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America is just not that into you anymore, says historian Marci Shore. It's not us — it's them. The Yale professor blames the U.S. for the failed relationship and warns the world that her own country can no longer be counted on to defend democracy, not even within its own borders. Shore has been studying the history of totalitarianism for nearly 30 years. She tells Nahlah Ayed why she relocated to Canada and how her knowledge of Eastern Europe informed her choice.
PEI has the highest voter turnout of any other province in Canada. Voting is fundamental to this community. Residents see firsthand how their vote matters — several elections were decided by 25 votes or less. In this small province, people have a personal and intimate connection with politicians. MLAs know voters on an individual basis and they feel a duty to their job. In the third episode of our series, IDEAS for a Better Canada (produced in partnership with the Samara Centre for Democracy), Nahlah Ayed visits the birthplace of Confederation to hear how Prince Edward Islanders sustain the strong democracy they built.
Canadians' biggest fear for the country's future is “growing political and ideological polarization,” according to a 2023 EKOS poll. As part of our series, IDEAS for a Better Canada (produced in partnership with the Samara Centre for Democracy), host Nahlah Ayed headed to the fast-growing city of Edmonton to talk about the creative ways local residents are working to find common ground. From video games to an engagement technique called “deep canvassing” used to bridge gaps across differences, we can learn a lot from Edmontonians on how to build a better democracy for Canada.
One week until voting day, Canada! At World Report, we know democracy doesn't happen in a silo. That's why we're recommending the IDEAS for a Better Canada series. IDEAS invites listeners to slow down, check their assumptions, and maybe even change their minds. And with another federal election approaching, Nahlah Ayed has been hosting cross-Canada discussions that focus on local solutions with the potential to inspire national change. The four-part series was made in partnership with the Samara Centre for Democracy.In today's episode: an audience in Edmonton considered ways to nurture healthier conversations across political divides, and shared strategies to foster civil debate.You can listen to all of the IDEAS for a Better Canada series here: https://link.mgln.ai/tmupPj
To celebrate two decades of Under the Influence, Terry O'Reilly shares the five most influential books in his life; former news anchor Elysia Bryan-Baynes recommends three books about leaving your home country to live and work abroad; Montreal musician Lubalin on aliens, existentialism and song-writing fuel; and what makes iconic television personality Jeanne Beker feel the most Canadian on this episode of The Next Chapter.Books discussed on this week's show include:To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper LeeFifth Business by Robertson DaviesTaken at the Flood by John GuntherTicket To Ride by Larry KaneCreativity, Inc. by Ed CatmullThe Three-Body Problem by Liu CixinWe Meant Well by Erum Shazia HasanTo Tell the Truth: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent by Lewis M. SimonsThe War We Won Apart by Nahlah AyedHeart on my Sleeve by Jeanne BekerYoko by David Sheff
Aaju Peter was 11 years old when she was taken from her Inuk community in Greenland and sent away to learn the ways of the West. She lost her language and culture. The activist, lawyer, designer, musician, filmmaker, and prolific teacher takes IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a tour of Iqaluit and into a journey to decolonization that continues still.
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor speaks to Nahlah Ayed about his life's journey, from growing up in Montreal in the 1930s, his 1991 CBC Massey Lectures, and why he turned to Romantic poetry to re-enchant our sense of the meaning of life in his book, Cosmic Connections.
For 14 years, Syrian poet Faraj Bayrakdar was imprisoned and tortured in a series of prisons. He found refuge in writing poetry. Now, the poems he wrote imagining the fall of the regime are coming true. He tells host Nahlah Ayed how the freedom within is greater than any prison.
She's one of Canada's most decorated journalists, having won a Pulitzer Prize, a Peabody and a Columbia-Dupont Prize for her podcast series, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael's. Yet Connie Walker had been reluctant to feature stories about her family in her journalism. Until she realized her family's survival in residential schools embodies the defining reality for virtually all Indigenous Peoples in Canada. She discusses this with Nahlah Ayed at the Samara Centre for Democracy's annual, In Defence of Democracy live event.
2024 CBC Massey lecturer Ian Williams speaks with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed about the forces that have shaped him as a thinker and writer, from the encyclopedias he read as a child in Trinidad to his years as a dancer to the poetry of Margaret Atwood. 'I believe in multiplicity,' he says. The 2024 Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation in Our Time, begin this coming Monday.
Sonia and Guy d'Artois were part of a secret force that parachuted into occupied France to help fight Nazis during the Second World War. In May, Nahlah Ayed told the story of their love affair — and their mission behind enemy lines — in her book, The War We Won Apart.
Award-winning writer Pankaj Mishra argues that self-serving narratives of Western countries have masked agendas of imperialism and exploitation, resulting in widespread suspicion of liberal democracy itself. He is the winner of the 2024 Weston International Award, which he received in September. After delivering a talk, Mishra joined IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed onstage to have a conversation.
Without us, horses would be nowhere, and vice-versa. It was a partnership — our brains and their braun — that truly changed the world. Historian Timothy Winegard, author of The Horse, tells Nahlah Ayed how the history of the horse is the history of humankind.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." We also have a right to seek "asylum from persecution" in other countries. At a time when more people are forcibly displaced than at any other point in recorded history, Nahlah Ayed speaks with guests about where the rights to leave, return and seek refuge came from, and what they could mean today.
Today an encore presentation of an episode that originally aired on June 4th. One of my favourite journalists, Nahlah Ayed, brings to light a little-known Canadian story that centres around preparations for D-Day. It really is at its heart a love story, but it's also a spy story with all the twists and turns that both elements can deliver. Another D-Day special as this week marks 80 years since that historic day.
Join Katie & Allie as they talk about The War We Won Apart: THE UNTOLD STORY OF TWO ELITE AGENTS WHO BECAME ONE OF THE MOST DECORATED COUPLES OF WWII
Two orcas, Wikie and Keijo, could soon retire from a French marine park to become the first residents of a proposed whale sanctuary in Port Hilford, N.S. Guest host Nahlah Ayed hears about the logistics of building a first-of-its-kind, 40-hectare enclosure in the open bay — and why critics worry Nova Scotia's harsher weather might make it too difficult to maintain.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that presidents are entitled to immunity with some limits, but one dissenting justice warns the decision makes the president “a king above the law." Guest host Nahlah Ayed talks to law professor and Supreme Court expert Eric Segall.
Fears that missile fire between Israel and militant group Hezbollah could lead to a full-scale war in Lebanon are growing. Close to 500 people have been killed in the hostilities so far and several countries have urged their citizens in the country to leave. Dahlia Scheindlin and Hussein Ibish join guest host Nahlah Ayed to discuss what might lead to all-out war, and what needs to be done to de-escalate tensions.
We have laws against genocide, defined as "the deliberate attempt to erase a national, ethnic, religious or racial group." But how do we make them stick? IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed speaks with scholar William Schabas about the history of the UN Genocide Convention and what needs to change.
What can be done to curb intimate partner violence? Then, what are the economics behind liberalizing alcohol laws in Ontario? Is women's sports finally coming into its own. And journalist Nahlah Ayed talks about her new book.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Ahead of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, journalist and author, Nahlah Ayed tells the story of two elite agents working for Britain's Special Operations Executive in France during the Second World War. "The War We Won Apart" is constructed from hours of unpublished interviews and archival and personal documents to recount the love story of a British woman, Sonia Butt and a French-Canadian soldier, Guy d'Artois who fought the war apart.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
One of my favourite journalists, Nahlah Ayed, brings to light a little-known Canadian story that centres around preparations for D-Day. It really is at its heart a love story, but it's also a spy story with all the twists and turns that both elements can deliver. Another D-Day special as this week marks 80 years since that historic day.
Sonia and Guy d'Artois were part of a hidden force that parachuted into occupied France to help fight the Nazis during the Second World War. Nahlah Ayed tells the story of their love affair — and their mission behind enemy lines — in her new book The War We Won Apart.
Civility is under threat, authoritarianism and autocrats are on the rise and there's an erosion of institutional trust. Three pre-eminent speakers join IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed to discuss how Canada and other countries can promote respect and protect liberal democracy.
Salman Rushdie sees reality through the lens of time. There are the months after the nearly-fatal attack of August 2022 that he details in his memoir Knife. And the decade following the Iranian state's February 1989 fatwa against him. In this conversation with Nahlah Ayed, he describes hinge moments in his uncannily storied life.
What do ghost stories capture about the experience of being stateless? IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed speaks with lawyer and scholar Jamie Chai Yun Liew on how states create “ghost citizens” — and keep them living in limbo.
In 2015, Garry Kasparov's book Winter is Coming warned that the West's hesitant policies towards Russia's Vladimir Putin encouraged his authoritarian tendencies. Nearly 10 years later, Putin's army is still fighting in Ukraine, and at home, he's shut down virtually all dissent. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Garry Kasparov.
Writer and political organizer Astra Taylor is the 2023 CBC Massey Lecturer. She speaks with Nahlah Ayed about key moments in her intellectual coming-of-age, from her early life in the “unschooling” movement to her involvement with Occupy Wall Street. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 7, 2023.*
This week, the International Court of Justice wrapped up a set of historic hearings into the legality of Israel's decades-long occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.The proceedings were requested by the UN General Assembly back in 2022, and so the timing of them — almost five months into Israel's bloody war with Hamas — is in essence coincidental. But many believe that finding a resolution to this question is fundamental to securing a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.While many are familiar with the term “occupation” in relation to this conflict, it's another thing to understand the specific legal meaning of that term, or its practical implications. Or why Israel argues that this term doesn't actually apply to them.Today we're going to explain all of that, and then look at how these questions played out at these recent hearings at the UN's top court. We're joined by Nahlah Ayed, host of the CBC Radio show Ideas. Among other things, Nahlah was previously a foreign correspondent based in the Middle East, and she has covered other cases at the Hague, most recently one relating to the conflict in Gaza.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsTranscripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
Last week, South Africa and Israel were at the International Court of Justice with two starkly opposed versions of the conflict in Gaza: South Africa's legal team argued Israel's actions there violate the Genocide Convention. Israel's lawyers argued it is acting in self-defence. The court must first decide whether to order emergency measures to stop the violence until it considers the bigger question. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed was in the Hague. This episode features excerpts from the two-day hearings.
Sea otters have returned to the Haida Nation after years without the animals living alongside the people. Marine planning manager at the Council of the Haida Nation, Niisii Guujaaw, tells The Current's guest host Nahlah Ayed that the return of sea otters to the region marks an exciting shift for conservation in the area. Plus, the vice president of science, knowledge and innovation at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada James Snider explains why 50 years after the implementation of the US Endangered Species Act, scientists are calling for more immediate action on saving animal populations.
The inner city isn't just a place — it's an idea. And in Winnipeg, it's an idea whose meaning and future have been fiercely contested. Nahlah Ayed joins Owen Toews, author of Stolen City, for a walking tour of inner-city history — and speaks to Indigenous organizer and “inner-city builder” Kathy Mallett.
There's a lot of hope, hype and fear around artificial intelligence. That it'll solve the climate crisis, or turn us all into paper clips. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed speaks to two tech experts about the promise and perils of AI, as part of the Provocation Ideas Festival.
Three Canadian media bosses face explain why their institutions are losing people's trust. Toronto Star vice-president Irene Gentle, the CBC's Brodie Fenlon, and Global News' Sonia Verma joined moderator IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed to discuss how media outlets can regain the trust of the audience.
Montreal was a hotbed of spies and conspirators during the U.S. Civil War. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed and investigative journalist Julian Sher, author of The North Star: Canada and the Civil War Plots Against Lincoln, tour Montreal's past and present, tracing the city's hidden Confederate past.
Writer and political organizer Astra Taylor is the 2023 CBC Massey Lecturer. She speaks with Nahlah Ayed about key moments in her intellectual coming-of-age, from her early life in the “unschooling” movement to her involvement with Occupy Wall Street.
We're thrilled to announce that this year's Massey lecturer is Astra Taylor, a filmmaker, writer and political organizer who was born in Winnipeg and currently lives in the United States. She speaks with Nahlah Ayed for a sneak preview of her lecture series, "The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart." You can find more information on our website, cbc.ca/ideas.
Eugenics is seen as a 19th-century idea put into horrific 20th-century practice. But the attraction to breeding “better” humans has a long and persistent history, says Adam Rutherford. The geneticist and science podcaster explains, in conversation with host Nahlah Ayed.
Happy almost New Year!! Nahlah Ayed, IDEAS contributors and producers bring you our annual New Year's Levee as they prepare for the 2023 season. This year Kamal Al-Solaylee shares his insights on the Queen of Sheba. We'll also hear about ghost neutrinos, pseudo-archeology, war metaphors and restorative justice.
The winter solstice is the longest night of the year. And that's what makes it the perfect time to slow down, move inwards, and reflect. CBC Music's In Concert host, Paolo Pietropaolo joins Nahlah Ayed to showcase music he feels captures the spirit of the winter solstice.
In a world that's increasingly hostile to journalists, Bellingcat has become an internationally respected organization uncovering the truth about wrongdoing. Giancarlo Fiorella, a senior investigator with Bellingcat delivered the 2022 Peter Stursberg Foreign Correspondent Lecture in an event moderated by IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed.
It's been 75 years since the Partition of India — a rupture that still shapes the lives of those born in its wake. Oral historian Aanchal Malhotra speaks with Nahlah Ayed about how the inherited memory of Partition continues to shape people's politics, identities, curiosities and fears.
Democratic backsliding is speeding up. Is there a way to revive civic engagement and resilience and push back against public apathy? IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed talks to former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi about the possibility of renewing civic purpose in Canada, as part of a public lecture hosted by the Samara Centre.
Leaving Iran in 2010 was the first time translator and poet Bänoo Zan was able to fully inhabit a self-described role as "war correspondent in verse." In this conversation with host Nahlah Ayed, the writer in residence at the University of Alberta explores the role of poetry in such moments of upheaval in her home country.
Nobel laureate and renowned journalist Maria Ressa warns that we're in the "last two minutes of democracy." She delivered the 2022 Beatty Lecture at McGill University and then joined IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed to discuss what can be done to change the course against disinformation.
Wole Soyinka has gone from political prisoner to Nobel Laureate in Literature. His writing, brimming with wit and rage, bears witness to the tragedy and triumphs of his native Nigeria. He spoke with Nahlah Ayed about power, the corruption of language, and his first novel in almost 50 years.
The demographics of Canada's prison population are far out of line with the rest of Canada. As part of the Provocation Ideas Festival and the Toronto International Festival of Authors, Nahlah Ayed hosts a panel discussion on challenges facing the legal system, and how to build a better court.
In September 2021, Andrew Potter spoke with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed about his book, On Decline. He argues that our entire civilization is in a slow, grinding descent into diminished prospects for a better world. We asked the author to return this month to assess how the past nine months have affected his grim prognosis.
An intricate portrait of secret Soviet operations in Ukraine during Joseph Stalin's rule, from Canadian historian Lynne Viola. She speaks to Nahlah Ayed about the legacy of Stalin's “Great Terror,” Russian suppression of Ukrainian nationalist sentiment, Vladimir Putin's new war on history, and that time when the KGB came knocking on her door... and asked her out on a date.