Ideas from CBC Radio (Highlights)

The Wabanaki-Acadian old-growth forest is endangered — only one per cent of its old growth is left. The ancient forest, which stretches from parts of the Maritimes and Southern Quebec down into several New England states, is now comprised largely of newer forests, already cut down and logged, over and over. IDEAS explores the rare beauty of 300-year-old trees and astounding biodiversity before it's gone.*This episode originally aired on aired on June 11, 2024.Guests in this podcast:Peter Romkey is a naturalist, forest ranger and former executive director of the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre at Acadia University. He is retired and living on the south shore of Nova Scotia.Joan Maloof is an ecologist and the founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network, which works to preserve, protect, and promote America's few remaining stands of old-growth forests. She is the author of several books, including: Nature's Temples: A Natural History of Old-Growth Forests. Maloof lives in Maryland.Ursula Johnson is a renowned multidisciplinary artist. She won the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Johnson is a member of the Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation on Cape Breton Island (Unama'ki in Mi'kmaq). She also works for Parks Canada as the Mi'kmaq Relations Advisor for the mainland Nova Scotia field unit. She lives in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Our relationship with earth and water is changing in the Anthropocene, says renowned author Robert Macfarlane. Humanity has become a transformative force of planetary proportions, to the point where we are altering the composition and behaviour of the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. He tells IDEAS this has grave implications for the planet and us. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 9, 2024.

The summer of 2026 has been defined by the smoke — and the horror — of wildfires around the world. But what comes after one of these fires? "That isn't the end of the story. That's the beginning of a whole different kind of story," says Nlaka'pamux ecologist Jennifer Grenz. That's why we have decided to follow the long-term story of one 21st century megafire: the 2021 McKay Creek wildfire in interior B.C. Producer Pauline Holdsworth returned in September 2025 — four years after the fire — to find new life emerging from the ashes, and new questions about the road ahead.This is the latest episode in our ongoing series Healing the Land. Listen to other episodes:How brutal wildfires are 'killing' Indigenous ways of life (Pt 1)How Indigenous ecology is reviving land destroyed by wildfires (Pt 2)Guests in this episode:Chief Justin Kane is the elected Chief of Ts'kw'aylaxw First Nation.Michelle Edwards is the Tmicw Coordinator for the St'át'imc Chiefs Council and the former Chief of the communities of Sekw'el'was and Qu'iqten.Dr. Jennifer Grenz is an Indigenous scholar and assistant professor in the department of forest resources management at UBC, and the principal investigator at the Indigenous Ecology Lab. She is a member of Lytton First Nation, where she sits on the lands committee. She is also the author of Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey toward Personal and Ecological Healing and the forthcoming book Burned: Truth and Hope in the Fires.Virginia Oeggerli is a PhD student in the Indigenous Ecology Lab in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC.Dr. Sue Senger is a biologist working with the Lillooet Tribal Council.Gerald Michel is a council member and the lands resource liaison for Xwísten First Nation.

On the surface, bibliotherapy might sound like another personal wellness trend, but it definitely isn't. In fact, it's an approved form of mental health treatment in Canada. And it's been around for at least a century. In this podcast, researchers Sara Haslam and Edmund King discuss the First World War roots of this practice in the UK. Author Cody Delistraty considers its role in moving him forward in the grieving process. And psychiatrist Martina Scholtens explains why she created an evidence-based reading list online, tailored to a range of mental health diagnoses. *This episode originally aired on June 2, 2025.

Thanks to Dexter and Hannibal Lecter you may think you know what a psychopath is. But a critical review of the science suggests that 'psychopath' as a diagnosis is flawed. Author of Psychopathy Unmasked Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen argues it's time to end the misuse of controversial science in our criminal justice system — and to rethink psychopathy as a whole.

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. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 19, 2026.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.Guests in this episode:Adriaan Van der Weel is a professor emeritus by special appointment at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society. He's also the co-author of The Ljubljana Manifesto on Higher-Level Reading.Maryanne Wolf is director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and the author of Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World (2018).Naomi Baron is a professor emerita of World Languages and Cultures at American University and the author of Reader Bot: What Happens When AI Reads and Why It Matters (2026).Leah Sargeant is an author and senior policy analyst at the Niskanen Center.Shannon Vallor is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also appointed in Philosophy. She is the author of The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (2024).

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. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 18, 2026.Like this episode? Listen to: How can we prevent AI from becoming a menace?

Millions of people are using AI to “talk” to the dead. The phenomenon has left cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket asking what happens when we rely on for-profit AI companies to help us manage something as deeply human as grief? And where's the line between comfort and self-destruction? IDEAS features two episodes from the CBC Podcasts series Artificial Intimacy, exploring the promise and peril of our emotional entanglements with AI chatbots.Enjoyed this episode? Listen to the full series of Understood: Artificial Intimacy here.

Jeans are a quintessential fashion staple for the Canadian tuxedo — and a symbol of rebellion. But the world's most popular garment comes at an environmental cost. It takes around 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans. And that's not all. Fashion expert Pedro Mendes explores the 150-year history of jeans and the 'authenticity' they are supposed to represent. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 13, 2019.Read: How jeans became one of the most polluting garments in the world

"Geometry is the cilantro of math. People are not neutral about it," says Jordan Ellenberg. The mathematician is aware not everyone loves math like he does. But his book is not about the kind of geometry some people feel intimidated by. It's about geometry as a way of thinking. As a method of reasoning and argument. And as a system for making sense of the world. *This episode originally aired on May 11, 2022.Guest in this episode:Jordan Ellenberg is a mathematician is a child prodigy. He scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his college entrance exams — the SAT's — at the age of 12. He's a Guggenheim Fellow, a Harvard graduate, and a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He's also the author of Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.

If the house always wins, why do we play? This documentary asks experts and observers to reflect on the casino as reality and metaphor. Skill versus luck, attention and distraction, fortune paired with loss: the casino reflects us, individually and culturally, back to ourselves. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 21, 2019.Read: Machines of Chance: How casino culture plays with us

Brutalism has become the subject of architecture tours, a coffee-table art book darling, and a highly sought-after living environment. But concrete is a complicated material, both appreciated and demonized. IDEAS explores the implications of Brutalism's 21st century hipster aesthetic in a world of housing challenges, environmental crisis, and economic polarization. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 11, 2024.Guests in this episode:Joseph Bogdan is principal emeritus at BNKC Architects, Urban Design Consultants.Elisabeth Bogdan is subject lead at Sotheby's Institute of Art London.Stasia Bogdan is a senior leader for healthcare capital planning and design at Unity Health Toronto.Nick Thoburn is a professor in the department of sociology at the University of Manchester. He's also the author of Brutalism as Found: Housing, Form and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens (Goldsmiths Press, 2022).Zahireen Tarefdar is a Toronto-based creative and enthusiast of the Ontario Science Centre.

Bogs, marshes, and swamps have long been cast as toxic wastelands, from the dead marshes in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to the vegetal monster from the DC comic. But in fact wetlands store more carbon than forests. Experts argue wetlands are crucial to our future. It's time to rewrite this squelchy story. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 17, 2022.

Humans used fire as a tool. Now we fear its destruction. But we're responsible for changing the climate, argues John Vailliant, "in a way that favours fire way more than it favours us." The author unpacks how fire made humans who we are — and how humans are changing fire in his book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast.*This episode originally aired on May 29, 2024.

In 1989 the Canadian government was set to spring into action to address climate change. “If we don't move now, it will be a disaster,” said then-Conservative environment minister Lucien Bouchard. “We are dealing with the survival of the species.” This podcast features David Suzuki's prescient radio series, It's a Matter of Survival from nearly four decades ago. It includes conversations with notable politicians and environmental experts of the day.Listen to the first episode in this series: Suzuki's Survival Guide | A Warning For other episodes from David Suzuki's radio days, stream audio here.

In 1989 David Suzuki hosted a radio series called “It's A Matter of Survival,” which addressed the climate crisis head-on. He and other scientists look ahead 50 years into the future to paint a picture of what the world could be like if nothing is done to curb the human impact on climate change. The series galvanized the environmental movement in Canada, with more than 14,000 listeners writing letters of support. Nearly 40 years later, it's clear how shockingly prescient it was.Listen to the next episode in this series: Suzuki's Survival Guide | How We Got To This PointFor other episodes from David Suzuki's radio days, stream audio here.

Oil has delivered warmth, mobility, freedom and ruin all at the same time. "It's a very hard religion to ditch," says Don Gillmor, author of On Oil. Yes, religion. Gillmor argues oil is not just a substance — but an idea … one that has come to constitute its own potent system of belief. He joins Nahlah Ayed to discuss how oil became the one true global religion.Want to listen to more IDEAS? Here' So... who wants a pipeline?

Canada produces legendary comedians and comic actors who excel on the world stage. So why is Canada not known for comedy? Does it have something to do with our proximity to the U.S., the way there are so many Scottish comedians performing in England? Three comics discuss Canadian comedy and what Canada's profile would be on a dating app — as part of the Provocations-IDEAS festival.Comedians in this episode:Debra McGrath is a comedian, writer, and director whose comedy began with Second City Improv. She is best-known for roles in Little Mosque on the Prairie, Seven Little Monsters and Paradise Falls.Stewart Reynolds (aka Brittlestar) is a Stratford, Ontario-based comedian. His work has brought him to the White House, and to meeting the Prime Minister. He's the author of The Subtle Art of Resistance: Lessons From Cats For Surviving Fascism.Martha Chaves has made many TV appearances including Just for Laughs, We're Funny That Way Festival, and the Winnipeg Comedy Festival — and she's often been heard on CBC's Laugh Out Loud, The Debaters, Because News — and now IDEAS.

From the medicine wheel to the building blocks of DNA, the number four has represented structure and stability. But four is also a troublemaker: a portal to realms like the fourth dimension. Our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time explores how four helps us understand the world — by making the rules, and by breaking them. More in the series:Listen to The Curse of 13Listen to 12 is SublimeListen to 27 Club LoreListen to The 33,000 Horsepower GamechangerGuests in this episode:Joyce Perreault is an Ojibway Anishinaabe children's book author and elementary school teacher at Donald Ahmo School in Crane River, MB.Brian Katz is a composer, instrumentalist, improviser, and guitar instructor at University of Toronto and York University.Lauren Fink is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at McMaster University.Alex Fisher is a professor of musicology and area coordinator for early music at the University of British Columbia.Tyrone Ghaswala is an assistant professor teaching stream with the Centre for Education and Computing (CEMC) and an adjunct professor in the Pure Mathematics department at the University of Waterloo. Wenran Jiang is the founding director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta. Stephan Reuter is an associate professor for plasma physics and spectroscopy at the Engineering Physics Department of Polytechnique Montréal Sarah Hart is professor emerita of mathematics at Birkbeck College and author of "Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections between Mathematics and Literature."

There is nothing random about featuring 33,000 in our number series. It's very powerful. So much so, that the number put millions of horses out of work. Inventor James Watt used “33,000 foot-pounds a minute" to measure the capabilities of a horse when trying to market his new and improved steam engine. The engine was a big success, saving horses from the drudgery of manual labour. Now, a similar process is underway with artificial intelligence — but are we the horses, or the steam engine? *This episode is part of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time.For more in the series:Listen to The Curse of 13Listen to 12 is SublimeListen to 27 Club LoreGuest in this episode:Stephanie Dick is a historian of mathematics, technology, computing, and AI, and an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University.

Twenty-seven can be a pivotal and tumultuous age. It's held up as the year of peak performance in many sports and it's also seen as a cursed age for pop and rock stars, exemplified by the so-called 27 Club. Artists like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, all died at 27. As part of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time, IDEAS producer Chris Wodskou makes the case for a number that may not stick out in your mind but is more significant than you think.More episodes in this series:Listen to 12 is SublimeListen to The Curse of 13Guests in this podcast:David Awosoga is a PhD student in Statistics at University of Waterloo and sports performance data analyst.Alan Cross is a music historian, broadcaster, and host of The Ongoing History of New Music podcastDianna Kenny is a professor emerita of psychology and music at University of Sydney and psychotherapist in private practice.Michael Owen is a retired clinical psychologist and author of The 27 Club.Maria Westerstahl is senior lecturer at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

Complete. Whole. Divine order. That's just the start of what makes the humble dozen extraordinary. It's one of only two numbers ever discovered in mathematics to be “sublime.” Twelve makes a number of appearances in pop culture, in religion, in non-fiction, everything from the 12 days of Christmas to the 12 people it takes to form a criminal jury. Still need convincing of 12's perfection and indispensability? Check your watch.Listen to more episodes in our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time:The Curse of 13 Guests in this episode:Glen Van Brummelen is a professor of mathematical sciences at Trinity Western University.Ainsley Hawthorn is a cultural historian and nonfiction writer. She has a PhD in Near Eastern Civilizations from Yale University.

Has there ever been a number more maligned in western culture than 13? So feared, it's got its own horror-film franchise. So infamously unlucky, a good many of us avoid it en masse. We've just blindly accepted its bad reputation. As part of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time, IDEAS explores where our irrational fear and uncomfortable feelings about 13 began. *All five episodes of our series on numbers will be available in our feed all this week.*Guests in this episode:Stephen Winick is a folk life specialist at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.Barry Markovsky is distinguished professor emeritus of sociology at University of South Carolina. His latest book is Everyday Extraordinary: A Scientist Ponders a Lifetime of Magical, Bizarre, and Paranormal Experiences.Claire Potter is a freelance educational writer and the author of the book Getting the Little Blighters to Eat.Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is the founder and director of the Jewish Discovery Center in Buffalo, New York. He has written many books including Tefillin: Judaism's Crown.

It's tempting to think suffering should be avoided at all costs, but moral suffering has its own distinct standing. It signals a moral conscience. Every day people consume real time violence, grief, war and genocide through screens and experience moral upending. Without a moral compass there's no motivation to address necessary issues.Guests in this episode:Cynda Rushton is a nurse and a professor of nursing and bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.Robert Meagher is an emeritus professor at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.Thea Lim is a novelist, culture writer, and creative writing teacher in Toronto.

Former IDEAS writer-broadcaster David Cayley passed away at his home on Wednesday June 10, surrounded by family. To honour his legacy, we wanted to share part of a 2006 conversation David had with Irish philosopher Richard Kearney on the space for theism within atheism, and/or atheism within theism.Richard Kearney is a philosophy professor at Boston College and University College, Dublin. He has written many books on modern philosophy and culture, including The God Who May Be: A Hermeneutics of Religion and Anatheism: Returning to God After God.

There may be no one alive who saw Houdini perform magic. Yet we still know his name and his legend. Dua Lipa namechecked the escape artist in a 2023 dance hit and she's not alone. Houdini is still a cultural reference point, despite having died 100 years ago. And that's pretty much what he would have wanted. IDEAS explores why his name persists in our imaginations and how his magic helped his family escape poverty.Guests in this episode:Adam Begley is a biographer living in London, and author of Houdini: The Elusive American.David Ben is a conjuror, writer, and consultant in Toronto. He's writing a graphic novel featuring an imagined adventure for Houdini.Katie Bender is a playwright and actor. Her interactive performance about Houdini is called Instructions for a Seance.

Homosexuality is illegal in more than half of African countries — a crime punishable by prison sentences. Or in some cases: death. In the past few years, six African countries have made it illegal just to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. These laws bring up questions of foreign influence, neo-colonialism, and the role the international community could play in nudging human rights on the continent. *This episode originally aired on May 26, 2025.Want another podcast? Ghana and Uganda have some of the harshest laws against LGBTQ+ people in the world. Despite the threats, listen to how podcasters in both these countries are fighting back and reclaiming sexuality.

Uganda and Ghana have the harshest laws against LGBTQ+ people in the world. Despite the threats, podcasters in both countries are fighting back by creating a space where people can have sex-positive conversations and gender inclusivity. IDEAS contributor Nana aba Duncan was in Uganda and Ghana to find out how the safety, privacy, and independence of the medium offer a path to understanding, validation and community.Laws in some African countries make it illegal for anyone to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. What role should the international community play in nudging human rights on the continent. Listen to The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa.

When Jay Pitter was eight years old and out shopping with her mother, she began swaying to the music at the mall. Her mother scolded her for it — signalling that it was undignified for a Black person to act that way in public. That incident was the genesis for Black Public Joy: No Permit Or Permission Required. In her book, she addresses the self-policing Black people can internalise, and reveals how culture, urban planning, and memory shape the way people can access joy in parks, streets, transit, and neighbourhoods.Guest in this episode:Jay Pitter is an award-winning placemaker focused on creating joyful public spaces that foster belonging, prosperity, and cultural memory. She advances this work through cultural planning, policy frameworks, and storytelling. Pitter is also an adjunct urban planning professor and has engaged students at Cornell, Princeton, and MIT, advancing new theories of public joy that connect practice, policy, and pedagogy.

Mae West shocked audiences and infuriated censors for more than 70 years. She was pop culture's original blonde bombshell sex-symbol comedienne provocateur. But she was more than just a corseted sex pot with an affinity for word play. She was a trailblazer, transgressive, funny, smart, sassy, lively, a genius. And she got away with all of it. IDEAS contributor Lynda Shorten explores the legacy of the eccentric Mae West.Guests in this episode:Linda Hutcheon is a professor emerita of English and comparative literature at The University of Toronto.Ramona Curry is an associate professor emerita of English at The University of Illinois.Pamela Wojeck is a professor of film studies at The University of Notre DameScott C. Miller is a make-up artist and retired undertaker

Rachel Jedinak will never forget the day that changed her life in July 16, 1942. She was eight years old, living in Nazi-occupied France at a time known as les années noires — The Dark Years. Police rounded up Jewish men, women, and children for deportation. Rachel, her older sister and mother were among them. That morning two police offers did something that Rachel considers an act of resistance. The girls were saved. But their mother was not. IDEAS contributor Neil Sandell, based in Nice, France, explores the complicated moral territory of resistance, what it actually meant during the occupation, and maybe means now.

Elon Musk is on the verge of becoming a trillionaire. Right now Musk's wealth is currently around $825 billion US — more than double what it was a year earlier. Only 22 countries currently boast economies larger than Musk's net worth, but he's catching up. In the third episode of our series The Billionaire Age we investigate how Musk and his fellow billionaires are trying to take over the world. And if they succeed, what will this mean for the rest of us?Listen to more episodes in this series:Listen to Part One: How did we get here?Listen to Part Two: Disney heiress on the dangers of extreme wealthGuests in this episode:Ingrid Robeyns is a philosopher and economist. She is the chair in Ethics of Intuitions at Utrecht University, and the author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.Lucas Chancel is an economist and the co-director of The World Inequality Lab. He's also a professor at the Paris School of Economics.Gabriel Zucman is an economist and the co-director of The World Inequality Lab. He's also a professor at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley.Nitin Bharti is an economist and lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He is also the South and South-East Asia coordinator at the World Inequality Lab.Lars Osberg is an economics professor at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His latest book is The Scandalous Rise of Inequality in Canada.Abigail Disney is an American film producer, philanthropist and social activist. She is a member of Patriotic Millionaires which advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy.Paul Krugman is an economist and the winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.Tim Wu is a legal scholar and professor at Columbia Law School. He is also a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times. His latest book is The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.Nick Hanauer is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-authored the book, Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing The Lies and Half-Truths that Protect Profit, Power and Wealth in America, with Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen. He also hosts the podcast Pitchfork Economics.Guido Alfani is a professor of economic history at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. His latest book is As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West.

Our homes have been stripped of their essential humanity, says Leilani Farha, this year's CBC Massey Lecturer. Today housing has become a commodity — one fuelling the biggest industry in the world. In her lectures, Housing Inc.: A Global Takeover and Our Fight for Home, Farha calls on all of us to envision a new ideology for home — one rooted in dignity, humanity and law. “Home is required for human existence," says Farha, who served as a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing from 2014 to 2020 and is now the global director of The Shift. She speaks with Nahlah Ayed about her 25 years fighting for housing as a human right, the conversation she hopes her Massey lectures will spark and why "home is really everything."

What happens when a human becomes intimately enmeshed with a chatbot? From people who've married their bots or who grieve their loved ones with the help of AI, host Victoria Hetherington (author of The Friend Machine) dives into the stories of the people who have invited these digital avatars into their hearts, minds, and even beds. And asks what do we gain and what do we stand to lose? Our intimacy, our resilience, even our grasp on reality? This latest season of Understood looks at who made the decisions that allowed chatbots to move way beyond digital assistants and into the most intimate parts of our lives.Understood takes you deep inside the seismic shifts reshaping our world right now. From online porn and crypto chaos to the rise of tech oligarchs, deepfake AI, and the broken promises of the internet.More episodes of Understood are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/AIxIdeas

Numbers get their due credit in this podcast. Even if we're not aware of them, numbers are essential to how we experience the world. IDEAS explores the most bizarre, surprising, mind-blowing and fundamental numbers in the universe.This panel discussion was recorded live at The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.Guests in this episode:Asimina Arvanitaki is a particle physicist and the aristarchus chair in theoretical physics at the Perimeter Institute.Ben Webster is an associate professor in the pure mathematics department at the University of Waterloo, and he's also an associate faculty member at the Perimeter Institute.Matthew Johnson is a professor of physics and astronomy at York University, and he's also an associate faculty member at the Perimeter Institute.

Alexandria has been the source of invention, innovation, and beauty for millennia — capturing the imagination of Napoleon, the Prophet Muhammad and, of course, Alexander the Great. He envisioned a place that thrived on cultural, intellectual, economic, political and religious exchange. IDEAS examines the big ideas of this port city in Egypt with Islam Issa, author of Alexandria: The City That Changed the World.Part three in our ongoing series about how port cities shaped the world as we know it.Listen to Part Two: How port cities of Elmina shaped the worldListen to Part One: How port cities like Singapore shaped the world

Even if you aren't a fan of Frank L. Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, you know about the Tin man, the ruby red shoes and that the dog is named Toto. The classic story was an instant bestseller in 1900 and its popularity is still going strong with not one but a two-part prequel. For over 125 years, there have been derivative works of Oz, from Broadway musicals, films, comic books and more. IDEAS follows the proverbial yellow brick road to uncover how this seemingly simple story of friendship, self reliance and longing for home continues to speak to us. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 9, 2025.If this episode has left you curious about Matilda Joslyn Gage, the suffragist who was a big influence on Frank L. Baum's feminism, listen to this podcast. There's a reason you likely have never heard of her.

Ancient history just got an upgrade. Forget the ruins, empires and great thinkers of the Classical period and make way for escaped slaves, subversive pirates, and freethinking religious sects. These nonconformist communities rejected hierarchy and political order in favour of creating a more equitable society.Author, religious scholar and historian Christopher Zeichmann offers an alternative lens on the Greco-Roman era in his book called Radical Antiquity: Free Love Zoroastrians, Farming Pirates, and Ancient Uprisings.

North Korea is no place for evangelical Christians today. But when journalist Jonathan Cheng peeled back decades he found out Christianity is at the heart of the Kim family's rise to power and continuing dynasty. Cheng has spent 15 years and two trips to North Korea to piece this all together. His book is called Korean Messiah.Jonathan Cheng is the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, and was previously the Korea bureau chief, running coverage of the Korean peninsula, including politics and society in both North and South Korea.

If you want to hear what a laughing rat sounds like this podcast is for you. From why the sound of laughter triggers us to join in, to how a laughing yoga class starts, to the difference between AHA and HAHA in science, IDEAS contributor Peter Brown takes us on a joyride to reveal the mystery of laugher. Will this podcast make you laugh? Most likely. But it's better than catching a cold. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 4, 2020.

Africa is a centre of world history — a fact that's been deliberately obscured, says journalist Howard W. French. In this talk based on his book, The Second Emancipation, he explores the surprisingly early seeds of 20th century Pan-African thought, and how Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana went from reluctant student to influential leader of a free Ghana.Howard W. French delivered the Black History Month lecture at University of Toronto's New College. French was is a former New York Times bureau chief based in Shanghai. He now teaches journalism at Columbia University and is also the author of Born in Blackness.

From Joan of Arc to Kim Kardashian, and Davy Crockett to Donald Trump, celebrity culture has deep and wide roots. Famous people who elicited Kardashian-level feelings of love and hate in the public were present centuries ago — long before screens and social media. Though, as we find out in this podcast, they all share similar qualities. *This episode originally aired on June 30, 2022.Irina Dumitrescu is a writer, co-host of the LRB podcast Encounters with Medieval Women, and a professor of Medieval English at the University of Bonn.Sharon Marcus is author of The Drama of Celebrity and the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.