Ideas from CBC Radio (Highlights)

Accusations of a stolen election, laws targeting NGOs and media, violent treatment of protestors — sometimes live on TV. What's happening in the republic of Georgia right now typifies what is happening geopolitically around the world. The authoritarian ruling party called Georgian Dream aligns itself with Russia but most citizens want the country to join the European Union. There have been 400 consecutive days of protests before 2026 against the Georgian Dream government.Radio documentary makers David Zane Mairowitz and Malgorzata Zerwe were in the capital Tbilisi, and to record the Family Purity Parade and a demonstration, each from opposing ends of the political spectrum, for this documentary.

That's what Hanna Pickard argues. After analyzing the scientific research, and working with those who've stopped self-destructive drug and alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins philosopher sees addiction as a complex behavioural disorder. She argues it's driven by individual psychology and social circumstances, and should be treated that way. Jowita Bydlowska and Michael Kaufmann, both memoirists of addiction, weigh in.

Connie Greyeyes describes herself as an ‘accidental activist.' After her cousin was murdered and her childhood best friend went missing, she started organizing vigils for missing and murdered Indigenous women in Fort St. John, B.C. — then asking questions about the relationship between resource extraction and violence against women. This episode is the first in a series of profiles of human rights defenders, recorded alongside the 2025 CBC Massey Lectures.

You likely have never heard of Matilda Joslyn Gage. Yet feminist Gloria Steinem calls her “the woman ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.” Matilda worked side by side with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to get women the vote in the United States and co-wrote the history of the women's movement with them. Yet the towering figure was erased by her peers. IDEAS producer Dawna Dingwall looks into the work that is being done to write the forgotten suffragist back into history.

There are two things most people agree on — artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing, and the grave risks AI poses are very real — no one, not even ChatGPT, really knows how this will play out. Renowned “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton argues we need to put the brakes on AI development until we know for sure it can be kept safely under control.Owain Evans is a leading AI researcher and the founder/director of Truthful AI. In his 2025 Hinton lecture series, organized by the AI Safety Foundation, he discusses the risks presented by AI, the means at our disposal to keep it escaping human control, and the challenges of developing coherent, comprehensive strategies to prevent AI from becoming a menace to humankind.Have time for one more podcast? Don't miss our feature interview with AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton: Why AI needs to be nicer to us and develop 'maternal instincts'

And it is dying. At least for us, humans. Our chatter and connection online is being overrun by bots — more than half of online activity is non-human. The internet is on it's way to feeling haunted, like a deserted mall where the fountain is still gurgling, the canned music is still playing, but the people are nowhere to be found. IDEAS explores the dying internet and what we will do when it's dead?If you like this episode, you may want to listen to: We're not machines. Why should our online world define life?Guests in this episode:Cory Doctorow is an activist with a non-profit called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He's a writer and journalist. His most recent book is called Enshitification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse And What To Do About ItMatt Hussey is a UK-based therapist and tech journalist.

It was a simple honeymoon photo from 1941. A stranger posted it online and the commentary was vicious. The woman in that picture was Albanian author Lea Ypi's grandmother. In the midst of the Second World War and the violent end times of Mussolini's government, Ypi's grandmother must have been a fascist, a collaborator, a traitor to Albania. In her book, Indignity: A Life Reimagined, Ypi attempts to find the truth of her grandmother's life, in a journey that mixes philosophy, fantasy, history, and family narrative.

Thanks to AI, it's easier than ever to avoid reading books — but that convenience may come with a cost. IDEAS explores how our digital landscape, coupled with the decline of reading, is changing the way we think.If you like this episode, listen to our podcast with Geoffrey Hinton, the 'godfather of artificial intelligence' who says AI must develop empathy and 'maternal instincts' or we risk human extinction.

If AI continues to develop without appropriate guardrails, a worst-case scenario could lead to human extinction, warns the 'godfather of artificial intelligence ' Geoffrey Hinton. But the Nobel Prize winner has a solution: AI must foster 'maternal' instincts, empathy and kindness. Hinton tells host Nahlah Ayed that it's fairly inevitable AI will become smarter than humans, but if we could make it care more for us than it did about itself, good things could happen.

IDEAS producer Tom Howell recently sold his car and joined the ranks of winter cyclists in Montreal. He is not the only one who commutes on bike in North America's snowiest metropolis. The city's bike-sharing program operates year-round. The bicycle's popularity as a winter vehicle is increasing. Nevertheless, winter bicycling remains a minority practice, often viewed as folly. Howell investigates whether there is indeed wisdom in it.

Under pressure, our nerves can take over. At job interviews, performing in front of an audience and it's definitely present in sports. But why do our skills desert us at such a crucial moment? And what can be done to avoid choking? Studies have shown that when people tell themselves they're excited rather than nervous, they perform better. This podcast explores more ways to avoid the choke and why it happens. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 23, 2022.Guests in this episode:Sian Beilock is a cognitive scientist and author of Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have to and How the Body Knows its Mind. She's recently been named President-elect of Dartmouth College.Sandra Bezic is a former Olympian and Canadian champion in figure skating (with her brother Val), and is now a producer, director and choreographer.Carolyn Christie is a retired member of the flute section of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. She now teaches classical flute at McGill and is also a Certified Mental Skills Consultant.Niklas Häusler is a neuroscientist and co-founder and CEO of the German startup company Neuro 11.Noa Kageyama is a performance psychologist. He maintains a blog and podcast, Bulletproof Musician.Elizabeth Manley was world and Olympic silver medalist in figure skating in 1988, and is now an executive life coach.Jennifer Montone is the principal horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra.Aaron Williamon is head of the Center for Performance Science, a partnership between the Royal College of Music and Imperial College, London.

Henry Brown earned the name "Henry Box Brown" in March of 1849. He hatched a risky plan and had himself shipped in a wooden crate, from Richmond to Philadelphia. But that's less than half his story. In freedom, he uses his escape box as the basis for a subversive magic act that sees him tour the stages of the UK and Canada — his final home. Henry's remarkable story is a must-listen. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 3, 2025.

With vengeful alien civilizations and hologram wives, Chinese science fiction is in its heyday. One hot topic discussion is how the genre and culture view things as "inherently non-binary," says PhD student Zichuan Gan. Not just in the sense of gender but avoiding black and white categories. As in "humans or machines, west or east, Chinese science-fiction often shows that reality and life are more mixed and complicated." IDEAS explores what we can learn from China through it's science fiction. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 2, 2025.

Neither the legal system nor the Constitution can change the course of the United States' descent into illiberalism, argues human rights and civil liberties lawyer Jameel Jaffer. Only the will of the people can — when ordinary citizens fight to uphold democracy with "civic courage."

Mudlarking is a hobby that's having a moment. The opportunity to take part in the painstaking, low-tech scrape through history draws thousands of people hoping to come face to face with the remnants of lives that came before them. But what can mudlarkers do that a trained archeologist cannot? This podcast takes you to the heart of London on the Southbank of the Thames River where there's mud, water — and possibility.Click here to see a collection of mudlarking finds.

For the first two billion years, the Earth didn't have oxygen. That's just one of the many fascinating details Peter Frankopan reveals in his book, Earth Transformed: An Untold History. The Oxford professor of global history takes on a multi-million year tour connecting climate history to today, such as how climate fluctuations correlate to periods of antisemitic violence, and how the collapse of a sediment shelf 8,000 years ago isolated what's now Britain from Europe, and its potential influence on the Brexit vote in 2016.

More than a decade before Jackie Robinson became the first Black player to take the field in Major League Baseball, a ball team from a small Southwestern Ontario city was breaking colour barriers. They were called theChatham Coloured All-Stars — the first all-Black team to win the Ontario baseball championship. Their historic 1934 season, including the racist treatment they endured and their exploits on the field has resurfaced in an online project. Now the team is getting their due as trailblazing Black Canadian athletes. *This episode originally dropped on Nov. 25, 2024.

Water has been "a powerful teacher" for Nishnaabeg scholar Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, a member of Alderville First Nation north of Lake Ontario. With so much uncertainty about the kind of world that's taking shape, her award-winning book Theory of Water draws on Anishinaabe creation story, Indigenous ethics of relationality and reciprocity, and the wisdom of water to chart a course for remaking a better, more sustainable and just world. Simpson's Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction in 2025.

Firstly, you might ask: What is the Monroe Doctrine? It's a U.S. policy created in the 19th century that opposes foreign interference in the affairs of the "Western Hemisphere." It was understood to be a defense of autonomy but its interpretation is mixed. Various presidents over time have used the doctrine for their own purposes, writing their own political agenda onto it. Now is no different, as Donald Trump's government turns to the policy as a way to control the Western Hemisphere.Guests in this episode:Richard Drake is the Lucile Speer Research Chair in politics and history at the University of MontanaMax Cameron teaches in the department of political science at the University of British Columbia and is president of the Latin American Studies Association

You've likely experienced it: that state of being in the groove, on a roll, lost in the process. It's what researchers call 'flow': a state intimately familiar to athletes and artists — or anyone who's been fully absorbed in a given task to the point where time seems to stand still. In this state there's a sense of self disappearing, presenting a paradox between a state in which you lose yourself, yet become yourself. Writer and triathlete, Suzanne Zelazo, delves into the mystery at the heart of flow in this documentary.*This episode originally aired on June 25, 2021.

"We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," Canada's Prime Minster Mark Carney said in a recent speech at the World Economic Forum. The shift in international relations has Carney urging "middle power" countries to build coalitions and act together to counteract the "great power" strategy of the day: coercion. How? By flexing "soft power" — assets a country has that are attractive to other countries in the context of international affairs. Turns out, Canada and a majority of other countries have an opportunity to play a significant role on the international stage, if they choose to take it.This IDEAS episode is a discussion with Jennifer Welsh, McGill University's Canada Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, hosted at the University of Ottawa in the fall of 2025. We also hear from former high commissioner to Britain Janice Charette, former head of MSF Dr. Joanne Liu and climate campaigner Catherine Abreu.

Our justice system was developed under the assumption that both parties in a dispute would each have a lawyer. But the reality is most Canadian's can't afford a lawyer — which makes negotiations unequal. In some jurisdictions as many as 80% of people in family court are self represented. What about legal aid? Very few people are eligible. Our series continues to explore how the justice system is designed to favour people with money. *This episode originally aired on April 26, 2023.

Marcell Wilson knows how to game the criminal justice system. He's been charged upwards of 30 times for what he says were “mostly violent crimes" and yet to this day he doesn't have a criminal record. Why? He has money to pay the high fees for a good lawyer. Many scholars and legal commentators agree it's easier for people with wealth to secure favourable legal outcomes — not just in criminal court but in custody disputes, civil litigation, and child protection matters. In a two-part series, IDEAS contributor Mitchell Stuart asks: is a system like that still capable of administering justice? *This episode originally aired on April 19, 2023.

It depends on who you ask. Until recently empathy was generally considered a positive thing. But a growing number of mostly conservative voices believe empathy can be extremely dangerous — even toxic. Their argument is that empathy can drive irrational thinking and behaviour in public life. The result is a growing battle over empathy in a world that has never seemed to need it more. If you like this podcast, you may want to listen to this: Why practicing empathy is far from simple.Guests in this podcast:Matt Richins – neuroscientist and psychologist, who did research on empathy at Exeter University, UK.Susan Lanzoni – author, historian of psychology, psychiatry, and neuroscience and professor at Harvard's School of Continuing EducationMary Gordon – founder of Roots of Empathy program, TorontoMichael Slote – author, philosopher and professor of ethics at the University of MiamiMargaret Davidson – Roots of Empathy classroom facilitator, Chiganois ElementaryKourtney Simms – Chiganois Elementary teacherEllie – Grade 1 student, Chiganois Elementary

"You're awakening a dragon. Public anger is stirring." A warning from Rutger Bregman to Silicon Valley. The historian is sounding the alarm over the existential risks posed by unrestrained technology and artificial intelligence in his final BBC Reith Lecture. He calls on those in power to assume responsibility, and help shape a future worthy of hope. Bregman envisions 'moral revolutions' as the path forward and urges us all to come together to take on this task. "Small groups of committed citizens have bent the arc of history towards justice. And whatever the outcome, there is beauty in trying, beauty in every act of courage, in every spark of truth."

To Britain, through colonial eyes, the potato was a symbol or Irish backwardness. In the book, Rot, a new history of Ireland's Great Famine is revealed, showing how the British Empire caused the infamous disaster. Author and historian Padraic X Scanlan paints a complex and compelling picture of the Great Famine of 1845, in which the potato — and the blight — played but a part in a broader story of colonialism, capitalism, and collapse.

We are all born. Birth is the story of all of us. So why aren't we more curious about its history? That's what historian Lucy Inglis wanted to know. She's spent 15 years researching birth – around the globe, and across the centuries. “When you go into labour, you are a ship on the sea," says Inglis, referring to an ancient Assyrian chant acknowledging the physical perils of giving birth. While medical advances and greater freedom of choice inform birth in countries like England and Canada today, her book Born: A History of Childbirth argues that birth has a deep global history that proves it has always been a highwire act, shaped by both nature and culture. IDEAS explores the visceral, intimate realities of childbirth that have always been in evidence.

What's the secret weapon to make political change happen? It's not a trick question, it's simple: perseverance, says BBC Reith Lecturer Rutger Bregman. The historian envisions a "realist utopia" in this lecture and asks listeners to join what he describes as a “conspiracy of decency" — a world where Universal Basic Income, fairer taxation and stronger tech regulation can start to build a more just and resilient future. A great movement Bregman says needs radicals who push the fringes but also moderates "who are actually able to make compromises and get things done." There's a role for everyone just find a small group of committed, determined, morally-serious people and "then you can move mountains."

We live in an "age of immorality," argues historian and author Rutger Bregman, and the decay is everywhere."The moral rot runs deep across elite institutions of every stripe," Bregman says in his first BBC Reith Lecture. His series of lectures describes why he is calling for a moral revolution to counter the culture of cynicism and un-seriousness among global elites. Bregman says history has proven how small determined groups have catalysed profound moral change, and that legacy should be an inspirational guide for all of us today. IDEAS is featuring lectures from the BBC Reith Lectures, this is the first episode.

This podcast seeks answers to the question. If you are left-handed then you are part of the 10 per cent of humankind that detested craft time in elementary school that involved scissors. Left-handed people often have to accommodate their difference in our dominant right-handed world. But that can get tricky if you are training to be a surgeon. Operating rooms and surgical instruments become big obstacles for left-handed people as IDEAS contributor Mark Dance finds out in his documentary exploring the history and mystery of left-handers. *This episode originally aired on May 6, 2022.

Think of science's most momentous developments in the 20th century — Einstein's theory of relativity, quantum physics, finding evidence of black holes. If you trace the chain of discoveries that led to these breakthroughs back far enough, you'll end up with the Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli says we can learn a lot from Galileo today. He explains how 400 years ago, the renowned inventor was discovering new facts about the Universe to understand ourselves better — and so are we.

"This is a hopeless situation but we are not helpless." This is what drives Sudanese journalist Yousra Elbagir's reporting on her homeland's forgotten war. She uses what she calls "human reporting" to let the world know Sudan is more than conflict and suffering. "Sudanese generosity is our lifeblood. That's what's keeping us alive right now. We are actually surviving in forced starvation through generosity and kindness and care."Yousra Elbagir delivered the 2025 Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture at Carleton University. She spoke to host Nahlah Ayed about her work and her lecture: Human reporting from Sudan and beyond — a remedy for selective empathy?

"Those who remember the disappeared would also disappear." Under dictator Bashar al-Assad, grieving publicly in Syria was punishable. Now the silenced stories of lost loved ones are emerging and there are public spaces to grieve. Syrian architect Ammar Azzouz's friend and colleague Tahir Sabai was killed on his street in 2011. After 14 years in exile, Azzouz returned home and says it's not just a right but "a duty to remember." IDEAS hears about Azzouz's classmate from architecture school, the lives of a father, a brother, and a singer who became the voice of the revolution.Guests in this podcast:Jaber Baker is a novelist, researcher, former political prisoner, human rights activist, and filmmaker. He is the author of Syrian Gulag: Assad's Prisons, 1970-2020, the first-ever comprehensive study of Syrian political prisons.Ammar Azzouz is a British Academy Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. He studied architecture in Homs, Syria and is the author of Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria.Noura Aljizawi is a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. She was a prominent figure in the Syrian uprising and a survivor of abduction, detention, and torture.When civil war broke out in his home country in 2011, Hassan Al Kontar was a young Syrian living and working in the UAE. A conscientious objector, he refused to return to Syria for compulsory military service and lived illegally before being deported to Malaysia in 2018. He became trapped in the arrivals zone at Kuala Lumpur Airport. Exiled by war and trapped by geopolitics, Al Kontar used social media and humour to tell his story to the world, becoming an international celebrity and ultimately finding refuge in Canada.Khabat Abbas is an independent journalist and video producer based in northeastern Syria. Since 2011, she has extensively covered the developments that have shaken her country starting with the popular demonstrations, to the fight against the so-called Islamic State and its aftermath.

Thanks to copyright laws, artists, writers and scientists can create without fear of theft. On an individual basis this protection is welcome. But in practice copyright laws set up barriers, stifle production and prevent equal access to art and knowledge. If you've ever tried to open a scholarly article online you know how difficult it is. What happened to the internet's great promise to democratize knowledge? In this podcast, producer Naheed Mustafa explores the fate of “open access” — all in the ever-expanding universe of copyright laws, paywalls and old-fashioned bureaucratic sludge.Guests in this podcast:John Willinsky is emeritus professor of education at Stanford University with an appointment at Simon Fraser University.Lokesh Vyas is pursuing a PhD at Sciences Po in Paris working on the history of international copyright law.Thea Lim is a Toronto-based novelist, creative writing teacher, and cultural writer focussing on the intersection of power, art and personhood, and technology.

We gorge ourselves on the internet, smartphones, social media, information overload — all of it constantly sap us of our emotional and intellectual vitality. Authors Pico Iyer and Jonathan Haidt argue it's vital we disconnect from our addictive online world to pursue a fulfilling, and richer life. By curtailing the noise of technology, media and other worldly distractions there's space to reconnect with the things that matter. "Humans were never designed to live at a pace determined by machines. The only way we could begin to do that is by becoming machines ourselves," says Iyer. Pico Iyer and Jonathan Haidt were two of the marquee speakers at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival. The theme this year was 'What Makes Life Good.'

Holmes Rolston III began his career as a Presbyterian minister. But his love of the natural world — and his belief in evolution — didn't sit well with his congregation. He was ultimately fired. The late philosopher spent much of his career working to bridge the gap between science and religion because he said "the future of Earth depends on it." Rolston is the pioneer of environmental ethics, a turning point in philosophy. His ultimate goal was to define the moral worth of the planet. Rolston died in 2025 at the age of 92. In this episode, IDEAS explores his legacy and the continuing resonance of his work.Guests in this documentary:Christopher Preston is a professor of environmental philosophy at the University of Montana, Missoula. His books include Tenacious Beasts and Saving Creation: Nature and Faith in the Life of Holmes Rolston III.Stephen Scharper is an associate professor in the department of anthropology and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto.Kerry Bowman is a Canadian bioethicist and environmentalist who teaches bioethics and planetary health at the University of Toronto.Nathan Kowalsky is an associate professor of philosophy at St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta.Karen Beazley is a professor emerita in the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University.Simon Appolloni is an assistant professor in the Teaching Stream at the University of Toronto's School of the Environment.

Would you 'doo-be-doo' if you know it would help bridge divides? Try vocal improvisation — singing sounds, rhythms and melodies. PhD candidate Erwan Noblet teaches the practice and says it's a great way to open up and connect at another level being together. He believes the human voice has the power to communicate creatively when it's released from everyday verbal tasks. We asked three former politicians from different political parties to communicate through vocalization, without words. Their conversation may inspire you to take on vocal improv.*This episode is part of our ongoing series Ideas in the Trenches, which showcases fascinating new work by Canadian PhD students.

What do you get when you take some of the classic Enlightenment values like reason, fairness, and justice, and substitute them with opinion, privilege and power: The Dark Enlightenment — a movement that is a deliberate oxymoron with a vision to dump democracy and replace it with start-up cities run by CEOs. American blogger Curtis Yarvin, also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is the founder of this movement that advocates for the return of traditional hierarchical societies and monarchy-like governance.

As we welcome in the New Year, we eagerly anticipate a fresh roster of IDEAS programs to inspire new ways of looking at our world and understanding it. From the phenomenon of the ‘27 Club'' to exploring literature from Labrador, to social media influencers who push their intellectual pursuits, join host Nahlah Ayed to find out what our producers are cooking up for the 2026 season.

Kritika Vashishtha has been pursuing a cure for jet lag and it's possible she's found the answer. The Canadian aerospace engineer recently invented a variety of light that fools human bodies into switching time zones while aboard an aircraft. She shows two IDEAS producers around her laboratory inside an airplane to explain how the process works. Kritika plans to direct her discoveries towards making space travel easier on astronauts. *This episode is part of our series Ideas from the Trenches, which showcases fascinating new work by Canadian PhD students. It originally aired on April 29, 2024.

If we weren't so used to having books, we would think of them as a "miracle." That's how historian Irene Vallegoviews what she says is humankind's greatest and most influential invention: the book. "With their help, humanity has undergone an extraordinary acceleration of history, development, and progress," she tells host Nahlah Ayed. Vallego has traced written texts back to their earliest origins and she's written a book of her own, Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World.

If you think you've never heard Jerry Granelli play drums — you likely have. Think of a comic strip holiday special and an iconic soundtrack: A Charlie Brown Christmas. Jerry was 22 years old when he became a member of the Vince Guaraldi Trio, the jazz band behind the popular 1965 album. His long career was legendary, accompanying many of the greats like Mose Alison, Sly Stone and The Grateful Dead. Producer Mary Lynk was lucky to meet with Jerry on the eve of his 80th birthday for a wide-ranging conversation. The gifted composer and jazz giant died in Halifax in 2021. *This episode originally aired on December 21, 2020.