Ideas

Indigenous math isn't just about numbers and equations, it involves culture, spirituality and more. Math professor Edward Doolittle, a Mohawk from Six Nations in Ontario, sees math as something embedded in Creation itself. In his Hagey Lecture at the University of Waterloo, he describes Indigenous mathematics as being grounded in cognition, emotion, the physical world and community. Indigenizing math, Doolittle hopes, will make it ...

"We are the monsters" — that's the premise for the genre of film known as body horror — movies that fixate on monstrous and grotesque changes to the body. There have been good body horror films and bad ones, but "The Fly" starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis was perhaps the most consequential. The movie captured anxieties around bodily autonomy and physical decay, just as the AIDS epidemic was becoming catastrophic. Forty ye...

In 2024, 'polarization' was Merriam-Webster's word of the year. That division still grows, making it increasingly difficult to connect to one another. But there are people having important conversations and they have advice for us all. From fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Colombia, championing human rights in Southern Africa and working for a two-state solution post Oct. 7, the winners of the The Global Centre for Pluralism awar...

The yellow traffic light is a perfect example of imperfection — with intention. While driving you have to think fast. Do you speed up or stop, whether that means easily or slamming on the brakes? Every driver has their answer and what lies in the middle is a vast perceptual field. A great deal of thought has gone into the engineering of the ambiguous yellow light, as IDEAS producer Seán Foley found out. He had his own encounter wit...

This isn't a wrap or best of 2025 kind of list. This IDEAS podcast is packed full of all kinds of recommendations from our smart, insightful contributors. We asked them to suggest a work of nonfiction that recently made them think — maybe even think differently — about a particular topic. Their answers cover several genres and varied subjects. Some may surprise you.

Don't worry about writing any titles or names down, we have tha...

In fact, author and journalist Marcello Di Cintio argues Canadians are complicit. After four years investigating the lives of migrant workers, he found that many temporary foreign workers are trapped working in precarious, exploitative conditions. These jobs are essential to our economy and society, yet invisible. Each migrant worker has a story to tell, says Di Cintio. He joined IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed on a visit through the tomato...

Growing up with food insecurity, Julian Napoleon yearned to be a farmer. His great-grandparents once farmed on the Saulteau First Nations reserve in northeastern B.C. Over the decades, the farm was replaced by the bush, and the ideas of communal, seasonal living started to fade away. Five years ago, Julian moved to Amisk Farm to bring it back to life. This year the farm has produced food for over 300 Indigenous households, free of ...

There’s a constant mantra Frank Gehry would always hear from his mentors who have since died – “Don’t you dare ever stop working.” It’s a sentiment he lived by right until his death at 96. In fact his last major cultural building, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, will open in 2026. So how does his fierce, creative drive square with his mortality?

In an expansive conversation from 2017 with IDEAS producer Mary Lynk, Gehry shares his tho...

Rebel architect Frank Gehry believed architecture IS art. He strived to evoke emotion in every design. Last Friday, Gehry died at 96 but he never stopped creating. In 2017, IDEAS producer Mary Lynk had a rare opportunity to spend two days with Gehry at his LA studio. Their wide-ranging conversation covers many aspects of his life and career, including a moment at 40 when the sight of an ancient piece of art from 500 BC led him to w...

Sometimes the universe hands us a gift. Over the past year, our podcast listeners spent a total of 526,915 hours listening to our program. That's 21,954.8 days and that translates to 60 years of listening to us. So what better way to mark IDEAS' 60th year then to look back on the highlights and lowlights of the past six decades. To give you a hint on some of the picks, on the bad list: online identity management. Trickle down econo...

"IDEAS is often a surprise" says Cathy Pike. It's why she's been a longtime listener. To our delight, IDEAS was there for her just at the right time. After listening to an episode about Friedrich Nietzsche and his philosophy about "the art of passing by," Cathy says she decided not to send an email that she realized she would have regretted. "The program gave me pause and I’m grateful for that.”

And we're grateful to hear f...

This podcast features an all-star, and bestselling, lineup of CBC Massey Lecturers from the past decade:

Payam Akhavan (2017) and the police officer who pulled over to the side of the road to keep listening; Sally Armstrong (2019) and the women’s rights groups listening to her talks in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and China; Ron Deibert (2020) and his conviction that ‘philosophical’ radio is more crucial than ever; Esi Edugyan (2021...

That's not something you expect to hear in an interview. But the Harvard historian and author of All That She Carried, Tiya Miles did not hesitate to say these words to IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed. What prompted the bold statement comes down to a question — seemingly for Miles the perfect one to ask.

Their conversation resonated with many listeners, including a potter in Australia who shares how this story sustains him after the los...

Not many people like to think about traffic but Joanna Oda says this very topic on IDEAS in 2005 permanently changed the way she views medical care as a doctor. "It helped me understand how things that make sense for you as an individual contribute to a collective problem." She adds, the episode introduced her to the idea that one car has a big impact.

This episode is part of a week-long celebration to mark our 60th anniver...

For Afghans, listening to a traditional song can bring them back "home." In 2021, when the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, orchestras disbanded and musicians fled for their lives. They brought with them their distinctive and storied music, embedded with notes hailing from classical music from Iran and India. IDEAS takes a journey to Afghanistan with members of the Afghan diaspora, and asks how the idea of home is encapsu...

In 2022, IDEAS explored how the brutal strategy called "urbicide" — the intentional killing of a city — is used in war to destroy residents' sense of home and belonging. This podcast revisits the original story and includes a brief update from architect Ammar Azzouz. Since the collapse of the Assad regime last year, he has returned to Homs, Syria, twice. He tells IDEAS he has mixed emotions being home again.

*This episode is par...

Hospitality — and hospitals. Two words that share a root, but whose meanings often seem at odds with each other. IDEAS traces the historical roots of hospitals, the tension between hospitality and discipline that has defined hospitals throughout their history, and what it means to create a hospitable hospital in the 21st century. 

*This is the third episode in our series, The Idea of Home, which originally aired on June 15,...

In ancient Greece, hospitality (or xenia) was seen as a sacred moral imperative. Someone who defied the obligations placed on both host and guest risked the wrath of the gods, or even outright war. Today, the word xenia has largely fallen out of use, but its opposite, xenophobia, has been a driving factor in contemporary politics for years. IDEAS explores ancient traditions of hospitality in this second episode of our five-part ser...