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204 episodes
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Ideas CBC Discover & Learn
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- Society & Culture
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4.6 • 248 Ratings
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IDEAS is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. In the age of clickbait and superficial headlines, it's for people who like to think.
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The Hinge Years: 1963 | Social Revolutions
Our series, looking at pivotal years in recent history, continues as we focus on the year 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a march on Washington, the Pan-African movement ushers in a new era for Africa, President Kennedy is assassinated, and the war in Vietnam heats up. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 24, 2024.
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English: Friend or Frenemy?
English may have a reputation for being a "linguistic imperialist," pushing local languages into obscurity but linguist Mario Saraceni argues English should be viewed as a global language with multiple versions existing on equal footing. *This episode originally aired on May 19, 2023.
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Négritude: The Birth of Black Humanism
Négritude was a Francophone movement to rethink what it meant to be Black and African. Scholar Merve Fejzula explores the dynamic debates happening in the early-to mid-20th century among Négritude thinkers, how they disseminated their ideas, and how all this changed what it meant to be part of a public. *This episode originally aired on March 8, 2023.
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Historian Tiya Miles on how a mother's love outlasted slavery
A cotton sack from the time of slavery bears the first names of a mother and her daughter, who was sold at the age of nine. Harvard historian Tiya Miles scours the historical documentary record to discover who these women were and reveals their story of love in her book, All That She Carried — winner of the 2022 Cundill History Prize. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 20, 2023.
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Astra Taylor's CBC Massey Lectures | #3: Consumed by Curiosity
It’s a paradox — we live in the most prosperous era in human history, but it’s also an era of profound insecurity. Massey Lecturer Astra Taylor suggests that history shows that increased material security helps people be more open-minded, tolerant, and curious. But rising insecurity does the reverse — it drives us apart.
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The Hinge Years: 1938 | The Winds of War
On the eve of the Second World War, Hitler annexes Austria and escalates antisemitic persecution, Japan wages war on China, and the parallel collapse of democracy in both the East and West sets the stage for war. This is the second episode in our series exploring five years that have shaped the world. It originally aired on Jan. 23, 2024.
Customer Reviews
Papyrus
Thank you for the Irene Vallejo interview! The book is wonderful and it’s great to see someone in North America interview her! Brava!
Great Show
Always enjoy topics presented and great interview partners are picked. I’ve learned a lot from various episodes. Listening from Germany.
Where are the ideas?
There is a unique amount of discouragement and helplessness in these episodes; it might be expected that ideas worth investigating ought to at least occasionally exhilarate, surprise, liberate, or point to joy and mirth in some form or another. Solemnity and worrying and being troubled are not the same as taking something seriously, and raising one’s voice is surely not curiosity. Rarely has anyone ever answered a question with a question on this show, which would indicate a form of engagement resembling a solution-oriented process and therefore approaching an idea. I am not trying to be merely pedantic and obtuse to get the point across here: this kind of discourse is toxic and fueling much of what it purports to address with mild concern.