222 episodes

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.

Ideas CBC Discover & Learn

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.6 • 243 Ratings

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.

    Putin Critic Garry Kasparov: Winter is Here

    Putin Critic Garry Kasparov: Winter is Here

    Nearly a decade after Russia annexed Crimea, Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering its third year. As Putin is starting yet another term — Russian opposition activist Gary Kasparov’s warnings from his book, Winter is Coming, are playing out in real time. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Garry Kasparov.

    • 54 min
    Conflicted: a Ukrainian journalist covers her nation at war

    Conflicted: a Ukrainian journalist covers her nation at war

    “We face a continual tension between holding the government to account, and not wanting the enemy to undermine us by exploiting bad news," says Ukrainian journalist Veronika Melkozerova. She delivered this year's Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture, focusing her talk on what Ukrainian journalists confront daily: patriotism versus journalism.

    • 54 min
    Kate Beaton: What's lost when working-class voices are not heard

    Kate Beaton: What's lost when working-class voices are not heard

    Kate Beaton and her family have deep roots in hard-working, rural Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. In her 2024 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture, the popular cartoonist points out what is lost when working-class voices are shut out of opportunities in the worlds of arts, culture, and media.

    • 54 min
    CBC Massey Lectures: Audience Q&A with Astra Taylor

    CBC Massey Lectures: Audience Q&A with Astra Taylor

    Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says 2023 CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. She explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, and the threat of authoritarianism, originate from a social order built on insecurity. In this episode, Astra Taylor answers audience questions from the cross-Canada tour. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 27, 2023.

    • 54 min
    CBC Massey Lectures | #5: Escaping the Burrow

    CBC Massey Lectures | #5: Escaping the Burrow

    Human beings will never be totally secure, especially not on a planet that has been destabilized. In Astra Taylor's final Massey Lecture, she offers some hope and solutions. Taylor suggests cultivating an ethic of insecurity — one that embraces our existential insecurity. The experience of insecurity, she says, can offer us a path to wisdom — a wisdom that can guide not only our personal lives but also our collective endeavours.

    • 1 hr 2 min
    CBC Massey Lectures | #1: Cura’s Gift

    CBC Massey Lectures | #1: Cura’s Gift

    Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. The Winnipeg-born writer and filmmaker explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, the climate crisis, and the threat of authoritarianism originate from a social order built on insecurity. In her first lecture, she explores the existential insecurity we can’t escape — and the manufactured insecurity imposed on us from above.

    • 1 hr

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5
243 Ratings

243 Ratings

1666!. ,

Great Show

Always enjoy topics presented and great interview partners are picked. I’ve learned a lot from various episodes. Listening from Germany.

cochineal.moon ,

Architecture of war and peace

Excellent story told thru the lens of many.

sidneyhart ,

Sidney Hart

We are stuffed to our gills with podcasts these days but IDEAS, which I guess is a radio show on Canada and is available everywhere else as a podcast, is one of the oldest and still one of the most thought provoking in its choice and treatment of subjects. Perhaps Canada doesn’t have much to show for itself in glorious civilization achievements but this modesty has been turned to its advantage because it can approach other cultures’ achievements with an open mind. I am particularly struck role played by the Palestinian-Canadian host Nahlah Ayed. She brings a Muslim sensibility and a Muslim bias to so many of the topics. I can think of no other country’s flagship radio station that has given so much prominence to Islamic culture and thought. I mean that as a compliment.

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