Ideas from CBC Radio (Highlights)

The Dirty Thirties might seem like the distant past but according to IDEAS contributor and professor Evan Fraser now is the time to dust off the lessons about what worked to save farmers and agriculture. The confluence of drought, scorching temperatures and terrifying storms was devastating for farm families forced to abandon their land. Fraser argues the Dust Bowl should serve as a warning of compounding crises that lie ahead. But he adds it can also be a guide to solutions that could help us muddle through as the world lurches into another chapter of environmental, political and economic upheaval.Guests in this episode:Evan Fraser is a geography professor and director of Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph.Pamela Riney-Kehrberg is a distinguished professor of history at Iowa State University.Robert McLeman is a professor of geography and environmental studies at Wilfrid Laurier University.

What does an IDEAS producer do when he notices that shipwreck stories keep appearing in his life? He embarks on a journey to try and figure out what's going on, why shipwrecks resonate today. Matthew Lazin-Ryder explores the history of shipwreck tales and how shipwrecks have not only been a mainstay trope in literature but also a constant metaphor in our lives. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 24, 2025.

What does an IDEAS producer do when he notices that shipwreck stories keep appearing in his life? He embarks on a journey to try and figure out what's going on, why shipwrecks might be on people's minds. Matthew Lazin-Ryder dives into the history of shipwrecks — and how they are a constant metaphor in our lives. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 24, 2025. If you like this podcast, you might be interested in Matthew Lazin-Ryder's documentary The Never-ending Fall of Rome — a hole in time where he finds out politicians, activists, and intellectuals can dump any modern anxiety they wish.

Marsha Lederman is a child of Holocaust survivors. She lives with the fear that one day someone will take her and her son like the Nazis did with her parents and their parents. "This is ludicrous," she told herself many times. But then she saw how people celebrated the October 7th attacks and watched how antisemitism showed up in the circles she felt most at home.This spring to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, Lederman and child Holocaust survivor Jeanette Goldman shared their stories on Zoom at the University of Toronto's Regis College — an online event due to security reasons. They spoke about what true solidarity means today as antisemitism continues to rise in Canada. Lederman says: "We cannot allow antisemitism to stop us from speaking about antisemitism of all things."Guests in this episode:Jeanette Goldman is a retired federal judge and a child Holocaust survivor.Marsha Lederman is a journalist, daughter of Holocaust survivors, and author of Kiss the Red Stairs: The Holocaust Once Removed, and October 7th: Finding the Humanitarian Middle.Mary Jo Leddy is a Catholic theologian, author, activist, and founder of Romero House in Toronto.Bertha Yetman is a Regis College Alumnus, and organizer of “Remembering the Holocaust.”

If you inherited $120 million dollars, could you give away 75 per cent of your wealth? Abigail Disney did. She's an heiress to the Disney fortune. The philanthropist, filmmaker and activist offers an insider perspective into the twisted perils of extreme wealth — on society and the human psyche.Part two in a four-part series called The Billionaire Age. Listen to Part One: How did we get here?Guest in this episode:Abigail E. Disney is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, philanthropist, and activist. Her films include The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales, the Emmy Award-winning The Armor of Light — both co-directed with Kathleen Hughes — and Pray the Devil Back to Hell. As a philanthropist and activist, she has championed peacebuilding, gender justice, and systemic cultural change.She is Chair and Co-Founder of Level Forward, an ecosystem of storytellers, entrepreneurs, and social change-makers dedicated to balancing artistic vision, social impact, and stakeholder return. She also founded Peace is Loud, a nonprofit that uses storytelling to advance social movements, and the Daphne Foundation, which supports organizations working for a more equitable, fair, and peaceful New York City.She is currently working on a book about wealth, power, and privilege.

This podcast is about testing the limits of fairness. It's about taking to heart the meaning behind "Beyond the Pale" — a phrase referring to ideas that are so outrageous it's impossible to deal with them in reasonable terms. Follow IDEAS producer Tom Howell as he covers uncomfortable terrain. When the time for ‘open-mindedness' stops and prejudices become — possibly — a good thing. *This is the final episode in a series tackling the implications of bias. It originally aired on on June 8, 2022.Guests in this episode:Eduardo Mendieta is a philosophy professor at Pennsylvania State University. He edited the final book by Richard Rorty, Pragmatism as Anti-Authoritarianism.Barbara Kay is a columnist at The National Post and The Epoch Times.Misha Glouberman is co-author (with Sheila Heti) of The Chairs Are Where the People Go. He runs a negotiation course called How to Talk to People About Things.Rahim Mohamed is a freelance writer and college instructor at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. His opinion columns are published in the online newsletter, The Line.Anne-Marie Pham is an executive director of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion.Michael Bacon is a political theorist at Royal Holloway, University of London. His books include Pragmatism: An Introduction.Martin Zibauer is from the Cosburn Park Lawn Bowling Club in Toronto, Ontario.

All of us are biased. We have individual biases, momentary biases, morning biases and evening biases. Our institutions are biased. Our constitutions are biased. So what to do about it? IDEAS producer Tom Howell explores the art of naming your most important biases — and deciding which to keep, as he continues his investigation into what the field of ‘bias studies' has to offer us. *This episode is part two of a three-part series exploring the meaning of 'bias.' It originally aired on Feb. 3, 2022.Guests in this episode:Olivier Sibony is the author of Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment and You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake.Jessica Nordell is the author of The End of Bias: A Beginning.Jimmy Calanchini is assistant professor of psychology at University of California, Riverside.Jack Nagler was the ombudsman at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Driftpile Cree poet Billy-Ray Belcourt's favourite place in the world is his mother's house. It's marked with a horrible, dark past — built for nuns who ran the local residential school in Northern Alberta. Belcourt grew up in the shadow of that school. But his mom drenched this home with love so powerful it surpassed the haunted context. Belcourt's mother's house provokes questions reconciliation couldn't quite answer: what does it mean to live inside history and how do you imagine your way out? In this lecture for Vancouver Island University's Indigenous Speaker's Series, he makes the case for literature as a more honest reckoning.

Estuaries are a meeting of two worlds: the river and the sea. They're incredibly fertile ecosystems that sustain 80 per cent of coastal fish and wildlife in British Columbia. For thousands of years, estuaries were central to Indigenous agriculture on parts of the West Coast. Then a new kind of agriculture arrived, profoundly altering the landscape. IDEAS visits the Cowichan Valley, where an ambitious project aims to restore an estuary — and to revitalize language, culture and traditional agriculture.Guests in this podcast:Tom Reid is the West Coast Conservation Manager for the Nature Trust of BC.Jared Qwustenuxun Williams is a passionate traditional foods chef who works with elders and knowledge holders to keep traditional food practices alive.Dr. Jennifer Grenz is a Nlaka'pamux scholar and a member of the Lytton First Nation. She is the principal investigator at the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC.Siil'na'mut Ken Elliott is a Cowichan elder and plant knowledge keeper who has worked in habitat restoration for decades. With his wife, he runs Ken Elliott's Native Plant Nursery.Alyssa Zandvliet is a graduate student at Simon Fraser University conducting research with the Historical Ecological Research Lab at SFU and the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC.Kim Lagimodiere is the acting marine projects manager at the Lulumexun Lands and Natural Resources department of Cowichan Tribes. She is also the coordinator of the S-hwuhwa'us Thi'lut Kw'atl'kwa (Thunderbird Protecting the Ocean) program.

There are no two letters more disruptive in our time than AI. We're told it will create employment yet take jobs away; invent life-saving medicines yet enable superviruses; solve the climate crisis yet deepen it. So will it save us or damn us? Is AI the ultimate disruptor?This conversation, moderated by Nahlah Ayed, was part of the 2026 Charles Bronfman's “Conversations” series.Guests in this episode:Yoshua Bengio is a professor at Université de Montreal. He also has the distinction of being the most-cited living scientist in the world, in any discipline. He's co-president and scientific director of LawZero, a nonprofit startup dedicated to creating safe AI systems. In 2018, he was a recipient of the Turing Award, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of Computer Science.Cory Doctorow is a novelist, journalist, technology activist and the author of an astonishing number of books, both nonfiction and fiction. Among them: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What To Do About It. And the upcoming: The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI.Astra Taylor is a documentary filmmaker, cofounder of the Debt Collective, and a writer. Among her books: Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss It When It's Gone, and The People's Platform, which won the American Book Award. Taylor also delivered the 2023 CBC Massey Lectures called The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart.

On White Coat, Black Art, trusted ER doctor Brian Goldman brings you honest and surprising stories that can change your health and your life. Expect deep conversations with patients, families and colleagues that show you what is and isn't working in Canadian healthcare.“Pistol” Pete Pearson, a 76-year-old living with a terminal lung disease, says psilocybin-assisted therapy transformed his end-of-life distress after he accessed it outside the medical system. While psilocybin remains illegal in Canada, researchers including UHN psychiatrist Dr. Joshua Rosenblat are running government-funded trials exploring its potential for mood disorders. More episodes of White Coat, Black Art are available wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/WCBAxIDEAS

It's easy to admit to having biases, but much harder to pin down what they are, let alone figure out what to do about them. Nevertheless, IDEAS producer Tom Howell gives it his best shot. He looks into what the rewards might be, if we could name and identify our own most important biases.This episode is part one of a three-part series exploring the meaning of 'bias.' It originally aired on Sept. 7, 2021.

As a former negotiator of the Oslo Accords for Israel, British-Israeli author and analyst, Daniel Levy, has both a diagnosis and a prescription for the land he refers to as Palestine-Israel. He says the two-state solution is “spent” and argues we need new ideas about how Israelis and Palestinians can co-exist peacefully.

Some of the biggest minds may have you thinking a Terminator-like robot is coming for us. For years, fictional works — whether film or literature — have shaped our idea of what artificial intelligence is and how it could impact the human race. But it's not real. An important fact to acknowledge says Teresa Heffernan, a professor who has studied the relationship between AI and fiction for decades. She argues there are lots of reasons to fear artificial intelligence but an android uprising isn't one of them.Heffernan is a professor of English language and literature at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. She delivered the 2026 Wiegand Memorial Foundation Lecture at the Jackman Humanities Institute | University of Toronto.

Aaron Williams has worked in fisheries, as a forest fighter and is currently an airport ramp agent. When he's not working, he's writing about work: the hard kind, requiring bodily energy and mental endurance. Physical labour has always been a part of his life. He grew up in a logging family. In this podcast, Williams talks about the challenges, rewards and changing realities of hard work.Aaron William's memoir is called The Last Logging Show: A Forest Family at the End of an Era (Harbour Publishing). The book received the 2025 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. His public talk was recorded at the awards ceremony at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.

The Trump administration has been targeting higher education for some time now — freezing grants and filing lawsuits against leading universities. But these threats are not limited to the U.S. and there are growing concerns about a potential spillover effect on Canadian campuses. In this podcast, host Nahlah Ayed speaks with three panelists to explore what's at stake with the politicized attacks on universities — and why it matters to all of us.This discussion was recorded in front of an audience at the Isabel Theatre in Toronto.Guests in this episode:Malinda S. Smith is an associate vice president research and a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. She is the co-editor of Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy: Teaching, Learning, and Researching While Black.Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as the university's advisor on civil discourse, the first position of its kind in Canada.Davide Panagia is professor and chair of political science at UCLA, where his work bridges philosophy, media and democratic life. Before that, he held the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies at Trent University.

How? Some scientists believe it's the power of nuclear fusion. Environmentally, these machines would have the potential to meet our energy needs with zero carbon cost. This would de-escalate the climate crisis but it also removes a significant motivation behind war — the control of energy sources. Think about it. The Middle East would look a lot different today. This podcast explores what the transition to fusion energy would entail from the challenges, the rewards and the risks.Guest in this episode:Mustafa Bahran is a physics professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. He came to Canada through a program called Scholars at Risk, after his life in Yemen became too dangerous. There he founded the Yemeni Scientific Research Foundation and National Atomic Energy Commission. He was also a nuclear physics and particle physics professor at Sana'a University in Yemen.

Elmina is a place in Ghana that poet Sarpong Osei Asamoah describes as a "two-sided wonder." A bustling, lively fishing town in contrast to the painful history of a 400 year old 'slave castle' — a UNESCO World Heritage site. Historically, it's considered 'ground zero' for global economic and racial injustice. This podcast takes you on a tour inside the dark and brutal past of the Elmina castle and through the vibrant town that's full of life.Guests in this episode:Philip Amoa-Mensah is an Elmina tour guide with more than 20 years of experience.Ato Quayson is chair of the department of African and African American studies and professor of English at Stanford University. He is the author of Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism.Bayo Holsey is a professor of African American studies at Emory University. She is the author of Roots of Remembrance: Refashioning the Slave Trade in Ghana.Sarpong Osei Asamoah is a Ghanaian poet. His poetry includes At Elmina Castle, I Bleed.

The ancient Greek story of Jason and Medea starts as a love story and ends as a horror show — just the way the Greeks liked it. The met, fell in love, stole the magical golden fleece (a symbol of authority and kinship) and escaped like a primeval Bonnie and Clyde. Find out why one of our guests calls Jason "an absolute hypocritical pig of a husband" as IDEAS explores their turbulent relationship. *This episode originally aired on Sept.19, 2022.Guests in this episode:Edith Hall is a professor of Classics at Durham University.Florence Yoon is an assistant professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of British Columbia.Rosie Wyles is a senior lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University of Kent.James Clauss is a professor of Classics at the University of Washington.Lucy Jackson is an assistant professor of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University.Connor Heaney is a collections manager at the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation in Edinburgh.Vanessa Harryhausen is Ray Harryhausen's daughter.Lyndsy Spence is the author of Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas, published by The History Press.

"AIDS exacerbates and accentuates inequality," Stephen Lewis said in his final CBC Massey Lectures he delivered in 2005. Back then the willingness of the world's richest countries to help in the HIV/AID crisis was in question. The former ambassador to the UN and Canadian political leader died March 31st at 88. He will be remembered for his unwavering efforts to bring international attention to the HIV pandemic in Africa — calling out Western governments and financial institutions. This podcast revisits Lewis's Massey Lectures and his overall message to make a difference."I thought I understood the way the world works. I don't. I'll devote every fibre of my body to defeating this viral contagion, but I cannot abide the willful inattention of so much of the international community. I cannot expunge from my mind the heartless indifference, the criminal neglect of the last decade [1995-2005], during which time countless people have gone to their graves, people who should still be walking the open savanna of Africa." — excerpt from Stephen Lewis in his 2005 CBC Massey Lectures.

The Queen of Sheba is a holy figure to some; a demon in disguise to others. Her indelible presence has haunted religious scholars and fuelled nationalist visions in East Africa and Southern Arabia. IDEAS explores the many afterlives of the Queen of Sheba — and how ideas about gender and power have shifted in each retelling of her life.Guest in this episode:Shahla Haeri is a professor of anthropology and a former director of the Women's Studies Program at Boston University, and one of the pioneers of Iranian anthropology. Her books include Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran, No Shame for the Sun: Lives of Professional Pakistani Women and The Unforgettable Queens of Islam: Succession, Authority, Gender.Jillian Stinchcomb is a director's visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey working as a postdoctoral fellow in the "Interactive Histories, Co-Produced Communities: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam" project. In 2020, she defended her dissertation, "Remembering the Queen of Sheba in the First Millennium," a reception history of the Queen of Sheba across Jewish, Muslim, and Christian texts from the biblical to the early medieval period. She works with material in Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Ge'ez.Safia Aidid is an interdisciplinary historian of modern Africa and an assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Her research addresses anticolonial nationalism, territorial imaginations, borders, and state formation in the Horn of Africa, with a particular focus on modern Somalia and Ethiopia.Eyob Derillo is a reference specialist in the Reading Room of Africa and Asian Studies at the British Library, and previously served as curator for the library's Ethiopic and Ethiopian Collections. He is a Ph.D. student at the School of Oriental and African Studies, focusing on the history of Ethiopian magic.Yousra Ishaq is a director and producer in Yemen, facilitating local productions and coordinating multinational teams including international media outlets such as the BBC and PBS. In 2017, she co-founded the Yemen-based film foundation and production company, Comra Films.

The guided principles on this list are based on Jesuit Bernard Lonergan's philosophy. His thought will likely shape the world for centuries to come, according to John Dadosky who has studied and taught Lonergan's work for decades. It's a bold statement to make, but as he points out, Lonergan's talking about YOU. The prolific thinker dedicated much of his life's work to understanding human consciousness. In this podcast, IDEAS explores how his insights can play a role in our every day lives.On our website: Five principles to lead a good life.

St. John Passion — the complex masterpiece by Johann Sebastian Bach tells the story of Jesus during his final days. It's a work that speaks to the heart of the Christian narrative, which itself lies at the heart of Western culture. Tafelmusik Chamber Choir Director Ivars Taurins and music broadcaster Robert Harris zoom in on the work from the conductor's perspective to show how the notes translate into meaning — at a level of detail we listeners rarely discern.

The face we give to our monsters says much about our anxieties as a culture. But birds? Two classic works of 20th-century horror featured a violent avian army. This podcast looks at why a Daphne du Maurier short story, and the Alfred Hitchcock thriller inspired by it, imagined “The Birds” as humanity's mortal enemy. Seeded with fears of technological overreach and environmental disaster, and terror at the rise of the violent irrational, our reality was anticipated. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 6, 2023.Guests in this episode:Lynn Kozak is an associate professor in history and classical studies at McGill University and editor of Scapegoat Carnivale's Tragic Trilogy.W. Scott Poole is a professor in the department of history at the College of Charleston. He is the author of Dark Carnivals: Modern Horror and the Origins of American Empire.Catherine Wynne is a reader in English, and an associate dean for Research and Enterprise at the University of Hull. Her most recent book is on the war artist, Lady Butler. She wrote about The Birds for The Conversation.

There are 19 centibillionaires and a growing list of 3,000 billionaires worldwide. So it might not surprise you that the richest one per cent possesses nearly half of the world's wealth. History has never seen such an extreme concentration of wealth. Some economists argue the battle of the 21st century is between oligarchy and democracy. How did we get here? IDEAS begins a four-part documentary series The Billionaire Age.Guests in this episode:Ingrid Robeyns is a philosopher and economist. She is the chair in Ethics of Instutions at Utrecht University and the author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.Lucas Chancel is the co-director of The World Inequality Lab and a professor at the Paris School of Economics.Gabriel Zucman is also the co-director of The World Inequality Lab. He is 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 the South and South 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 American economist and the winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.Tim Wu is a Canadian/American legal scholar and a 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 American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-authored his latest book with Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen, Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing The Lies and Half-Truths that Protect Profit, Power and Wealth in America. And he hosts the podcast: Pitchfork Economics.Guido Alfani is a professor of economic history at Bocconi University, Milan, Italy. His latest book is As Gods Among Men: A History of the Rich in the West.

Earthworms are supposed to be a sign of healthy soil. But they're actually an invasive species that can even damage forests. So have we been sold a lie about worms and soil? Not exactly. The relationship between the two depends on the context. And the way we garden — or farm — can make all the difference. IDEAS producer Annie Bender unearths the complicated truth about the not-so lowly earthworm.Guests in this episode:Joshua Steckley is a political ecologist, postdoctoral fellow at Carleton University and the author of The Nightcrawlers: A Story of Worms, Cows, and Cash in the Underground Bait Industry.Peter Groffman is a professor at the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center and Brooklyn College, with research interests in ecosystem, soil, landscape and microbial ecology, with a focus on carbon and nitrogen dynamics.Mike McTavish is a conservation scientist at a rare Charitable Research Reserve in Cambridge, Ontario.Janet Browne is a historian of science and Darwin biographer, author of a two-volume set called Darwin: A Biography.

The bombing of civilians has been called one of the "great scandals" of modern warfare. So why, despite nearly a century of drafting laws and signing conventions protecting the sanctity of human life, does bombing civilians remain a widespread military tactic? IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa looks at a century of bombing civilians to try and answer that very question.Guests in this episode:Yuki Tanaka is a historian and emeritus research professor of history at the Hiroshima Peace Institute.Mark Selden is senior research associate in the East Asia program at Cornell University, and the founder of Asia-Pacific Journal.Azmat Khan is a professor of journalism at Columbia University and an investigative journalist with the New York Times.

"Our democracy is what's at stake," says Karen Hao, an engineer who used to work in Silicon Valley. Now she's an outspoken critic of its AI giants. The investigative journalist argues AI companies run their businesses like empires and it has to stop. In her 2025 bestseller, Empire of AI, Hao digs into the global impact of Big AI and explores how we need to rethink AI to build a better future. This podcast includes a lecture by Karen Hao and a discussion with host Nahlah Ayed.

Fact and fiction may seem poles apart but writers Esi Edugyan and Tiya Miles find the two intertwine perfectly in their award-winning storytelling. Both authors try to imagine past lives in their work, in part so that we may reimagine our own. They may operate in different realms but what they share is the telling of profoundly important stories that would otherwise go untold. It's been a longtime goal for IDEAS to bring these two accomplished authors together for a discussion — and it was worth the wait.This podcast was recorded in front of an audience in January 2026 at a Toronto Public Library event.

Poetry can find you when you need it most. It can be life-altering to read that poem just at the right moment. It was for six IDEAS producers who join Nahlah Ayed in studio to share poems they return to, year after year.This special episode is to mark UNESCO's World Poetry Day, March 21st.

A case before the Supreme Court of Canada is challenging Quebec's law on secularism. Legal scholar Benjamin Berger is a prominent voice in the study of constitutional and criminal law in Canada. He argues secularism "is a concept that hides more than it shows." In this podcast, Berger examines how secularism obscures the impact of religion on our legal and political systems. "We end up speaking abstractly about what secularism is, what it demands, instead of whether our government is treating people equally and fairly."Benjamin Berger is professor at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. He delivered Memorial University's 2026 Henrietta Harvey Distinguished Lecture.

If journalist Vince Beiser had his way the term 'clean energy' wouldn't exist — it's a misnomer. He argues green energy comes with cost. Sure, solar power or wind power are both better than power from fossil fuels but Beiser points out they are still harmful to the planet and people. "There's no magic solution." Beiser tells IDEAS we need to shift to renewable energy but we also need to recognize it's not a "magic solution" — there is a downside with consequences.Vince Beiser's book is called Power Metal: The Race for the Resources that Will Shape the Future.

Port cities are where worlds collide. They are a place of cultural, economic, political and religious contact. They've existed for millennia and facilitated the birth of empires and the rise of a globalized economy. Without port cities, our world would look very different. In the first episode of our series on how port cities shaped the world as we know it, UBC journalism professor Kamal Al-Solaylee visits Singapore — a constantly-evolving port city whose maritime roots go back to the 13th century.

“One of your tribe is enough.” That's what Margaret Rossiter was told when she said she wanted to study female scientists. Nevertheless, Rossiter persisted. She found and documented hundreds of women whose contributions to science had been overlooked, under-credited and misappropriated. Then she made history herself by coining the term “The Matilda Effect” to describe why those women failed to get the credit they deserved.Who is Matilda? Matilda Joslyn Gage was a suffragist erased from history. She was known as being too radical for Susan B. Anthony. This podcast shares her story.Guests in this episode:Katie Hafner is a former NYT reporter, host and co-executive producer of Lost Women of Science podcast.Sophie McNulty is the producer of the Lost Women of Science podcast.Ellen Abrams is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. She was a graduate student at Cornell University, who shared an office with Margaret Rossiter and was influenced by her work.Sally Gregory Kohlstedt is a professor emerita of history of science and technology at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and a close friend and colleague of Margaret Rosstier, fellow science historian.Ailsa Holland is a historian and a co-author of On This Day She Putting Women Back into History One Day at a Time.Margaret Rossiter (deceased Aug 3, 2025) was the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of History of Science Emerita and Graduate School Professor. She coined “The Matilda Effect” and wrote a three-volume series, Women Scientists in America.

One of the strongest ties between the diaspora and home is music. In Iran, music can be politically contentious.In Canada, it connects a community to its past and to its future. Days after the bombings began in Iran, Nahlah Ayed spoke to three Iranian-Canadian musicians and composers about the role of music in a time of uncertainty."Music can be an escape, can be a consolation... Like if we are the stars and galaxies on the planets of the universe, music is like the dark matter of that universe. It's that gravitational force that we know is there but we can't quite put our finger on it." — composer and pianist Iman HabibiGuests in this episode:Tahare Falahati is a Persian traditional singerKaveh Mirhosseini is an Iranian composer and conductorIman Habibi is a composer and pianist

Mathematics is everywhere: a common refrain from high school math teachers. But did you ever think math could be linked to literature? And not just in works from the literary greats of the past but for example Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. The relationship between math and literature are fundamentally creative, says Sarah Hart, a mathematician and author who speaks to Nahlah Ayed about how these two things that seem so polar opposite are deeply intertwined.Sarah Hart's book is called Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature.

It is possible. Flavours have been lost to the past as culinary physicist Lenore Newman explains. She points to the extinction of the passenger pigeon — one numbering in the billions throughout North America — as an example. In 1914, Martha, the last passenger pigeon, died at the Cincinnati zoo — and in place of the pigeon, came the industrialized farming of chicken. Newman says we're now transitioning lab-raised food — a technology capable of pushing a global history of scarcity into one of abundance, and that's all without any land usage. She calls it the "food singularity."

At a time when the future of Iran is uncertain, we revisit an IDEAS documentary about the history of women's resistance in Iran — women who in 1979 harboured dreams of freedom and democracy. After ousting the Shah, and mere weeks after Ayatollah Khomeini took power, Iranian women marched to show their fury at the revolution. Forty years after their protest, documentary maker Donya Ziaee spoke to three Iranian women who were there, fighting to turn the tide of history. *This episode originally aired on March 8, 2019.

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.