Ideas

Mar 25 2025 233 ep. 54 mins 13.2k
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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.

  Society & Culture
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A School that Feels like Home: Revitalizing Mi’kmaq Language in Cape Breton

Mar 25 2025 54 mins  
In 1997, the Mi’kmaq Nation took over on-reserve education in Nova Scotia. It was the first time in Canadian history that jurisdiction for education was transferred from the federal government to a First Nation. One year later, Eskasoni First Nation high school opened, and since then, the school has become an epicentre for Mi’kmaq language revitalization. This episode is the se

How Iqaluit's learning institute gave a generation of Inuit adults a path back to Inuktut

Mar 24 2025 54 mins  
Younger generations in Nunavut today are less likely to grow up immersed in Inuktut. At a language school in Iqaluit, Inuit adults who didn’t grow up speaking Inuktut now have the chance to learn it as a second language at the Pirurvik Centre. By learning the words for kinship terminology, they’re also discovering things about their families they never knew. *This episode

The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 1: Why we need to have a conversation about conversations

Mar 17 2025 54 mins  
Ever felt that no one is really listening? In the first of his 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, novelist and poet Ian Williams explores why we need to have a conversation about conversations. His five-part lecture series confronts the deterioration of civic and civil discourse and asks us to reconsider the act of conversing as the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings. *The Mass

The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 2: Public conversations

Mar 17 2025 54 mins  
In his second Massey Lecture, Ian Williams explores the power of conversation with strangers. He says humanity comes out when interacting with them. But how do we open ourselves up to connect with strangers while safeguarding our personal sovereignty? Williams believes we can learn a lot from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike. 

The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 3: Personal conversations

Mar 17 2025 54 mins  
Difficult conversations are almost always about something under the surface, and hidden. In his third Massey Lecture, Ian Williams illustrates what we’re listening for isn’t always obvious. He explains how personal conversations aren't about finding answers — it's for communion.  

The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 5: Good conversations

Mar 17 2025 54 mins  
What makes a great conversation? The subject? Not so much. It’s more that it’s filled with layers and that you never really know where it’ll end up — how it will change you by the time it ends. Ian Williams delivers the final 2024 CBC Massey Lecture on the art of good conversation.

Why Massey Lecturer Ian Williams Stays Open to All Perspectives

Mar 14 2025 54 mins  
2024 CBC Massey lecturer Ian Williams speaks with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed about the forces that have shaped him as a thinker and writer, from the encyclopedias he read as a child in Trinidad to his years as a dancer to the poetry of Margaret Atwood. "I believe in multiplicity," he says. William's Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation in Our Time, will

White Wine with Lunch: How much luxury is reasonable for one person?

Mar 13 2025 54 mins  
Is there a luxury you would never give up for your ideals? An all-purpose deal-breaker? IDEAS producer Tom Howell investigates how wanting a nice lunch in a restaurant intersects with morals and politics — with the help of a restaurateur, an economist, an anti-poverty campaigner, and a light golden Chablis. *This episode originally aired on June 24, 2024. 

We believe in artificial intelligence the same way we believe in ghosts

Mar 12 2025 54 mins  
Hidden in the 1950 academic paper that launched the famous 'Turing Test' of machine intelligence, is a strange mystery. Cryptographer Alan Turing argued that humans might always be able to outsmart machines, because we have supernatural powers like ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis. His belief in the paranormal is just one part of the spooky side of artificial intelligence. Like haun

A rallying cry to extend human rights to our data-generating digital selves

Mar 11 2025 54 mins  
In this digital age, we must think of ourselves as stakeholders, playing a vital role in the creation of data, says Wendy H. Wong. She is a political scientist and winner of the 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for her book, We, the Data. Wong argues for a human rights approach when it comes to how our data should be collected, and how it can be used.