Ideas - New Year's Levee | Episodes we're working on in 2026

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

As we welcome in the New Year, we eagerly anticipate a fresh roster of IDEAS programs to inspire new ways of looking at our world and understanding it. From the phenomenon of the ‘27 Club’’ to exploring literature from Labrador, to social media influencers who push their intellectual pursuits, join host Nahlah Ayed to find out what our producers are cooking up for the 2026 season.

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always over-delivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing.

Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo. This is a CBC podcast. Welcome to Ideas. I'm Nala Ayyad. And welcome to 2026. Happy New Year. Looking back for a moment at the year that was, it's hard to put a label on all the wisdom and lessons we've heard along the way, a phrase perhaps that could possibly wrap its arms around all the ideas we've contemplated. Maybe it's how to think about the world, or how to expand your mind,

or perhaps more precisely, how to cultivate an open mind. Here's what I know. This past year on ideas, author Leslie Jameson dropped by to talk deeply about empathy, planting the thought-provoking idea that empathy is complicated and maybe not as virtuous as we may think. Julian Napoleon on the Soto First Nation in British Columbia reminded us that letting go of the things our egos cling to opens us up to wonderful things we may not have noticed before, like the beauty that surely surrounds us every single day. Philosopher Charles Taylor expanded on the power of poetry and music

to help pursue meaning in life, and why trying to clarify unanswerable questions like the meaning of life is still worth pursuing. And historian Timothy Snyder revised our understanding of freedom, that while it's about being in a state to make our own choices, you can't become free on your own without the help of other people. That is just a tiny glimpse into the year that was, all still available on podcast, of course,

and a foreshadowing of what wisdom awaits you in this new year. It's a New Year's tradition here at Ideas for me to open up the studio to our hard-working producers to come and share a glimpse into the ideas they are pursuing in the coming season. The first to join me is Ideas producer Nahid Mustafa. Nahid, happy new year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year, Nala. I am really fascinated by this thing that you're working on. Tell us a bit about what it is that you are planning for next year. So I'm looking at intellectual influencers. And these are people that are out there on social media doing the hard work of public education. And it reminds me of my own use as a learner, but also it reminds me that

there is actually an upside to social media. It isn't all just doom and gloom. Validly, there's that critique that social media is killing off a lot of things like connection and deep thinking and the algorithms have us by the throat. But I think when you look at these pockets, there's a lot of good work out there, whether it's on TikTok or then moving their reels to Instagram. talking about the work that they're doing, at least a lot of the people that I follow, their PhD students, or they are people that are doing deep research on various subjects, their early career professors who have kind of grown up with the social media milieu, and they're really talking about deep connection.

And wasn't that the promise of social media back in the day? It was that it's going to connect all of us. Instead, it kind of ruined all of us. But I think that in this way, we're coming together. They're making connections. the things that you're seeing over here. Well, this is where they come from. And I think I'm like a lot of people where when I encounter something, the thing I want an answer to is, how did this happen? Where did this come from? This feels familiar, but I'm not quite sure. And these people are out there making those connections, much like the kind of work that ideas likes to do. Do you remember a kernel or a moment or a TikTok video or something that kind of sparked this inquiry for you? There's an account that I follow, a young man who's Irish, who basically tries to give an analysis of the kinds of cultural phenomena that we're seeing.

And it's tightly written. It's a fun, you know, presentation. It's smart and it digs deep. And it's things like, why do all the men have the same haircut? Why do I see all the guys on campus wearing North Face jackets? And really trying to place these cultural things that we're looking at in a moment. in time. And, you know, it really started to, I mean, maybe I'm a little old for that because I'm obviously many, many years removed from being on campus. But it still gives you an opportunity to think about what you're seeing in a way that's deeper than just taking it in and moving on to the next thing. It's interesting because the idea of influencers, it doesn't sit like something that's useful and maybe more aesthetic and less kind of substantive. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think we're used to, you know, there's an account on Instagram, influencers in the wild, just influencers doing terrible, terrible things or getting in people's way. And I think that's kind of where our minds go into this sort of shallow presence that's really kind of annoying and not really offering much.

Kind of self-absorbed. Kind of self-absorbed, but I think that that term, it is useful, I think, if we want to reclaim it in various ways. You know, we also see the reality of people in places that we don't have easy access to offering access into their own lives. They might be cultural influencers or travel influencers who are really interested in the kind of nitty-gritty of what they're seeing. I think we can always learn. Yeah, absolutely. So I know you're just beginning the inquiry, but are you actually going to speak to some of these influencers? Absolutely. And for me, there's also a connection because I grew up going to study groups and book clubs and teach-ins and trying to understand, you know, how I ended up, where I ended up.

My own family, my own history is a product of, you know, migration, colonialism, partition, immigration. And so much of this history was pretty much missing from my education. And so when I would go to these teach-ins and these book clubs and groups and really learn about how these histories converge, and it was really mind-boggling and eye-opening and all of those good things. And so when I encounter these influencers, we're talking about things that are not necessarily in my own milieu, it kind of feels joyful to still be able to learn new things and not get stuck in that. rut we're like, we know all the things. I love the thought of that. So what do you, what do you think makes us an ideas episode? I think it's very similar to the kinds of things we do on this show, where we like to talk about things as they've moved over time, as they've moved over space, trying to make connections between here and there and then and now. And I think

this is what a lot of these influencers are trying to do as well. And also offering, I mean, presumably their audience is a much younger demographic, the ones that spend a lot of time on social media, but offering them a way to understand the moment that they're living in. And I think that that's useful for all of us. And in our best days, that's what we're trying to do on this show as well. Absolutely. You're an influencer too. You have a piece of music that goes along with all this.

What are we listening to? I do. And it's called What Did You Learn in School Today by Pete Seeger. Oh, perfect. Thank you so much, Nahit. Thank you. What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I'll learn that Washington.

never told a lie. I learned that soldiers seldom die. I learned that everybody's free, and that's what the teacher said to me. That's what I learned in school today. That's what I learned in school. What did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? What

did you learn in school today, dear little boy of mine? I learned that policemen are my friends. I learned that justice never ends. I learned that murderers die for the crimes, even if we make a mistake sometimes. And that's what I learn in school today. That's what I learn in school today by Pete Seeger.

Suggested by Nehid Mustafa for her upcoming episode on intellectual influencers. Next is Ideas producer Pauline Holdsworth. Pauline, happy new year. It's great to have you here in the studio. It is so fun to be here. You are one of the busiest producers I've ever worked with. And I know you've got lots going on, but what is this episode that you're going to tell us about? What is it about?

So this is about Women of Labrador by Elizabeth Gowdy, which is the first book ever published by a Labradorian. And when we were in Happy Valley Goose Bay for the Massey Lectures this fall, we were thinking about what we could do. And John Gowdy, who's an amazing reporter there, said, why don't you do something on Women of Labrador? which is this really intimate portrait of the life of a trapper's wife in the early 1900s in Labrador and also captures this period of sweeping change. I love the idea of this book, but I'm just curious, what is it that compelled you about this story and about this woman, Elizabeth Gowdy? I always really love when we do these programs that are kind of intellectual biographies of a writer, a thinker,

somebody especially who perhaps a lot of the country has not heard about but should. And there are a few things that I found really compelling about Elizabeth Gowdy. The first is just I think when you read her words, there's such an immediacy and intimacy to them. And I was also really struck by the fact that this is the first book ever published by a Labradorian. So it is kind of the inaugural text of this new literature. And also, you know, the life of a trapper, I think, has been much mythologized. The life of a trapper's wife, less so. So the fact that even without a precedent or a record that she decided to commit her life to the page, I think is fascinating. So she really is kind of filling some gaps in the history. Yeah. It's so fascinating. So we've talked to a few people about Elizabeth Gowdy, but you've talked to someone I haven't heard. Who is it? So this is Jamie Jackman. Like everybody that we met in Labrador, he wears a lot of hats. He is doing a master's in Arctic and subartic futures at the Labrador campus of Memorial University, where he also runs this amazing center for northern boreal food systems. He's a poet. He's a musician.

And his first encounter with Elizabeth Gowdy and Women of Labrador was actually through song. Because this iconic book also inspired an iconic song with the same name, Women of Labrador, by the musician Andy Vine. And that was Jamie's first introduction. Music is how I come to know the world. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but it causes me to investigate. It causes me to become a geographer, a historian, a scientist and so much, a meteorologist,

because all I ever do is sing about the weather. But, you know, the first time I encountered that is probably because I listened to the song Woman of Labrador. And I wondered why at the beach festival here, for example, like everyone who went up played that song so I had to look into it and I found out who this person was how he was connected to the people that I knew

with the last name Gowdy and this thought this person is actually an embodiment of a lot of our grandmothers because you know a lot of us who have Inuit ancestry in Labrador trapping was a huge part of our tradition

my grandmother had 12 kids and my grandfather was a trapper he used to trap out of Adduk Bay down Shapio Lake And to this day, my cousins still do that. Trap is trapline. I think woman of Labrador, Elizabeth Gowdy's story, kind of shone a light on that partnership,

you know, a trapper, trapper's wife. And I think it's important. I think it's something that would have flown under the radar, except she wrote it down. One of the things that I have loved so much about working on this piece is that almost everybody that we met in Labrador has a story about this book and this person. and so often there's stories that lead to other stories about other women of Labrador.

So, Jamie's grandmother. And I feel like by getting to know her and her life, it is kind of this prism that has opened up all of these other women's lives. It's so extraordinary. And I love this, the way he described that this was a partnership that, again, filling in a gap of a part of a partnership that you never hear about. Yeah. And it's, I just want to read you if I can. Sure. I just also that people can hear her voice.

where she talks about kind of the difference between the life of a trapper and the life of a trapper's wife. Because for four or five months out of the year, she was alone with the kids while her husband was out on the trap lines and she wouldn't see him until he came home. So she writes, a trapper's life was not a lonely one because each day brought sights and new life. His wife would spend a more lonely time. She was always at home, but there was something about that life that is hard to put into words. It was a life not full of people or what people could offer you. You would rise in the morning. There were no people around you, but every day you had something to make you happy.

Wow. Beautiful. And the book is full of that kind of insight. It really is. And also, I think, in addition to being this very intimate portrait of daily life as a trapper's wife, everything from dealing with blood poisoning to berry picking, it's also really a meditation on change. You know, she experienced and witnessed this period of transformative change in Labrador. The Second World War and the arrival of the Air Force base in Guse Bay is a huge turning point.

She witnesses the arrival of all of these military and industrial projects, the Churchill Falls Dam. And she writes at one point that, you know, she has eight children. Four of them were really born and raised in the old life of Labrador. Right. And four in the new. So she straddles those periods and sees what is gained and what is lost in that process. Incredible. The story of Labrador in one family. Yeah. Yeah. So like Jamie, you also know a song that's connected to this story. What have you brought for us to listen to today? It's the same song, Woman of Labrador, which was originally written by Andy Vine. But as Jamie mentioned, everybody has a version of this song. The one that I'm particularly, particularly fond of is actually by Silver Wolf Band, which is Jamie's band. It is a four-piece

indigenous folk pop rock band from Happy Valley Goose Bay. And this is their version of Women of Labrador. Thank you so much, Pauline, for coming by. Thanks so much. Happy New Year. your cabin door wondering when Daddy will be home Well, he's gone on his trap in line

It seems like a long, long time Since he's waved his last farewell in And left you alone That was Woman of Labrador by Silver Wolf Band, suggested by Pauline Holdsworth for her upcoming episode on Labradorian author Elizabeth Gowdy. Happy New Year, everyone. I'm Nala Ayed, and you're listening to the idea's annual New Year's levy. This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers.

You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors, all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairbo.com. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the great Canadians. Oh, here you are. You're here and we're here.

No matter what race you were, what color you were, what religion you were, what language you spoke, you watched Mr. Dressup. The tickle trunk was this magical like Pandora's box. I'm tugboat Captain Dressup. Mr. Dressup, the magic of make-believe. You made me what I am today. You know that. Watch free on CBC Gem. Every new year, we gather together ideas, producers, and contributors to share a bit about what they're working on and play a tune related to the theme.

And from the snowy city of Montreal, I'm joined by Tom Howell. Tom, happy new year. Happy New Year. 2026, they're calling this one. 55 years until 2081 by my calculations. I'm always interested in your calculations. Tom. What are you working on for this brand new year? Well, you know, it's not irrelevant to what I'm working on that it's 55 years until 2081. When we talk about long-term thinking, and many complain

that our society and each of us as individuals are poor at long-term thinking, one of the reasons it seems to me is that long-term could be any amount of time, right? I mean, it's very hard to conceptualize long-term as something important to deal with. It's so vague. But when you read climate change forecasts for our century, you realize that long term has a specific time period. It is the last fifth of this century, which begins in the year 20181. And I find that to consider that the long term is coming at us on a specific date really focuses the mind. So it's caused me to think about all sorts of things, such as perhaps I should get rid of my car, which burns oil. And see, I live in Montreal where it's very snowy. And it appears that in order to want

2081 to be a sort of relatively warm and temperate and livable world situation rather than a sort of hellish and horrible one, it appears that most of us should not really be burning as much oil as we are. So you're doing your part? Well, I suppose. I'm curious to know, however, that here in Montreal, one of the reasons why, if you tell people you're getting rid of your car, one of the first things that people will say is, oh, so what are you doing instead to get around? And you'll say, well, I'm bicycling or something like that, right? And they'll say, oh, so what do you do in the winter? And the reason people ask this is that it seems that word has got around that bicycling in the snow is silly.

but however there are many people who believe that bicycling in the snow is wise and it seems to me that much depends on this question particularly for those who live in cities in Canada because let's just say 80% of the driving that we do doesn't need to happen you know we just don't need to be in cars at that time you know that's only true if bicycling in the snow through the winter is as viable as some people think it is so anyway I've taken it upon myself this winter to not only give up my car, but to go out bicycling in the snow and to speak to other people who bicycle in the snow. And the question that you're trying to answer here is? Is it silly? Is it wise? You should see, I might tailor and the person who sells me ribbons and buttons, who is a different person, both when I told them I was cycling in the snow,

expressed great concern for my safety, for my mental state, and presented all these reasons why bicycling in the snow is bad. So anyway, I should say that this is a documentary about the wisdom of bicycling and the snow that makes no pretensions to be unbiased. As you'll hear in the clip where I'm speaking to the YouTuber who has the channel called O'The Urbanity, a very popular YouTube channel about urban life in Canada, you'll hear in my prompting that I've abandoned the conventions of unbiased journalism for this. I'm fully bought in on the idea that cycling in the snow is sensible, necessary. we should all be doing it. And if you're on a car and you don't need to be, you're doing something wrong, you know?

Here I am talking to Patrick. We were riding around in the snowstorm in Montreal, very cold. Here we are. One of the most frustrating things, though, when it comes to criticisms of bike infrastructure, is that often people will say, our city has bike lanes,

but people don't use them. But because they don't have personal experience actually trying to get around their city, they don't realize that, number one, they probably get more used to anything. Yeah. But number two, there are often reasons why they don't get as much use as they could, meaning that they don't have very good coverage of the city. They don't go where people want to go.

They don't have very good protection. They stop and dump your own Rene de Lavec. Yeah. Whereas anybody who has experienced biking could point out all of these problems, but if you don't have this experience. You just see, oh, there's a bike lane over there. It's not getting used. You don't ask, does it connect to anything? Does it feel safe? Yeah. The problem with the bicyclist side of this argument, there's just too much wisdom with us. Tell us what you really think, Tom. Well, I mean, in case you're concerned that perhaps this is simply propaganda, I do include an interview

with the woman who sells me ribbons and buttons, who has been a business owner in my neighborhood for 40 years and has seen it all and has extremely strong opinions about the consequences of bike infrastructure for the ribbons and buttons business. She thinks it has a negative effect and she certainly does not approve of my wacky beliefs. And she will be representing the other side of the argument. So an attempt at balance. So as you say. What you need when you're cycling in the snow, I should say. Yes. So that's one of your projects. You have others coming up. What else are you working on? Well, you do know that in public service and to connect the population of Canada to its brightest young minds, we have this long-running series ideas from the trenches where we find a PhD student doing something interesting.

When I say we, it's me and Nicola Luxchich, my colleague here, and we take that student doing something interesting and we spend an hour finding out essentially why they're doing it because PhD students will all tell you one of the burdens of their lot in life is that they're. have a hard time explaining to their family why they're spending five years researching something very specific. In this particular one, this is something like our 41st, 44th even PhD student that we've featured in this series. This is a guy from France, actually, but he's studying here in Canada at Guelph, and he's doing a PhD on vocal improv. And we are finding out from him why he thinks vocal improv, which is making stuff up as you go along, as we are doing now, but with more music involved, why he thinks that teaching that and sort of spreading the wisdom of it as well is extremely salutary to society. One of the things we do, in fact, on the show is we get

some politicians from different parties to get together. And instead of debating, they vocally improvised together and make noises. We had to search quite hard to find Canadian politicians who were willing to do this. But they do it. And they were good sports. So this is actually, I didn't know, but vocal improv is a huge cultural sort of thing. It's taught people go to workshops for it. It's sort of like yoga. You know, it's a, it's a whole cultural world, which in North America is credited to the influence of Bobby McFerrin, who popularized the idea of singing in a circle together and making it up as you go along. Bobby McFeran, you'll know, the most famous for giving us the hit song in the, I think it was the 80s or 90s, don't

worry, be happy. So I can only, I can just guess, which. song you're bringing to this show. Oh, we should play that one for sure. Yeah, that's much better than playing a song about bicycling that I wrote. But yes, Bobby McFerrin's, don't worry, be happy. Although it is not itself improvised. You can hear all of the techniques that he uses in his circle singing. And he wrote that song actually while he was kind of devising the circle singing improv style that became a revolution across our lands. And like vocal improv, might also be a prescription against political polarization. Tom, thank you very much.

Thanks, Nella. Here's a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for note. Don't worry. Be happy. In every life we have some trouble. But when you worry, you make it double. Don't worry. Be happy.

Don't worry. Be happy now. Don't worry. Be happy. Don't worry. Be happy. An artist who has inspired vocal improv singers around the world. Back here in Toronto is Chris Wadskow. Chris, happy new year. Happy new year to you. So what are you working on early this fine 2026 year?

The number 27 in 26, actually. Yeah, as you know, we did a series last year on numbers. Yep. Five different numbers. And we're going to continue that. I believe you have one as well. I do, I do. We're not going to, it's not, there's no spoiler here.

We're not going to tell you one. But yes, I do remember the series. We're doing a new version. Yes. And one of the numbers in the original series was three, the magic number. Yep. And so one thing about the number 27, which occurred to me at one point, was it is three to the power of three. That's right.

So you would think, like, this is an order of magnitude of greater magic. Not so much, though, as it turns out. But the genesis of this is just kind of weird and idiosyncratic. It was just that as a kid, one of my heroes was Daryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and he wore number 27. And I always liked the way it looked on the back of a jersey. And then decades later, my favorite baseball player was Vladimir Guerrero Sr. Right.

Also 27. And I started noticing. that an awful lot of great athletes seem to be number 27. And I thought, what is going on there? And, of course, you know, Vlad Jr., also number 27. So that's where it came from. And then sometime a few years ago, when there were all these anniversaries of rock star deaths, some of the more sorted or tragic ones like Janice Joplin, Jim Morrison,

Jimmy Hendricks, Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. They were all members of what became known as the 27 Club. Oh, my God. Later joined by people like Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse and pre-deceased decades earlier by Robert Johnson, arguably the greatest and most influential blues men of all time. And they all died at the age of 27. And so it became known as the 27 Club.

And so that tweaked my key. curiosity into what's going on with this number as well. Well, now I want to know what's going on with this number. So how far into the inquiry are you? And do you have any answers yet? Inconclusive. Because, you know, the number 27, in terms of the 27 club, it really is a coincidence more than anything else.

And the thing that united all these musicians was the fact that they were iconic. And they were countercultural and quite groundbreaking, innovative, restless, creative souls, but also doomed. There was this aura of doom around them, lots of substance abuse. Their deaths were, one thing, they all died alone, you know, and there's something very, very sad about all their deaths. So it's kind of difficult to disentangle their deaths and the mythology around them from the fact that they died very young.

and that might have invested a greater significance to their lives because they never became old and boring and, you know, they never did a reunion tour when they were in their 60s or something like that, where we'd look back and roll our eyes and say, ugh, they should have quit when they were, you know, in their 27. So there's that. But what I became interested in is whether there's something about the age 27 that's of particular significance. And if you think about it, there are.

are two areas where people who rise to prominence and a great deal of fame and cultural significance peak in their 20s, generally speaking. And that would be music and sports. How interesting. Yeah, because you think like a 27-year-old writer would be, you know, you think of them as very young. And 27-year-old politician is incredibly precocious and so on. But sometime around 27. And in fact, there have been studies that have shown this, as I've discovered, the median age for Olympic athletes is 27. Wow. I started seeing the phrase age 27 season quite a bit, so where baseball is concerned in particular, and I'm a bit of a stats geek.

And so I'd look at people's career trajectories, and you see an awful lot of them just plateau around 25, 26, and then either they peak at 27 or after 27. the slide begins. And then it becomes precipitous around 30. And here's a fun fact. Flaggaro Jr., number 27. Yeah. Guess how old he'll be this season? I was just going to ask you that question, and I was going to begin it by saying, fun fact, how old do you think he is? 26. He is right now 26, but this is going to be his age 27 season. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. Yeah. Did you ever see that photo of him with his father? Yeah, exactly. And there's also this amazing moment when the Blue Jays played an exhibition game at Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

And when Vlad Jr. comes out, and when he's announced, and he comes out wearing 27, and the crowd goes crazy. Because, of course, Flagg Road, Sr. was one of the all-time great expos. Do you remember what you were doing when you were 27? I've been trying to forget it. I was, you know, I was discovering that I was completely, out of my depth at a PhD program at York. And it was not an easy year. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's put that aside. I know you've brought something for us to listen to, some music, that kind of embodies the number 27, perhaps. Indeed, it's, as I mentioned,

Kirk Cobain, the singer-gatarist for Nirvana, died at the age of 27. And so we're going to hear not the most famous Nirvana song, but my favorite, on a plane. Chris, thank you so much for coming by. Thank you. This was fun. And may this be finally a better year than the previous one. Agreed. I stopped in a song without any words.

I got so high. Strat's till I plan. Love myself. Better than you. Know it's wrong. What should I do? The finest day that I've ever had. It's when I learned.

Cry on the man. Love myself better than you know it's wrong. What should I do? I'm on a plane. I can't complain. I'm on a plane. That was Nirvana and On a Plain to coincide with Chris Wadskow's upcoming episode on the number 27. And now over to the East Coast with journalist and first-time ideas contributor, Pauline Dakin.

Pauline, happy new year. Happy New Year, Nala. Thank you for joining us. So what are you working on? Well, it's something I've been thinking about for a long time, Nala. It's a doc about empathy and exploring it from a historical, philosophical, psychological, psychological and neurological perspective. So looking at what we mean by empathy and how the understanding about that has changed over time. You know, generally, we think of empathy as the ability to feel what someone else feels.

You know, that's what makes reading a book or watching a movie so emotionally resonant. We laugh or cry along with the characters. We feel what they feel, at least if the acting is any good. And social scientists sometimes refer to empathy as the social glue that is, part of what makes societies work. The idea that when we understand someone else's point of view and emotions, it helps reduce conflict. It maybe makes it easier to get along more cooperatively. But it's interesting. Empathy is not just about emotion. There's also something called perspective taking, which is a part of empathy and means understanding where somebody's

coming from, but not necessarily feeling what they're feeling. So there are both emotional and cognitive aspects of empathy. And interestingly, the word itself is relatively new. It evolved from the German word, let's see if I can get this right, Einfulung, or Feeling Into, which was applied to works of art, essentially putting yourself into a piece of art to experience it. And in 1909, there was a psychologist at Cornell University, Edward B. Titchner, who translated this concept from German aesthetic theories into English as empathy, this idea of, you know, maybe more about feelings. So one of the people I interviewed for this documentary is Susan Lanzoni, and she's taught and studied the history of science at Yale and Harvard and Tufts universities, and she

published a book called Empathy A History. And so we have a little clip to play where she is talking about how that original idea of empathy began to evolve into something. a little closer to what we'd recognize today. And what I was really surprised to find out was empathy doesn't really come into like Webster's dictionary until something like 1944. You know, it's very late. And then post-World War II, you have empathy all of a sudden popping up in Reader's Digest and popping up in magazines and things like that.

And it's introduced as elite psychological term. So psychology kind of booms after World War II. And that's actually where empathy is introduced to the public. So no one really even knows what it means. So it's very fascinating to see it pop up. So Nala, empathy shifts from a way to appreciate an experience art to a way to understand people's experiences and feelings. So I want to take you a few steps back.

You have a whole other life away from ideas. And I'm curious what it is that you found so compelling. about this topic that you decided to come to us to do a piece about this? Well, in the last year or so, I've been noticing some people using a very different counterintuitive interpretation of empathy. You know, what seems to be kind of a movement against empathy, or at least pushing back against traditional notions of its role and its desirability in society. So some conservatives, both in the U.S. and here in Canada, are talking

and writing about, as you mentioned earlier, toxic empathy or suicidal empathy, or as Elon Musk says, the weakness of empathy. And there's been a flurry of books and podcasts talking about this. And this just struck me as so antithetical to everything I'd always understood about empathy, that it was, you know, kind of a positive quality that generally made the world a better, kinder place. So I wanted to look into what these voices on the right. are saying and thinking and try to understand what's driving that reconceptualizing or reframing of empathy. And, you know, it turns out there is a real battle over how people perceive empathy's role in society, and they either venerate it or denigrate it. And, you know,

maybe most people, many anyway, still see it as a good. But those who don't see it that way, they say that empathy is to blame for bad public policies that have weakened social cohesion, and they kind of relate a lot of this to issues such as immigration or abortion or gender identity, for example. But increasingly, perceptions about empathy haven't just shifted in the social and political sphere. Among researchers and philosophers, there's been this ongoing debate. And thinking has evolved since that English translation at the turn of the 20th century. there have been discoveries in neuroscience and new theories in psychology and philosophy that are still shaping how empathy is understood. Is there anything that you've come across so far that has surprised you in any way?

Well, yeah, certainly I'm surprised by some of the nuances around this. You know, the idea that empathy is not something we either have or we don't, or that we're born with or we aren't. You know, many experts would say we're born with the potential. for empathy. And emotionally attuned parenting makes it more likely that a person will have empathy. There's also research that shows children who experience emotional abuse have less empathy. So I guess the thing is, it can be cultivated or maybe manipulated as the conservative writers and podcasters suggest, or it can even be systematically turned off. There are historical examples where leaders used dehumanizing language to curb empathy for certain groups. But at the other end of

the spectrum, I also talk to people involved in this worldwide movement led by a Canadian organization to help school children build empathy. And there's published research showing that this program called Roots of Empathy can reduce bullying and aggressive behavior. So I guess now I'm going to try to end there on a hopeful note. Yes. Well, very timely inquiry and fascinating. And I'm curious to go along with your description, what song you brought. I am bringing you Natalie Merchant, her song, Kind and Generous, which was from her 1998 album, Ophelia. Thank you so much, Pauline. Thank you. You felt so kind and generous. I don't know. Keep on giving. For your kindness, I live.

dead to you for your selflessness my admiration for everything you've done you know I'm bound I'm bound to back in for him da-da-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. That was Natalie Merchants, kind and generous.

And those are just a few of the ideas we'll be exploring in the opening months of this new year. I hope you'll find time to join us. I'm going to leave you with one final song that I've chosen, inspired by these journeys of the mind that we're on together. This is iconic Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in her early years with born to take the highway See the stretching sun at dawning Wipe the star dust from his eyes

Feel the morning breezes yawning Telling me it's time to rise Telling me It's time to rise I was born to take the highway I was born to chase a dream You're listening to Joni Mitchell with Born to Take the Highway. And that's it for the 2026 edition of Ideas New Year's Levy.

Many thanks to you, our listeners, for your attention, your feedback, and of course, your ideas. Special thanks to our prolific and award-winning producers for their hard work and inventiveness throughout the year. This episode was produced by Nicola Luxchich and Sam McNulty. Our web producer is Lisa Ayuso. Technical production and mix by Sam McNulty. The executive producer of ideas is Greg Kelly, and I'm Nala Ayyad. For more CBC podcasts, go to CBC.ca slash podcasts.