IDEAS schedule for September 2024
* Please note this schedule is subject to change.
Monday, September 2
BRAVE NEW WORLDS: THE RIGHT TO LIFE, LIBERTY AND SECURITY OF THE PERSON
Enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to "life, liberty, and security of the person" is one of the most important — but most contested — rights we have. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Leilani Farha, Cindy Ewing and Azeezah Kanji about reimagining and reinforcing the right to security of the person to tackle everything from homelessness to state violence in wartime.
Tuesday, September 3
BRAVE NEW WORLDS: THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY
Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares, "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation." It's a right with profound implications for our lives in the 21st century, from digital surveillance to sexuality and autonomy. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Ron Deibert, Lex Gill and Michael Lynk at the Stratford Festival.
Wednesday, September 4
BRAVE NEW WORLDS: THE RIGHT TO LEAVE, RETURN AND SEEK ASYLUM
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." We also have a right to seek "asylum from persecution" in other countries. At a time when more people are forcibly displaced than at any other point in recorded history, Nahlah Ayed speaks with Rema Jamous Imseis, Jamie Chai Yun Liew and Petran Molnar about where the rights to leave, return and seek refuge came from, and what they could mean today.
Thursday, September 5
BRAVE NEW WORLDS: THE RIGHT TO FREE THOUGHT AND FREE EXPRESSION
The right to freedom of thought, as well as the freedom to express those thoughts, is especially resonant in our own time. In his novel 1984, Orwell proposed a future of "thought-crime" and in many places that day has arrived. Nahlah Ayed speaks with Noura Aljizawi, Kagiso Lesego Molope, and James Turk about the history and future of free expression.
Friday, September 6
BRAVE NEW WORLDS: RIGHTS FOR THE FUTURE
If the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were rewritten today, what rights would we add to strive for a more just world? In the final panel in our series, Nahlah Ayed, Lindsay Borrows, Ketty Nivyabandi and Astra Taylor look beyond our fractured present and try to imagine what new rights we need for our own millennium.
Monday, September 9
HERODOTUS: EROS AND TYRANNY
In the 5th century BCE Herodotus travelled the ancient world — from what's now Greece, through Persia to Turkey to Egypt to Italy — gathering vibrant stories from a wide range of sources. One of his many prescient observations was how given the right circumstances a political strongman can emerge and seize control — a forewarning for us today.
Tuesday, September 10
THE HORSE: GALLOPING HISTORY OF HUMANITY
Before teaming up with humans, horses weren't doing so well. Before domestication, the horse had died out in North America and populations were dwindling in Europe and Asia. A partnership forged in the Eurasian Steppes thousands of years ago guaranteed the survival of the species and powered the development of human civilizations. This "centaurian pact" was a rare ecological win-win. Without us, horses would be nowhere, and vice-versa. Historian Timothy Winegard, author of The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity, tells Nahlah Ayed how the story of the horse is the history of the world.
Wednesday, September 11
BRUTALIST ARCHITECTURE, BEYOND AESTHETICS
In recent years the adventurous and monumental concrete 'Brutalist' buildings of the 1940s through the 1970s have experienced a resurgence. Brutalism has become the subject of architecture tours, a coffee-table art book darling, and a highly sought-after living environment. Some of its principles are being successfully incorporated into new projects. But concrete is a complicated material, both appreciated and demonized. IDEAS producer Sean Foley explores the implications of Brutalism's 21st century hipster aesthetic in a world of housing challenges, environmental crisis, and economic polarization.
Thursday, September 12
IN PURSUIT OF GRAVITY
Gravity may seem like the most familiar and straightforward of physical forces, but it's full of surprises, mystery and downright weirdness. Claudia de Rham has been captivated by gravity and the sensation of escaping it ever since her childhood. Since coming agonizingly close to making the cut as an astronaut, she's channeled that fascination into a career as a renowned physicist. In her new book, The Beauty of Falling: A Life in Pursuit of Gravity, she describes the inner workings of gravity and the radical theory of it that she and her collaborators have developed. Nahlah Ayed interviewed her at a public event at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario.
Friday, September 13
CALVIN TRILLIN: A WARM WEATHER NOVA SCOTIAN
New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin likes to say he's six percent Canadian as he has spent more than 55 summers in Nova Scotia. In the 1960s, Trillin and his late wife Alice bought an old house on the ocean in Port Medway, on the province's south shore. It's a place he calls home. IDEAS producer Mary Lynk lives nearby and popped by in late August 2024 for a casual chat with the 88-year-old author. Their chat ranged from what America would mean if Trump wins, to his fascination with the Yiddish word: meeskite.
Monday, September 16
DEATH AND THE ARTIST: 4 STORIES
Artist deaths have fascinated the public for centuries, sometimes for morbid or scandalous reasons. But the demise of a painter, musician, or writer can also lead us to unexpectedly positive discoveries: an overlooked talent, greater insight into the universal experience of dying, or inspiration to live more deeply while we can. From the visionary canvases of Denyse Thomasos to the unending musical experimentation of David Bowie, IDEAS producer Lisa Godfrey explores how beauty and meaning can sometimes be found in an artist's end.
Tuesday, September 17
FOR THE SAKE OF THE COMMON GOOD: AN APPRECIATION OF LOIS WILSON
Lois Wilson lived a remarkable life, from teenage ministry on the prairies, to pioneering advocacy for women, to international human rights work, to beloved elder. And she made it all sound very simple: she lived out her Christian faith in concrete terms, on the ground, in the community. Lois Wilson died Sept. 13, 2024 at the age of 97. IDEAS rebroadcasts For the Sake of the Common Good: An appreciation of Lois Wilson. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 15, 2024.
Wednesday, September 18
BUREAUMANIA
We have created bureaucracies to get the work done and to get it done efficiently, according to 19th century thinker Max Weber. So why do we hate them so much, why does red tape threaten to take over our workplace, and why are there more and more meaningless executive jobs that contribute nothing but soak up the pay? From Kafka to David Foster Wallace to the anarchist David Graeber, IDEAS examines the corporate tendency to "bureaumania."
Thursday, September 19
HUMBOLDT'S GHOST, PART ONE
Two hundred years ago in Prussia, a mid-level bureaucrat, Wilhelm Von Humboldt, pulled off an incredible feat. In only 18 months, Humbolt created the world's first-ever public education system. The template is still used around the world today. And yet most of us have never even heard of him. At the heart of Humboldt's philosophy of education was the concept of Bildung. Simply put, it's one's potential. Humbolt wanted students to learn how to reach their full inner potential, their Bildung. He believed in the power of the individual. And that the purpose of education was to create independent, critical thinkers. In the first of this two-part series, IDEAS contributor and economic historian Karl Turner looks at the remarkable life of Wilhelm von Humboldt. *This episode originally aired on April 15, 2024.
Friday, September 20
HUMBOLDT'S GHOST, PART TWO
In part two of our series, Humbolt's Ghost, IDEAS contributor and economic historian Karl Turner examines how Wilhelm Von Humboldt's public education system came to be adopted around the world. And how the basics of his template are still in use, although the core of his philosophy of education, Bildung, has been somewhat lost. Turner also asks if this 200-year-old system is equipped to meet the challenging demands of the 21st century. *This episode originally aired on April 16, 2024.
Monday, September 23
HOW BEST TO PREVENT CHILD SEX ABUSE
Child sex abuse — it's a topic few people want to talk about. But experts in the field of prevention argue that we need to bring pedophilia out of the shadows if we ever want to end abuse. Because, they insist, it is not inevitable. CBC producer John Chipman explores an innovative new program in Kitchener, Ontario that has sex offenders and abuse survivors working together to prevent future harm and promote healing.
Tuesday, September 24
THE HEAVY METAL SUITE
Eight composers, eight metals, eight ways to imagine the future. As the world seeks greener technologies and low-carbon energy, it will require metal. A lot of it. That metal will come from places of conflict and scarcity, with violent histories and delicate ecosystems. The Heavy Metal Suite puts those tensions into musical form. The University of British Columbia's Future Minerals Initiative invited eight composers from around the world to write music dedicated to a mineral mined in their region, highlighting the complexity and contradictions of mining and its impact on local communities. From copper in the Atacama desert, to lithium on the south coast of Australia, to zinc in the mountains of Yunnan province, the Heavy Metal Suite is an international musical exploration of the tensions of progress.*This episode originally aired on May 28, 2024.
Wednesday, September 25
THE POETICS OF SPACE: 60TH ANNIVERSARY
Picture your childhood home as a map of the mind. Remember and imagine again how Its hidden nooks and crannies give space to daydream, create and replenish. That's the central idea in Gaston Bachelard's seminal book The Poetics of Space, which made its English language debut in 1964. It's a hard-to-define book — part architecture, philosophy, psychoanalysis, memoir. And it continues to feed the creative spirit and our ongoing need for purposeful solitude and wide-open fields for our imagination. *This episode originally aired on March 7, 2022.
Thursday, September 26
DELIBERATION IN A TIME OF ANGER
When Gaza encampments popped up across university campuses, reactions ranged from unequivocal endorsement to unquestioning rage. Students and their supporters were trying to put Gaza on the agenda. They were met with fierce resistance. There were few places for any kind of deliberation. Populist politics, income inequality, racial and class divisions — and the gaps between us are ever-growing. One consequence is that we are less and less likely to encounter people who are not like us. But, in a democracy, we still have to decide things together. IDEAS producer Naheed Mustafa explores whether there's space for collective decision-making in an era marked by anger and disagreement.
Friday, September 27
SLOWING DOWN IN URGENT TIMES: UPEI MURRAY LECTURE
Educators are wired for hope according to professor of early modern literature Jessica Riddell. In her lecture delivered at the University of Prince Edward Island, she underscores the importance of slowing down in urgent times. And urges educators to to teach hope, share it, and to imagine a better future.
Monday, September 30
JESSE WENTE ON REMEMBERING THE FUTURE
Many people feel uncertainty, even dread, about the future. But Jesse Wente says that Indigenous people have particular expertise to share with others on this count. After all, the Anishinaabe writer and arts leader says, "we are evidence that cultures can withstand global systems change: adapt, and rebuild. We are evidence of the power of memory and remembering." In this public talk, Jesse Wente explains how the best of this past gives everyone a blueprint for a better future. This episode features the closing keynote speech at "Imagining 2080: A Forum on Canada's Futures," held at McMaster University in November of 2023. *This episode originally aired on June 21, 2024.
