IDEAS schedule for March 2024
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Friday, March 1
HERODOTUS: THE POWER AND PERIL OF STORY
Ancient Greek writer Herodotus broke tradition nearly 2,500 years ago with his vivid and expansive tome, The History. He was committed to understanding the human causes of conflict and war. He gathered stories — some believable, others not — to show how different cultures understand themselves. The stories he tells hold enduring lessons for us today. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 16, 2023.
Monday, March 4
THE WAY OF THE TRUCKER
"On the open road, there's only one person in command. You." So begins a sales pitch to potential new truckers, published by the Canadian Trucking Alliance. The romance of the long-haul route and the solitary life, in charge of a giant machine, draws a certain sort of person. Someone who relishes facing a battle against the forces of time, distance, and weather. But it may not draw enough people. An Ontario trucking union predicts a shortage of 30,000 truckers in Canada as old hands retire faster than new ones take on the job. IDEAS producer Tom Howell visits a trucking school in northern Ontario, where new recruits consider their options, and the road ahead.
Tuesday, March 5
PAPYRUS: THE INVENTION OF BOOKS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
For Spanish author Irene Vallejo, books are an invention on par with the wheel. Each iteration of the book, from the papyrus scroll to the modern cover-bound volume, has unlocked new vistas of intellectual freedom, allowing ideas to travel across vast distances — and enabling countless generations to travel through time to engage with the thoughts and experiences of the ancients while recording our own experiences for generations to come. Vallejo traces the history of this miraculous invention with a book of her own, Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World.
Wednesday, March 6
MASSEY AT 60: TANYA TALAGA
In 2018, award-winning journalist Tanya Talaga, presented the CBC Massey Lectures series, entitled All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward in which she explored the legacy of cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples. For Talaga, that cultural genocide has led to a forced disconnection from land and language by Indigenous peoples. In her lecture series she focused on the present-day need for Indigenous self-determination in social, cultural and political arenas. As part of an ongoing series of interviews marking the 60th anniversary of Massey College, a partner in the Massey Lectures, Tanya Talaga sits down with IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa to reflect back on her lectures and how the stories of Indigenous peoples offer lessons for Canada today.
Thursday, March 7
SWINGING AND SINGING: THE VIOLIN
The violin may be one of the most difficult instruments to master. And its associations with high-brow music are longstanding. But for musician and radio producer, David Schulman, the violin can swing and sing like nothing else. David is based in Washington, D.C., but recently traveled to the north of Italy to try and discover the original trees from which Antonio Stradivari made his masterpieces. It's a journey of surprise and delight — as is David's second documentary featured in this episode: a journey that began with a bootlegged live album of jazz violinist, Stuff Smith. That documentary was nominated for a Prix Italia. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 28, 2023.
Friday, March 8
ALANIS OBOMSAWIN: THE ART OF LISTENING
At the age of 91, prolific Abenaki artist and filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin is not slowing down. For nearly 70 years, her storytelling and documentary work has served as a mirror for Canada, vividly capturing and reflecting Indigenous experiences, providing a space for all Canadians to witness perspectives that have otherwise been suppressed and ignored. Obomsawin talks about her life's influences and the quiet power of listening in her 2023 Beatty lecture at McGill University. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 7, 2023.
Monday, March 11
THE ENDLESS PROGRESSION OF DAYS: IAN WILLIAMS
At the end of Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya, Vanya is reminded that all that is expected in a good life is that we do our best, and do our duty, through the 'endless procession of days' before death. Giller Prize-winning writer Ian Williams picks this up and asks: how do we fill our days, what records should we keep, what events are important, what is the role of memory — and what do we owe to the future? A talk from the IDEAS at Crow's Theatre series.
Tuesday, March 12
THE POETRY OF WHY: CHIMWEMWE UNDI
Chimwemwe Undi lives and works in downtown Winnipeg. She also lives at the intersection of poetry and law. Chim (as she's usually known) practices labour and employment law, as well as intellectual property law — and she's Winnipeg's third poet laureate. As the laureate, part of Chim's responsibility is to hold a mirror up to the city, to put her passion for words at the service of the stories of those often left out of the prairie city's past, and present. The result is poetry that speaks to the challenges that define our age no matter where we live; underpinned by a lifetime of questions about racism, urban decay, as well as love, gender, and belonging.
Wednesday, March 13
CITY OF PEACE AND JUSTICE: THE HAGUE
The Dutch capital city of The Hague bills itself as 'the city of peace and justice.' It's a fair boast. A peace conference in 1899 led to the creation of a building to house the world's first two international courts of justice. Today, The Hague is home not only to the International Criminal Court which tries individuals for a variety of crimes against humanity, but also to the International Court of Justice, the 'world court,' which tries the most serious disputes between nations — think the Rohingya, think Gaza. Around these two great entities, The Hague is also home to numerous smaller international justice bodies, NGOs and activist groups. Today's programme paints a portrait of The Hague as a kind-of 'centre of excellence' for thinking about the possibilities — and the future — of international law.
Thursday, March 14
MASSEY AT 60: RANDY BOYAGODA ON JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN
In the 1993 CBC Massey Lectures entitled Democracy on Trial, American political philosopher Jean Bethke Elshtain took on the question: is democracy as we know it in danger? Her concern was that smaller, often 'aggrieved' group interests were increasingly threatening our understanding of ourselves as free citizens. As part of Massey College's 60th anniversary, author, critic, and University of Toronto professor Randy Boyagoda and IDEAS producer Sean Foley revisit Elshtain's lectures and find them both prescient, and problematic.
Friday, March 15
ASTRA TAYLOR: THE HIDDEN TRUTH OF THE WORLD
Winnipeg-born filmmaker, writer and political organizer Astra Taylor is the 2023 CBC Massey lecturer. She speaks with Nahlah Ayed about the key moments in her intellectual coming-of-age, from her early life in the "unschooling" movement to her involvement with Occupy Wall Street. She explains why she believes "thinking" and "doing" are inextricably linked, and how her work to combat predatory debt has given her a new understanding of solidarity. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 7, 2023.
THE 2023 MASSEY LECTURES: ASTRA TAYLOR
Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says 2023 CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. The Winnipeg-born writer and filmmaker explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, the climate crisis, and the threat of authoritarianism originate from a social order built on insecurity. As she points out in her Massey lectures, The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together As Things Fall Apart, the institutions and systems that promise to make us more secure actually undermine us.
Monday, March 18
MASSEY LECTURE #1: CURA'S GIFT
The human condition is one of existential insecurity. And the ancient Roman goddess Cura reminds us that in our vulnerability — both mental and physical — we're dependent on others for survival. But today we also live in an era of manufactured insecurity, imposed on us from above. Consumer society, Astra Taylor argues, capitalizes on the very insecurities it produces, making us all insecure by design. How we understand and respond to insecurity is one of the most urgent questions of our moment, for nothing less than the future security of our species hangs in the balance. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 20, 2023.
Tuesday, March 19
MASSEY LECTURE # 2: BARONS OR COMMONERS?
In the second of this year's CBC Massey Lectures, Astra Taylor argues that we need the right to things, not just protection from threats. Our constitution tells us what we're protected from, but it doesn't tell us a lot about what we're entitled to. And it's not enough to be granted the right not to be abused without the right to receive assistance; not enough to possess civil and political rights without social and economic ones as well. What does real health security actually entail? What does the right to housing mean? The wealthy barons of the past and present have defined what security means — for themselves — but the rest of us, ordinary commoners, have fought for something else instead. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 21, 2023.
Wednesday, March 20
MASSEY LECTURE # 3: CONSUMED BY CURIOSITY
It's a paradox — we live in the most prosperous era in human history, but it's also an era of profound insecurity. In the third Massey Lecture, Astra Taylor suggests that history shows that increased material security helps people be more open-minded, tolerant, and curious. But rising insecurity does the reverse — it drives us apart, and it also drives the rise of reactionary politics. We're in the middle of an attack on our essential nature, she says, an attack on our economic and emotional well-being. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 22, 2023.
Thursday, March 21
MASSEY LECTURE # 4: BEYOND HUMAN SECURITY
The burning of fossil fuels causes the past, present and future to collide in disorienting and destructive ways. As we incinerate our energy inheritance, nature's timekeeping methods become increasingly confused. In the fourth Massey Lecture, Astra Taylor tells us that as the climate alters, delicately evolved biological clocks erratically speed up or slow down, causing plants and animals to fall out of sync. In a world this out of joint, how could we possibly feel secure? No wonder there's anger worldwide about our warming planet. And meantime, we're all insecure — no one knows what will happen next. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 23, 2023.
Friday, March 22
MASSEY LECTURE # 4: ESCAPING THE BURROW
Human beings will never be totally secure, especially not on a planet that has been destabilized. In the fifth of her Massey lectures, Astra Taylor offers hope and solutions. We need to cultivate an ethic of insecurity — one that acknowledges and embraces our existential insecurity, while resisting manufactured forms of insecurity imposed upon us. The experience of insecurity, she says, can offer us a path to wisdom — a wisdom that can guide not only our personal lives but also our collective endeavours. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 24, 2023.
Monday, March 25
MASSEY Q&A
Insecurity has become a "defining feature of our time," says 2023 CBC Massey lecturer Astra Taylor. The Winnipeg-born writer and filmmaker explores how rising inequality, declining mental health, the climate crisis, and the threat of authoritarianism originate from a social order built on insecurity. In this episode, Astra Taylor answers audience questions about insecurity from the cross-Canada tour. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 27, 2023.
Tuesday, March 26
KATE BEATON: KREISEL LECTURE
Kate Beaton is a popular cartoonist, admired for her art and insight. Her latest book, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, won CBC's Canada Reads competition, as well Eisner and Harvey Awards in the U.S. But for all her international acclaim, Kate Beaton and her family have deep roots in hard-working, rural Cape Breton, in Nova Scotia. As she explains in the 2024 Henry Kreisel Memorial Lecture at the University of Alberta, Beaton is attuned to the reductive ways that working-class life in a small place can be represented, and actually treated, by outsiders and visitors. In her talk, Kate Beaton describes the actual reality of life in Cape Breton, and points out what is collectively lost when working-class voices are shut out of opportunities in the worlds of arts, culture, and media.
Wednesday, March 27
STURSBERG LECTURE: UKRAINIAN JOURNALIST VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA, POLITICO EUROPE
"We face a continual tension between holding the government to account, and not wanting the enemy to undermine us by exploiting bad news." So says journalist Veronika Melkozerova, revealing just how conflicted she and many of her fellow Ukrainian colleagues feel. Melkozerova remained in Kyiv throughout the Russian siege of the Ukrainian capital from February to April 2023, covering the conflict for The Atlantic, NBC News, and Times Radio London. After the Russians left Kyiv, she continued to cover the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Veronika delivered the 2024 Stursberg Foreign Correspondents Lecture, from Kyiv. This episode features excerpts of her talk and subsequent conversation with Nahlah Ayed.
Thursday, March 28
WINTER IS HERE: GARRY KASPAROV
In 2015, a book titled Winter is Coming warned that the West's hesitant policies towards Russia's Vladimir Putin were encouraging his authoritarian and expansionist tendencies. Nearly 10 years later, Putin's army is still fighting in Ukraine, and at home, where he's shut down virtually all dissent. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed speaks with opposition activist Garry Kasparov.
Friday March 29
NINE MINUTES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
In 1876, the poet Stéphane Mallarmé published a poem entitled The Afternoon of a Faun. He doubted anyone could set it to music successfully. But composer Claude Debussy did exactly that. The resulting music — Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun — runs only about nine minutes long, but it helped give birth to the modern era as we know it. It's more than just a famous piece of music. It stands at the beginning of the world we still live in. It's a guide, in sound, to the political, social, moral and geopolitical changes that ended the nineteenth and created the twentieth century. And it remains an existential and culturally shape-shifting work of art that offers us clues into who we are today. Contributor Robert Harris and Tafelmusik's Ivars Taurins bring us inside the spellbinding magic of Debussy's imagining.*This episode originally aired May 30, 2017.
