Ideas
CBC Podcasts & Radio On-Demand
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.
With an award-winning team, our podcast has proud roots in its 60-year history with CBC Radio, exploring the IDEAS that make us who we are.
New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 5pm ET.
Location:
Canada, ON
Networks:
CBC Podcasts & Radio On-Demand
Description:
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. With an award-winning team, our podcast has proud roots in its 60-year history with CBC Radio, exploring the IDEAS that make us who we are. New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 5pm ET.
Twitter:
@CBCradio
Language:
English
Contact:
Ideas CBC Radio P.O. Box 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6 (416) 205-3700
Website:
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/
Email:
ideas@cbc.ca
Episodes
Why the practice of empathy is far from simple
10/16/2025
In today's fractured world, the many threats facing humanity seems to be an empathy deficit. Writer and journalist Leslie Jamison discusses the complicated nature of empathy and the dearth of it at a time when it’s needed more than ever. Jamison argues it's important to maintain a certain kind of humility when it comes to understanding other people.
We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.
Duration:00:54:09
Why modern spirituality is actually a form of religion
10/15/2025
Traditional religious institutions have been in decline since the '60s. As congregations dwindle, more Canadians are identifying as 'spiritual.' Sociologist Galen Watts traces the history of the modern spiritual movement and asks what we have gained — and lost — as it has become the dominant religious tradition of our time.
We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.
Duration:00:54:08
How 60s Scoop 'warriors' reclaimed their Indigenous roots
10/14/2025
Leticia Racine calls herself a “Returning Warrior” of the Sixties Scoop. As a child, she was at the centre of a landmark Supreme Court case that paved the way for Indigenous children to be adopted into non-Indigenous homes. Judges ruled that Leticia’s foster parents could adopt her, and suggested her connections to her Indigenous mother and their heritage were likely to “abate” over time." IDEAS producer Dawna Dingwall explores how Leticia —and other adoptees — found their way back to the families, communities and culture — that never really left them.
Dawna shares Leticia's story and this precedent court case on the CBC podcast, See You in Court.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:09
An homage to chickens, a dinosaur, dinner and backyard pet
10/13/2025
Chickens are the stars of this podcast today. Our relationship with this living creature, allegedly the closest living relative to the Tyrannosaurus Rex, is long and intertwined. And as it turns out, chickens have a lot to tell us, as IDEAS producer Tom Howell finds out. If you've ever wanted to hear two chickens attempt to video-conference together on Zoom, this episode is as close as you're likely to get. *This documentary originally aired on October 19, 2020.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:08
Imprisoned Syrian wrote poetry imagining the fall of the regime. Now it's come true
10/10/2025
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 collapse of the regime are a reality. In December, 2024, the rule of Syria’s longtime president Bashar al Assad did collapse. Bayrakdar tells host Nahlah Ayed how the freedom within is greater than any prison. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 19, 2024.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:09
How absurdist theatre is an act of resistance
10/9/2025
Theatre of the Absurd was born in the postwar era as a recoil against the violent fetish that totalitarian regimes had for “order.” For 75 years, absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco's plays have been running continuously in Paris. IDEAS travels to Paris, where a logic professor can conclude confidently that a dog is in fact a cat.
Duration:00:54:09
How a translation movement made Western philosophers famous
10/8/2025
From Greek to Arabic and then to Latin, translators in 8th-century Baghdad eventually brought to Europe the works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, and others who became central pillars of Western thought. IDEAS explores what is known as the Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement. *This episode originally aired on June 19, 2025.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:08
Can we have new pipelines and curb climate change, too?
10/7/2025
For the past decade, Canadians have been split 50/50 on new pipelines — that has changed. Two recent opinion polls found three quarters of eligible voters in Canada want at least one new pipeline built to export more fossil fuels. Yet, 70 per cent of people consider climate change a serious threat. IDEAS producer Tom Howell explores the incompatibilities and future scenarios.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:09
Why progressives may not be as 'woke' as they think
10/6/2025
Socialist and journalist Musa al-Gharbi identifies himself as part of an elite class of progressives that he calls: "symbolic capitalists" -- knowledge workers with elevated salaries and cultural status like professors, broadcasters, and bankers. He says it's the top 20 per cent, not the notorious one per cent, who pose a substantial impediment to progress.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:09
Why a proposed 'new capitalism' is so contested
10/3/2025
It’s loathed and celebrated, by both the left and right. It's called The Great Reset. To conspiracy theorists, it's a plot by global elites at the World Economic Forum to control our lives. To its supporters, it represents a gentler, more humane form of capitalism. IDEAS contributor Ira Basen lays out the origins, its aims and its potential, for both good and ill. *This episode originally aired on May 23, 2023.
Duration:00:54:08
How hashish may have helped a philosopher envision our future
10/2/2025
What happens when original artworks become endless copies? German philosopher Walter Benjamin called it the death of "aura," and his concept predicted our digital age. He describes "aura" as the energy that encases an object. In the '20s, Benjamin experimented with hashish under medical supervision, and his thinking while on drugs evolved to a theory of art history.
Duration:00:54:08
What life was like for Luke Galati in a psychiatric ward
10/1/2025
Writer and filmmaker Luke Galati shares what it is like living with bipolar I disorder and staying in a psychiatric ward — an experience he says feels like being in a fish bowl. While being hospitalized meant he lost his sense of freedom and control, he never lost hope. Luke's documentary is both a personal essay and a series of conversations with health-care professionals and others who have bipolar disorder. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 11, 2025.
Fill out our listener survey here. We appreciate your input!
Duration:00:54:08
How Inuk activist Aaju Peter learned to 'decolonize' her mind
9/30/2025
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. *This episode originally aired on January 29, 2025.
Duration:00:54:08
Can the fierce wars of today end in peace?
9/29/2025
If intractable conflicts in the 90s could end in peace agreements, is there hope for the ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond? What can we learn from the successes and failures of the past about how to create a more peaceful world? And what solutions are obstructed by lack of will? Nahlah Ayed and guests explore what peacemaking and rebuilding mean for us today, and try to chart a course for the future. *This is the last episode in our five-part series, Inventing Peace. +
Duration:00:54:09
Why rhythm is essential to how we walk, talk and love
9/26/2025
Rhythm is more than a fundamental feature of music. It's what makes us human. Rhythm begins in the womb and the heartbeat. And neuroscience research reveals that for the rest of our lives, rhythm will continue to have a core impact on our innermost selves: how we learn to walk, read and even bond with others. Rhythm — as one researcher puts it — is life. *This episode originally aired on April 30, 2020.
Duration:00:54:01
The natural — and unnatural — history of air on Earth
9/25/2025
Air is one of the most essential elements for human life. Yet even though we depend on air, we humans are dramatically changing the atmosphere — making the air unbearably hot in some parts of the world, unbreathable in the most polluted parts of the world, and pushing the climate toward tipping points. As humans who caused this, we have to adapt to ways we’ve altered our air.
Duration:00:54:08
Why the world feels like a shipwreck
9/24/2025
For thousands of years, Shipwrecks have been a mainstay trope of literature and storytelling. IDEAS dives into the history of shipwreck tales to discover the allure of maritime disaster, why they resonate today, and why life so often feels like it’s heading for the rocks.
Duration:00:54:08
Can the UN's 80th General Assembly meeting change the world?
9/23/2025
As the United Nations turns 80, calls for reform are louder than ever. Against the backdrop of multiple global crises, strongman diplomacy and rising threats from climate change to AI, a growing campaign is calling on the UN to revisit the outdated charter established in 1945 and work on reinventing the organization.
"We need to start rethinking what kind of institution we would like to establish to make sure the 21st century does not become as violent as the 20th century," says Tim Murithi, head of the Peacebuilding Interventions Program at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation.
Duration:00:54:08
Was justice served by South Africa's peace accord?
9/22/2025
The apartheid era in South Africa ended in 1991 with the National Peace Accords. The peace agreement also paved the way for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Yet TRC head Desmond Tutu considered the process “scandalously unfinished.” Lawyer Prakash Diar agrees: "You don’t undo centuries of colonization just like that.”
Diar and writer Kagiso Lesego Molope were young activists in apartheid-era South Africa. They saw the toll that oppression and state violence took: on their families, communities, and themselves. In our fourth episode of our series Inventing Peace, they consider the history of the history of this pivotal peace agreement and what other countries might learn.
Duration:00:54:08
Can a trucker's life entice young people to take the wheel?
9/19/2025
An Ontario trucking union predicts a shortage of 30,000 truckers in Canada as old hands retire faster than new ones take on the job. IDEAS producer Tom Howell visits a trucking school in northern Ontario, where recruits consider their options, and the road ahead. *This episode originally aired on March 4, 2024.
Duration:00:54:08