Podcast
Ideas
Hosted by CBC · EN
IDEAS is a place for people who like to think. If you value deep conversation and unexpected reveals, this show is for you. From the roots and rise of authoritarianism to near-death experiences to the history of toilets, no topic is off-limits. Hosted by Nahlah Ayed, we’re home to immersive documentaries and fascinating interviews with some of the most consequential thinkers of our time.
With an award-winning team, our podcast has proud roots in its 60-year history with CBC Radio, exploring the IDEAS that make us who we are.
New episodes drop Monday through Friday at 5pm ET.
126episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Artificial Intimacy: Love, Grief, and AI Chatbots
1w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeMillions of people are using AI to “talk” to the dead. The phenomenon has left cyberpsychologist Elaine Kasket asking what happens when we rely on for-profit AI companies to help us manage something as deeply human as grief? And where’s the line between comfort and self-destruction? IDEAS features two episodes from the CBC Podcasts series Artificial Intimacy, exploring the promise and peril of our emotional entanglements with AI chatbots.Enjoyed this episode? Listen to the full series of Understood: Artificial Intimacy here.
Transcribe →Can the fierce wars of today end in peace?
1w ago00:54:09Tap to summarizeIf intractable conflicts in the 90s could end in peace agreements, is there hope for the ongoing wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and beyond? What can we learn from the successes and failures of the past about how to create a more peaceful world? And what solutions are obstructed by lack of will? Nahlah Ayed and guests explore what peacemaking and rebuilding mean for us today, and try to chart a course for the future. *This is the last episode in our five-part series, Inventing Peace. It originally aired on Sept. 29, 2025.
Transcribe →Was justice served by South Africa's peace accord?
2w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeThe apartheid era in South Africa ended in 1991 with the National Peace Accords. The peace agreement also paved the way for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Yet TRC head Desmond Tutu considered the process “scandalously unfinished.” Lawyer Prakash Diar agrees: "You don’t undo centuries of colonization just like that.”Diar and writer Kagiso Lesego Molope were young activists in apartheid-era South Africa. They saw the toll that oppression and state violence took: on their families, communities, and themselves. In our fourth episode of our series Inventing Peace, they consider the history of the history of this pivotal peace agreement and what other countries might learn. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 22, 2025.
Transcribe →How leaders in the former Yugoslavia forged peace in 1995
2w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeFor almost four years, the Bosnian War in the former Yugoslavia was characterized by ethnic hatreds, atrocities, and a refugee crisis. So when leaders of the warring factions were sequestered in an American air base and forced to come up with the 1995 peace agreement known as the Dayton Accord, the world was relieved. But is a cessation of violence the same as real peace? *This episode is the third in a five-part series called Inventing Peace. It originally aired on Sept. 15, 2025.
Transcribe →Lessons from last century’s failed Mideast peace deal
2w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeWhen Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat met in Washington to sign the first Oslo Accords in 1993, it was supposed to usher in a new era of peace and lay the groundwork for a more stable Middle East. Three decades later, the Accords are primarily remembered as a failure. Nahlah Ayed and guests discuss what went wrong, and what lessons the Oslo Accords hold for the future. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 8, 2025 as part of our series, Inventing Peace.
Transcribe →What it took to end a 30-year conflict in Northern Ireland
2w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeThe process of making peace is often imperfect, and can shape the future in both positive and destructive ways. In a five-part series called Inventing Peace, Nahlah Ayed asks panelists to reflect on one pivotal 20th century effort to make peace, and its relevance for our own time. This first episode focuses on the “constructive ambiguity” of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday Agreement, signed in 1998.
Transcribe →Buttons give the illusion of power but hide the consequences
2w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeWhether mechanical or digital, a button delivers the promise of power — but it's far from simple. The small and mighty technology has a riveting history, a story of control, power, freedom and oppression. From the podcast Media Objects, this episode traces the evolution of the button, and asks what happens when every command is reduced to a single press. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 13, 2025.
Transcribe →Blue jeans have a dark secret
3w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeJeans are a quintessential fashion staple for the Canadian tuxedo — and a symbol of rebellion. But the world's most popular garment comes at an environmental cost. It takes around 7,500 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans. And that's not all. Fashion expert Pedro Mendes explores the 150-year history of jeans and the 'authenticity' they are supposed to represent. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 13, 2019.Read: How jeans became one of the most polluting garments in the world
Transcribe →Love or hate math, geometry is embedded in daily life
3w ago00:54:08Tap to summarize"Geometry is the cilantro of math. People are not neutral about it," says Jordan Ellenberg. The mathematician is aware not everyone loves math like he does. But his book is not about the kind of geometry some people feel intimidated by. It's about geometry as a way of thinking. As a method of reasoning and argument. And as a system for making sense of the world. *This episode originally aired on May 11, 2022.Guest in this episode:Jordan Ellenberg is a mathematician is a child prodigy. He scored a perfect 800 on the math portion of his college entrance exams — the SAT's — at the age of 12. He's a Guggenheim Fellow, a Harvard graduate, and a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He's also the author of Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else.
Transcribe →How casino culture plays with our brains
3w ago00:54:08Tap to summarizeIf the house always wins, why do we play? This documentary asks experts and observers to reflect on the casino as reality and metaphor. Skill versus luck, attention and distraction, fortune paired with loss: the casino reflects us, individually and culturally, back to ourselves. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 21, 2019.Read: Machines of Chance: How casino culture plays with us
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