's possible she's found the answer. The Canadian aerospace engineer recently invented a variety of light that fools human bodies into switching time zones while aboard an aircraft. She shows two IDEAS producers around her laboratory inside an airplane to explain how the process works. Kritika plans to direct her discoveries towards maki...

If we weren't so used to having books, we would think of them as a "miracle." That's how historian Irene Vallego views what she says is humankind's greatest and most influential invention: the book. "With their help, humanity has undergone an extraordinary acceleration of history, development, and progress," she tells host Nahlah Ayed. Vallego has traced written texts back to their earliest origin...

When Darren Hamilton began university, he was shocked to find that there were no Black music courses and Black music professors. He grew up singing spirituals every Sunday in church. Now at the University of Toronto, Hamilton teaches Gospel Choir, U of T's first credit course in Black gospel music. Students of all backgrounds and ages come to learn and sing songs rooted in faith, freedom and joy....

If you think you've never heard Jerry Granelli play drums — you likely have. Think of a comic strip holiday special and an iconic soundtrack: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Jerry was 22 years old when he became a member of the Vince Guaraldi Trio, the jazz band behind the popular 1965 album. His long career was legendary, accompanying many of the greats like Mose Alison, Sly Stone and The Grateful Dea...

Handel’s Messiah is one of the best-loved pieces of Christmas music. Only it was meant for Easter. But it draws on far more from the Old Testament than the New. There are more surprising facts about this 18th-century masterpiece that IDEAS explores with Ivars Taurins, founding director of the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir who has conducted Messiah over 200 times, and veteran CBC Radio broadcaster Rober...

The nativity story that Christians believe is that God took the form of a baby named Jesus who was born to save the world and bring about an enduring peace. So what happened? Did we miss it? And what happens next? These are questions Trappist monk Thomas Merton grappled with in his own meditation on the Christmas story. His version "The Time of The End is the Time of No Room" was published in 1966...

In an era of political polarization and fatigue from ongoing crises, hope is critical. But it's not something you have; it's something you do, argues education scholar Kari Grain. "Critical hope" in action is not just the belief that transformation is possible — it's necessary. In her book, she explores seven principles for practicing hope that confront toxic positivity, social injustices, and giv...

Indigenous math isn't just about numbers and equations, it involves culture, spirituality and more. Math professor Edward Doolittle, a Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario, sees math as something embedded in Creation itself. In his Hagey Lecture at the University of Waterloo, he describes Indigenous mathematics as being grounded in cognition, emotion, the physical world and community. Indigenizing m...

"We are the monsters" — that's the premise for the genre of film known as body horror — movies that fixate on monstrous and grotesque changes to the body. There have been good body horror films and bad ones, but "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis was perhaps the most consequential. The movie captured anxieties around bodily autonomy and physical decay, just as the AIDS epidemic...