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.
318 episodes transcribedIdentity is a hot topic in our era, but also a complex reality. Five literary writers — all of them winners of 2023 Governor General’s Literary Awards...
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 lunc...
What does it mean to seek belonging in a new place, while also being a good guest on Indigenous lands? Can you ever truly "arrive"? Novelist and immig...
David R. Samson argues that political tribalism is an existential threat to humanity. But the evolutionary anthropologist also sees ‘tribe drive’ as a...
Two experts who got financially scammed. Two ex-Fundamentalist Christians who researched the psychology of conspiracy belief. Each describes their exp...
Artificial intelligence could make some of us rich — but leave some behind. In part two of the BBC Reith Lectures, Oxford professor Ben Ansell argues...
In the 1980s, Douglas Janoff marched outside the United Nations to promote 2SLGBTQ+ rights. Then, after several decades as an activist, he became a Ca...
Can Indigenous people dream a better future into being? Anishinaabe scholar Riley Yesno explores Indigenous futurism and the connection between dreams...
The World Wildlife Fund lists the Wabanaki-Acadian old-growth forest as endangered — with only one percent remaining. The Wabanaki-Acadian forest stre...
IDEAS presents the first of the BBC Reith Lectures delivered by Ben Ansell. The Oxford professor and author of Why Politics Fails examines the threats...
Canadian philosopher George Grant was known for his pessimism, and is best known for his book Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism....
In a powerful act of remembrance, a group of Canadians participated in a pilgrimage to the Netherlands to commemorate their fathers, grandfathers and...
The 'culture wars' have been a staple of modern politics for decades now. They are especially entrenched within Christian communities. Philosopher and...
The Cultural Revolution is everywhere felt in China today, but rarely if ever talked about openly. But prize-winning historian Tania Branigan tries to...
Smell has been called the 'Cinderella sense,' capable of inspiring profound admiration if we stop turning our noses at it. Producer Annie Bender exami...
The book may well be the greatest invention since the wheel, according to author Irene Vallejo. She traces the history of this miraculous invention wi...
John Vaillant details the terrifying growth and destructive force of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in his award-winning book, Fire Weather: The Maki...
Leonard Moore has long taught popular courses on American history at McGill University. His retirement lecture is full of insight — and worries — abou...
In his 2009 CBC Massey Lectures, The Wayfinders, anthropologist Wade Davis explored how the modern world can learn from Indigenous peoples. From the n...
Anthropologist Wade Davis has spent a lifetime exploring our planet. In his 2009 CBC Massey Lectures, The Wayfinders, he takes the reader and the list...
