Ideas on CBC Radio

06/09/2023

Is the true purpose of a university education in a democratic society simply to secure a well-paying career? Or are we missing the point entirely?

"We've reframed universities as job training institutions, but that's a very individualized view," says uOttawa professor Joel Westheimer.

What are universities for? Where have they gone wrong? What are they doing right? And what do they owe the public? Those were just some of the questions put to university educators and renowned scholars at a public discussion hosted by the University of Regina. You'll also hear voices from students....

05/09/2023

So far this year, 6,118 wildfires have been reported across Canada.

At least four wildland firefighters have died on duty in Canada since July.

And nearly 200,000 Canadians have been placed under an evacuation order this season.

This unprecedented wildfire season has burned further, faster and is predicted to last longer than climate experts could have imagined. CBC Edmonton reporter Adrienne Lamb explores what this could mean for our future.

01/09/2023

The fourth and final BBC Reith Lecture features Fiona Hill, British-American foreign affairs specialist and intelligence official under three U.S. presidential administrations. Analyzing the concept of "freedom from fear," she compares living under the threat of nuclear war in the 1980's to the geopolitical situation today, and says Russian President Vladimir Putin is a master at manipulating fear. She argues fear is born of ignorance and misinformation, and the best way to be free of it is education.

The BBC Reith Lectures return and the theme is The Four Freedoms. In the first lecture, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi-Aidichie analyzes the state of free speech today, including “cancel culture.” She argues that moral courage is required to resist threats to freedom of speech, be they politic...

31/08/2023

Eugenics is seen as a 19th-century idea put into horrific 20th-century practice. But the attraction to breeding “better” humans has a long and persistent history, says Adam Rutherford. The geneticist and science podcaster explains, in conversation with host Nahlah Ayed.

30/08/2023

For 30 years, since the first major global conference on climate change — the Earth Summit in 1992 — vulnerable countries have had a simple plea: Climate change is not our fault. Help us with the cost.

29/08/2023

Every Tuesday this summer IDEAS featured episodes from David Suzuki’s radio archive including episodes from his 1989 series, It's A Matter of Survival, his 1999 series, The Naked Ape and his 2010 series, The Bottom Line.

This summer IDEAS is featuring episodes from David Suzuki’s radio archive that will include episodes from this 1989 series, It's A Matter of Survival, as well as his 1999 series The Naked Ape and his 2010 series called The Bottom Line. New episodes will drop every Tuesday through the summer.

28/08/2023

Libraries are under literal attack in Ukraine, and ideological attack amid North America’s culture wars. Oxford librarian and author Richard Ovenden is not about to stay quiet about it. He argues that libraries defend our democratic freedoms, and deserve our defence in return.

24/08/2023

Muhammad Iqbal is primarily known as the intellectual founder of Pakistan, but his greater fame stems from his poetry.

Muhammad Iqbal was popularly known as the intellectual founder of Pakistan, but his greater fame is for his philosophical works in English and his poetry, both in Urdu and Persian. IDEAS looks at the life and work of the Indian poet-philosopher.

23/08/2023

In her book, On Savage Shores, historian Caroline Dodds Pennock traces the history of Indigenous Americans arriving in Europe from 1492 on. She says their encounters on European soil can be found throughout historical records but have largely been ignored.

Starting in 1493, tens of thousands of Indigenous people began arriving in Europe. British historian Caroline Dodds Pennock spent a decade collecting evidence of the widespread Indigenous presence in Portugal, Spain, France, and England in the hundred years before Britain attempted to establish its....

18/08/2023

"Capitalism thrives on bad feelings. Discontented people buy more stuff — an insight the old American trade magazine Printers’ Ink stated bluntly in 1930: 'Satisfied customers are not as profitable as discontented ones,'" writes Astra Taylor, the 2023 Massey Lecturer, and author of the forthcoming book “The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart."

House of Anansi Press Massey College

Only by reckoning with how deep manufactured insecurity runs will it become possible to envision something different.

17/08/2023

"Community is not something that happens to us. Community is something that we create," says Naheed Nenshi.

Democratic backsliding is rising. Is there a way to revive civic engagement and resilience and push back against public apathy? IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed talks to former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi about the possibility of renewing civic purpose in Canada.

16/08/2023

"We just cannot think one approach is going to fit all our students and enable them to be successful," says Carl E. James.

The sociologist has studied Canada's schools and universities for 40 years. He argues there is much to learn about how racialized students can succeed in education.

Carl E. James is the winner of the 2022 Killam Prize for Social Science. Professor James is Canada's leading expert on schools and universities, especially as viewed through the lives of racialized students. He insists we must notice the processes behind what can appear to be flaws in society.

10/08/2023

In researching his latest book, The Persuaders, journalist Anand Giridharadas met fellow progressives intent on bridging the political divide, in the name of democracy, justice, and a better future for all.

The extremes are extreme in U.S. politics. But author Anand Giridharadas and some other progressives are convinced that there are uncompromising approaches that can move up to 60 per cent of voters to value democracy and human rights. He describes the methods proven effective in shifting views.

08/08/2023

As we continue digging through David Suzuki's radio archive, this episode called The Love Economy explores new ways to think of growth and society's holistic well-being.

The field of economics is limited by how it measures success. It doesn't take into account the things that sustain life that can't clearly be measured. The earth and its atmosphere provide infinite services free of charge — the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that sustains countless l...

08/08/2023

In his final Massey Lecture titled On Death, acclaimed Cree author Tomson Highway describes a dream he had during the last days of his brother's life.

Find all five lectures here:

https://www.cbc.ca/radiointeractives/ideas/cbc-massey-lectures-tomson-highway

04/08/2023

Looking at a map of the world, in the last 30 years the presence, demise, and return of authoritarian governments has contracted and expanded like an accordion. Despite this decades-long turn, the rise of Donald Trump in the United States came as a shock and signalled that even the longest-standing democracy of modern times was not safe.

Democracy is shrivelling and illiberalism is on the rise. We've been watching this unfold for more than three decades but the sense of urgency has, perhaps, never been so great. IDEAS hears from people on the frontline of the fight against rising authoritarianism — how they understand the struggle...

03/08/2023

In the final episode of our series, The Shock of the New, exploring five years that profoundly shaped the modern world, we end with the year 1947: Fractures and Tectonic Shifts.

Download each IDEAS episode from this series wherever you get your podcasts.

You can find all the years discussed here:

Salman Rushdie proposed that there seem to be 'hinge moments' in history, when many crucial changes take place at much the same time. But what are the forces that create change? Recorded at the 2022 Stratford Festival, The Shock of the New is a series of panel discussions about five years that have....

03/08/2023

Our final episode in our series, The Shock of the New, exploring five years that profoundly shaped the modern world is the year 1947: Fractures and Tectonic Shifts.

You can find all five episodes here:

Salman Rushdie proposed that there seem to be 'hinge moments' in history, when many crucial changes take place at much the same time. But what are the forces that create change? Recorded at the 2022 Stratford Festival, The Shock of the New is a series of panel discussions about five years that have....