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 • Canadian identity, culture, literature • mathematics and meaning of numbers • morality, grief, justice • religion and philosophy • authoritarianism, fascism, inequality, billionaires • housing rights • climate, rivers, ecology • technology, AI intimacy • history, celebrity, sexuality, human rightsThis podcast is a wide-ranging forum for long-form conversation, radio documentary, and recorded live panels that examine the ideas shaping public life, culture, and personal experience. Across recent episodes, it moves fluidly between Canadian identity and civic belonging, the mechanics of patriotism and nationalism, and debates about prosperity, housing as a human right, inequality, and the political power of billionaires and tech platforms. It also returns to questions of democracy and authoritarianism, exploring moral responsibility under extreme conditions, the ethics of resistance, and how societies draw—then contest—the boundaries of bias and fairness.
A strong current is the way history echoes in the present. The show revisits controversial literature, traces the roots of celebrity culture and pop mythology, and profiles influential figures whose legacies still animate modern conversations about gender, censorship, and transgression. Other episodes foreground overlooked or suppressed histories, including state and institutional harm, and the lingering effects of injustice on grief, memory, and solidarity.
Science, math, and technology appear not as isolated disciplines but as lenses on everyday life: numbers as cultural and scientific objects, engineering choices that shape behavior, and the social consequences of innovations from steam power to artificial intelligence and chatbots that blur intimacy and reality. Global perspectives are frequent as well, from laws and activism around LGBTQ+ rights in parts of Africa to the cultural and political histories of places and empires. Throughout, the emphasis is on how ideas circulate—through art, infrastructure, policy, media, and storytelling—and how they change what people believe is possible.
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Artificial Intimacy: Love, Grief, and AI Chatbots 2026-Jul-27 54 minutes |
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Can the fierce wars of today end in peace? 2026-Jul-24 54 minutes |
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Was justice served by South Africa's peace accord? 2026-Jul-23 54 minutes |
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How leaders in the former Yugoslavia forged peace in 1995 2026-Jul-22 54 minutes |
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Lessons from last century’s failed Mideast peace deal 2026-Jul-21 54 minutes |
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What it took to end a 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland 2026-Jul-20 54 minutes |
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Buttons give the illusion of power but hide the consequences 2026-Jul-17 54 minutes |
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Blue jeans have a dark secret 2026-Jul-16 54 minutes |
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Love or hate math, geometry is embedded in daily life 2026-Jul-15 54 minutes |
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How casino culture plays with our brains 2026-Jul-14 54 minutes |
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How Brutalist architecture goes beyond aesthetics 2026-Jul-13 54 minutes |
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Redeeming swamps from their wasteland reputation 2026-Jul-10 54 minutes |
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The fear of fire is taking control of us 2026-Jul-09 54 minutes |
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Suzuki's Survival Guide | How We Got To This Point 2026-Jul-08 54 minutes |
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Suzuki’s Survival Guide | A Warning 2026-Jul-07 54 minutes |
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Why oil is a 'complicated saviour' to the world 2026-Jul-06 54 minutes |
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A witch, a demon and an exorcism? Welcome to life in 1660 2026-Jul-03 54 minutes |
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Reimagining Franklin's quest for the Northwest Passage 2026-Jul-02 54 minutes |
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Why Canadian patriotism isn't blind nationalism 2026-Jul-01 54 minutes |
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Why the 1976 novel Bear is still controversial — and relevant 2026-Jun-30 54 minutes |
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The best comedians in the U.S. are Canadians 2026-Jun-29 54 minutes |
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How 4 Makes and Breaks Rules | The Greatest Numbers of All Time 2026-Jun-26 54 minutes |
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The 33,000 Horsepower Gamechanger | The Greatest Numbers of All Time 2026-Jun-25 54 minutes |
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27 Club Lore | The Greatest Numbers of All Time 2026-Jun-24 54 minutes |
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12 is Sublime | The Greatest Numbers of All Time 2026-Jun-23 54 minutes |
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The Curse of 13 | The Greatest Numbers of All Time 2026-Jun-22 54 minutes |
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Why moral suffering can be a good thing 2026-Jun-19 54 minutes |
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What if God is the possibility of the impossible? 2026-Jun-18 54 minutes |
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From Dua Lipa to Broadway, Houdini never disappears 2026-Jun-17 54 minutes |
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Without justice, can unbearable grief subside? 2026-Jun-16 54 minutes |
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The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa 2026-Jun-15 54 minutes |
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Podcasts in Uganda and Ghana are reclaiming sex and sexuality 2026-Jun-12 54 minutes |
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Why joy is most valuable when it's in public 2026-Jun-11 54 minutes |
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'When I'm bad, I'm better' – The revolutionary Mae West 2026-Jun-10 54 minutes |
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Who's the hero when the choice is impossible? 2026-Jun-09 54 minutes |
The Billionaire Age Pt 3 | How oligarchs are taking over the world2026-Jun-08 54 minutes |
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Confronting 'Housing Inc.' | Meet the 2026 CBC Massey Lecturer 2026-Jun-08 8 minutes |
Weekend Listen: Artificial Intimacy from CBC’s Understood2026-Jun-06 37 minutes |
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The best — and worst — ideas of the last six decades 2026-Jun-05 54 minutes |
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How IDEAS saved a listener from sending a regrettable email 2026-Jun-04 54 minutes |
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CBC Massey Lecturers reveal how the talks changed them 2026-Jun-03 54 minutes |
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The time when a guest said, "I love you!" 2026-Jun-02 54 minutes |
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How an IDEAS episode on traffic changed a doctor's practice 2026-Jun-01 54 minutes |
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The most important numbers in the universe 2026-May-29 54 minutes |
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So... who wants a pipeline? 2026-May-28 54 minutes |
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How port cities like Alexandria shaped the world 2026-May-27 54 minutes |
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The Billionaire Age Pt 2 | Disney heiress on the dangers of extreme wealth 2026-May-26 54 minutes |
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The real reasons why more young women freeze their eggs 2026-May-26 54 minutes |
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What does it mean for a river to be ‘alive’? 2026-May-25 58 minutes |
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Why there's no place like Oz 2026-May-22 54 minutes |
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Escaped slaves, pirates and 'free love' in ancient history? 2026-May-21 54 minutes |
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Why yellow traffic lights were designed to be ambiguous 2026-May-20 54 minutes |
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What North Korea’s personality cult has to do with Jesus 2026-May-19 54 minutes |
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Why laughter is so contagious 2026-May-18 54 minutes |
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He championed a radical dream — a 'United States of Africa' 2026-May-15 54 minutes |
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The origins of celebrity, from medieval divas to Kris Jenner 2026-May-14 54 minutes |
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Believe it or not, romance novels are more popular than ever 2026-May-13 54 minutes |
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How Canada forgot it once had a segregated health system 2026-May-12 54 minutes |
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Pt 2 | What the River Wants to Be 2026-May-11 54 minutes |
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Can abolishing all political parties topple fascism? 2026-May-08 54 minutes |
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How to measure 'prosperity' 2026-May-07 54 minutes |
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What intellectual influencers teach us, one video at a time 2026-May-06 54 minutes |
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Could the Dust Bowl of the 30s happen again? 2026-May-05 54 minutes |
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Why the world feels like a shipwreck 2026-May-04 54 minutes |
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Your tomatoes have a backstory and it’s not always pretty 2026-May-01 54 minutes |
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The 'shocking betrayal' of widespread antisemitism 2026-Apr-30 54 minutes |
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How a feminist flipped the colonial travelogue on its head 2026-Apr-29 54 minutes |
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The line between reasonable and unacceptable bias 2026-Apr-27 54 minutes |
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What you should do when accused of being biased 2026-Apr-24 54 minutes |
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Defying haunting colonial history with literary imagination 2026-Apr-23 54 minutes |
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Pt 1 | What the River Wants to Be 2026-Apr-22 54 minutes |
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Will AI save us or damn us? 2026-Apr-21 54 minutes |
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Are we 'born obsolete'? How technology makes us feel ashamed 2026-Apr-20 54 minutes |
Weekend Listen | Changing Minds: Psilocybin, Medicine, and the Limits of the Law (via White Coat, Black Art)2026-Apr-18 48 minutes |
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How to harness your own biases 2026-Apr-17 54 minutes |
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Is the two-state solution dead? 2026-Apr-16 54 minutes |
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Science fiction isn't fact, no matter what Big Tech tells you 2026-Apr-15 54 minutes |
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Work: Loving it, hating it, and getting through the shift 2026-Apr-14 54 minutes |
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Confronting the escalating attacks on universities 2026-Apr-13 54 minutes |
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A machine that could save us from war — and global warming 2026-Apr-10 54 minutes |
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The complex legacy of the first European 'slave castle' 2026-Apr-09 54 minutes |
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Worst marriage ever! The story of Jason and Medea 2026-Apr-08 54 minutes |
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How Stephen Lewis helped changed the world's mind about AIDS 2026-Apr-07 54 minutes |
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Legends and facts of the shapeshifting Queen of Sheba 2026-Apr-06 54 minutes |
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The final days of Jesus as 'heard' by J.S. Bach 2026-Apr-03 54 minutes |
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The ultimate to-do list for living a good life 2026-Apr-02 54 minutes |
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How Hitchcock's 'The Birds' speaks to 21st-century anxieties 2026-Apr-01 54 minutes |
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The Billionaire Age Pt 1 | How did we get here? 2026-Mar-31 54 minutes |
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Why everything you thought about earthworms is wrong 2026-Mar-30 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 5 | A human rights agenda for Canada 2026-Mar-27 62 minutes |
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Why is bombing civilians still a military tactic? 2026-Mar-26 54 minutes |
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The common ground of fact and fiction can be powerful 2026-Mar-24 54 minutes |
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When a poem changes your life 2026-Mar-23 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 4 | How people power makes human rights real 2026-Mar-20 69 minutes |
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Secularism on trial 2026-Mar-19 54 minutes |
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'There's no such thing as clean energy' 2026-Mar-18 54 minutes |
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How port cities like Singapore shaped the world 2026-Mar-17 54 minutes |
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She uncovered the lost women of science and made history 2026-Mar-16 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 3 | Human rights don’t have to be earned 2026-Mar-13 64 minutes |
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The power of music in the shadow of Iran 2026-Mar-12 54 minutes |
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How anxiety over today's democracy is political 2026-Mar-11 54 minutes |
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How math and literature are unexpectedly connected 2026-Mar-10 54 minutes |
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What if your favourite food became extinct? 2026-Mar-09 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 2 | The six years that remade human rights 2026-Mar-06 63 minutes |
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Lessons from the women of Iran's 1979 'stolen' revolution 2026-Mar-05 54 minutes |
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God, parades and authoritarianism on the streets of Georgia 2026-Mar-04 54 minutes |
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'Accidental activist' links resource extraction to missing and murdered Indigenous women 2026-Mar-02 54 minutes |
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Massey Lecture Part 1 | Renewing the promise of human rights 2026-Feb-27 64 minutes |
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The suffragist who was too radical for Susan. B. Anthony 2026-Feb-26 54 minutes |
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How can we prevent AI from becoming a menace? 2026-Feb-25 54 minutes |
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What will happen to us when the internet dies? 2026-Feb-24 54 minutes |
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When your grandmother is accused of being a 'fascist spy' 2026-Feb-24 54 minutes |
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The spark that ignited a 40-year fight for human rights 2026-Feb-20 54 minutes |
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Why winter does not justify ditching your bike for driving 2026-Feb-17 54 minutes |
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From tests to sports, why we choke when it matters most 2026-Feb-16 54 minutes |
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How a man escaped slavery by mailing himself to freedom 2026-Feb-13 54 minutes |
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What Chinese science-fiction has to tell us about reality 2026-Feb-12 54 minutes |
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Why only the will of the people can save democracy 2026-Feb-11 54 minutes |
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To mudlark is to scavenge for a piece of history to keep 2026-Feb-10 54 minutes |
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How a natural catastrophe 8,000 years ago may have fueled Brexit 2026-Feb-09 54 minutes |
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The trailblazing all-Black baseball team that made history 2026-Feb-06 54 minutes |
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Following the wisdom of water to remake an unravelling world 2026-Feb-05 54 minutes |
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Why the Monroe Doctrine has world leaders on edge 2026-Feb-04 54 minutes |
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How to develop 'in the zone' hyper focus 2026-Feb-03 54 minutes |
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Flexing Canada's 'soft power' could help shift geopolitics 2026-Feb-02 54 minutes |
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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 Never-Ending Fall of Rome 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Can a conference change our troubled world? 2025-Sep-23 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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Why smell — our invisible superpower — deserves more acclaim 2025-Sep-16 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 the principles of St. Augustine guide the Catholic Church 2025-Sep-06 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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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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New to IDEAS? Start here 2025-Apr-18 2 minutes |