Episodes

  • The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 5: Good conversations
    Nov 22 2024

    What makes a great conversation? The subject? Not so much. It’s more that it’s filled with layers and that you never really know where it’ll end up — how it will change you by the time it ends. Ian Williams delivers the final 2024 CBC Massey Lecture on the art of good conversation.

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    54 mins
  • The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 4: Who can speak for whom to whom about what?
    Nov 21 2024

    We’re in an era where many people feel an ownership over certain words, and how a community expresses itself; the term ‘appropriation’ has come to create guardrails around what can be said, and by whom. In his fourth Massey Lecture, Ian Williams considers the role of speech and silence in reallocating power, and what it means to truly listen.

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    54 mins
  • The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 3: Personal conversations
    Nov 20 2024

    Difficult conversations are almost always about something under the surface, and hidden. In his third Massey Lecture, Ian Williams illustrates what we’re listening for isn’t always obvious. He explains how personal conversations aren't about finding answers — it's for communion.

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    54 mins
  • The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 2: Public conversations
    Nov 19 2024

    In his second Massey Lecture, Ian Williams explores the power of conversation with strangers. He says humanity comes out when interacting with them. But how do we open ourselves up to connect with strangers while safeguarding our personal sovereignty? Williams believes we can learn a lot from our conversations with strangers and loved ones alike.

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    54 mins
  • The 2024 CBC Massey Lectures | # 1: Why we need to have a conversation about conversations
    Nov 18 2024

    Ever felt that no one is really listening? In the first of his 2024 CBC Massey Lectures, novelist and poet Ian explores why we need to have a conversation about conversations. His five-part lecture series confronts the deterioration of civic and civil discourse and asks us to reconsider the act of conversing as the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings.

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    54 mins
  • The Multiple Lives of CBC Massey Lecturer Ian Williams
    Nov 15 2024

    2024 CBC Massey lecturer Ian Williams speaks with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed about the forces that have shaped him as a thinker and writer, from the encyclopedias he read as a child in Trinidad to his years as a dancer to the poetry of Margaret Atwood. 'I believe in multiplicity,' he says. The 2024 Massey Lectures, What I Mean to Say: Remaking Conversation in Our Time, begin this coming Monday.

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    54 mins
  • A Harem of Computers: The History of the Feminized Machine
    Nov 14 2024

    Digital assistants, in your home or on your phone, are usually presented as women. In this documentary, IDEAS traces the history of the feminized, non-threatening machine, from Siri and Alexa to the "women computers" of the 19th century. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 26, 2022.

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    54 mins
  • How Canadians Can Help Lead the Global Fight for Health Equity
    Nov 13 2024

    In an era of rampant commodification of life-saving medicines, healthcare must be secured as a global public good, argues health justice advocate Fatima Hassan. In her Boehm Lecture on Public Health she explores ideas of solidarity and leadership in pandemic, epidemic and war responses.

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    54 mins