Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchOpen your gift: a podcast of nonfiction recommendations
This isn't a wrap or best of 2025 kind of list. This IDEAS podcast is packed full of all kinds of recommendations from our smart, insightful contribu…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Bringing a farm — and its philosophy — back to life
Growing up with food insecurity, Julian Napoleon yearned to be a farmer. His great-grandparents once farmed on the Saulteau First Nations reserve in …
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Pt 2 | Architect Frank Gehry on how to exit life
There’s a constant mantra Frank Gehry would always hear from his mentors who have since died – “Don’t you dare ever stop working.” It’s a sentiment h…
6 months, 4 weeks ago
Pt 1 | The architecture that brought Frank Gehry to tears
Rebel architect Frank Gehry believed architecture IS art. He strived to evoke emotion in every design. Last Friday, Gehry died at 96 but he never sto…
6 months, 4 weeks ago
How music transports the Afghan diaspora to their homeland
For Afghans, listening to a traditional song can bring them back "home." In 2021, when the Taliban seized power again in Afghanistan, orchestras disb…
7 months, 1 week ago
Why cities are targeted in wartime (updated)
In 2022, IDEAS explored how the brutal strategy called "urbicide" — the intentional killing of a city — is used in war to destroy residents' sense of…
7 months, 1 week ago
Why hospitals stopped being hospitable
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…
7 months, 1 week ago
How guest-host power dynamics shape migration
In ancient Greece, hospitality (or xenia) was seen as a sacred moral imperative. Someone who defied the obligations placed on both host and guest ris…
7 months, 1 week ago
Can you ever truly return home again?
At age 11, writer Andrew Lam fled Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon. Nearly 45 years later, he returned to a radically different city. He believes "y…
7 months, 1 week ago
Buttons give the illusion of power but hide the consequences
Whether mechanical or digital, a button delivers the promise of power — but it's far from simple. The small and mighty technology has a riveting hist…
7 months, 3 weeks ago