IDEAS schedule for March 2025

* Please note this schedule is subject to change.

Monday, March 3

WAR, PEACE AND TRUTH: UKRANIAN ARCHBISHOP SVIATOSLAV SHEVCHUK
How can religion help decode the motives for Russia's aggression against Ukraine? And how can Judeo-Christian ethics inform a way forward for peace? Ukrainian Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, and bestselling historian of Central European politics Timothy Snyder explore these questions during a public event in Toronto. 

Tuesday, March 4

UNDERNEATH THE ICE: JAMESIE FOURNIER ON INUIT HORROR
Examining the parallels between Inuit storytelling and modern horror narratives, Jamesie Fournier explores the importance of being afraid and how the other side comes back to haunt us for our own good. His talk is the third installment in the 2024-2025 season of IDEAS at Crow's, recorded at Crow's Theatre in Toronto.

Wednesday, March 5

THE AENEID: A POLITICAL PUZZLE
The Roman poet Virgil had a knack for telling war stories. This was good news for his patron, Caesar Augustus, who had an empire to build: Augustus would conquer the known world and Virgil would lay down the propaganda. But is The Aeneid, one of the great classics of Latin literature just that, propaganda? Or does it carry a message about the horrors or empire, too? It's worth asking, especially at a time when empires are making a comeback. The Aeneid: A Political Puzzle, by Winnipeg contributor Tom Jokinen on IDEAS. 

Thursday, March 6

SMELL: THE INVISIBLE SUPERPOWER
As the COVID-19 pandemic made clear, many of us take our sense of smell for granted — at least until we find ourselves without it. But scientists are increasingly revealing olfaction to be a hidden superpower, with deep ties to our experience of memory and emotion, and strong potential as a medical diagnostic tool. Producer Annie Bender takes a second look at the oft-misunderstood sense of smell — and asks what we lose when we take it for granted. *This episode originally aired on June 3, 2024.

Friday, March 7

HAUNTED  
There is no proof that ghosts exist. Yet some are convinced that they perceive the dead and departed. This episode explores the political, cultural, and personal realities that feed into why people believe they sense or see spirits. Ghosts may be manifestations of what is lost, feared, unvoiced and incomplete in our histories, from a premature family death in Canada, to the razing of an entire neighbourhood in Mumbai. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 25, 2022.
 

Monday, March 10

AI AND THE SUPERNATURAL
In 1950, British cryptographer Alan Turing proposed his famous test of machine intelligence. It became known as the Turing Test, and for years was a benchmark  in the world of AI, inspiring international competitions and prizes.
Hidden in Turing's original 1950 publication is a strange little mystery. In "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," Turing argued that the best way to measure intelligence in machines is to see if a person can't tell the difference between a chatbot and a human. He then offered one strange reason why he might be wrong: humans, unlike computers, might have supernatural abilities, like ESP, telepathy, or clairvoyance.

Tuesday, March 11

BALSILLIE PRIZE: WENDY WONG ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE AGE OF RAMPANT DATAFICATION
To live in 2025 is to be thoroughly datafied, according to Wendy H. Wong, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. Social media, search engines, smartphones, fitness trackers, apps and websites, facial recognition technology, you name it — a whole galaxy of ways we interact with the world and each other are generating and collecting reams of data about us that are used to define and shape our lives and who we are. In Wong's latest book, We the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age — the 2024 winner of the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy, Wong details the myriad tentacles of datafication and argues for a human rights framework  reassert our personhood, autonomy and dignity in the face of datafication.

Wednesday, March 12

THE SONG OF INVERNESS
In 1976, Rankin and Eleanor MacDonald came home to Cape Breton and started a newspaper, the Inverness Oran. Just about 50 years later, the paper is still going, and now it's a family affair with daughters Kelly and April. Newspaper technology has changed, but the contents are much the same as in the early days: a dense mix of local sports and politics, opinion pieces, local history, small ads, obituaries, letters to the editor, provincial goings-on, and international news too, like: President Trump Declares Economic War on Canada. It's as perfect a snapshot of Inverness County, and what people are talking about as you'd want to read. 

Thursday, March 13

LONESCO
Theatre of the Absurd was born in the wake of the Second World War, when the world itself had turned the political order inside out, and countless lives upside down. Its father, Eugene Ionesco, turned language against the violent fetish that totalitarian regimes had for "order." Absurdism as resistance.

Friday, March 14

THE MAKING OF IAN WILLIAMS
Ian Williams, the 2024 CBC Massey Lecturer, speaks with Nahlah Ayed at the Victoria Festival of Authors about the forces that have shaped him as a thinker and writer, from the encyclopedias he read as a child in Trinidad, to his years as a dancer to the poetry of Margaret Atwood. Ian tells Nahlah why he resists the role of "expert" in conversations about Blackness, how he thinks about the multiplicity of the self, and why he's drawn to abstraction. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 15, 2024.
 

THE 2024 MASSEY LECTURES — WHAT I MEAN TO SAY: IAN WILLIAMS

Novelist and poet Ian Williams wants to start a conversation about conversations. Civic and civil discourse has deteriorated. In his five-part lecture series, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation In Our Time, Williams addresses the deterioration of civic and civil discourse. He explores what makes good communication, how to restore the lost art of conversation, and the importance of listening when talking with someone.

Monday, March 17

LECTURE #1: WHY WE NEED TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT CONVERSATIONS
Civic and civil discourse have deteriorated, and the air is raw with anger and misunderstanding on all sides. Part of the reason is the online space; another part is that we're closer now than ever before to people who are very different from us. So we need to find ways to change the game — because conversation isn't going away.

Tuesday, March 18

LECTURE #2: PUBLIC CONVERSATIONS
"A stranger is a character. A stranger is almost a person. It's as if their humanity is activated only once we interact with them," Ian Williams says in his 2024 CBC Massey Lectures. How do we open ourselves up to connection with strangers — while still safeguarding our personal sovereignty and resisting efforts to convert us? And what can we learn from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike about how to navigate the murky waters of national conversations?

Wednesday, March 19

LECTURE #3: PERSONAL CONVERSATIONS
Bookstores are full of titles that are supposed to help us deal with difficult conversations — about emotions, hurts, misunderstandings. The problem is that difficult conversations are almost always about something other than what they seem to be about. And what we're actually looking for in a conversation isn't always answers — it's communion.

Thursday, March 20

LECTURE #4: WHO CAN SPEAK FOR WHOM TO WHOM ABOUT WHAT?|
Children's first words tell us that they are listening and learning, figuring out the shape of the world. They're also learning who can speak for whom to whom about what. We're in an era where many people feel an ownership over certain words, and how a community expresses itself; the term 'appropriation' has come to create guardrails around what can be said, and by whom. Ian Williams considers the role of speech and silence in reallocating power, and what it means to truly listen.

Friday, March 21

LECTURE #5: GOOD CONVERSATIONS
What makes a good conversation? And do good conversations have anything in common? The 2024 CBC Massey speaker Ian Williams studies his daily conversations, and explores how our age has left many of us in what he calls a "drought of loving voices." In searching for conversations that feel transcendent, not transactional, he argues that in great conversations, the content is less important than the interaction: the sincerity and openness of the engagement. Good conversation is an art, and you don't know how it will change you by the time it ends.
 

Monday, March 24

A SCHOOL THAT FEELS LIKE HOME: MI'KMAQ LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION IN CAPE BRETON
In 1997, the Mi'kmaq Nation took over on-reserve education in Nova Scotia. It was the first time in Canadian history that jurisdiction for education was transferred from the federal government to a First Nation. One year later, a new high school opened in Eskasoni First Nation, and since then, the school has become an epicentre for Mi'kmaq language revitalization. Producer Pauline Holdsworth speaks with a generation of educators who grew up attending federal day school on reserve and being bussed to Sydney, N.S. for high school, then came home to build a very different school for their nation, and with students studying math and music in Mi'kmaq. This episode is the first in a two-part series on language revitalization.

Tuesday, March 25

AURNIARVIK: A TRANSTIONAL SPACE ON THE JOURNEY TO RECLAIMING INUKTUT
While waiting for the land ahead to become passable, Inuit hunters would often stay at a temporary camp called Aurniarvik. That space inspired a language immersion program for Inuit learning Inuktut as a second language in adulthood — a transitional space on the journey to full fluency and cultural reclamation. In Iqaluit, Nahlah Ayed speaks with Leena Evic, the founder of the Pirurvik Centre, and with students on a journey towards language. This episode is the second in a two-part series on language revitalization. 

Wednesday, March 26

MUSIC, JOY AND THE GOOD LIFE: DANIEL KL CHUA
Is music joy? That's the question asked by Daniel KL Chua, Chair Professor of Music, University of Hong Kong, in his recent talk for the Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto. Prof Chua's Weigand Lecture explores ancient and modern concepts of harmony, joy, fragility, power, love, and the cosmos itself, all in the service of his argument: that yes, indeed, music is joy. 

Thursday, March 27

TBD

Friday, March 28

TBD
 

Monday, March 31

PUTTING PRIDE OVER SHAME: LOVING YOUR COUNTRY IN THE 21ST CENTURY (STEP THREE)
The first step to developing a healthy level of patriotism is to decide which country you in fact belong to. The second step is to understand what duties accompany that choice. Having taken those steps, a person can tackle what may be the toughest one, depending on the nationality in question: feeling proud. An ashamed patriot is theoretically possible, and to feel zero shame may be unhealthy as well as unlikely, but for countries to thrive and strive to be their best selves, their citizens must collectively find a sweet spot where positive feelings outweigh negative ones, just individuals need enough self-respect to overcome their inner demons. IDEAS producer Tom Howell gathers insights from Afghans, Israelis, and Americans in hopes of finding the key to doing patriotism right.