Ideas

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The Marrow of Nature: A Case for Wetlands Oct 23, 2024

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Our relationship with wetlands is nothing if not troubled; swamps, bogs, and marshes have long been cast as wastelands, paved over to make way for agriculture and human development. But with wetlands proving crucial for life, artists, ecologists and activists say we need to rewrite this squelchy story. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 17, 2022.

Arts Icon Joan Jonas on Her Great Muse, Cape Breton Oct 22, 2024

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American arts pioneer Joan Jonas is a central figure in the performance art movement of the late 1960s. This year, New York's Museum of Modern Art organized a major retrospective of her work, which will be on tour in Canada. One of her exhibits is inspired in part by her love for Cape Breton — a 'magical landscape' where she lives in the summer.

The Living Dead: Art and Human Remains Oct 21, 2024

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Our complicated feelings about life and death are captured in art that uses human remains, says anthropologist Myriam Nafte. Her PhD research looked at how contemporary Western artists incorporate human body parts. This 2014 episode was the first to kick off our decade-long series Ideas from the Trenches, featuring groundbreaking work by PhD students across Canada. Nafte is now an associate adjunct professor at McMaster University.

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Oct 18, 2024

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Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election might have been a surprise to some. But to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, it was the latest chapter in a long relationship between white American masculinity and evangelical Christianity. As the 2024 election draws near, Du Mez shares how exclusion, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism are the basis for the evangelical church.

Turning the Climate Crisis into Motivation, and Hope into Action Oct 17, 2024

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From horror to hope, two expert speakers discuss the stakes and situation facing us now around climate action. Catherine Abreu is a global climate justice advocate, and director of the International Climate Politics Hub. John Valliant is the author of Fire Weather, a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction.

How the Outdoors Has Inspired Women to Become Trailblazers Oct 16, 2024

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Harvard historian Tiya Miles believes the more girls and women are outdoors, the more fulfilling their lives will be. In her book, Wild Girls, Miles shows how girls who found self-understanding in the natural world became women who changed America. *This episode originally aired on April 10, 2024.

The Story Behind the 1859 Pig War that Claimed One Casualty: A Pig Oct 15, 2024

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In 1859, an American shot a pig that belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Suddenly the U.S. and British Empire were on the brink of war once again. Over the years, tales about the conflict have been embellished and conspiracy theories were invented. But behind the folklore is a story of peace, diplomacy, and how we make meaning out of history.

Dinner on Mars: How to Grow Food When Humans Colonize the Red Planet Oct 14, 2024

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Two food security experts imagine what it would take to feed a human colony on Mars in the year 2080 if we colonized the red planet. From greenhouse technologies to nanotechnologies, they figure we could have a well-balanced diet on Mars, and argue there are lessons on how to improve our own battered food systems here on Earth. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 4, 2022.

The Invisible Shoes of Stutthof Concentration Camp Oct 11, 2024

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In 2015, the poet-musician Grzegorz Kwiatkowski made a strange discovery at the site of the former Stutthof concentration camp in Poland — something he calls 'a carpet of abandoned shoes.' But these were more than shoes: they're both artifacts and symbols of the Holocaust — as well as a flashpoint of nationalist denialism and historical amnesia. *This episode originally aired on May 2, 2019.

Modern Patriotism: Loving Your Country in the 21st Century (Step One) Oct 10, 2024

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Choose your country. It’s the first step towards finding the healthy variety of patriotic love. But what sort of ‘choice’ is it? IDEAS producer Tom Howell speaks with exiles, nationalists, dual citizens, and people whose ‘country’ doesn’t officially exist, in a quest for peace on fraught terrain: modern patriotism.

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