Sometimes the universe hands us a gift. Over the past year, our podcast listeners spent a total of 526,915 hours listening to our program. That's 21,954.8 days and that translates to 60 years of listening to us. So what better way to mark IDEAS' 60th year then to look back on the highlights and lowlights of the past six decades. To give you a hint on some of the picks, on the bad list: online identity management. Trickle down economics. On the good: Free Trade. Girl Bosses. Apparently open borders is still an open question.

Panelists Jamie Liew, a University of Ottawa law professor and novelist; University of Toronto philosopher, Joseph Heath; and the Canadian Shield Institute’s, Vass Bednar, joined IDEAS producer Mary Lynk on stage, in front of a live audience at the Isabel Bader Theatre for this episode — the last in our special series celebrating our 60th anniversary.

Listen to more episodes:

The time when a guest said, "I love you!"

How an IDEAS episode on traffic changed a doctor's practice

CBC Massey Lecturers reveal how the talks changed them

How IDEAS saved a listener from sending a regrettable email

"IDEAS is often a surprise" says Cathy Pike. It's why she's been a longtime listener. To our delight, IDEAS was there for her just at the right time. After listening to an episode about Friedrich Nietzche and his philosophy about "the art of passing by," Cathy says she decided not to send an email that she realized she would have regretted. "The program gave me pause and I’m grateful for that.”

And we're grateful to hear from Cathy and other listeners who share their personal encounters on how IDEAS shows up for them, as we continue our 60th anniversary series.

*This is the fourth episode in our special programming. Listen to other episodes in this series:

The time when a guest said, "I love you!"

How an IDEAS episode on traffic changed a doctor's practice

CBC Massey Lecturers reveal how the talks changed them

This podcast features an all-star, and bestselling, lineup of CBC Massey Lecturers from the past decade: Payam Akhavan (2017) and the police officer who pulled over to the side of the road to keep listening; Sally Armstrong (2019) and the women’s rights groups listening to her talks in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and China; Ron Deibert (2020) and his conviction that ‘philosophical’ radio is more crucial than ever; Esi Edugyan (2021), Tomson Highway (2022) feeling astonished when a stranger recognizes his voice after hearing him on the radio; Margaret MacMillan (2015); Tanya Talaga (2018) and her surprise when an older white man in the audience declares Indigenous activists should “go forth and conquer”; Astra Taylor (2023) and how her secret desire is to work at IDEAS; Jennifer Welsh (2016) comforting an audience member who’d served in Afghanistan; and Ian Williams (2024) on how his lectures have more meanings than he realized — so much so, that he’d like a “second date” with IDEAS.

*This is the third episode in our special programming marking our 60th anniversary.

That's not something you expect to hear in an interview. But the prize-winning author of All That She Carried, Tiya Miles did not hesitate to say these words to IDEAS host, Nahlah Ayed. What prompted the moment was this question Nahlah asked: "You have this term 'liberation theology.' Is your book a kind of liberation history?" Tiya replied: "Oh my goodness, Nahlah. I love you!" And went on to say that her approach to history is all about liberation. Their conversation resonated with many listeners, including a potter in Australia who shares how this story sustains him after the loss of his wife. We also hear from a listening club in Nova Scotia who gather to discuss IDEAS episodes, and we find out how this program inspires everything from sonnets, to art and to recreating historic feasts.

*This is the second episode in our 60th anniversary week-long series.

Not many people like to think about traffic but Joanna Oda says this very topic on IDEAS in 2005 inspired how she approached her work as an ER doctor. "The one quote from Traffic Jam [episode] that I quote to people is, fixing traffic congestion with bigger roads is like fixing obesity with bigger pants."

As part of a week-long celebration to mark our 60th anniversary, IDEAS is giving the mic to listeners like Oda to share their stories on how our show led to life-altering moments.

For Afghans, listening to a traditional song can bring them back "home." In 2021, when the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, orchestras disbanded and musicians fled for their lives. They brought with them their distinctive and storied music, embedded with notes hailing from classical music from Iran and India. IDEAS takes a journey to Afghanistan with members of the Afghan diaspora, and asks how the idea of home is encapsulated in music and how conflict has played a role in reshaping Afghan music.

*This is the final episode in a five-part series called The Idea of Home exploring the multiple and contested meanings of home. This episode originally aired on June 16, 2022.

Guests in this episode:

Mir Mahdavi is a poet, a writer, and a researcher in the area of art, literature and poetry, originally from Afghanistan. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and holds a Ph.D. in cultural studies from Trent University and a MA of cultural studies from McMaster University. He was the publisher and the editor in chief of Atab, a weekly newspaper published during 2002-2003 in Kabul.

Hangama is one of the most renowned female Afghan singers of her generation. Born in 1962 in Kabul, Hangama's stage name was chosen by her mother when she decided to pursue a career in music. She left Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation and now lives in the Greater Toronto Area.

Sara Soroor is an Afghan-Canadian singer-songwriter and childhood educator in the Greater Toronto Area. She is Hangama's daughter and started singing and playing the piano at age four.

Wares Fazelyar was born and raised in Toronto, and plays the rubab. He is an advisory board member for the Afghan Youth Engagement and Development Initiative. He and his brother Haris perform Afghan folk music in the Greater Toronto Area.

Wolayat Tabasum Niroo is a researcher and Fulbright scholar currently based in the United States. She has a PhD in Education from Old Dominion University and a MPhil in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oxford. She grew up in Afghanistan and has studied how Afghan women's folk music creates an alternative space for political expression, grief and imagining other possibilities.

“Urbicide” — the intentional killing of a city — is a common and brutal strategy of war, from the levelling of Mariupol, Ukraine to the destruction of Syrian cities. Armies destroy apartment buildings, theatres and bridges to destroy residents’ sense of home and belonging. But even in peacetime, urban planning can become part of a more subtle kind of war over who gets to call a city home. IDEAS explores how the “battle for home” shapes cities before, during, and after wartime.

*This episode is part of our series, The Idea of Home, it originally aired on June 16, 2022.

Guests in this podcast:



Ammar Azzouz is an architectural critic and analyst at Arup, as well as a research associate at the University of Oxford. His most recent book is Domicide: Architecture, War and the Destruction of Home in Syria.

Nasser Rabbat is a professor and the director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT. He has published numerous articles and several books on topics ranging from Mamluk architecture to Antique Syria, 19th century Cairo, Orientalism, and urbicide.

Marwa Al-Sabouni is a Syrian architect based in Homs and the author of The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria and Building for Hope: Towards an Architecture of Belonging.

Hiba Bou Akar is an assistant professor in the Urban Planning program at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. She is the author of For the War Yet to Come: Planning Beirut's Frontiers.

Nada Moumtaz is an assistant professor in the Department of Study of Religion and Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. She trained and worked as an architect in Beirut, Lebanon, and is the author of God's Property: Islam, Charity, and the Modern State.

Hospitality — and hospitals. Two words that share a root, but whose meanings often seem at odds with each other. IDEAS traces the historical roots of hospitals, the tension between hospitality and discipline that has defined hospitals throughout their history, and what it means to create a hospitable hospital in the 21st century.

*This is the third episode in our series, The Idea of Home, which originally aired on June 15, 2022.