Four decades ago, trade negotiations in North America prompted a flurry of fear in Canada. IDEAS revisits a 1986 documentary by the CBC's Carol Off exploring Canadian nationalism and patriotism brought on by fears that America was about to absorb Canada. A threat, once again, on many Canadians' minds.

For many people, public speaking is horrifying. Imagine trying to make people laugh. Without a script. IDEAS explores the art of improv — a skill that isn't just for entertainment. It's tapping into a vast well of human potential, and maybe even making the world a tiny bit better.

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.

Broken violins, cruel love and absent fathers... At the end of the 19th century, Émile Nelligan wrote hundreds of tragic, passionate, sonnets and rondels on these subjects and more. And yet, most English-speaking Canadians seem never to have heard of the Quebec poet. *This episode originally aired on Jan. 9, 2024.

In 2023, scientists discovered thousands of unknown life forms in the Pacific Ocean. The discovery highlighted an unsettling fact about our relationship to the natural world: 86 per cent of land species and 91 per cent of marine species remain undiscovered. Are we running out of time to classify the life around us — and what is lost if we don’t?

The current wave of anti-elitism, and anti-urbanism we’re seeing from authoritarian leaders and their followers may seem to have erupted out of nowhere. But New Yorker writer, Adam Gopnik argues what we see now stems from historic anti-Semitism. He delivered the second annual Irving Abella Lecture.

For musician David Schulman, the violin can swing and sing like nothing else. Schulman travelled to the north of Italy to try and discover the original trees from which Antonio Stradivari made his masterpieces. It’s a journey of surprise and delight. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 28, 2023.

Marriage is on the decline in Canada. And in heterosexual unions, it’s women who more often initiate divorce, and wait longer to remarry. Why is marriage not working for women? And what fundamentally has to change for women to continue saying "I do”? *This episode originally aired on Feb. 21, 2024.