IDEAS schedule for June 2025
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Monday, June 2
BIBLIOTHERAPY
Can books help us heal? That's the premise of bibliotherapy, where readings from virtually any genre are used as a tool to promote individual wellbeing or self-insight. Researchers Sara Haslam and Edmund King discuss the First World War roots of this practice in the UK. Author Cody Dellistraty considers its role in moving him forward in the grief process. And psychiatrist Martina Scholtens explains bibliotherapy as a clinical option, and why she created an evidence -based reading list online, tailored to a range of mental health diagnoses.
Tuesday, June 3
MYTH OF NORMAL, PART ONE
"Neurodiversity" captures the idea that variations in our brains are part of the natural human spectrum, part of a normal range of our cognitive capacities. There's increasing evidence that what we know today as Autism, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Dyslexia may not be the result of disease, but may actually have been a way for us to extend our species chances of survival. Some experts believe these brain variations have been around as far back as we can measure. But today, brain variations that once may have been advantages are seen as burdens and disorders that beg for remedies. In this two-part series, IDEAS traces the social and cultural response to brain variation and whether there's a way back to seeing them as advantages.*This episode originally aired on April 29, 2022.
Wednesday, June 4
MYTH OF NORMAL, PART TWO
"Neurodiversity" captures the idea that variations in our brains are part of the natural human spectrum, part of a normal range of our cognitive capacities. There's increasing evidence that what we know today as Autism, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Dyslexia may not be the result of disease, but may actually have been a way for us to extend our species chances of survival. Some experts believe these brain variations have been around as far back as we can measure. But today, brain variations that once may have been advantages are seen as burdens and disorders that beg for remedies. In this two-part series, IDEAS traces the social and cultural response to brain variation and whether there's a way back to seeing them as advantages. *This episode originally aired on May 9, 2022.
Thursday, June 5
MISUNDERSTOOD ADAM SMITH
Since his death in 1790, the name of Adam Smith has been used to defend and criticize policy on the economic left and right. Considered by some to be the 'father of economics,' his name often comes up in two main scenarios. On the right, it starts with "Adam Smith says..." On the left, it's "Even Adam Smith says...." This documentary from contributing producer Matthew Lazin-Ryder looks at how Smith's name has been used over the centuries, and how a Scottish professor of moral philosophy became a symbol for the modern world. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 1, 2019.
Friday, June 6
BRING BACK GRUMPY GEORGE
A pessimist realist Red Tory who died in 1988 provides the perfect counsel for our times, argues PhD candidate Bryan Heystee of Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland. Heystee seeks to revive the work of Canadian philosopher George Grant, best known for the books Lament for a Nation and Technology & Empire. Grant became a truly public intellectual, injecting his skeptical takes into political debate via the national media (and giving the CBC Massey Lectures in 1969). Today, few Canadians continue to read or discuss his thoughts. Heystee tries to change that in our series, Ideas from the Trenches, featuring the unique insights of PhD students across the country. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 6, 2023.
Monday, June 9
THE DANDY REBEL
Today the word 'dandy' is a bit of a throwback, often suggesting someone who is showy, and superficial. But over the last two centuries The Dandy has been a provocateur, someone who pushes against the boundaries of culture, sexuality and politics. From Beau Brummell to Oscar Wilde to contemporary Black activists, IDEAS contributor Pedro Mendes tracks the subversive role Dandies play in challenging the status quo. *This episode originally aired on April 15, 2021.
Tuesday, June 10
HEALING THE LAND, PART ONE, AFTER THE FIRE
In 2021, a deadly heat dome produced a devastating wildfire season across British Columbia. While immediate media coverage often focuses on evacuations and the numbers of homes destroyed, First Nations communities say what these fires do to the land in their territories — and the cultural and philosophical lives of their communities — is often overlooked. IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory near Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st century wildfires are reshaping the landscape — and their consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. This two part-series follows the work of the northern St'át'imc Nations, land guardians, and scientists from the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC as they seek to document the effects of wildfires and chart a new future based on Indigenous approaches to healing and balancing an ecosystem. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 25, 2024.
Wednesday, June 11
HEALING THE LAND, PART TWO, FROM EDEN ECOLOGY TO INDIGENOUS ECOLOGY
In 2021, a deadly heat dome produced a devastating wildfire season across British Columbia. While immediate media coverage often focuses on evacuations and the numbers of homes destroyed, First Nations communities say what these fires do to the land in their territories — and the cultural and philosophical lives of their communities — is often overlooked. IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory near Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st century wildfires are reshaping the landscape — and their consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. This two part-series follows the work of the northern St'át'imc Nations, land guardians, and scientists from the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC as they seek to document the effects of wildfires and chart a new future based on Indigenous approaches to healing and balancing an ecosystem. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 26, 2024.
Thursday, June 12
IMANI PERRY: BLACK IN BLUE
Harvard professor Imani Perry's latest book, Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, unpacks the deep, centuries-long connection between Black people and the colour blue, from the complex history of indigo dye through the tradition of planting periwinkles on the unmarked graves of enslaved Black people, to the blues itself as a crowning achievement of Black American culture. The love of blue and the pursuit of beauty, Perry argues, was a core part of how Black people asserted their humanity and found ways to create beauty and solace in the face of being dehumanized and brutalized by slavery and racism.
Friday, June 13
SCHOLARS AT RISK: A NEW ROLE FOR CANADIAN UNIVERSITIES
More than half of the world's population lives in areas where academic freedom is either "completely restricted" or "severely restricted," according to European research published in 2025. For individual scholars and students, this can mean direct threats to their lives or those of their families. It can also mean the impossibility of continuing their work, especially on topics that displease local authorities. Some of these scholars escape to Canada, where universities host them temporarily, or permanently. Many more attempt to work closer to their home countries. Here in Canada universities and professors can take a role in helping them continue their work. Scholars-in-exile from dozens of countries gather at Carleton University in Ottawa to debate ways to support free thinking and research whenever and wherever it is threatened.
Monday, June 16
THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
The Authoritarian Personality was a groundbreaking study conducted in the wake of the Second World War by a group of scholars — two of whom escaped antisemitic persecution of the Third Reich — who wanted to understand why so many people had been drawn to fascist leaders. When the study was published in 1950, it rocked the academic world, but before long it fell out of favour during an era of strong economic growth and liberal optimism in the late twentieth century. Now a new generation of scholars is reviving the lessons of The Authoritarian Personality to understand the politics of our time. *This episode originally aired on April 4, 2022.
Tuesday, June 17
CROWS: PERDITA FELICIEN
Champion hurdler Perdita Felicien has climbed to the summits of international glory throughout her track career, and endured the excruciating lows of defeat. Those peak experiences inform the talk she gave at Crows Theatre in Toronto, in which she parses the comparison of sport to life, and life to sport. In her words: "It isn't that sport is life exactly. It's that it reveals life. It's the part of life where we play with purpose. Where effort is visible. Where character is tested. Where failure is not final, just part of the arc. It's where we try. Fully. Openly. Without guarantee." For her, the clarity of sport allows us a precious insight that everyday life rarely does: in competition, we catch a glimpse of who we might still become.
Wednesday, June 18
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE
'Make your world smaller' is one of the messages from a University of British Columbia panel discussion on the epidemic of loneliness in our society and how to fix it. Social isolation is a public health risk with consequences for individuals, communities and for our social systems. All the Lonely People: The Search for Belonging in an Uncertain World examines the issue from perspectives of men's and women's health, interpersonal relations, the climate change emergency and public policy.
Thursday, June 19
THE TRANSLATION MOVEMENT
Between the 8th and 10th centuries, Baghdad was the centre of a well-funded and systematic effort to translate large amounts of secular Greek texts into Arabic. The translators were multi-ethnic, multi-faith, and multilingual. The scholars and translators of the Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement often added their own thoughts and ideas to the texts they were translating, seeing them as resources to be engaged with rather than merely texts to be literally translated. The Arabic was eventually translated into Latin bringing to Europe the works of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen.
Friday, June 20
IN DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY: CONNIE WALKER
Time Magazine named Connie Walker one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She's also 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 as she tells host Nahlah Ayed onstage at a public event organized by the Samara Centre for Democracy, she'd always been reluctant to feature stories about her family in her journalism. Until she realized that the stories of her family surviving residential schools embodies the defining reality for virtually all Indigenous peoples in Canada. *This episode aired on Dec. 2, 2024.
Monday, June 23
JAWS AND AN OCEAN FULL OF MONSTERS
Jaws — a monstrous man-eating shark plucking off swimmers in the waters of the fictional Amity Island — stoked fears about great white sharks and the ocean. Hitting theatres 50 years ago, the movie broke box office records. But our fear of sharks didn't start with Jaws. In this documentary, producer Molly Segal explores the long history people have with the ocean, its large creatures, and our tendency across cultures and times to create sea monsters out of the depth of the ocean.
Tuesday, June 24
THE MANY LIVES OF MARIA CHAPDELAINE
The novel Maria Chapdelaine by Louis Hémon was a global sensation when it was published in the early 20th century. It's since become a cornerstone of Quebec culture. In fact, the Musée Louis Hémon is the only literary museum in Quebec, and was reopened in the summer of 2024 at a cost of six milion dollars. Yet Louis Hémon himself was actually from France, and was killed in a train accident before the novel was ever published. It's since been translated into over 20 languages, has inspired four film versions, several plays, an opera — even a pop song. And Maria the character has been painted, sculpted, and featured on a stamp. There's even a rue Maria Chapdelaine in Montreal — not bad for a fictional character. Yet today, the book remains far less known in English Canada and the English-speaking world. This documentary by contributor Catherine Annau examines the many lives that Maria Chapdelaine has lived, and continues to live. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 4, 2025.
Wednesday, June 25
10 REASONS TO HATE OTHERS — AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Why do we hate others? Scholars have come up with 10 key reasons why one group may hate members of another group. And left unchecked, this hatred only intensifies, dehumanizing our perceived enemies and allowing us to justify mistreatment and even violence. Around the world today, we are witnessing a troubling rise in hatred of the other. A discussion on the rise of hate and how to dismantle it.
Thursday, June 26
ARTS PIONEER JOAN JONAS: FROM MOMA RETROSPECTIVE TO HER GREAT MUSE, CAPE BRETON
In the 1960s, New York City fostered a seismic upheaval defining what art is. One of the standouts of the contemporary art movement was Joan Jonas, an American visual artist and pioneer of video and performance art. Now 88, her work was recently celebrated at the Museum of Modern Art with a major retrospective. She lives most of the year in her Soho Loft and studio. But she also has another significant home and muse. Nearly 55 years ago, she joined a group of prominent New York artists, including her then-partner sculptor Richard Serra and composer Richard Glass, who set up summer homes on the stunning cliffs of western Cape Breton. This year, a major work of Jonas' will be on tour in Canada — inspired in part by her time in Inverness. It was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. A documentary profile of the remarkable Joan Jonas. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 22, 2024.
Friday, June 27
THE SOUND OF THEIR MEMORIES: LILIA TOPOUZOVA
During the Communist era in Bulgaria there was little room for political dissent. Protesters, anyone who opposed the government, could be arrested, sent to the Gulag, silenced. For 20 years, Lilia Topouzova has been collecting the stories of those who survived: some had many stories, some had little to say, some had nothing to say — or just no way of saying it. From these eloquent stories she has recreated a Bulgarian room from the Communist era, where her meetings and conversations with survivors can be heard, a space about the absence of memory and what that does to a people, a space to bear witness to those who were sent to the camps, but who were everyone's friends, relatives and neighbours. The installation The Neighbours is the official Bulgarian entry to the 2024 Venice Biennale.
