Ideas
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Ideas
IDEAS is a place for people who like to think. If you value deep conversation and unexpected reveals, this show is for you. From the roots and rise of authoritarianism to near-death experiences to the history of toilets, no topic is off-limits. Hosted by Nahlah Ayed, we’re home to immersiv...
Recent Episodes
363 episodes
Massey Lecture Part 3 | Human rights don’t have to be earned
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...
The power of music in the shadow of Iran
One of the strongest ties between the diaspora and home is music. In Iran, music can be politically contentious.
In Canada, it con...
How anxiety over today's democracy is political
Anxiety is an inescapable, fundamental human reaction to an unpredictable future. This is the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, a curmudgeon of the 17th ce...
How mathematics is essential to literature
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...
What if your favourite food became extinct?
It is possible. Flavours have been lost to the past, as culinary physicist Lenore Newman explains. She points to the extinction of the passenger pigeo...
Massey Lecture 2: The six years that remade human rights
The ideals behind the concept of human rights — such as the sacredness of life, reciprocity, justice and fairness — have millennia-old histories. Afte...
Lessons from the women of Iran's 1979 'stolen' revolution
At a time when the future of Iran is uncertain, we revisit an IDEAS documentary about the history of women’s resistance in Iran — women who in 1979 ha...
God, parades and authoritarianism on the streets of Georgia
Accusations of a stolen election, laws targeting NGOs and media, violent treatment of protestors — sometimes live on TV. What’s happening in the repub...
Wait, so addiction might not be a brain disease?
That’s what Hanna Pickard argues. After analyzing the scientific research, and working with those who’ve stopped self-destructive drug and alcohol use...
'Accidental activist' links resource extraction to MMIW
Connie Greyeyes describes herself as an ‘accidental activist.’ After her cousin was murdered and her childhood best friend went missing, she started o...
Massey Lecture 1: Renewing the promise of human rights
Universality is the core promise of human rights: these rights extend to everyone, everywhere. But above all else, this is where we have failed. In hi...
The suffragist who was too radical for Susan. B. Anthony
You likely have never heard of Matilda Joslyn Gage. Gloria Steinem calls her “the woman ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.” Matilda work...
How can we prevent AI from becoming a menace?
There are two things most people agree on — artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, and the grave risks AI poses are very real — no one, not eve...
What will happen to us when the internet dies?
And it is dying. At least for us, humans. Our chatter and connection online is being overrun by bots — more than half of online activity is non-human....
When your grandmother is accused of being a 'fascist spy'
It was a simple honeymoon photo from 1941. A stranger posted it online and the commentary was vicious. The woman in that picture was Albanian author L...
The people who inspire Alex Neve to fight for human rights
When he was eight, 2025 CBC Massey Lecturer Alex Neve watched his mother fight for daycare in Alberta. It’s shaped how he thinks about human rights ac...
With a decline in reading is our capacity to think eroding?
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, coup...
Why AI needs to be nicer to us and develop 'maternal instincts'
If AI continues to develop without appropriate guardrails, a worst-case scenario could lead to human extinction, warns the 'godfather of artificial in...
Why winter does not justify ditching your bike for driving
IDEAS producer Tom Howell recently sold his car and joined the ranks of winter cyclists in Montreal. He is not the only one who commutes on bike in No...
From tests to sports, why we choke when it matters most
Under pressure, our nerves can take over. At job interviews, performing in front of an audience and it's definitely present in sports. But why do our...
How a man escaped slavery by mailing himself to freedom
Henry Brown earned the name "Henry Box Brown" in March of 1849. He hatched a risky plan and had himself shipped in a wooden crate, from Richmond to Ph...
What Chinese science-fiction has to tell us about reality
With vengeful alien civilizations and hologram wives, Chinese science fiction is in its heyday. One hot topic discussion is how the genre and culture...
Why only the will of the people can save democracy
Neither the legal system nor the Constitution can change the course of the United States’ descent into illiberalism, argues human rights and civil lib...
To mudlark is to scavenge for a piece of history to keep
Mudlarking is a hobby that's having a moment. The opportunity to take part in the painstaking, low-tech scrape through history draws thousands of peop...
How a natural catastrophe 8,000 years ago may have fueled Brexit
For the first two billion years, the Earth didn't have oxygen. That's just one of the many fascinating details Peter Frankopan reveals in his book, Ea...
The trailblazing all-Black baseball team that made history
More than a decade before Jackie Robinson became the first Black player to take the field in Major League Baseball, a ball team from a small Southwest...
Following the wisdom of water to remake an unravelling world
Water has been "a powerful teacher" for Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a member of Alderville First Nation north of Lake Ontario. Wit...
Why the Monroe Doctrine has world leaders on edge
Firstly, you might ask: What is the Monroe Doctrine? It's a U.S. policy created in the 19th century that opposes foreign interference in the affairs o...
How to develop 'in the zone' hyper focus
You've likely experienced it: that state of being in the groove, on a roll, lost in the process. It's what researchers call 'flow': a state intimately...
How 'soft power' can be flexed in shifting geopolitics
"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," Canada's Prime Minster Mark Carney said in a recent speech at the World Economic Forum. The shif...
PT 2 | An injustice system where 'you can buy your way out'
Our justice system was developed under the assumption that both parties in a dispute would each have a lawyer. But the reality is most Canadian's can'...
PT 1 | An injustice system where 'you can buy your way out'
Marcell Wilson knows how to game the criminal justice system. He's been charged upwards of 30 times for what he says were “mostly violent crimes" and...
Can empathy be dangerous?
It depends on who you ask. Until recently empathy was generally considered a positive thing. But a growing number of mostly conservative voices believ...
Why AI needs limits so humans can flourish
"You're awakening a dragon. Public anger is stirring." A warning from Rutger Bregman to Silicon Valley. The historian is sounding the alarm over the e...
Can a trucker's life entice young people to take the wheel?
Jacques Picotte used to drive 16 hours straight, with only water and a bag of chips in the cab before resting at a pit stop. That was 20 years ago. He...
How Britain caused Ireland's Great Famine
The potato and the Irish Famine of 1845 will forever be linked. But what's often overlooked is how deeply connected the potato was to British colonial...
Birth gives us life. But do you know its history?
We are all born. Birth is the story of us all. So why aren’t we more curious about its history? That's what historian Lucy Inglis wanted to know. She'...
How a 'conspiracy of decency' could build a better future
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...
It's time for a 'moral revolution.' This is a call to action
We live in an "age of immorality," argues historian and author Rutger Bregman. "The moral rot runs deep across elite institutions of every stripe," Br...
What makes left-handers special?
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 eleme...