Explore every episode of the podcast Ideas

Theatre of the Absurd was born in the wake of the Second World War as a recoil against the violent fetish that totalitarian regimes had for “order.” For 75 years, absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco's plays have been running continuously in Paris. IDEAS contributor Danny Braun went to Paris to delve into Ionesco's world where a professor can conclude confidently that a dog is in fact a cat. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 9, 2025.

The 21st century is witness to resurgent global authoritarianism, driven by leaders who answer to no law other than their own. Nahlah Ayed and panelists consider the rise of today’s authoritarians — Trump, Putin, Orban, Duterte and beyond — and what we can learn from history about how authoritarianism can be challenged, and ultimately defeated. This final episode in How to Defeat Authoritarianism examines our present moment, identifying the ways in which authoritarian politics has returned — and the tools to resist them.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

Guests on this podcast:

Marie-Joelle Zahar is a professor of political science at the University de Montréal. She is a 2023-26 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and has served multiple terms as a mediation expert for the United Nations, including a senior expert in the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria in 2017.

Miriam Mufti is an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. She’s the author of Pathways to Power, Recruitment and Regime Stability in Pakistan.

Lucan Ahmad-Way is the distinguished professor of democracy in the political science department at the University of Toronto, and is the co-author of Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism.

Hanif Abdurraqib lives his life heart-forward. His writing is informed by the many losses he's endured, but also by his commitment to "love deeply" and to not let machines do his thinking and feeling for him. Doing so, he says, risks atrophying our hearts and minds. "For me, the cost of a heart that's fraying at the edges is too high."

Abdurraqib is the 2026 Weston International Award winner, presented by the Writers Trust of Canada for a body of work by a nonfiction author. He is a poet, essayist, cultural critic, and author of eight books, including, There’s Always Next Year and A Little Devil in America.

Feeling despair over the threats to democracy coming out of The Billionaire Age? Let alone the predictions we'll see 10 trillionaires within three years. Well, there are concrete solutions. Relatively straightforward ones. Thinkers from Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, to Dutch philosopher Ingrid Robyens to self-described oligarch and American venture capitalist Nick Hanauer say democracy can win over oligarchy.

Listen to episodes in this five-part series, The Billionaire Age:

Listen to Part One: How did we get here?

Listen to Part Two: Disney heiress on the dangers of extreme wealth

Listen to Part Three: How oligarchs are taking over the world

Guests in this episode:

Ingrid Robeyns is a philosopher and economist. She is the chair in Ethics of Intuitions at Utrecht University, and the author of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.

Gabriel Zucman is an economist and the co-director of The World Inequality Lab. He's also a professor at the Paris School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley.

Nitin Bharti is an economist and lecturer at the University of Western Australia. He is also the South and South-East Asia coordinator at the World Inequality Lab.

Lars Osberg is an economics professor at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His latest book is The Scandalous Rise of Inequality in Canada.

Paul Krugman is an economist and the winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

Tim Wu is a legal scholar and professor at Columbia Law School. He is also a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times. His latest book is The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity.

Nick Hanauer is an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He co-authored the book, Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing The Lies and Half-Truths that Protect Profit, Power and Wealth in America, with Joan Walsh and Donald Cohen. He also hosts the podcast Pitchfork Economics.

Younger generations in Nunavut today are less likely to grow up immersed in Inuktut. At a language school in Iqaluit, Inuit adults who didn’t grow up speaking Inuktut now have the chance to learn it as a second language at the Pirurvik Centre. By learning the words for kinship terminology, they’re also discovering things about their families they never knew. *This episode is the first in a two-part series on language revitalization. It originally aired on March 24, 2025.

“Truth telling is profoundly visual. Art created by Indigenous peoples is not mere expression — it is cognitive, ceremonial, and political," writes Gerald McMaster in Art,Truth and Reconciliation. His book is the first of its kind, featuring Indigenous visual responses to Canada’s residential and day school system: from the drawings of children in the schools themselves, to the art of survivors, and to their descendants, who are carrying the story forward. McMaster says art does the work that words cannot — "bearing witness, restoring dignity, and refusing silence.”

Guest in this podcast:

Gerald McMaster is a curator, artist, scholar, and author, Art, Truth and Reconciliation.

Emma Hassencahl-Perley is an artist, and Curator of Indigenous Art at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, in Fredericton, NB.

Adrian Stimson is an artist and residential school survivor and thriver.

Mark Atleo is an elder, a fisherman, an artist, and a residential school survivor.

In 2000, Bashar al-Assad became president of Syria, also known as the authoritarian "Kingdom of Fear" that his father Hafez al-Assad had created three decades earlier. The younger Assad continued and intensified the use of imprisonment, torture and surveillance as tools of domination. His crackdown on a pro-democracy revolution turned into a 13-year civil war. Nahlah Ayed and panelists discuss what we can learn about the rise and collapse of authoritarianism from Assad’s rule and the 2024 collapse of his regime.  

Listen to other episodes in our series, How to Defeat Authoritarianism:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests on this podcast:

Basilios Zeno is assistant professor in the Department of Political Studies at Trent University in Canada. His work combines research, advocacy, and policy work on forced migration and asylum, legal violence, social movement, and interpretive decolonizing methodologies. 

Marie-Joelle Zahar is a professor of political science at the University de Montréal. She has served multiple terms as a mediation expert, in fact, still serving in that role, for the United Nations, including as senior expert in the office of the Special Envoy for Syria in 2017. 

Abdulrahman Matar is a Syrian-Canadian writer and journalist, a novelist, poet, and a painter. He is the founder and director of the Seagull Cultural Forum and executive director of the Syrian Writers Association. He was arrested five times and spent nearly 10 years in prison as a result of his writing and his positions on issues of freedom and human rights.

Tareq Yousbasi is a journalist and a producer at the CBC of Syrian origin, who assisted with live translation.

Would you 'doo-be-doo' if you know it would help bridge divides? Try vocal improvisation — singing sounds, rhythms and melodies. PhD graduate Erwan Noblet teaches the practice and says it's a great way to open up and connect at another level being together. He believes the human voice has the power to communicate creatively when it's released from everyday verbal tasks. We asked three former politicians from different political parties to communicate through vocalization, without words. Their conversation may inspire you to take on vocal improv.

*This episode originally aired on Jan. 6, 2026 and is part of our ongoing series Ideas in the Trenches, which showcases fascinating new work by Canadian PhD students.

Guests in this episode:

Former Conservative MP Lisa Raitt

Former Liberal premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne

Former NDP MP Peggy Nash

Erwan Noblet has a PhD in critical studies in improvisation

French scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is mostly remembered for being wrong. He published an early theory of evolution, before Charles Darwin. His claim was that animals were in charge of their own evolution. That didn’t hold up. But author Jessica Riskin

argues maybe it’s time to redeem Lamarck, a little bit. Riskin says that we should give animals — and humans — some credit for our own progress.

Guest in this episode:

Jessica Riskin is a historian of science at Stanford University, and author of The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

She’s famous for her caustic quips and her love of cocktails, but there was a lot more to Dorothy Parker than her time at the famed Algonquin Round Table. The icon of New York in the 1920s spent decades in Hollywood as a screenwriter, won awards for her short stories and was a committed social activist, who ended up being blacklisted because of her ties to communist causes. She was also a war correspondent.

Guests in this episode:

Kevin Fitzpatrick is the founder and president of the Dorothy Parker Society.

Michelle Dean is a screenwriter, critic and author of Sharp! The Women who made an Art of Having an Opinion.

Nina Miller is a former English professor at Iowa State University, and the author of Making Love Modern: The Intimate Public Worlds of New York's Literary Women.

Ellen Meister is a novelist and the author of Dorothy Parker Drank Here and Farewell, Dorothy Parker.

Gail Crowther is a researcher, writer and the author of Dorothy Parker in Hollywood.

Blind life is an individual experience. But from neighbourhood walks to international travel, blind people want momentum, adventure, and a sense of place, like everyone else. This podcast features an artist and a scientist imagining bolder ways forward.

Guest in this episode:

Alex Bulmer is a Blind writer and theatre artist. Her play Perceptual Archaeology or How to Travel Blind, is included in the collection Rebellious Bodies and Radical Acts. She is at work on a multimedia project called May I Take Your Arm.

Joshua Miele is a Blind scientist, inventor and a MacArthur Fellow who’s designing accessibility tech from inside the experience of disability. He's also the author of Connecting Dots: A Blind Life.

Augusto Pinochet became Chile's leader after a bloody, U.S.-supported coup killed socialist president Salvador Allende in 1973. He defended the coup. But as he attempted to control the narrative, stories of violence were already casting a shadow over his new regime. We continue our series on authoritarianism exploring Pinochet’s popularity with centre-right Western leaders, the referendum that removed him from power, and the story of his eventual arrest and trial.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests on this podcast:

Carolina Echeverría is a Chilean-Canadian artist, author and cultural mediator whose work explores memory, migration and belonging.

Teresa Macías is a professor in the school of social work at York University. Her expertise is on the enduring legacies of human rights violations from the Pinochet dictatorship.

Kevin Coleman is an associate professor of history at the University of Toronto.

Authoritarian politics continue to intensify. But so do acts of resistance. This podcast focusses on the resisters who are pushing for accountability as they fight against state violence. They are from Argentina, South Africa and India. Some work alone or in groups trying to stave off ever-encroaching authoritarian rule.

Guests in this episode:

Maria del Carmen Verdu is an Argentine human rights activist fighting against state violence.

Fatima Hassan is a South African human rights lawyer and activist with the Health Justice Initiative.

Bill McKibben is an American author, environmentalist, and educator. He is the founder of Third Act, which organizes seniors for action on climate and democracy.

Siddharth Varadarajan is a founding editor of The Wire, a news website in India.

Not everyone gives birth. But everyone is born. Yet we rarely talk about the history of childbirth. So author Lucy Inglis researched its bloody, triumphant, political past. Her book Born: A History of Childbirth argues that birth has a deep global history that proves it has always been a highwire act, shaped by both nature and culture. IDEAS explores the visceral, intimate realities of childbirth that have always been in evidence. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 22, 2026.

Historian Marci Shore doesn't hesitate to use the word 'fascism' to describe the present moment. The former Yale professor left the U.S. after President Trump was re-elected. She now teaches at the University of Toronto and tells her students why "we shouldn't fetishize" the term. Shore argues concepts and terminologies born from history like fascism is how we process the world, but it's critical we allow for today's nuances and differences.

This podcast includes Marci Shore in conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed and Shore's lecture “Thoughts From a Post Truth World," part of the series “Democracy in Peril: A Way Forward Against Authoritarianism," organized by the University of Manitoba, and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg.

Marci Shore is Chair of European Intellectual History at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Seabird biologist Bill Montevecchi has been ranked in the world’s top two per cent of scientists. Montevecchi died at the age of 80 in July 2026. In his honour, we share this 2023 documentary by producer Mary Lynk that shines a light on the renowned scientist's humanity and brilliance. Lynk followed Montevecchi on a wild two-day adventure in Newfoundland, climbing steep cliffs to spy on famous seabird colonies, and venturing on a heart-pounding overnight rescue mission of young storm petrels along the coastline.

After seizing power in a 1971 coup, Ugandan military commander Idi Amin promised a return to democracy — but he delivered a brutal dictatorship. Known for his erratic and sadistic behaviour, Amin’s reign was defined by ethnic purges, forced expulsions and total economic collapse. We continue our series, How to Defeat Authoritarianism, exploring the legacy of Idi Amin and the conflation of personality with totalitarian politics.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests on the podcast:

Nam Kiwanuka is an award-winning Ugandan-Canadian journalist, host and producer with TVO.

Nakanyike Musisi is a professor of African history at the University of Toronto, and an internationally recognized scholar of African gender, political, and social history.

Derek Peterson is a professor of history and African studies at the University of Michigan. He is also the author of A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda.

After seizing power in a 1971 coup, Ugandan military commander Idi Amin promised a return to democracy — but he delivered a brutal dictatorship. Known for his erratic and sadistic behaviour, Amin’s reign was defined by ethnic purges, forced expulsions and total economic collapse. We continue our series, How to Defeat Authoritarianism, exploring the legacy of Idi Amin and the conflation of personality with totalitarian politics.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

Guests on this podcast:

Nam Kiwanuka is a Ugandan-Canadian journalist, host and producer with TVO.

Nakanyike Musisi is a professor of African History at the University of Toronto, and internationally recognized scholar of African gender, political, and social history.

Derek Peterson is a professor of history and African studies at the University of Michigan, and author of A Popular History of Idi Amin’s Uganda.

What has become of the America that has for so long been held up as a shining example of ideals? In conversation at the 2026 Aspen Ideas Festival, documentary maker Ken Burns and American scholar and author Eddie Glaude unpack the vexed contradictions at the heart of American democracy, from the founding of the Republic in 1776 until today.

Behind every great chatbot are many human workers making decisions on how those chatbots behave and evolve. Recent PhD graduate Noah Khan has been observing these workers and shares his findings on their emotions and motivations as they design and build AI entities that communicate with users — influencing our own emotions and outlooks.

When Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali saw his name in print for the first time, he thought: "I exist." "Even though my government doesn't recognize [me] I exist in my writing," he told IDEAS. The Myanmar government has targeted the Rohingyas for decades, and Ali grew up with no birth certificate, no citizenship, and no human rights. He fled genocide in 2017 to live in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, until he resettled to Canada in 2021. Ali speaks with Nahlah Ayed about survival, the power of poetry, and his long journey to become a citizen for the first time in his life.

Fascism has been called “the aestheti-cization of politics.” Nazis and Italian Fascists both made visual culture, art, even fashion part of their destructive programs. Now the far-right in the U.S. is taking lessons from history, selling its ideas through memes, and hate-filled videos.

How do authoritarian leaders use threats, illusions and force to seize and maintain power? And what does it take for truth and justice to prevail? IDEAS explores the rise and fall of pivotal authoritarians and their regimes from recent world history, and asks what we can learn from their eventual downfall. We start our series with the legacy of Italian fascism and its relevance today.

Listen to other episodes in this series:

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria

How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Today's Authoritarians

Guests in this podcast:

Joshua Arthurs is an associate professor in the Faculty of Information and the Department of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Studies at the University of Toronto.

Robert Ventresca is the president of King's University College at Western University and a historian of 20th century Europe.

Aitana Guia is the Mackenzie Papineau Memorial Chair in Modern Spanish History at York University, Toronto, Canada. 

Acclaimed author Gabor Maté joins the conversation in part two of our series exploring Wilhelm von Humboldt’s public education system. Maté is a former English teacher. In this episode we ask: Is Humboldt's 200-year-old system equipped to meet the challenging demands of the 21st century? And does it still reflect his ideals, especially at the university level? *This episode concludes our two-part series. It originally aired on April 16, 2024.

Two hundred years ago, Wilhelm von Humboldt created the education system as we know it today. At the heart of his philosophy of education was the concept of Bildung — reaching one's inner potential. Yet over the years, as his public education system was adopted, Bildung may well have been the critical piece left out. *This episode is part one of two-part series. It originally aired on April 15, 2024.

They were known as School Cars and Schools on Wheels. Trains that chugged along the railroads and brought schooling to children living in the isolated communities of Northern Ontario. It was a novel six-month experiment that lasted from 1926 to 1967. IDEAS explores the early project in remote education, homeschooling, and nation-building. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 9, 2023.

The Trump administration has been targeting higher education for some time now — freezing grants and filing lawsuits against leading universities. But these threats are not limited to the U.S. and there are growing concerns about a potential spillover effect on Canadian campuses. In this podcast, host Nahlah Ayed speaks with three panelists to explore what's at stake with the politicized attacks on universities — and why it matters to all of us. *This episode aired on April 13, 2026.

This podcast was recorded in front of an audience at the Isabel Theatre in Toronto.

Guests in this episode:

Malinda S. Smith is an associate vice president research and a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. She is the co-editor of Nuances of Blackness in the Canadian Academy: Teaching, Learning, and Researching While Black.

Randy Boyagoda is a novelist and professor of English at the University of Toronto, where he also serves as the university’s advisor on civil discourse, the first position of its kind in Canada.

Davide Panagia is professor and chair of political science at UCLA, where his work bridges philosophy, media and democratic life. Before that, he held the Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies at Trent University.

A hundred years ago homework was described as a 'sin against childhood.' But the practice is still a staple of our education system. Some parents like Dawn Quelch took a stand and banned it from their home. IDEAS examines the ideological roots of homework and the shift in thinking about child psychology and development.

What happens when original artworks become endless copies? German philosopher Walter Benjamin called it the death of "aura," and his concept predicted our digital age. He describes "aura" as the energy that encases an object, and argued standing before the presence of a great artwork was transcendent. His ideas continue to flourish in university settings around the world. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 2, 2025.

Pope Leo XIV has been deeply influenced by St. Augustine, and so, the fourth-century titan of Western thought has re-entered the global conversation. IDEAS producer Seán Foley speaks to Canadian scholars who have read St. Augustine closely to determine how Augustine’s thought and character might shape the Catholic Church in these times. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 5, 2025.

In pre-independence India, activist B.R. Ambedkar said India would never be free unless caste was eradicated. Today, India is rife with an aggressive majoritarianism that sees India as a Hindu nation. Could Ambedkar have saved India from its fate? *This episode is part two in a two-part series. It originally aired on Oct. 6, 2020.

Gandhi envisioned a free India as a place of communal harmony where each person understood duty and sacrifice. Today, India is rife with an aggressive majoritarianism that sees India as a Hindu nation. IDEAS explores if Gandhi's vision was ever enough and asks if Gandhi and his values still have a place in today's idea of India? *This episode originally aired on Oct. 5, 2020.

You likely have never heard of Matilda Joslyn Gage. Gloria Steinem calls her “the woman ahead of the women who were ahead of their time.” Matilda worked side by side with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to get women the vote in the United States and co-wrote the history of the women’s movement with them. IDEAS producer Dawna Dingwall looks into why the towering figure was erased by her peers, and the work that is being done to write Matilda back into history. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 26, 2026.

"The Matilda Effect" was a term coined by a historian Margaret Rossiter to describe women whose work had been overlooked and erased from history, like Matilda Gage. Listen to this podcast to hear about the lost women of science and how Rossiter gave them the credit they deserved.

Guests in this episode:

Angelica Shirley Carpenter, author of Born Criminal: Matilda Joslyn Gage, Radical Suffragist

Michael Patrick Hearn, author of the Annotated Wizard of Oz

Gita Dorothy Morena, great-great-granddaughter of Matilda Joslyn Gage

Ciarrai Eaton, executive director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation

The late Sally Roesch Wagner, former ED of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation appears courtesy of The Book Dreams Podcast, WCNY's Repeating History podcast, the International Wizard of Oz Club and filmmaker Jeremy Kagan.

In an era of political polarization and fatigue from ongoing crises, hope is critical. But it's not something you have; it's something you do, argues education scholar Kari Grain. "Critical hope" in action is not just the belief that transformation is possible — it's necessary. In her book, she explores seven principles for practicing hope that confront toxic positivity, social injustices, and gives anger and grief a seat at the table. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 22, 2025.

Kari Grain is a professor at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Education, where she leads the Masters program in Adult Learning and Global Change Program. She delivered the University of Prince Edward Island’s 2025 Shannon K. Murray Lecture on Hope and the Academy.

Fact and fiction may seem poles apart but writers Esi Edugyan and Tiya Miles find the two intertwine perfectly in their award-winning storytelling. Both authors try to imagine past lives in their work, in part so that we may reimagine our own. They may operate in different realms but what they share is the telling of profoundly important stories that would otherwise go untold. It's been a longtime goal for IDEAS to bring these two accomplished authors together for a discussion — and it was worth the wait.

This podcast was recorded in front of an audience in January 2026 at a Toronto Public Library event.

The world is feeling darker and darker these days. So this podcast might be a much-needed balm. It's about hope — a practice that scholar Shannon Murray argues can't be passive. That's where the German term 'freudenfreude' comes in, when someone celebrates the good fortune of others as if it's their own. Murray explains the power of freudenfreude and offers a guide to hope, empathy, and patience through the lens of Shakespeare. Yes. The Bard's words tie into all of this. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 13, 2023.

Throughout his career, it wasn't unusual for David Bowie to sing about death. But the musician used his own mortality as a theme for a final album that he released just two days before he died, on his 69th birthday. In this podcast IDEAS looks into the meaning of Bowie's enigmatic last songs, and explores the many ways that an artist’s mortality gives their work new meaning. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 11, 2016.

Alain Deneault has a philosophical cure for eco-angst. He proposes turning the angst into actions in the face of unprecedented, unpredictable times. The most famous Acadian philosopher unknown to English-speaking Canadians suggests we brace for periods of severe crisis as nation-states and global networks become strained and fail. His prescription includes strengthening regional social ties and harmonizing human systems with natural ones.

Growing up with food insecurity, Julian Napoleon yearned to be a farmer. His great-grandparents once farmed on the Saulteau First Nations reserve in northeastern B.C. Over the decades, the farm was replaced by the bush, and the ideas of communal, seasonal living started to fade away. Five years ago, Julian moved to Amisk Farm to bring it back to life.

This year the farm has produced food for over 300 Indigenous households, free of cost. IDEAS visits Amisk Farm to learn about rural food security, Indigenous food sovereignty, farming in the north, and what it means to come home and grow a new home in a radically transformed landscape. *This episode originally aired on Dec. 10, 2025.

The Wabanaki-Acadian old-growth forest is endangered — only one per cent of its old growth is left. The ancient forest, which stretches from parts of the Maritimes and Southern Quebec down into several New England states, is now comprised largely of newer forests, already cut down and logged, over and over. IDEAS explores the rare beauty of 300-year-old trees and astounding biodiversity before it's gone.*This episode originally aired on aired on June 11, 2024.

Guests in this podcast:

Peter Romkey is a naturalist, forest ranger and former executive director of the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre at Acadia University. He is retired and living on the south shore of Nova Scotia.

Joan Maloof is an ecologist and the founder of the Old-Growth Forest Network, which works to preserve, protect, and promote America's few remaining stands of old-growth forests. She is the author of several books, including: Nature's Temples: A Natural History of Old-Growth Forests. Maloof lives in Maryland.

Ursula Johnson is a renowned multidisciplinary artist. She won the 2017 Sobey Art Award. Johnson is a member of the Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation on Cape Breton Island (Unama'ki in Mi'kmaq). She also works for Parks Canada as the Mi'kmaq Relations Advisor for the mainland Nova Scotia field unit. She lives in southwestern Nova Scotia.

Our relationship with earth and water is changing in the Anthropocene, says renowned author Robert Macfarlane. Humanity has become a transformative force of planetary proportions, to the point where we are altering the composition and behaviour of the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. He tells IDEAS this has grave implications for the planet and us. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 9, 2024.

The summer of 2026 has been defined by the smoke — and the horror — of wildfires around the world. But what comes after one of these fires? "That isn't the end of the story. That's the beginning of a whole different kind of story," says Nlaka'pamux ecologist Jennifer Grenz. That's why we have decided to follow the long-term story of one 21st century megafire: the 2021 McKay Creek wildfire in interior B.C. Producer Pauline Holdsworth returned in September 2025 — four years after the fire — to find new life emerging from the ashes, and new questions about the road ahead.

This is the latest episode in our ongoing series Healing the Land. Listen to other episodes:

How brutal wildfires are 'killing' Indigenous ways of life (Pt 1)

How Indigenous ecology is reviving land destroyed by wildfires (Pt 2)

Guests in this episode:

Chief Justin Kane is the elected Chief of Ts'kw'aylaxw First Nation.

Michelle Edwards is the Tmicw Coordinator for the St'át'imc Chiefs Council and the former Chief of the communities of Sekw'el'was and Qu'iqten.

Dr. Jennifer Grenz is an Indigenous scholar and assistant professor in the department of forest resources management at UBC, and the principal investigator at the Indigenous Ecology Lab. She is a member of Lytton First Nation, where she sits on the lands committee. She is also the author of Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey toward Personal and Ecological Healing and the forthcoming book Burned: Truth and Hope in the Fires.

Virginia Oeggerli is a PhD student in the Indigenous Ecology Lab in the Faculty of Forestry at UBC.

Dr. Sue Senger is a biologist working with the Lillooet Tribal Council.

Gerald Michel is a council member and the lands resource liaison for Xwísten First Nation.

What happens to the land after a brutal wildfire? IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory near Lillooet, B.C., to follow land guardians and scientists from the Indigenous Ecology Lab at the University of British Columbia, as they document the effects of wildfires and chart a new future based on Indigenous approaches to healing and balancing an ecosystem.

*This podcast is part of our ongoing series, Healing the Land. Listen to other episodes:

How brutal wildfires are 'killing' Indigenous ways of life (Pt 1)

What emerges from the ashes after a wildfire? (Pt 3)

Guests in this series:

Chief Justin Kane, elected Chief of Ts'kw'aylaxw First Nation 

Michelle Edwards, Tmicw coordinator for the St'át'imc Chiefs Council and the former Chief of the communities of Sekw'el'was and Qu'iqten 

Sam Copeland, senior land guardian for the P'egp'ig'lha Council 

Luther Brigman, assistant land guardian for the P'egp'ig'lha Council 

Travis Peters, heritage supervisor and interim lands manager for Xwísten First Nation 

Gerald Michel, council member and the Lands Resource Liaison for Xwísten First Nation 

Denise Antoine, natural resource specialist for the P'egp'ig'lha Council

Dr. Jennifer Grenz, assistant professor in the department of forest resources management at the University of British Columbia. She leads the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC, which works entirely in service to Indigenous communities on land-healing and food systems revitalization projects that bring together western and Indigenous knowledge systems and centres culture and resiliency. 

Virginia Oeggerli, graduate student in the Indigenous Ecology Lab in the faculty of forestry at UBC

Dr. Sue Senger, biologist working with the Lillooet Tribal Council

Jackie Rasmussen, executive director of the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society

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, many First Nations say what these fires do to the land in their territories — and the cultural lives of their communities — is often overlooked. "These fires are killing our way of life," says a Tmicw coordinator for the St'át'imc Chiefs Council. IDEAS visited St'át'imc territory around Lillooet, B.C. to learn how 21st-century wildfires are reshaping the landscape — and their consequences for plants, animals, and humans alike. 

*This podcast is part of our ongoing series, Healing the Land. Listen to other episodes:

How Indigenous ecology is reviving land destroyed by wildfires (Pt 2)

What emerges from the ashes after a wildfire? (Pt 3)

Guests in this series:

Chief Justin Kane is the elected Chief of Ts'kw'aylaxw First Nation. 

Michelle Edwards is a Tmicw coordinator for the St'át'imc Chiefs Council and the former Chief of the communities of Sekw'el'was and Qu'iqten. 

Sam Copeland is a senior land guardian for the P'egp'ig'lha Council. 

Luther Brigman is an assistant land guardian for the P'egp'ig'lha Council. 

Travis Peters is a heritage supervisor and interim lands manager for Xwísten First Nation. 

Gerald Michel is a council member and the Lands Resource Liaison for Xwísten First Nation. 

Denise Antoine is a natural resource specialist for the P'egp'ig'lha Council.

Dr. Jennifer Grenz is an assistant professor in the department of forest resources management at the University of British Columbia. She leads the Indigenous Ecology Lab at UBC, which works entirely in service to Indigenous communities on land-healing and food systems revitalization projects that bring together western and Indigenous knowledge systems and centres culture and resiliency. 

Virginia Oeggerli is a graduate student in the Indigenous Ecology Lab in the faculty of forestry at UBC.

Dr. Sue Senger is a biologist working with the Lillooet Tribal Council.

Jackie Rasmussen is executive director of the Lillooet Regional Invasive Species Society.

On the surface, bibliotherapy might sound like another personal wellness trend, but it definitely isn’t. In fact, it’s an approved form of mental health treatment in Canada. And it’s been around for at least a century. In this podcast, researchers Sara Haslam and Edmund King discuss the First World War roots of this practice in the UK. Author Cody Delistraty considers its role in moving him forward in the grieving process. And psychiatrist Martina Scholtens explains why she created an evidence-based reading list online, tailored to a range of mental health diagnoses. *This episode originally aired on June 2, 2025.

We should move away from this idea that childhood should be filled with innocence, safe from the knowledge of difficult things argues Critical Cultural Theorist of Childhood Julie Garlen. Kids do experience difficulty, even in the best of circumstances, and she suggests they need the tools and language to navigate the lives they are living. Constructing childhood as a time of innocence limits children's opportunities for growth and learning. *This episode originally aired March 27, 2025.

Eugenics is seen as a 19th-century idea put into horrific 20th-century practice. But the attraction to breeding “better” humans has a long and persistent history, says Adam Rutherford. The geneticist and science podcaster explains, in conversation with host Nahlah Ayed. *This episode originally aired on January 20, 2023.

That’s what Hanna Pickard argues. After analyzing the scientific research, and working with those who’ve stopped self-destructive drug and alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins philosopher sees addiction as a complex behavioural disorder. She argues it’s driven by individual psychology and social circumstances, and should be treated that way. Jowita Bydlowska and Michael Kaufmann, both memoirists of addiction, weigh in. *This episode originally aired on March 3, 2026.

Guests in this episode:

Hanna Pickard is the author of What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction (2026). She is a professor of philosophy and bioethics, as well as psychological & brain sciences, at Johns Hopkins University.

Jowita Bydlowska is a writer of fiction, as well as two memoirs of addiction: Drunk Mom, and Unshaming: A Memoir of Recovery, Relapse, and What Comes After (2026).

Dr. I. Michael Kaufmann is emeritus medical director of the Physician Health Program of the Ontario Medical Association. He is a retired family doctor, a retired addiction doctor, and the author of Drugs, Lies, and Docs: A Doctor's Memoir of Addiction (2024).

Thanks to Dexter and Hannibal Lecter you may think you know what a psychopath is. But a critical review of the science suggests that 'psychopath' as a diagnosis is flawed. Author of Psychopathy Unmasked Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen argues it’s time to end the misuse of controversial science in our criminal justice system — and to rethink psychopathy as a whole.

"We need to separate AI from empire," says tech journalist Karen Hao who used to work in Silicon Valley as an engineer. Now she’s an outspoken critic of its AI giants. She argues AI companies run their businesses like empires and it has to stop. In her book, Empire of AI, Hao digs into the global impact of Big AI and explores how we need to rethink AI to build a better future. This podcast includes a lecture by Karen Hao and a discussion with host Nahlah Ayed. *This episode originally aired on March 25, 2026.