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IDEAS is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. In the age of clickbait and superficial headlines, it's for people who like to think.
529 Episodes
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Younger generations in Nunavut today are less likely to grow up immersed in Inuktut. At a language school in Iqaluit, Inuit adults who didn’t grow up speaking Inuktut now have the chance to learn it as a second language at the Pirurvik Centre. By learning the words for kinship terminology, they’re also discovering things about their families they never knew.
1Ever felt that no one is really listening? In the first of his 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, novelist and poet Ian Williams explores why we need to have a conversation about conversations. His five-part lecture series confronts the deterioration of civic and civil discourse and asks us to reconsider the act of conversing as the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings. *The Massey Lectures originally aired in November of 2024.
In his second Massey Lecture, Ian Williams explores the power of conversation with strangers. He says humanity comes out when interacting with them. But how do we open ourselves up to connect with strangers while safeguarding our personal sovereignty? Williams believes we can learn a lot from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike.
Difficult conversations are almost always about something under the surface, and hidden. In his third Massey Lecture, Ian Williams illustrates what we’re listening for isn’t always obvious. He explains how personal conversations aren't about finding answers — it's for communion.
What makes a great conversation? The subject? Not so much. It’s more that it’s filled with layers and that you never really know where it’ll end up — how it will change you by the time it ends. Ian Williams delivers the final 2024 CBC Massey Lecture on the art of good conversation.
2024 CBC Massey lecturer Ian Williams speaks with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed about the forces that have shaped him as a thinker and writer, from the encyclopedias he read as a child in Trinidad to his years as a dancer to the poetry of Margaret Atwood. "I believe in multiplicity," he says. William's Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation in Our Time, will be available in our feed this coming Monday.
Is there a luxury you would never give up for your ideals? An all-purpose deal-breaker? IDEAS producer Tom Howell investigates how wanting a nice lunch in a restaurant intersects with morals and politics — with the help of a restaurateur, an economist, an anti-poverty campaigner, and a light golden Chablis. *This episode originally aired on June 24, 2024.
Hidden in the 1950 academic paper that launched the famous 'Turing Test' of machine intelligence, is a strange mystery. Cryptographer Alan Turing argued that humans might always be able to outsmart machines, because we have supernatural powers like ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis. His belief in the paranormal is just one part of the spooky side of artificial intelligence. Like hauntings or seances, AI is an exercise in self-deception; we imagine intelligence from computation and data, just like we imagine ghosts from strange lights and bumps in the night.
In this digital age, we must think of ourselves as stakeholders, playing a vital role in the creation of data, says Wendy H. Wong. She is a political scientist and winner of the 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for her book, We, the Data. Wong argues for a human rights approach when it comes to how our data should be collected, and how it can be used.
For leaders who built empires throughout history, Virgil's Aeneid has been a blueprint for how to take over land that belongs to someone else. Now when empires are making a comeback, it's worth asking if the epic poem is propaganda, or does it carry a message about the horrors of empire, too?
Sometimes, ghosts 'appear' for very human reasons. Loss, change, and grief can alter our perceptions of reality. In this episode, the reasons why ghosts are seen everywhere from new high-rises in Mumbai, to urban food courts, to a gay gym in San Francisco. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 25, 2022.
Smell has been called the 'Cinderella sense,' capable of inspiring profound admiration if we stop turning our noses at it. Producer Annie Bender examines what we lose when we take our powerful — but often misunderstood — sense of smell for granted. *This episode originally aired on June 3, 2024.
Examining the parallels between Inuit storytelling and modern horror narratives, writer Jamesie Fournier explores the importance of being afraid and how the other side comes back to haunt us for our own good. This episode is part of our on-going series called IDEAS at Crow's Theatre.
From the interpersonal to the societal: what is reasonableness? And in a democracy, how reasonable can we reasonably demand that others be? Five Canadian thinkers try to define what “reasonableness” means and what it is to behave and think reasonably. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 6, 2024.
How can religion help decode the motives for Russia's aggression against Ukraine? And how can Judeo-Christian ethics inform a way forward for peace? Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and historian of Central European politics Timothy Snyder explore these questions.
For many people around the world, Cuban cigars are a luxury. But for Cubans, they’ve symbolized the country’s rich history and culture. Now as an economic crisis is gripping the country and people are leaving, the cigar is a bellwether of Cuba's uncertain future. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 5, 2024.
Our bodies are a great paradox. We are made up of trillions of cells that are both independent and interconnected units of life. IDEAS travels into the microscopic complexity of the human body to explore sophisticated nanomachines — and probe the deep mysteries of a subatomic world. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 31, 2024.
In 1945, as the Second World War ended, the United Nations brought together 50 nations of the world. Their historic charter aimed to uphold international peace, security, and human rights. Today, the UN faces a lot of criticism, but Canada’s UN Ambassador, Bob Rae, still believes in it.
Four decades ago, trade negotiations in North America prompted great trepidation in Canada. IDEAS revisits a 1986 documentary by the CBC's Carol Off exploring a flurry of Canadian nationalism and patriotism brought on by fears that the U.S. was about to absorb Canada — a threat, once again, on many Canadians' minds.
Even Martin Luther King Jr. didn't know he had a dream — at least not until he improvised the most famous part of his 1963 speech. For many people, public speaking or standup comedy is horrifying. Even more so without a script. IDEAS explores the art of improv — a skill that isn't just for entertainment. It's tapping into a vast well of human potential, and maybe even making the world a tiny bit better.
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The archbishop fails to inspire. As usual the solutions of a church are concerned about the church first and foremost. And notably he is tone deaf when he invokes the removal of first nations children from their families in Canada that his Catholic Church was instrumental in promoting.
Brian Mulroney was a sell out for Canada.
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The wrongs shouldn't be forgotten, but it would be nice if you 1. acknowledged and celebrated the good parts of Canada's history even if it means saying something nice about a white dude and 2. where willing to openly talk about the wrongs committed by your own community.
The Romans collected taxes & slaves from the people they conquered. American colonists exploited slave labor. The US & Europe still exploit Africa & all other non-European people. They do not tax but instead lend, use cheap labor & exploit natural resources. These conquered countries become indebted, pay interest, and give up ownership of their land, mineral wealth, and send cheap laborers to the US. All residents of the US benefit from this system, some much more than others.All of us.
Empires are won and lost by militarism and exploitation. The first thing the colonists did on the way to founding the US was to fight a war against England over taxes. They realized they were being exploited. They in turn became the exploiters. First over the native population. They were enslaved and their lands were confiscated. Then Mexico. Then expansion into the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Pacific. This is what Rome did. The party ends when the costs of exploitation exceed the gains.
(23:47) “The Greeks were very important because they had their own notion, by the way, of Bildung. In Greek, the word is paideia. You can see the root, ‘ped’: children.”
The German word Bildung is used to describe Humboldt’s ideal for the education system he devised. The CBC Ideas episode refers to Bildung as (3:00) “a mystical concept from the Middle Ages that Humboldt reinterpreted and secularized, originally based on the Christian notion of holding the image of God within oneself in order to strive to be a better human. But Humboldt believed that it was education, not God, that could make one realize their full potential.”
35:29 “What is pathbreaking here is a new vision of humanity.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau “styled himself as a historian of the human heart. What he asserted was that there was this awful gap between what a person is and what he or she can imagine himself or herself to be. Children are inherently good, but society corrupts them. So, the job of education is to allow the child to freely develop his full multi-faceted capacities in accordance with his nature.”
The use of terms such as metaphor and mediation
sigh. Nothing but propaganda in this series. The creators haven't bothered to understand their subject instead feeding themselves and the audience a pre canned narrative that reaffirms existing beliefs
thank you for this validating episode.
3 or 12 different genders? oh please. can't listen no more bye
when you say reduce consumption and extraction, why isn't China and India part of those we point to reduce their emissions too?
Not to say Islamophobia isn't real either, but according to the guests here, it's *completely baseless* and there are no issues with Islam or the Muslim world that isn't the result of "Western colonialism."
I swear to god, CBC Ideas just invites the furthest left loonies on here. Abolishing the POLICE and ALL NATIONAl SECURITY agencies? No integration into a burning house? Give me a break lol
I hope that everyone who needs this episode finds it. I will be sharing this with all my loved ones and those I serve. Thank you.
I enjoyed the fuck out of this
turn down the obnoxious pipes
-Why aren't we teaching these happenings in our schools? All we got in the 1980's were the SAME black historical events/people every February & nothing else but the 'default' white, Euro-central history the rest of our education years. I'm very grateful to learn about these stories of African-American history that are rarely spoken of in our white dominated culture. And its ALL OF OUR histories here in the United States; the good the bad & the UGLY. Not just for & about one culture, race or color. Just because these past happenings may be 'uncomfortable' for some to hear & speak about does NOT excuse, or lend reason to; IGNORE, whitewash, manipulate or omit from our school system's/education curriculums. I sincerely believe that by teaching/learning more African-American history can benefit our country as a whole. Only by accepting America's tumultuous past will the nation be able to begin the process of healing & pave a new path, one that includes equality, respect & the same treat