Ideaswith Paul Kennedy

A little over fifty years ago, while the rest of the country was celebrating Canada's Centennial, the friendly folks on Fogo Island — most of whom were fishers — were ordered to abandon their homes and resettle in larger communities on the larger island of Newfoundland. Memorial University's Extension Department invited the National Film Board of Canada to visit Fogo, and interview people about their future. At the end of what is now called The Fogo Process, they voted to stay put, form a cooperative, and take over the fish plant. It became a model for alternative democracy around the world.

AI and robots seem to be everywhere, handling more and more work, freeing humans up -- to do what? Contributor Jill Eisen takes a wide-angle lens to the digital revolution happening in our working lives. What will happen when robots and algorithms surpass what our brains can do? Some say digital sweatshops -- repetitive, dull, poorly paid and insecure jobs -- are our destiny. Others believe that technology could lead to more fulfilling lives.

Michael S. Carolan is the author of No One Eats Alone: Food as a Social Enterprise. He gave a public talk in Toronto in the autumn of 2017, and made the following provocative argument: we can change our relationship to food — how's it's made, distributed and even consumed — by changing our relationships with each other, and maybe open up the possibility of creating a better world.

As we move towards legalization of cannabis, we look at that other drug that many of us already have in our homes and use on a daily basis: alcohol. How did we start using it? How does it affect our health and society? And given the latest scientific research, should we still drink it?

Bread is a simple food and a staple item across the world. Bread is life. But for some, it represents a wrong turn in our species' evolution. Through conversation with bakers, religious leaders, historians and bread aficionados, producer Veronica Simmonds asks whether bread has led us to salvation or damnation.

Pasta, a simple amalgam of wheat flour and water, is one of the world's most popular foods. It's Italy's gift to humanity… or maybe the Arabs’, or China’s. With its hundreds of shapes and sizes, its infinite variety of sauces, pasta is the foundation of one of the world's great cuisines. Contributor Megan Williams is based in Rome. She explains how and when it was invented, where it got its shapes, and why it’s so beloved.

If you typically eat three meals a day, then it's a choice you make more than one thousand times a year. And if you're like most people, that choice probably involves meat or dairy, or both. On top of that, many of the clothes we wear are made from animals. But can something that nearly everybody on the planet is doing ━ and has been doing for millions of years ━ be immoral?

Eating meat: some say we've evolved to do it. It's in our DNA. It's how we got our big brains. Yet others, including Pythagoras in the 6th century BC, and even Dr. Frankenstein's "monster", have argued that eating meat is bad for our bodies, cruel to animals, and toxic to the planet. Now -- perhaps more than ever -- clear-cut answers can be hard to come by when it comes to the matter of meat. Kevin Ball serves up the arguments.

The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges was profoundly shaped by the city he grew up in — Buenos Aires, and the city plays a major role in many of his stories. Philip Coulter goes on a walking tour of Borges' Buenos Aires in the company of the celebrated writer Alberto Manguel. Part 2 of a 2-part series.

The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges was profoundly shaped by the city he grew up in — Buenos Aires, and the city plays a major role in many of his stories. Philip Coulter goes on a walking tour of Borges' Buenos Aires in the company of the celebrated writer Alberto Manguel. Part 1 of a 2-part series.

The infamous “Walled City of Kowloon” was once the most populous spot on the planet. With 1.2 million people per square kilometre, it was a gigantic squatter’s village. Nobody planned it, but somehow it worked, until it was demolished, just before the British handed Hong Kong back to China. Paul Kennedy speaks with photographer Greg Girard, and urban designer Suenn Ho, about what the Walled City meant to them, and him.

Canadian-born Frank Gehry has been called the greatest architect of our time. And yet he's still a rebel in his field. A complex and engaging man, who's been open about his disdain for the media, gave IDEAS producer Mary Lynk a rare chance to talk with him in California.

Canadian-born Frank Gehry has been called the greatest architect of our time. And yet he's still a rebel in his field. A complex and engaging man, who's been open about his disdain for the media, gave IDEAS producer Mary Lynk a rare chance to talk with him in California.

Gabrielle Scrimshaw delivers the third annual Vancouver Island University Indigenous Lecture on the challenges Indigenous youth face, what reconciliation looks like, and how people can engage on that journey.

Is there a connection between the enslavement of African-Canadians and their overwhelming presence in the criminal justice system today? The United Nations has sounded the alarm on anti-black racism in Canada, stating it can be traced back to slavery and its legacy. In Part 2 of his series on slavery in colonial Canada, Kyle G. Brown explores the long-lasting ramifications of one of humanity’s most iniquitous institutions.

Canada's first prime minister is either a hero, or a man ultimately responsible for mass murder. In Part 2 of the Trial of Sir John A. Macdonald, prosecutor Jean Teillet makes her case on the second count against Macdonald for crimes against humanity — intentional starvation and deaths of thousands of Indigenous people on the plains.

As celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday continue to fade into the background, the controversy around Sir John A. Macdonald's legacy continues to build. This special episode of Ideas puts Canada's first Prime Minister on trial for 'crimes against humanity.'

Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017 highlighted its evolving relationship with Indigenous people. Too often in that history, voices other than those from First Nations did the talking for them. That’s why in this episode we’re featuring the stories of three Indigenous people told in their own words, people whose lives embody this changing relationship and the multitude of new realities they face. The episode has no interviewer. It’s just them and their stories.

Acclaimed Globe & Mail journalist Doug Saunders argues in his book "Maximum Canada: Why 35 Million Canadians Are Not Enough" that Canada has had trouble keeping the immigrants it attracts. This "minimizing impulse", as he terms it, has to be jettisoned if Canada is to take its rightful place on the world stage.

Why is it common knowledge that we saved runaway slaves from the United States, but few know that Africans and Indigenous peoples were bought, sold and exploited, right here? Contributor Kyle G. Brown asks how slavery was allowed to continue for some 200 years, and be one of the least talked about aspects of our history.

Buying and selling weapons is a huge, and highly secretive, business — for governments, aerospace and defence companies, and black market profiteers alike. Former South African politician and current U.K. corruption researcher Andrew Feinstein argues that the arms trade does not make us more secure. In fact, he contends that it fuels conflict, undermines economic progress and democracy, and — with its unintended consequences — endangers citizens everywhere.

Canada's first prime minister is either a hero, or a man ultimately responsible for mass murder. In Part 2 of the Trial of Sir John A. Macdonald, prosecutor Jean Teillet makes her case on the second count against Macdonald for crimes against humanity — intentional starvation and deaths of thousands of Indigenous people on the plains.

As celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday continue to fade into the background, the controversy around Sir John A. Macdonald's legacy continues to build. This special episode of Ideas puts Canada's first Prime Minister on trial for 'crimes against humanity.'

Canada's first prime minister is either a hero, or a man ultimately responsible for mass murder. In Part 2 of the Trial of Sir John A. Macdonald, prosecutor Jean Teillet makes her case on the second count against Macdonald for crimes against humanity — intentional starvation and deaths of thousands of Indigenous people on the plains.

As celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday continue to fade into the background, the controversy around Sir John A. Macdonald's legacy continues to build. This special episode of Ideas puts Canada's first Prime Minister on trial for 'crimes against humanity.'