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.
488 episodes transcribedEver 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...
2018 Massey Lecturer Tanya Talaga reflects on the legacy of cultural genocide, and on how the stories of Indigenous peoples offer lessons for Canada t...
With the end of the Cold War, the struggle for peace, equality, and democracy wasn’t settled — it became more complex. As we mark the 60th anniversary...
Technology is much more than a tool. Physicist Ursula Franklin argued that it’s a system — one so powerful that it can shape our mindset, our society...
British novelist and Nobel Prize winner Doris Lessing warned us against groupthink when she delivered her CBC Massey Lectures in 1985. She argues the...
Payam Akhavan has witnessed appalling episodes of human cruelty and suffering. And that’s helped forge his commitment to pursuing justice for the vict...
For award-winning poet and bestselling author Ross Gay, joy and delight aren’t frivolous or a privilege. He argues they’re absolutely essential to a m...
With a to-do list that requires 30 hours in a day to complete, leisure time often gets erased. IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa explores a better time, w...
We tend to view philosophy as a formal endeavour. Not so, says Lewis Gordon. Yes, he's an academic but he argues that confining thinking to the academ...
Educators are wired for hope, according to English professor Jessica Riddell. She believes in the importance of slowing down in urgent times and urges...
More than half of working satellites are now owned by a single company, Elon Musk's Space X company. Astrophysicist Aaron Boley says Space X satellite...
Universities have always been places of protest and dissent, but University of Toronto English professor Randy Boyagoda argues that it should be somet...
You can’t pay rent with experimental poetry, so Hilary Peach trained as a welder. Twenty-plus years on, she’s now a boiler inspector, poet, and author...
In 2023, about 1 in 10 Canadian doctors considered attempting suicide in 2023. That's why Winnipeg doctor Jillian Horton is advocating for the emotion...
Canadian scholar and philosopher Charles Taylor insists poetry persuades us through the experience of connection. His book, Cosmic Connections: Poetry...
When Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk wrote Sanaaq in 1984, it was the first novel written in Inuktitut in Canada. She wanted to prevent the language from no longe...
After more than four decades of activism and advocacy, David Suzuki is one of the most renowned and respected voices in the environmental movement. So...
“The future doesn't exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future...
For nearly 70 years, filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin's storytelling and documentary work have served as a mirror for Canada, reflecting Indigenous experien...
Bioethicist Arthur Schafer has thought a lot about life and death. He has helped shape policy on medically assisted death (MAID) in Canada. The philos...
