Site • RSS • Apple PodcastsDescription (podcaster-provided):
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.Themes and summary (AI-generated based on podcaster-provided show and episode descriptions):
➤ Big-ideas interviews, documentaries • politics, authoritarianism, democracy • tech culture, internet overload, techno-utopianism • ethics: environment, end-of-life autonomy • human rights, migration, home, war • culture: literature, music, film • science, physics, circadian/jet lag designThis podcast is a wide-ranging forum for long-form conversations, documentaries, and lectures that use history, philosophy, science, and the arts to examine how people make meaning and how societies organize themselves. Across the episodes, the show returns to big ethical and political questions—how democracies strain under polarization and anti-democratic movements, what authoritarian “playbooks” look like across centuries, and how human rights ideals are formed, defended, and sometimes narrowed by power. It also explores practical pathways for pluralism and dialogue, including approaches to changing minds and finding common ground across deep differences.
A recurring thread is how modern life is shaped by technology and the systems built around it. The podcast examines the psychological and social costs of constant connectivity, techno-utopian visions promoted by wealthy elites, and the design of everyday interfaces and infrastructures that quietly guide behavior—from buttons to traffic signals. It also highlights research and innovation, including work on circadian rhythms and light-based strategies to reduce jet lag.
Cultural history and the arts are treated as tools for understanding identity, memory, and belonging. Listeners will find explorations of influential books and the invention of the book itself, along with episodes on music as a carrier of faith, community, and diaspora experience—ranging from Black gospel traditions to jazz history and classical choral repertoire. Literature and film also appear as lenses for social anxieties, including horror genres that dramatize fears about bodily autonomy and decay.
Questions of home, migration, and displacement run through documentary storytelling about hospitality, cities in wartime, and the afterlives of conflict as told through oral histories. The podcast also engages with end-of-life ethics, environmental philosophy that bridges science and religion, and Indigenous approaches to knowledge that integrate spirituality with disciplines like mathematics. Overall, the series offers an intellectual survey of contemporary dilemmas and enduring human concerns through interviews with thinkers, scholars, and practitioners.
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PT 2 | An injustice system where 'you can buy your way out' 2026-Jan-30 54 minutes |
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PT 1 | An injustice system where 'you can buy your way out' 2026-Jan-29 54 minutes |
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Can empathy be dangerous? 2026-Jan-28 54 minutes |
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Why AI needs limits so humans can flourish 2026-Jan-27 54 minutes |
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Can a trucker's life entice young people to take the wheel? 2026-Jan-26 54 minutes |
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How Britain caused Ireland's Great Famine 2026-Jan-23 54 minutes |
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Birth gives us life. But do you know its history? 2026-Jan-22 54 minutes |
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How a 'conspiracy of decency' could build a better future 2026-Jan-21 54 minutes |
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It's time for a 'moral revolution.' This is a call to action 2026-Jan-20 54 minutes |
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What makes left-handers special? 2026-Jan-19 54 minutes |
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How Galileo revolutionized science to make way for modernity 2026-Jan-16 54 minutes |
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How Sudan’s generous spirit survives war and neglect 2026-Jan-15 54 minutes |
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The bittersweet freedom to grieve in Syria 2026-Jan-14 54 minutes |
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How horses shaped humankind, from inspiring pants to vaccines 2026-Jan-13 54 minutes |
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Why copyright laws do more harm than good 2026-Jan-12 54 minutes |
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We're not machines. Why should our online world define life? 2026-Jan-09 54 minutes |
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'Dialogue between science and religion matters to the planet' 2026-Jan-08 54 minutes |
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The most famous French-Canadian novel you've never heard of 2026-Jan-07 54 minutes |
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When words get in the way, vocal improv saves the day 2026-Jan-06 54 minutes |
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Ditch democracy. This movement wants tech-elites to govern 2026-Jan-05 54 minutes |
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Why autonomy is vital to MAID law and the right to die 2026-Jan-02 54 minutes |
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New Year's Levee | Stories we're working on in 2026 2026-Jan-01 43 minutes |
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Could resetting the body's clock help cure jet lag? 2025-Dec-31 54 minutes |
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How the invention of the book shaped humanity 2025-Dec-30 54 minutes |
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Hallelujah! Let the light of Black gospel shine 101 2025-Dec-29 54 minutes |
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Jazz fan or not, you've probably heard this musician play 2025-Dec-26 54 minutes |
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Revealing facts about the Christmas song meant for Easter 2025-Dec-24 54 minutes |
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An apocalyptic retelling of the Christmas story 2025-Dec-23 54 minutes |
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Where to find 'critical hope' in hard times 2025-Dec-22 54 minutes |
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Why spirituality is central to Indigenous mathematics 2025-Dec-19 54 minutes |
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How 'body horror' helps us confront the fears within us 2025-Dec-18 54 minutes |
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How to change minds and find common ground 2025-Dec-17 54 minutes |
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Why yellow traffic lights were designed to be ambiguous 2025-Dec-16 54 minutes |
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The 'dangerous' promise of a techno-utopian future 2025-Dec-15 54 minutes |
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Open your gift: a podcast of nonfiction recommendations 2025-Dec-12 54 minutes |
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Your tomatoes have a backstory and it’s not always pretty 2025-Dec-11 54 minutes |
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Bringing a farm — and its philosophy — back to life 2025-Dec-10 54 minutes |
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Pt 2 | Architect Frank Gehry on how to exit life 2025-Dec-09 54 minutes |
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Pt 1 | The architecture that brought Frank Gehry to tears 2025-Dec-08 54 minutes |
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The best — and worst — ideas of the last six decades 2025-Dec-05 53 minutes |
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How IDEAS saved a listener from sending a regrettable email 2025-Dec-04 54 minutes |
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CBC Massey Lecturers reveal how the talks changed them 2025-Dec-03 54 minutes |
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The time when a guest said, "I love you!" 2025-Dec-02 54 minutes |
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How an IDEAS episode on traffic changed a doctor's practice 2025-Dec-01 54 minutes |
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How music transports the Afghan diaspora to their homeland 2025-Nov-28 54 minutes |
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Why cities are targeted in wartime (updated) 2025-Nov-27 54 minutes |
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Why hospitals stopped being hospitable 2025-Nov-26 54 minutes |
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How guest-host power dynamics shape migration 2025-Nov-25 54 minutes |
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Can you ever truly return home again? 2025-Nov-24 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 5 | A human rights agenda for Canada 2025-Nov-21 62 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 4 | How people power makes human rights real 2025-Nov-20 69 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 3 | Human rights don’t have to be earned 2025-Nov-19 64 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 2 | The six years that remade human rights 2025-Nov-18 63 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 1 | Renewing the promise of human rights 2025-Nov-17 64 minutes |
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The people who inspire Alex Neve to fight for human rights 2025-Nov-13 54 minutes |
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Buttons give the illusion of power but hide the consequences 2025-Nov-13 54 minutes |
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How overlooked veterans make history in their own words 2025-Nov-12 54 minutes |
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Why Canadian veterans are conflicted about Remembrance Day 2025-Nov-11 54 minutes |
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Not a war story. This is about what comes after for veterans 2025-Nov-10 54 minutes |
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What it takes to become a ruthless tyrant 2025-Nov-07 54 minutes |
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First historian Herodotus knew the power of story 2025-Nov-06 54 minutes |
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Hope lies in knowing that "we've changed the world before” 2025-Nov-05 54 minutes |
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How mind-bending theories could solve mysteries in physics 2025-Nov-04 54 minutes |
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To fix America's caste system, acknowledge it exists: author 2025-Nov-03 54 minutes |
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Mexican fiction turns drug kingpins into vicious vampires 2025-Oct-31 54 minutes |
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Can democracies survive the attacks on the rule of law? 2025-Oct-30 54 minutes |
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This lawyer turns real legal cases into page-turners 2025-Oct-29 54 minutes |
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How Indigenous Americans discovered Europe 2025-Oct-28 54 minutes |
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33 years of the campus free speech controversy 2025-Oct-27 54 minutes |
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Can you have compassion for someone you never agree with? 2025-Oct-24 54 minutes |
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George Eliot's invaluable life lessons on confronting reality 2025-Oct-23 54 minutes |
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The real reasons why more young women freeze their eggs 2025-Oct-22 54 minutes |
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New details on Canada's first documented 'demon possession' 2025-Oct-21 54 minutes |
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Can abolishing all political parties topple fascism? 2025-Oct-20 54 minutes |
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This Italian painter was a feminist before the word existed 2025-Oct-17 54 minutes |
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Why practicing empathy is far from simple 2025-Oct-16 54 minutes |
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Why 'follow your heart' spirituality is actually religion 2025-Oct-15 54 minutes |
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How 60s Scoop 'warriors' reclaimed their Indigenous roots 2025-Oct-14 54 minutes |
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An homage to chickens, a dinosaur, dinner and backyard pet 2025-Oct-13 54 minutes |
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Imprisoned Syrian wrote poetry imagining the fall of the regime. Now it's come true 2025-Oct-10 54 minutes |
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How absurdist theatre is an act of resistance 2025-Oct-09 54 minutes |
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How a translation movement made Western philosophers famous 2025-Oct-08 54 minutes |
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Can we have new pipelines and curb climate change, too? 2025-Oct-07 54 minutes |
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Why progressives may not be as 'woke' as they think 2025-Oct-06 54 minutes |
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Why a proposed 'new capitalism' is contested 2025-Oct-03 54 minutes |
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How a German philosopher predicted our digital age 2025-Oct-02 54 minutes |
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What life was like for Luke Galati in a psychiatric ward 2025-Oct-01 54 minutes |
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How Inuk activist Aaju Peter learned to 'decolonize' her mind 2025-Sep-30 54 minutes |
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Can the fierce wars of today end in peace? 2025-Sep-29 54 minutes |
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How rhythm helps us walk, talk — and even love 2025-Sep-26 54 minutes |
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The natural — and unnatural — history of air on Earth 2025-Sep-25 54 minutes |
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Why the world feels like a shipwreck 2025-Sep-24 54 minutes |
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Can a conference change our troubled world? 2025-Sep-23 54 minutes |
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Was justice served by South Africa's peace accord? 2025-Sep-22 54 minutes |
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Listen to the sound of metal in musical form by 8 composers 2025-Sep-18 54 minutes |
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Without justice, can unbearable grief subside? 2025-Sep-17 54 minutes |
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Why smell — our invisible superpower — deserves more acclaim 2025-Sep-16 54 minutes |
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How leaders in the former Yugoslavia forged peace in 1995 2025-Sep-15 54 minutes |
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How our education system is far from its original ideals 2025-Sep-12 54 minutes |
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Meet Alex Neve, the 2025 CBC Massey Lecturer 2025-Sep-11 19 minutes |
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Public education was built on this key concept — now it's gone 2025-Sep-11 54 minutes |
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How this 19th-century Indian feminist defied colonial customs 2025-Sep-10 54 minutes |
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Why there's no place like Oz 2025-Sep-09 54 minutes |
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Lessons from last century’s failed Mideast peace deal 2025-Sep-08 54 minutes |
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How the principles of St. Augustine guide the Catholic Church 2025-Sep-06 54 minutes |
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Are we 'born obsolete'? How technology makes us feel ashamed 2025-Sep-04 54 minutes |
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What does it mean for a river to be ‘alive’? 2025-Sep-03 58 minutes |
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What Chinese Science Fiction Has to Tell Us 2025-Sep-02 54 minutes |
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# 1: What it took to end a 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland 2025-Sep-01 54 minutes |
The threat next door: How NATO’s newest members are preparing to defend against Russia (via The House)2025-Sep-01 47 minutes |
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How Brutalist architecture goes beyond aesthetics 2025-Aug-29 54 minutes |
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Libraries are fighting for their freedom — and our democracy 2025-Aug-28 54 minutes |
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Why PEI cares more than any other province about voting 2025-Aug-27 54 minutes |
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Has the housing crisis shaken your trust in democracy? 2025-Aug-26 54 minutes |
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Attacking our biggest fear — political polarization 2025-Aug-25 54 minutes |
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#5: What makes a great conversation? 2025-Aug-22 54 minutes |
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# 4: What it means to truly listen 2025-Aug-21 54 minutes |
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#3: How a dispute can lead to unity 2025-Aug-20 54 minutes |
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#2: What we can learn from our conversations with strangers 2025-Aug-19 54 minutes |
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#1: Why we need to have a conversation about conversations 2025-Aug-18 54 minutes |
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What a cultural genocide took from Indigenous people in Canada 2025-Aug-15 54 minutes |
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How inequality is undermining liberal democracy 2025-Aug-14 54 minutes |
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Why the power of technology relies on an adaptive mindset 2025-Aug-13 54 minutes |
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How to think for ourselves — is it even possible? 2025-Aug-12 54 minutes |
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A better world needs to be built on empathy: human rights scholar 2025-Aug-11 54 minutes |
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Making space for moments of joy in dark times 2025-Aug-08 54 minutes |
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Why is it so hard to embrace leisure time? 2025-Aug-07 54 minutes |
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Why music — even sad music — is 'inherently joyful' 2025-Aug-06 54 minutes |
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Why philosophy needs to ditch class, and go to a pub 2025-Aug-05 54 minutes |
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How to flourish in a broken world 2025-Aug-04 54 minutes |
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A lesson in hope and why we need to slow down 2025-Aug-01 54 minutes |
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Who owns Outer Space? 2025-Jul-31 54 minutes |
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Making the case for what a university could and should be 2025-Jul-30 54 minutes |
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Why are women still outsiders in the trades? 2025-Jul-29 54 minutes |
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Why doesn't our healthcare include the well-being of doctors? 2025-Jul-28 54 minutes |
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How poetry offers insight into the meaning of life 2025-Jul-25 54 minutes |
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How a novel saved the Inuktitut language from disappearing 2025-Jul-24 54 minutes |
Decades on, David Suzuki sees the same problem: human-first mindset (via Front Burner)2025-Jul-23 31 minutes |
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We have a moral responsibility to this planet: David Suzuki 2025-Jul-23 54 minutes |
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Championing the quiet power of listening 2025-Jul-22 54 minutes |
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Will the real Martin Luther please stand up? 2025-Jul-18 54 minutes |
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Meet the original 'Father of Economics' — it's not Adam Smith 2025-Jul-17 54 minutes |
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How anxiety over today's democracy is political 2025-Jul-16 54 minutes |
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Is human intelligence overrated? 2025-Jul-15 54 minutes |
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A lesson on why NOT to engage in polarized discussions 2025-Jul-14 54 minutes |
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What rights do we need for our future? 2025-Jul-11 54 minutes |
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Is our right to freedom of expression limitless? 2025-Jul-10 54 minutes |
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Why are refugee rights not protected equally? 2025-Jul-09 54 minutes |
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Is our right to privacy meaningless in this tech age? 2025-Jul-08 54 minutes |
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Who has a ‘right to life’? 2025-Jul-07 54 minutes |
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How did the Taj Mahal turn into a bouncy castle? 2025-Jul-04 54 minutes |
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What you may have missed in this famous painter's artwork 2025-Jul-03 54 minutes |
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The mysterious death of a great Canadian painter 2025-Jul-02 54 minutes |
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Why Canadian patriotism right now isn't blind nationalism 2025-Jul-01 54 minutes |
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The heart of Canadian pride shines through Joyce Wieland's art 2025-Jun-30 54 minutes |
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Voices of a silenced history: inside Bulgaria's Gulag 2025-Jun-27 54 minutes |
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We’re drawn to the beauty of the ocean. An artist reveals why 2025-Jun-26 54 minutes |
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Why do people hate? 2025-Jun-25 54 minutes |
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How Jaws made us believe white sharks are real villains 2025-Jun-23 54 minutes |
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Journalist Connie Walker on uncovering her family's dark history 2025-Jun-20 54 minutes |
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Inside our loneliness epidemic 2025-Jun-18 54 minutes |
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Perdita Felicien on how to navigate life’s biggest hurdles 2025-Jun-17 54 minutes |
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The making of an ‘authoritarian personality’ 2025-Jun-16 54 minutes |
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Canadian universities as safe havens for scholars-in-exile 2025-Jun-13 54 minutes |
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Black history, vividly told through the colour blue 2025-Jun-12 56 minutes |
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How Indigenous ecology is reviving land destroyed by wildfires 2025-Jun-11 54 minutes |
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How brutal wildfires are 'killing' Indigenous ways of life 2025-Jun-10 54 minutes |
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The movement that unlocked a new masculinity – Dandyism 2025-Jun-09 54 minutes |
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How Canadian nationalism died 2025-Jun-06 54 minutes |
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The famously polarizing father of capitalism 2025-Jun-05 54 minutes |
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What it’s like to discover you have ADHD after 50 2025-Jun-04 54 minutes |
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What it means to fully embrace neurodiversity 2025-Jun-03 54 minutes |
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Do books have the power to heal us? 2025-Jun-02 54 minutes |
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Why we can’t live without the universal feeling of disgust 2025-May-29 54 minutes |
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The philosophy behind why humans are so self-conscious 2025-May-28 54 minutes |
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How the fear of fire is taking control of us 2025-May-27 54 minutes |
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The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa 2025-May-26 54 minutes |
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Bringing child sex abusers out of the shadows 2025-May-23 54 minutes |
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Why our long term relationship with the U.S. is done 2025-May-22 54 minutes |
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Where did modern news culture come from? Think Shakespeare 2025-May-21 54 minutes |
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Champions of cormorants argue the water bird is unfairly vilified 2025-May-20 54 minutes |
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The three ingredients in an autocrat's recipe for power 2025-May-16 54 minutes |
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A pig was shot dead in 1859. It sparked a British-U.S. war 2025-May-15 54 minutes |
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The trailblazing all-Black baseball team that made history 2025-May-14 54 minutes |
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Russia’s constant craving for U.S. recognition 2025-May-13 54 minutes |
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Her job is to find buried children at residential schools 2025-May-12 54 minutes |
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The power of white evangelical Christians in MAGA politics 2025-May-09 54 minutes |
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There's no potential danger of AI discrimination — 'it's here' 2025-May-08 54 minutes |
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The one exception that makes killing civilians legal in war 2025-May-07 54 minutes |
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The 2,000-year-old travel list to complete before you die 2025-May-06 54 minutes |
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Canadian troops who freed the Netherlands from Nazis 2025-May-05 54 minutes |
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What it means to call your loved one a ‘corpse’ 2025-May-02 54 minutes |
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The limitless mind and body of an 83-year-old super-athlete 2025-May-01 54 minutes |
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How the American cowboy ignited the Republican movement 2025-Apr-30 54 minutes |
Elections results are in. IDEAS recommends World Report2025-Apr-29 10 minutes |
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Reality TV might be making you smarter 2025-Apr-28 54 minutes |
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In the face of violence, do you radically 'turn the other cheek'? 2025-Apr-18 54 minutes |
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New to IDEAS? Start here 2025-Apr-18 2 minutes |
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How Hitler's 'favourite' reptile became a geopolitical symbol 2025-Apr-17 54 minutes |
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Love or hate Elon Musk, 'we empowered him' 2025-Apr-16 54 minutes |
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Spyware abusers can easily hack your phone and surveil you 2025-Apr-15 54 minutes |
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Do you truly live in a ‘free’ society? It’s complicated 2025-Apr-14 54 minutes |
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Why world maps illustrate an artificial reality 2025-Apr-11 54 minutes |
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Need some Stompin' Tom right now to celebrate being Canadian? We thought so. 2025-Apr-10 54 minutes |
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Democracies 'stay true to your values' tackling borders, says U.S. expert 2025-Apr-09 54 minutes |
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How a network of journalists uncovered billions and toppled world leaders 2025-Apr-08 54 minutes |
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Can you return home? This author says revision offers radical possibilities 2025-Apr-07 54 minutes |
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How a conspiracy theory becomes 'real' 2025-Apr-04 54 minutes |
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Loving Your Country in the 21st Century (Step Three) 2025-Apr-03 54 minutes |
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Walk with us through a rare old-growth forest in peril 2025-Apr-02 54 minutes |
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Montreal's Confederate past revealed, from sympathizers to raids 2025-Mar-28 54 minutes |
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Protecting childhood innocence is a disservice to kids, argues expert 2025-Mar-27 54 minutes |
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Why a small town newspaper is thriving in a declining industry 2025-Mar-26 54 minutes |
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A School that Feels like Home: Revitalizing Mi’kmaq Language in Cape Breton 2025-Mar-25 54 minutes |
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How Iqaluit's learning institute gave a generation of Inuit adults a path back to Inuktut 2025-Mar-24 54 minutes |
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Why Massey Lecturer Ian Williams Stays Open to All Perspectives 2025-Mar-14 54 minutes |
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Wine with lunch? What's a reasonable amount of luxury? 2025-Mar-13 54 minutes |
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We believe in artificial intelligence the same way we believe in ghosts 2025-Mar-12 54 minutes |
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A rallying cry to extend human rights to our data-generating digital selves 2025-Mar-11 54 minutes |
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How To Build An Empire: The Aeneid Guide to Understanding U.S. Politics 2025-Mar-10 54 minutes |
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Believe in ghosts? Why people see spirits and sense visitations 2025-Mar-07 54 minutes |
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How Inuit Storytelling and Modern Horror Fiction Come Together 2025-Mar-05 54 minutes |
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Be Reasonable: Scholars Define Who Is and Who Is Not 2025-Mar-04 54 minutes |
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How Christian ethics can inform a peaceful resolution to Russia’s war in Ukraine 2025-Mar-03 54 minutes |
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Puro Cubano: The Meaning of Tobacco in Cuba 2025-Feb-28 54 minutes |
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Our Bodies, Our Cells: An Audio Exploration of Life's Building Blocks 2025-Feb-27 54 minutes |
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The UN at 80: Successes, Hopes, Failures, and Challenges 2025-Feb-26 54 minutes |
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Remember the Last Time Canada Feared the U.S. Would Swallow It Up? 2025-Feb-25 54 minutes |
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Why learn improv? Your unscripted mind can surprise even you 2025-Feb-24 54 minutes |
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How the Outdoors Inspired Women to Become Trailblazers 2025-Feb-21 54 minutes |
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The Passion of Émile Nelligan: Canada's Saddest Poet 2025-Feb-20 54 minutes |
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Naming Life: The Race to Classify Millions of Unidentified Species 2025-Feb-19 54 minutes |
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Writer Adam Gopnik on the Evolution of Antisemitism Into Anti-urbanism 2025-Feb-18 54 minutes |
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Swinging and Singing: The Violin 2025-Feb-17 54 minutes |
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Marriage and the Modern Woman: What It Takes To Say "I Do" 2025-Feb-14 54 minutes |
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IDEAS Introduces On Drugs | A Troubled Relationship With Alcohol 2025-Feb-13 54 minutes |
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Rights vs Deservingness: How We Decide Who Belongs 2025-Feb-12 54 minutes |
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North on North: Stories from the Only Independent Publisher in the Canadian Arctic 2025-Feb-10 54 minutes |
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From Grit to Glory: Canada’s First Black Woman Publisher 2025-Feb-07 54 minutes |
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Indigenous Journalist Calls for a Revolution of Genuine Action 2025-Feb-06 54 minutes |
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'Here lived Chava Rosenfarb' : A Profile of the Canadian Yiddish writer 2025-Feb-05 54 minutes |
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The Amazing Henry Box Brown: From Fugitive Slave to Ingenious Entertainer 2025-Feb-03 54 minutes |