Ideas

As Canadians once again find themselves explaining why their country deserves to exist, a group of proud Quebecers brave the winter in Sherbrooke to raise their nation’s largest-ever flag. IDEAS' Tom Howell joins in, as he continues his series on where the patriotic spirit belongs in people’s lives today.

Aaju Peter was 11 years old when she was taken from her Inuk community in Greenland and sent away to learn the ways of the West. She lost her language and culture. The activist, lawyer, designer, musician, filmmaker, and prolific teacher takes IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a tour of Iqaluit and into a journey to decolonization that continues still.

Is it too late to save the planet? Anthropologist Wade Davis doesn't think so — he's inspired by the ability of nature to adapt, and he thinks people can change, too. He says that means looking for all the information we can get. Part two of IDEAS producer Philip Coulter’s conversation with Wade Davis.

How do conversations happen differently in the north? What’s unique about Inuit approaches to silence — and to nation-to-nation conversations? IDEAS explores dialogue from Ian Williams' first Massey Lecture in Iqaluit with lawyer and activist Aaju Peter and actor and producer Simeonie Kisa-Knicklebein.

In her final 2024 BBC Reith Lecture, forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead assesses how we deal with violent offenders, and assesses the effectiveness and impact of therapeutic interventions with offenders in prisons. *The Reith Lectures originally aired on BBC Radio 4.

With very rare access, forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead gives her third Reith Lecture inside Grendon prison, in England, where she talks to a small number of prisoners and staff, and asks the question: Does trauma cause violence? Does being a victim of violence, in some circumstances, make you more likely to become a perpetrator of violence? *The Reith Lectures originally aired on BBC Radio 4.

Tech billionaires are on a mission to make the stories of science fiction a reality: space colonization, human/machine bio organisms, and living forever in a state of unhindered bliss. To most of us, this version of a far future utopia comes off as "billionaire boys and their toys" but critics say such a dismissive attitude is naïve.

Space exploration is no longer the domain of countries alone. It’s now rapidly becoming the domain of private interests. Astrophysicist Aaron Boley discusses the impact of this on humanity and astronomy in his 2024 Dan MacLennan Memorial Lecture.

Nineteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche offers us a method that can help us navigate the highly polarizing discourse that’s afflicting democracies today. IDEAS explores lessons on healthy discourse from a man most popularly associated with nihilism.

Is a criminal trial a search for truth? How do we navigate between the trial process and our lived experience in that elusive search for the truth? Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour tackles these questions in her 2024 Horace E. Read lecture.

In a career spanning over 30 years, Dr. Adshead has heard many of her patients ask: "I have done evil things, but does that mean I am evil? In her second BBC Reith Lecture, Adshead asks if there is such a thing as evil. She argues we all have capacity for 'evil' and says we need to find ways to cultivate societal and individual 'goodness.' *The Reith Lectures originally aired on BBC Radio 4.

What if there was one thing we could do to significantly impact poverty, crime, and the climate crisis? Law professor Adam Benforado believes there is a solution: prioritizing kids. The author of A Minor Revolution argues that if we centred children in all aspects of law and public policy, we would all benefit.

English philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that life would be "nasty, brutish and short" without a strong government. IDEAS explores how a new take on Hobbes offers a surprising perspective on the recent American election.

This month, IDEAS features the 2024 BBC's Reith Lectures by forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead. Her four lectures address pertinent questions she has faced in her career. To start, she asks if violence is a normal part of human life — whether we are all capable and tempted by violence — or whether it is an aberration in just some people. *The Reith Lectures originally aired on BBC Radio 4.

Writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and John McWhorter share common concerns about language, race and politics in our polarized society. They discuss the chilling of civic discourse for fear of political censure and how wokeness is condescending to Black people at the 2024 Aspen Ideas Festival.

Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor speaks to Nahlah Ayed about his life’s journey, from growing up in Montreal in the 1930s, his 1991 CBC Massey Lectures, and why he turned to Romantic poetry to re-enchant our sense of the meaning of life in his book, Cosmic Connections.

Anthropologist Wade Davis has smoked toad, tried ayahuasca, and figured out the zombie cocktail in Haiti. He takes a walk through the forest with IDEAS producer Philip to talk about the wonders of our planet and ideas in his latest book of essays, Beneath the Surface of Things.

Modern mystic Thomas Merton helped to bring contemplative spirituality to the fore during the convulsions of the 20th century. He spins us a powerful, prophetic Christmas story that we don’t often hear, but one that is central to our modern self-understanding.

CBC's investigative documentary program, The Fifth Estate, turned 50 this year. To commemorate this golden anniversary, a panel of distinguished journalists take us behind the stories and to the current threats facing their profession. As the media landscape continues to shrink, who will hold the powerful to account?

For 14 years, Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar was imprisoned and tortured in a series of prisons. He found refuge in writing poetry. Now, the poems he wrote imagining the fall of the regime are coming true. He tells host Nahlah Ayed how the freedom within is greater than any prison.