IDEAS schedule for February 2023
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Wednesday, February 1
IDEAS FROM THE TRENCHES | [HUNTING] GHOST PARTICLES
The mysterious 'neutrino' is also known as the 'ghost particle.' Hundreds of astrophysicists around the globe are racing to understand its nature. Particle astrophysicist Benjamin Tam is a recent PhD graduate from Queen's University. He takes us two kilometres below the earth's surface to a repurposed mine-turned-laboratory where he and his fellow scientists are hoping to unlock a new understanding of the universe's very existence. *This episode is part of our series, IDEAS from the Trenches.
Thursday, February 2
MYSTIFIED BY MONEY
There's nothing natural about money. It's an abstract, malleable thing that only works because governments say it works and people believe it works. When money misbehaves, governments and banks make bad monetary decisions. Or when people lose faith in it, it can lead to financial crisis, political upheaval, and international strife. In fact, global stability rests largely on money, but money is an inherently unstable thing. As part of our series New World Disorder, this episode looks at the disorderly history of money.
Friday, February 3
UNSOUND: THE LEGACY OF ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
The great project of Alexander Graham Bell's life was not the telephone. His life's true passion, the project he focussed on his entire life and funded with his earnings from the telephone, was the education of deaf people. He was part of a movement called Oralism and believed all deaf people should learn to lipread and speak rather than use sign language. But not all deaf people can learn to speak. And the harm of Oralism still reverberates today. Ideas contributor Veronica Simmonds brings us her documentary, Unsound: The legacy of Alexander Graham Bell. *This episode aired on May 10, 2021.
Monday, February 6
ANDEAN METAPHYSICS
The Huarochirí Manuscript is one of the few surviving records of Indigenous Andean philosophy and Quechua worldviews in the early modern era. Compiled in the late 16th century, it was once used by the Catholic Church to identify "idolatries." But today, the manuscript is an important tool for recovering and reconstructing metaphysical concepts the Catholic Church tried to eradicate. Jorge Sanchez-Perez, assistant professor of philosophy of the University of Alberta, speaks with Nahlah Ayed about what the manuscript reveals about Andean metaphysics, including ideas about animal-human relations and the nature of time.
Tuesday, February 7
ARCHAEOLOGY, ATLANTIS, AND THE APOCALYPSE
A new Netflix series called Ancient Apocalypse shot to the top of the streaming service's rankings the week it was released. It claims that an advanced civilization which thrived during the Ice Age was wiped out by comets and floods, but left humanity with science and technology. In the world of archaeology, such claims aren't new, and are referred to by experts as "pseudo-archaeology." This episode of IDEAS unearths the long history of pseudo-archaeology, how it's been deployed to advance political and cultural ideas, and where it crosses over from pseudo-science to religious myth-making.
Wednesday, February 8
SHAPE: HIDDEN GEOMETRY
Abraham Lincoln used geometry to make better arguments. Google uses geometry to hide or promote websites. And U.S. political parties use it to tip elections in their favour. In his new book Shape, mathematician Jordan Ellenberg exposes the geometric underpinnings of logic, science, and politics. A former child prodigy who aced the SATs at age 12, Ellenberg argues that clever use of math and geometry is helping corrupt American democracy, but mathematicians might still be able to save it. *This episode originally aired on May 11, 2022.
Thursday, February 9
THE NEW MASTERS: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY of the SOBEY ART AWARDS
A conversation with the finalists and winner of the 2022 Sobey Art Award. Their acclaimed art ranges from an exploration of what it means to be a Maroon; to reimagining the iconic and controversial Hudson Bay Blanket; to influences of the Egyptian sun god's regeneneration from death to rebirth; to the compelling power of tombstones when representing exclusion and finally the meaning behind turning the iconic Taj Mahal into a bouncy castle. A celebration of where new art is taking us.
Friday, February 10
WOUND AND LIGHT: GGLA WINNERS ON HEALING
Emotional healing takes different forms. For playwright Dorothy Dittrick, self-expression counters everyday upset and grief. Novelist Jen Ferguson and her characters find rage and humour can re-energize in the face of ongoing injustices. Nahid Kazemi, an illustrator from Iran, chose exile in order to free her damaged creativity. These Governor General's Literary Award winners are featured on IDEAS's annual collaboration with CBC Books and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Monday, February 13
THE COFFEE CHRONICLES
An ordinary cup of Joe just won't do anymore. It's now gourmet, fair trade and organic. Whether the method is pour over, French press, or vacuum pumps, coffee is now described with terms like "mouthfeel," just as fine wines are. IDEAS explores the cultural history behind the world's most popular drink. *This episode originally aired on June19, 2019.
Tuesday, February 14
WORDS OF LOVE: SONG OF SONGS
According to the Hebrew Bible, the Song of Songs is the 'greatest of all songs'. In one way or another, over the course of about 2,500 years, the Song of Songs has also been Mystery of Mysteries, Allegory of Allegories, Love of Loves, and even Language of Languages. Its verses are both lovingly crafted and enthrallingly disorienting. The Song of Songs polishes the many facets of love, raises up the physical and marvels at the transcendent, and in doing all this, exalts the very act of poetry. In this documentary, IDEAS producer Sean Foley seeks out our best understanding of its origins, and tries to convey something of its power. *This episode originally aired on March 16, 2022.
Wednesday, February 15
THE INDIGENOUS RENAISSANCE IN NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
There's a received notion that Indigenous people disappeared from Newfoundland with the end of the Beothuks. But there's a thriving presence of First Nations people who've produced remarkable stories, novels and poems. That's the recuperative project Professor Kristina Bidwell articulated in a public talk, as part of the George Story Distinguished Lecture Series at Memorial University in St. John's. Professor Bidwell is a registered member of the NunatuKavut, the federally-recognized government for the Southern Inuit community of Labrador. She grew up in Newfoundland, and now teaches at the University of Saskatchewan. Her talk is intercut with a conversation with IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed.
Thursday, February 16
THE ALCHEMY LECTURE
Language. Labour. Migration. Four international scholars gather at York University to deliver the inaugural Alchemy Lecture: Borders, Human Itineraries and All Our Relation. Together, they imagine a new world—with new languages, new geographies, and new ways of existing. The world they envision is one without borders, a world that confronts the global injustices of labour, of forced migration, and life in the Black diaspora.
Friday, February 17
THE DIVIDED BRAIN
The conventional wisdom about the two sides of the brain is that the left hemisphere is the rational, logical side and the right side is the artistic, contemplative side. Neuroscientist Iain McGilchrist's theory of the Divided Brain goes much further. He argues that the left side of the brain leads to a mechanistic, reductive view of the world, in contrast to the more holistic, contextual ways in which the right side of the brain takes in the world. McGilchrist also believes that many of the ills that plague us today stem from the dominance of the left brain in western society. *An adaptation of a television documentary, The Divided Brain. This episode originally aired on Oct. 21, 2022.
Monday, February 20
CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE: TIYA MILES
Tiya Miles writes a different kind of history in her prize-winning book, All That She Carried. Rather than turn to official records of slavery in the United States, the records of slave owners for example, she turns to a physical artifact: a cotton sack with embroidered words mentioning three women: Rose, the mother of Ashley who was sold at age 9; and Ruth Middleton, who in 1921 embroidered the names onto the sack. Harvard historian Tiya Miles scours the historical documentary record to discover who these women were and how love sustained them all from the time of slavery to emancipation to Jim Crow. Her book has won multiple awards, including the National Book Award, and the Cundill History Prize.
Tuesday, February 21
WAR AND MEDICINE: AWKEYE'S ARMY
We think nothing today of calling healthcare workers "front line workers," engaged in a "battle" against disease…. And COVID has gone a long way in further entrenching the war metaphor in medicine. But the roots of the infiltration of such language go a long way back, aided by pop culture icons like the TV show MASH. Dr. Jillian Horton, a writer and doctor of internal medicine is a veteran of the battle against COVID, and the battle to rid medicine of the macho, masochistic culture that begins to define its soldiers from medical school onward. She imagines something less heroic, and healthier for all involved. Hawkeye Pierce, the star doctor of MASH, inspires her exploration, which begins with an interview with the man who played him on television: Alan Alda.
Wednesday, February 22
MIDDLEMARCH, PART ONE
Virginia Woolf called it "one of the few English books written for grownups, Middlemarch by George Eliot. It's a book full of characters, major and minor, navigating it all, from love, to family, to morality, in the end asking the question: is it a good thing to live a life of duty, or is it ridiculous? Middlemarch is 150 years old now, so why does it still have up-to-date lessons in how to live a modern life? *This episode originally aired April 7, 2022.
Thursday, February 23
MIDDLEMARCH, PART TWO
Virginia Woolf called it "one of the few English books written for grownups, Middlemarch by George Eliot. It's a book full of characters, major and minor, navigating it all, from love, to family, to morality, in the end asking the question: is it a good thing to live a life of duty, or is it ridiculous? Middlemarch is 150 years old now, so why does it still have up-to-date lessons in how to live a modern life? *This episode originally aired April 8, 2022.
Friday, February 24
WORDS FALL APART: UKRAINIAN POET LYUBA YAKIMCHUK
Poet Lyuba Yakimchuk grew up in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine. After pro-Russian separatists took control of the area in 2014, her family had to flee. And now, the whole country has been invaded. Lyuba Yakimchuk reflects on poetry, war, and the burden of a motherland. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 25, 2022.
Monday, February 27
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. *This episode originally aired on March 17, 2021.
Tuesday, February 28
BLACK MYTHS ON SCREEN: HOLLYWOOD AND A CENTURY OF RACE, PART TWO
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. *This episode originally aired on March 18, 2021.
Wednesday, March 1
BLACK MYTHS ON SCREEN: HOLLYWOOD AND A CENTURY OF RACE, PART THREE
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. *This episode originally aired on March 19, 2021.
