IDEAS schedule for May 2024

* Please note this schedule is subject to change.

Wednesday, May 1

AN OUTSIDER, INSIDE THE TRADES
Hilary Peach was interested in experimental poetry. But she also had bills to pay. So she trained to become a welder, and spent 20 years as a member of the boilermakers union, travelling all across North America for jobs. And Peach — now a B.C. boiler inspector — never stopped writing. Her latest book is a memoir, called Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood, and was awarded the 2023 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Nonfiction from Laurier University. Hilary Peach gave a public talk at the awards ceremony, artfully describing her working experiences, and exploring the historical and cultural reasons why the trades have become so associated with men despite interest from so-called outsiders.

Thursday, May 2

THE THREAT TO CIVILITY AND THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY
The public conversation has been lost. Incivility is on the rise. Authoritarianism is all but inevitable. These ideas have become a kind of refrain, yet some argue that citizens just need convincing that liberal democracy remains the best political option. A new, annual discussion initiated by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada (MISC) convened three speakers to discuss the situation, and solutions. Rosie Abella is a former Supreme Court Justice of Canada. Law professor Luis Roberto Barroso joined the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil in 2013. Vikas Swarup is a career diplomat and India's former High Commissioner to Canada. They joined moderator and IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed for a discussion in Montreal's Centre de Mont Royal.

Friday, May 3

IN DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY: LISA LAFLAMME  
These are anxious times for journalism and democracy. A robust democracy supports the flourishing and integrity of journalism, and a free and independent press is essential in holding the powerful to account and informing the electorate. But both democracy and journalism are trying to fend off life-threatening forces. IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed interviewed longtime CTV correspondent and anchor Lisa LaFlamme at an onstage event called In Defence of Democracy, held by the Samara Centre — a freewheeling discussion about what can and must be done to bolster journalism so it can better safeguard democracy. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 15, 2024.
 

Monday, May 6

REALITY CHECK: ON REALITY TV
When reality TV first exploded in the early 2000s, sociology, psychology and philosophy classes had something new to chew over. How do shows edit or manipulate reality to construct a story? What does reality TV mean for our ability to discern truth from fiction? The popularity of shows like Survivor and Teen Mom also sparked a media  moral panic about the dumbing down of culture, and the normalization of narcissism. But 25 years after the reality revolution, and with the genre showing no signs of slowing down, some argue that Real Housewives and the like may actually have made viewers more media literate, and thoughtful about contemporary reality.

Tuesday, May 7

CHANDLER ON RAWLS, FREEDOM & EQUALITY
John Rawls was possibly America's most influential political theorist in the 20th century, but his speaking and writing style did not lend itself to public fame beyond academic. British author Daniel Chandler now steps in to present Rawls' ideas afresh, along with an argument for why they supply the best answer to political polarization in Western democracies now, and what a political platform based on Rawls' books would look like. In this feature interview, Chandler makes his case to Nahlah Ayed.

Wednesday, May 8

OUR BODIES, OUR CELLS
Our bodies are a great paradox. We are made up of trillions of cells that are both independent and interconnected units of life. Each one is full of millions of moving parts, but the atoms from which they are built are almost entirely empty space. In other words, our bodies contain mind-boggling amounts of stuff, and yet we're mostly nothing. This documentary takes a literal deep dive into the microscopic world of the body — a journey through sound, music, narrative and description — into cells, and the exquisitely designed nanomachines they contain, zooming all the way into the subatomic realm until we can zoom in no further. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 31, 2024. 

Thursday, May 9

MASSEY AT 60: JENNIFER WELSH
As part of the 60th Anniversary of Massey College's founding, IDEAS is revisiting various Massey Lectures. This time, it's 2016 lecturer Jennifer Welsh. Born in Regina, educated at Oxford, she has worked in the field of International Relations and Political Science across Europe and in Canada, most recently at McGill University in Montreal. Her Massey Lectures were called The Return of History — a wake up call to those of us who may have felt a little too optimistic about the future after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Executive Producer Greg Kelly interviewed Jennifer Welsh before an audience at Massey College, about wealth, authoritarianism, and what it was like to see the wall come down back in 1989.

Friday, May 10

MASSEY LECTURER JENNIFER WELSH: THE RETURN OF INEQUALITY
We revisit political scientist Jennifer Welsh's 2016 Massey Lectures called The Return of History, with a rebroadcast of her fifth lecture, The Return of Inequality. Beneath the sheer extremity of inequality in our cities and communities, there are corrosive effects, Welsh argues: on political stability, social cohesion, and individual behaviour. Our own moral sentiments are affected, whether we may be aware of it or not. Jennifer Welsh argued — eight years ago — that inequality is undermining liberal democracy itself.  

Monday, May 13

SOLIDARITY 
At a time of rapid and upending change, what does it mean to be in solidarity with others? How does one form attachments and common cause in the face of exorbitant debt or precarious housing, ill health or war? Using the idea of solidarity — acting on one's own or together on behalf of the whole — to work toward something better is not new. Humans have always organized around common cause or common goals but often those bonds were formed out of common experience or place. Today, solidarity crosses social, class, and geographic boundaries with a common refrain that 'what happens over there, happens over here.' In this episode, IDEAS explores how solidarity is creating bonds and giving shape to politics and culture today. 

 
Tuesday, May 14

THE PASSION OF ÉMILE NELLIGAN, CANADA'S SADDEST POET
Broken violins, distraught pianos, the way birdsong reminds him of how all his joy is no more, cruel love, cruel angels, ships that once carried gold but now lie wrecked and empty and chewed-up by seawater, absent fathers, mothers who aren't as pretty as when they were younger, abandoned churches, ruined chapels, Montreal when there's too much snow, the thought — striking a young man while drunk on red wine — that a fleeting glimpse of happiness is mere worthless illusion in a world that stubbornly misunderstands and fails to appreciate him… During three years at the end of the 19th century, Émile Nelligan wrote hundreds of tragic, passionate, and formally perfect sonnets and rondels on these subjects and more. This brief blooming would render him Quebec's most famous poet. His story lent itself to an opera, a ballet, a movie, and many books. There are prizes, libraries, schools, hotels, and online magazines now bearing Nelligan's name. And yet, most English-speaking Canadians seem never to have heard of him. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 9, 2024. 

Wednesday, May 15

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH: GELBER WINNER
Celebrated historian Timothy Garton Ash of Oxford University considers himself to be European. And believes Europe itself is both an idea, and an ideal. One in which a fundament of shared values and assumptions, even identity, arose in a way that makes it historically unique. But that unique identity is fraying in the face of extreme nationalism, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and geopolitical tremors. His book Homelands: a Personal History of Europe recently won the Lionel Gelber Prize, awarded to the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs. He delivered a talk at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, and later spoke with IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed.

Thursday, May 16

ETHICIST ARTHUR SCHAFER  
When philosophy professor Arthur Schafer began teaching there in 1972, the University of Manitoba became the only English-speaking institution in Canada to offer a course on secular ethics to medical students. At a time when courses in bioethics didn't exist, that was a breakthrough. Yet there was much skepticism then about Schafer's unusual role there. Schafer went on to a career that spanned half a century, and placed him at the heart of some of Canada's biggest ethical debates, from medical assistance in dying (MAiD), to the rights of prisoners to vote. In this wide-ranging conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, Arthur Schafer looks back, and forward, in considering the field of applied ethics. He discusses the role of philosophers in addressing the increasingly complex ethical dilemmas confronting individuals, and society as a whole. 

Friday, May 17

FOOD SECURITY: ROOT CAUSES AND PATHWAYS TO CHANGE
Food security is one of the most pressing issues of our time. With inflation and the cost of food on the rise, more and more Canadians are having a hard time knowing if they can afford their next meal. In the month of March 2023 alone, nearly two million Canadians had to make use of a food bank. And the number of people facing food insecurity around the world has doubled since 2019. Nahlah Ayed hears from four leading experts in the field to explore how our food systems can evolve to support us all. The conversation was recorded at the 2023 Arrell Food Summit. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 29, 2023. 
 

Monday, May 20

PURO CUBANO: THE MEANING OF TOBACCO IN CUBA 
Cuban cigar makers say that over 200 pairs of hands touch each cigar, from seed to ornate box. Pedro Mendes travels though Cuba, tracing that journey, to understand what tobacco means to the country. He visits a tobacco farm to learn about the impacts that climate change and an economic crisis are having on the livelihood of farmers. He meets with cigar rollers and tobacco historians to discover the cultural and religious role of the leaf. He tours one of Havana's biggest cigar factories to witness the final stages in creating this iconic product. Cigars are a symbol of Cuba, and a Cuban way of life and resistance, under severe threat. *This episode originally aired on Feb. 5, 2024. 

Tuesday, May 21

FOR THE LAND: GLEN  COULTHARD ON THE DENE FIGHT FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
The Jackman Humanities Institute's annual lecture was delivered by Yellowknives Dene author and scholar Glen Coulthard. In it, and in the following onstage conversation with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed, he explores the international political influences that helped to shape the Dene's liberation efforts — and how that history of those influences can inform modern-day efforts to unravel colonialism.

Wednesday, May 22

SISTINE CHAPEL: JEANNIE MARSHALL
Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel may be one of the most exalted works of art in the world, but Michelangelo's own relationship with it was complicated. Canadian writer and Rome resident Jeannie Marshall had a complicated relationship with it, reflecting her family's tormented relationship with the Catholic Church. Fellow Canadian and Rome resident Megan Williams met with her to visit the Sistine Chapel and talk about Marshall's book, All Things Move: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel — a reflection on the power of art to move and provoke us and to transcend even the historical, social and religious context that so powerfully shaped it. *This episode originally aired on June 14, 2024.

Thursday, May 23

MASSEY AT 60: WADE DAVIS
Wade Davis has smoked toad, drunk ayahuasca, and figured out the zombie cocktail of drugs that feign death. He's been Explorer-in Residence at the National Geographic Society. He's the author of 23 books, including the 2009 CBC Massey Lectures, The Wayfinders, and his prizewinning story of the disastrous 1924 Everest expedition, Into the Silence. Across his work as a teacher, explorer, scientist and filmmaker, Davis has been a fervent advocate for preserving the beauty of our planet in all its diversity. Wade Davis, in conversation with IDEAS producer Philip Coulter at Massey College.

Friday, May 24

WADE DAVIS' MASSEY LECTURE: THE WAYFINDERS
In his 2009 CBC Massey Lectures, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World, anthropologist Wade Davis explored the many ways in which the modern world can learn from Indigenous peoples. From the navigational skills of Polynesian sailors to the healing properties of plants, there is old knowledge, almost lost, that we can all learn from as we face a calamitous future for the planet. IDEAS revisits one of the lectures. 
 

Monday, May 27

HISTORIAN LEONARD MOORE ON THE EXTREME IN AMERICA'S MAINSTREAM
When Leonard Moore began teaching American history at McGill University in Montreal, there weren't many others teaching the subject. But his classes were often packed, especially with the tectonic quaking in American politics over the last few years. So when he delivered his last lecture in April 2024, IDEAS was there to record his emotional farewell to teaching, with the nervous hope that his home country will find its way forward. History has its lessons, he argues. But it's still an open question whether they'll be learned.

Tuesday, May 28

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.

Wednesday, May 29

ELEMENT SERIES: JOHN VAILLANT ON FIRE 
Human life depends on water, earth, and air, but our evolution as a species and our civilization is dependent on the other one of the four elements: fire. Acclaimed author John Vaillant tells the story of the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire in his award winning book, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, but that devastating wildfire opens into a history of humanity's relationship with fire, and how they've evolved together. While fire made possible the industrialized, technologically advanced world we know today, human impacts on the landscape and the climate have changed the nature and destructive power of wildfire, likely making the record-breaking 2023 Canadian wildfire season a prelude to a new world of fire.

Thursday, May 30

PAPYRUS: EXPLORING THE INVENTION OF THE BOOK
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. *This episode originally aired on March 5, 2024.

Friday, May 31

HEALING AND THE HEALER  
Creative nonfiction is "the art of fact." The Edna Staebler Award is the only award in Canada that celebrates literary nonfiction. The most recent recipient is Dr. Jillian Horton for her book, We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing. In it, Dr. Horton weaves together her personal story of burnout and the place for compassion with a broader understanding of the anxiety and exhaustion that stalks healthcare workers as well as those on the receiving end. She brings the story of her own family's experience with medical ineptitude and her drive to reassess herself and her profession with the ultimate goal of developing a more balanced and humane understanding of what it means to heal and be healed. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 18, 2024.