Ideas

About this podcast

IDEAS is a deep-dive into contemporary thought and intellectual history. No topic is off-limits. In the age of clickbait and superficial headlines, it's for people who like to think.

Ideas

Episodes

2021
Common Good | What If This Gets Bigger?
The rules for behaving well in a society arguably depend on the size of that society. The structures, institutions and even the logic behind human co-operation change along the axes of space, population, and time. From camping trips to climate change conferences, IDEAS examines why scale matters so much to conversations about the common good. *This episode is part of our series, The Common Good.
April 9, 2021
55 min
Common Good | Why Don’t We Live Together?
Many people are priced out of the urban housing market. Others are disenchanted with the four walls of the single family home. From a San Francisco commune network to co-living communities in Berlin, advocates argue the benefits of sharing domestic space. *This is an episode from our series, The Common Good.
April 8, 2021
55 min
Common Good | The Value of Old Age
IDEAS producer Mary Lynk explores what is the purpose of a long life? Traditional cultures often place older people at the top of social hierarchy, but in modern Western societies there's been a profound loss of meaning and vital social roles for older adults. What happened? And what role can we reimagine for older people now? *This episode is part of our series, The Common Good.
April 7, 2021
55 min
What is Common? And What is Good?
The evidence is clear: greater levels of equality in a society makes a society better for all. This drive to create a more equitable society is at the heart of Black Lives Matter. So from this perspective, BLM is not only a movement for the good of Black people; it's also a movement for the common good.
April 6, 2021
55 min
Common Good | The World Turned Upside Down, Part One
Perhaps no question is more important than this one: what is the common good? What can we agree on that benefits us all? IDEAS looks to the English Civil Wars from the 17th century when great questions of the common good were rediscovered, argued, and fought over changing England — and the world — forever. *This episode is part of our series, The Common Good.
April 5, 2021
55 min
Shakespeare's Richard III shows us how to resist tyranny
In Richard III, Shakespeare shows us how easy it is to fall under the spell of a tyrant. IDEAS explore the parallels between Richard III and the Trump era, and the play’s eerily prescient lessons about complicity, conscience and speaking truth to power.
April 2, 2021
55 min
The Greenest Metaphor
Some people describe it as a war. To others, it’s a race. Maybe it’s a sickness that needs to be cured, or a puzzle that needs to be solved. There are a lot of metaphors for the fight against climate change, and picking the right one might be the key to making real progress.
April 1, 2021
55 min
Environmentalists: what are we fighting for? An environmentalist argues it's not clear
Environmental problems are well-known and have been for decades, so why are we still edging towards a global catastrophe? Environmentalist Graham Saul believes it comes down to a message problem — mainly because environmentalism doesn’t have a single, coherent, unified message that people can grasp. *This episode originally aired on November 23, 2018.
March 31, 2021
55 min
The Past is Present: The Problem of Presentism
The stories that make up the history of a nation and the account of its birth are increasingly contested, and newer narratives are being pitted against the old. What is the role and responsibility of the historian in managing the chaos and keeping scholarship above the fray of political wrangling?
March 30, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture #6: Retreat, Reform, Restraint
In his 2020 CBC Massey Lectures, Citizen Lab founder and director Ron Deibert wants to get us thinking about how best to mitigate the harms of social media, and in doing so, construct a viable communications ecosystem that supports civil society and contributes to the betterment of the human condition (instead of the opposite).
March 29, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture # 5: Burning Data
What we don’t see — because it is so carefully hidden from the public eye — is the ecological impact of our social media usage and the wasteful consumption loop we’re trapped in, as we’re pushed to constantly upgrade our devices and turn simple electronics and appliances into “smart” machines.
March 26, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture # 4: A Great Leap Forward...For The Abuse Of Power
The initial vision of the internet was that it would empower individuals and expose the wrongdoings of state and corporate interests. But now the same technologies that had been used for public uprisings against oppressive governments are now being used by those governments against political demonstrators, whistleblowers and dissidents.
March 25, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture # 3: Toxic Addiction Machines
Everyone loves to hate social media, but there's a real reason it seems impossible to quit. And you might not like it. In the third instalment of the Massey Lectures, Ron Deibert exposes how social media platforms are engineered to be "addiction machines."
March 24, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture # 2: The Market for Our Minds
The ads that personalize our internet browsing are obvious examples of how "attention merchants" vie for our data, but the more insidious actors are the ones we don't see. In his second CBC Massey Lecture, Ron Deibert explores "the economic engine that underlies social media: the personal data surveillance economy" and what is called "surveillance capitalism."
March 23, 2021
55 min
CBC Massey Lecture # 1: Look At That Device In Your Hand
There's a problem with that device in your hand — your phone that makes you anxious when it's not near. Renowned tech expert Ron Deibert says that needs to change. The 2020 Massey Lecturer suggests we need a 'reset' and in his first lecture, Deibert sketches out the layered problem — and how he sees a way forward.
March 22, 2021
55 min
Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part Three
Since its beginnings, Hollywood has portrayed African Americans in a variety of ways: as primitive beings in Birth of a Nation, as happy former slaves in Gone With the Wind, as an earnest gentleman in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and as hypersexual heroes during the 1970s "blaxploitation" era. Filmmaker Julie Dash says, "it's like we were props in their movies." In this three-part series, IDEAS explores a century of racial politics in Hollywood.
March 19, 2021
55 min
Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part Two
Since its beginnings, Hollywood has portrayed African Americans in a variety of ways: as primitive beings in Birth of a Nation, as happy former slaves in Gone With the Wind, as an earnest gentleman in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and as hypersexual heroes during the 1970s "blaxploitation" era. Filmmaker Julie Dash says, "it's like we were props in their movies." In this three-part series, IDEAS explores a century of racial politics in Hollywood.
March 18, 2021
55 min
Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part One
Since its beginnings, Hollywood has portrayed the African American in a variety of ways: as primitive beings in Birth of a Nation, as happy former slaves in Gone With the Wind, as an earnest gentleman in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and as hypersexual heroes during the 1970s "blaxploitation" era. Filmmaker Julie Dash says, "it's like we were props in their movies." In this three-part series, IDEAS explores a century of racial politics in Hollywood.
March 17, 2021
55 min
Feminist City: Leslie Kearn
Historically, cities have been planned, designed, and built by men. Yet there has always been more than one kind of city resident. That's why consciousness is growing around making urban spaces more inclusive of others. Vienna, for instance, has improved safety and convenience for women through the design of its housing, parks, sidewalks and street lighting. Geographer and author Leslie Kern explains why a "feminist city" benefits us all, in this talk for Carleton University's Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism.
March 16, 2021
55 min
The First Good Poem in English
Several English-language literary works survive from the first millennium A.D. and it's still uncertain which is the oldest. However, a short elegy called The Wanderer stands out as English's oldest-surviving good poem, according to IDEAS producer Tom Howell. Experts in Old English help explain the appeal and the complexity of this ancient yet strangely accessible work.
March 15, 2021
55 min

Ideas

About this podcast

Categories

About this podcast

Categories

Ideas

Episodes

Common Good | What If This Gets Bigger?

Common Good | Why Don’t We Live Together?

Common Good | The Value of Old Age

What is Common? And What is Good?

Common Good | The World Turned Upside Down, Part One

Shakespeare's Richard III shows us how to resist tyranny

The Greenest Metaphor

Environmentalists: what are we fighting for? An environmentalist argues it's not clear

The Past is Present: The Problem of Presentism

CBC Massey Lecture #6: Retreat, Reform, Restraint

CBC Massey Lecture # 5: Burning Data

CBC Massey Lecture # 4: A Great Leap Forward...For The Abuse Of Power

CBC Massey Lecture # 3: Toxic Addiction Machines

CBC Massey Lecture # 2: The Market for Our Minds

CBC Massey Lecture # 1: Look At That Device In Your Hand

Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part Three

Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part Two

Black Myths on Screen: Hollywood and a Century of Race, Part One

Feminist City: Leslie Kearn

The First Good Poem in English