Ideas

By CBC

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Category: Society & Culture

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Subscribers: 2469
Reviews: 6
Episodes: 224

Louis
 May 23, 2025
Wonderful. Just wonderful.


 May 15, 2025


 Sep 25, 2024


 Apr 2, 2019
Thinking person's radio. Thanks Paul

James Dyer
 Jan 26, 2019
Great variety but always quality. Talented contributors

Alex
 Oct 8, 2018
thought provoking and exceptional content

Description

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 immersive documentaries and fascinating interviews with some of the most consequential thinkers of our time.


With an award-winning team, our podcast has proud roots in its 60-year history with CBC Radio, exploring the IDEAS that make us who we are. 


New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 5pm ET.


Episode Date
How our education system is far from its original ideals
Sep 12, 2025
Meet Alex Neve, the 2025 CBC Massey Lecturer
Sep 11, 2025
Public education was built on this key concept — now it's gone
Sep 11, 2025
How this 19th-century Indian feminist defied colonial customs
Sep 10, 2025
Why there's no place like Oz
Sep 09, 2025
Lessons from last century’s failed Mideast peace deal
Sep 08, 2025
How the principles of St. Augustine guide the Catholic Church
Sep 06, 2025
Are we 'born obsolete'? How technology makes us feel ashamed
Sep 04, 2025
What does it mean for a river to be ‘alive’?
Sep 03, 2025
What Chinese Science Fiction Has to Tell Us
Sep 02, 2025
# 1: What it took to end a 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland
Sep 01, 2025
The threat next door: How NATO’s newest members are preparing to defend against Russia (via The House)
Sep 01, 2025
How Brutalist architecture goes beyond aesthetics
Aug 29, 2025
Libraries are fighting for their freedom — and our democracy
Aug 28, 2025
Why PEI cares more than any other province about voting
Aug 27, 2025
Has the housing crisis shaken your trust in democracy?
Aug 26, 2025
Attacking our biggest fear — political polarization
Aug 25, 2025
#5: What makes a great conversation?
Aug 22, 2025
# 4: What it means to truly listen
Aug 21, 2025
#3: How a dispute can lead to unity
Aug 20, 2025
#2: What we can learn from our conversations with strangers
Aug 19, 2025
#1: Why we need to have a conversation about conversations
Aug 18, 2025
What a cultural genocide took from Indigenous people in Canada
Aug 15, 2025
How inequality is undermining liberal democracy
Aug 14, 2025
Why the power of technology relies on an adaptive mindset
Aug 13, 2025
How to think for ourselves — is it even possible?
Aug 12, 2025
A better world needs to be built on empathy: human rights scholar
Aug 11, 2025
Making space for moments of joy in dark times
Aug 08, 2025
Why is it so hard to embrace leisure time?
Aug 07, 2025
Why music — even sad music — is 'inherently joyful'
Aug 06, 2025
Why philosophy needs to ditch class, and go to a pub
Aug 05, 2025
How to flourish in a broken world
Aug 04, 2025
A lesson in hope and why we need to slow down
Aug 01, 2025
Who owns Outer Space?
Jul 31, 2025
Making the case for what a university could and should be
Jul 30, 2025
Why are women still outsiders in the trades?
Jul 29, 2025
Why doesn't our healthcare include the well-being of doctors?
Jul 28, 2025
How poetry offers insight into the meaning of life
Jul 25, 2025
How a novel saved the Inuktitut language from disappearing
Jul 24, 2025
Decades on, David Suzuki sees the same problem: human-first mindset (via Front Burner)
Jul 23, 2025
We have a moral responsibility to this planet: David Suzuki
Jul 23, 2025
Championing the quiet power of listening
Jul 22, 2025
Autonomy is vital to MAID law and the right to die: ethicist
Jul 21, 2025
Will the real Martin Luther please stand up?
Jul 18, 2025
Meet the original 'Father of Economics' — it's not Adam Smith
Jul 17, 2025
How anxiety over today's democracy is political
Jul 16, 2025
Is human intelligence overrated?
Jul 15, 2025
A lesson on why NOT to engage in polarized discussions
Jul 14, 2025
What rights do we need for our future?
Jul 11, 2025
Is our right to freedom of expression limitless?
Jul 10, 2025
Why are refugee rights not protected equally?
Jul 09, 2025
Is our right to privacy meaningless in this tech age?
Jul 08, 2025
Who has a ‘right to life’?
Jul 07, 2025
How did the Taj Mahal turn into a bouncy castle?
Jul 04, 2025
What you may have missed in this famous painter's artwork
Jul 03, 2025
The mysterious death of a great Canadian painter
Jul 02, 2025
Why Canadian patriotism right now isn't blind nationalism
Jul 01, 2025
The heart of Canadian pride shines through Joyce Wieland's art
Jun 30, 2025
Voices of a silenced history: inside Bulgaria's Gulag
Jun 27, 2025
We’re drawn to the beauty of the ocean. An artist reveals why
Jun 26, 2025
Why do people hate?
Jun 25, 2025
The most famous French-Canadian novel you've never heard of
Jun 24, 2025
How Jaws made us believe white sharks are real villains
Jun 23, 2025
Journalist Connie Walker on uncovering her family's dark history
Jun 20, 2025
How Latin translation made Western philosophers famous
Jun 19, 2025
Inside our loneliness epidemic
Jun 18, 2025
Perdita Felicien on how to navigate life’s biggest hurdles
Jun 17, 2025
The making of an ‘authoritarian personality’
Jun 16, 2025
Canadian universities as safe havens for scholars-in-exile
Jun 13, 2025
Black history, vividly told through the colour blue
Jun 12, 2025
How Indigenous ecology is reviving land destroyed by wildfires
Jun 11, 2025
How brutal wildfires are 'killing' Indigenous ways of life
Jun 10, 2025
The movement that unlocked a new masculinity – Dandyism
Jun 09, 2025
How Canadian nationalism died
Jun 06, 2025
The famously polarizing father of capitalism
Jun 05, 2025
What it’s like to discover you have ADHD after 50
Jun 04, 2025
What it means to fully embrace neurodiversity
Jun 03, 2025
Do books have the power to heal us?
Jun 02, 2025
Hallelujah! The transformative power of Black gospel music
May 30, 2025
Why we can’t live without the universal feeling of disgust
May 29, 2025
The philosophy behind why humans are so self-conscious
May 28, 2025
How the fear of fire is taking control of us
May 27, 2025
The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa
May 26, 2025
Bringing child sex abusers out of the shadows
May 23, 2025
Why our long term relationship with the U.S. is done
May 22, 2025
Where did modern news culture come from? Think Shakespeare
May 21, 2025
Champions of cormorants argue the water bird is unfairly vilified
May 20, 2025
The three ingredients in an autocrat's recipe for power
May 16, 2025
A pig was shot dead in 1859. It sparked a British-U.S. war
May 15, 2025
The trailblazing all-Black baseball team that made history
May 14, 2025
Russia’s constant craving for U.S. recognition
May 13, 2025
Her job is to find buried children at residential schools
May 12, 2025
The power of white evangelical Christians in MAGA politics
May 09, 2025
There's no potential danger of AI discrimination — 'it's here'
May 08, 2025
The one exception that makes killing civilians legal in war
May 07, 2025
The 2,000-year-old travel list to complete before you die
May 06, 2025
Canadian troops who freed the Netherlands from Nazis
May 05, 2025
What it means to call your loved one a ‘corpse’
May 02, 2025
The limitless mind and body of an 83-year-old super-athlete
May 01, 2025
How the American cowboy ignited the Republican movement
Apr 30, 2025
How horses shaped humankind, from wearing pants to vaccines
Apr 29, 2025
Elections results are in. IDEAS recommends World Report
Apr 29, 2025
Reality TV might be making you smarter
Apr 28, 2025
What it takes to become a ruthless tyrant
Apr 25, 2025
In the face of violence, do you radically 'turn the other cheek'?
Apr 18, 2025
New to IDEAS? Start here
Apr 18, 2025
How Hitler's 'favourite' reptile became a geopolitical symbol
Apr 17, 2025
Love or hate Elon Musk, 'we empowered him'
Apr 16, 2025
Spyware abusers can easily hack your phone and surveil you
Apr 15, 2025
Do you truly live in a ‘free’ society? It’s complicated
Apr 14, 2025
Why world maps illustrate an artificial reality
Apr 11, 2025
Need some Stompin' Tom right now to celebrate being Canadian? We thought so.
Apr 10, 2025
Democracies 'stay true to your values' tackling borders, says U.S. expert
Apr 09, 2025
How a network of journalists uncovered billions and toppled world leaders
Apr 08, 2025
Can you return home? This author says revision offers radical possibilities
Apr 07, 2025
How a conspiracy theory becomes 'real'
Apr 04, 2025
Loving Your Country in the 21st Century (Step Three)
Apr 03, 2025
Walk with us through a rare old-growth forest in peril
Apr 02, 2025
How Galileo revolutionized science to make way for modernity
Apr 01, 2025
Montreal's Confederate past revealed, from sympathizers to raids
Mar 28, 2025
Protecting childhood innocence is a disservice to kids, argues expert
Mar 27, 2025
Why a small town newspaper is thriving in a declining industry
Mar 26, 2025
A School that Feels like Home: Revitalizing Mi’kmaq Language in Cape Breton
Mar 25, 2025
How Iqaluit's learning institute gave a generation of Inuit adults a path back to Inuktut
Mar 24, 2025
Why Massey Lecturer Ian Williams Stays Open to All Perspectives
Mar 14, 2025
Wine with lunch? What's a reasonable amount of luxury?
Mar 13, 2025
We believe in artificial intelligence the same way we believe in ghosts
Mar 12, 2025
A rallying cry to extend human rights to our data-generating digital selves
Mar 11, 2025
How To Build An Empire: The Aeneid Guide to Understanding U.S. Politics
Mar 10, 2025
Believe in ghosts? Why people see spirits and sense visitations
Mar 07, 2025
Smell: Why This Invisible Superpower Deserves More Attention
Mar 06, 2025
How Inuit Storytelling and Modern Horror Fiction Come Together
Mar 05, 2025
Be Reasonable: Scholars Define Who Is and Who Is Not
Mar 04, 2025
How Christian ethics can inform a peaceful resolution to Russia’s war in Ukraine
Mar 03, 2025
Puro Cubano: The Meaning of Tobacco in Cuba
Feb 28, 2025
Our Bodies, Our Cells: An Audio Exploration of Life's Building Blocks
Feb 27, 2025
The UN at 80: Successes, Hopes, Failures, and Challenges
Feb 26, 2025
Remember the Last Time Canada Feared the U.S. Would Swallow It Up?
Feb 25, 2025
Why learn improv? Your unscripted mind can surprise even you
Feb 24, 2025
How the Outdoors Inspired Women to Become Trailblazers
Feb 21, 2025
The Passion of Émile Nelligan: Canada's Saddest Poet
Feb 20, 2025
Naming Life: The Race to Classify Millions of Unidentified Species
Feb 19, 2025
Writer Adam Gopnik on the Evolution of Antisemitism Into Anti-urbanism
Feb 18, 2025
Swinging and Singing: The Violin
Feb 17, 2025
Marriage and the Modern Woman: What It Takes To Say "I Do"
Feb 14, 2025
IDEAS Introduces On Drugs | A Troubled Relationship With Alcohol
Feb 13, 2025
Rights vs Deservingness: How We Decide Who Belongs
Feb 12, 2025
Dreaming of Better: Living With Bipolar Disorder
Feb 11, 2025
North on North: Stories from the Only Independent Publisher in the Canadian Arctic
Feb 10, 2025
From Grit to Glory: Canada’s First Black Woman Publisher
Feb 07, 2025
Indigenous Journalist Calls for a Revolution of Genuine Action
Feb 06, 2025
'Here lived Chava Rosenfarb' : A Profile of the Canadian Yiddish writer
Feb 05, 2025
The Amazing Henry Box Brown: From Fugitive Slave to Ingenious Entertainer
Feb 03, 2025
The Value of Group Therapy
Jan 31, 2025
Loving Your Country in the 21st Century (Step Two)
Jan 30, 2025
Becoming Aaju Peter: A Guardian of Inuk Language and Culture
Jan 29, 2025
PT 2: What Lies Beneath the Surface: Anthropologist Wade Davis
Jan 28, 2025
Inuit Approaches to Conversation and Conflict Resolution
Jan 27, 2025
Reith Lectures #4: Can we change violent minds?
Jan 24, 2025
Reith Lectures #3: Does trauma cause violence?
Jan 23, 2025
Techno-Utopia or The Billionaires’ Wet Dream
Jan 22, 2025
Searching for Truth: The Honourable Louise Arbour
Jan 17, 2025
Reith Lectures #2: Is there such a thing as evil?
Jan 16, 2025
The Never-Ending Fall of Rome
Jan 15, 2025
A Minor Revolution: Prioritizing Kids' Rights Benefits Us All
Jan 14, 2025
ARC Ensemble: The Forgotten Music of Exiled Composers
Jan 10, 2025
Reith Lectures #1: Is violence normal?
Jan 09, 2025
Woke Racism and the Language Police | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie & John McWhorter
Jan 08, 2025
What Lies Beneath the Surface: Anthropologist Wade Davis
Jan 06, 2025
Nine: A Number of Synchronicity
Jan 03, 2025
We Give You Five: Odd in More Ways Than One
Jan 02, 2025
The Story and Magic of Three
Jan 01, 2025
Join IDEAS for our annual New Year's Levee
Dec 31, 2024
Echoes of an Empty Sound: The Story of Zero
Dec 30, 2024
Fireside & Icicles — Poems for Winter
Dec 27, 2024
A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Musical Genius of Jerry Granelli
Dec 26, 2024
Christmas Philosophy 101
Dec 24, 2024
Apocalypse for Christmas: Thomas Merton and the Inn
Dec 23, 2024
What the Next 50 Years of Investigative Journalism Might Look Like
Dec 20, 2024
Imprisoned Syrian Wrote Poetry Imagining the Fall of the Regime. Now it's Come True
Dec 19, 2024
Manuscript Used to Eradicate Andean Thought is Now Key to Revitalizing it
Dec 18, 2024
The 2024 Killam Prize Honours Canada’s University Researchers (Part 2)
Dec 17, 2024
There's No Place Like Home: Humanity and the Housing Crisis
Dec 16, 2024
Hawkeye's Army: The War Metaphor in Medicine
Dec 13, 2024
What Should Cities of the Future Look Like?
Dec 12, 2024
Fighting for Climate Justice in The Hague: Payam Akhavan
Dec 11, 2024
Non-Aligned News: The Future of Non-Western Media, Part Two
Dec 10, 2024
Non-Aligned News: A Journalistic Experiment to Decolonize Global News
Dec 09, 2024
Fate Is the Hunter: Ernest K. Gann's Great Fortune
Dec 06, 2024
School Cars: How Trains Brought Classrooms to Children in Remote Communities
Dec 04, 2024
What It Means To Belong In The World: Writer M.G. Vassanji
Dec 03, 2024
The 2024 Killam Prize Honours Canada’s University Researchers (Part 1)
Nov 29, 2024
The 2024 Beatty Lecture Pairs Two Great Minds That Don’t Think Alike
Nov 28, 2024
Otherworld: Astonishing Tales of Romance in Medieval Ireland
Nov 26, 2024
A Harem of Computers: The History of the Feminized Machine
Nov 14, 2024
How Canadians Can Help Lead the Global Fight for Health Equity
Nov 13, 2024
Pt 2: Acts of Remembrance: Canadian Veterans Share Postwar Experiences
Nov 11, 2024
Pt 1: What Came After: Canadian Veterans Share Postwar Experiences
Nov 08, 2024
Do Dogs Feel Guilt? Animal Cognition Discoveries
Nov 05, 2024
Experts Say American Democracy is at a Precipice, and Time is Ticking
Nov 04, 2024
Can a New Conservatism Offer Solutions to Modern Social Problems?
Nov 01, 2024
The Role of Nonfiction in a World of Contested Truths: Writer Pankaj Mishra
Oct 31, 2024
Is Fascism Coming Back?
Oct 30, 2024
PT 2: How Journalism is Fighting Against Polarization
Oct 29, 2024
PT 1: How Journalism is Fighting Against Polarization
Oct 28, 2024
Indigenous Archaeologist Reclaims Pleistocene Epoch Story from Colonial Scholars
Oct 25, 2024
The History and Mystery of Left-Handers
Oct 23, 2024
The Marrow of Nature: A Case for Wetlands
Oct 23, 2024
The Living Dead: Art and Human Remains
Oct 21, 2024
Turning the Climate Crisis into Motivation, and Hope into Action
Oct 17, 2024
Dinner on Mars: How to Grow Food When Humans Colonize the Red Planet
Oct 14, 2024
The Invisible Shoes of Stutthof Concentration Camp
Oct 11, 2024
Loving Your Country in the 21st Century (Step One)
Oct 10, 2024
How the Anthropocene is Changing the Elements — and Us
Oct 09, 2024
October 8,1970: The FLQ Manifesto
Oct 08, 2024
Making Justice Imaginable: Lawyer Lex Gill
Oct 02, 2024
Left Is Not Woke: Susan Neiman
Oct 01, 2024
How Indigenous survival offers a blueprint for everyone’s future: Jesse Wente
Sep 30, 2024
Deliberation in a Time of Anger: Making Space for Collective Decision-Making
Sep 26, 2024
Gaston Bachelard's The Poetics of Space: A Place to Dream
Sep 25, 2024
The Heavy Metal Suite: Music and the Future of Mining
Sep 24, 2024
Bureaumania: A 'Granular' Look at Corporate Red Tape
Sep 18, 2024
For the Sake of the Common Good: Honouring Lois Wilson
Sep 17, 2024
Death and the Artist: Four Stories
Sep 16, 2024