Ideas From Cbc Radio (highlights)

We are all vulnerable to digital surveillance, as there’s little protection to prevent our phones from getting hacked. Mercenary spyware products like Pegasus are powerful and sophisticated, marketed to government clients around the world. Cybersecurity expert Ron Deibert tells IDEAS, "the latest versions can be implanted on anyone's device anywhere in the world and as we speak, there is literally no defence against it.” Deibert is the founder of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, a group of tech-savvy researchers who dig into the internet, looking for the bad actors in the marketplace for high-tech surveillance and disinformation. In his new book, Chasing Shadows, he shares notorious cases he and his colleagues have worked on and reveals the dark underworld of digital espionage and subversion.

There's no universal definition for the word freedom, according to American historian Timothy Snyder. He divides the word into two categories for people — the freedom "from" and the freedom "to" various things. In the U.S., Snyder calls oligarchs like Elon Musk and President Donald Trump "heroes of negative freedom,” focused on being against things. But the author of On Freedom says it's a trap, because once you’re against one thing, it builds into an endless loop of the next thing. True freedom, he says, is to thrive for the sake of our common future.

The Gulf of America/Gulf of Mexico controversy reminds us that maps may appear authoritative, but are a version of reality. At the same time, they can be rich, beautiful and informative, as Vancouver’s Kathleen Flaherty explains, in this 2005 documentary made before Google Maps changed mapmaking forever.

At a time when Canadians are rallying around the flag, IDEAS thought we could all use a little Stompin’ Tom Connors to keep us going. Famous for his black cowboy hat, he was an original, writing hundreds of songs about what it means to be Canadian. He may have died 12 years ago, but his songs live on, and resonate today.

A German, a Canadian, and an American meet to discuss national borders — crossing them, defending them, and reimagining what they could become before the century is out. Our three experts dig into what’s happening to the concept of borders, how they work, and how border policies have changed in the past 10 years.

Between $21 and $32 trillion is hidden in offshore accounts. These secret stashes have been uncovered by the work of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — a network of almost 300 investigative journalists. Their findings have led to multiple arrests and official inquiries in more than 70 countries, and the resignations of the leaders of Pakistan, Iceland, and Malta.

"The first kind of return before language or story is a return to one another," says novelist Janika Oza. She looks at the ways in which the narrative arcs of ordinary lives are shaped by ruptures like colonialism, war, and the Partition of India — and what it means to continually seek to return through stories, memories and objects. This episode is the fourth in a series collaboration with Crow’s Theatre in Toronto.

Growing up, PhD student Sarah believed in the literal interpretation of the Bible. She predicted that non-believers faced doom in hell upon Judgment Day. Born into a devout evangelical Christian community, she draws on her religious past to understand the visceral belief people acquire in conspiracy theories — from PizzaGate to the 'stolen' 2020 U.S. election. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 21, 2022.

Patriotism’s back in style. Along with it comes reasonable questions about when a love of your country is a good thing, and when it can lead you astray. Our series on the art of national pride continues with IDEAS producer Tom Howell gathering insights from Afghans, Israelis, and Americans in hopes of finding the key to doing patriotism right.

Einstein’s theory of relativity, quantum physics, and finding evidence of black holes — trace the chain of discoveries that led to these breakthroughs and you'll end up with the Italian astronomer and inventor, Galileo Galilei. Renowned Italian theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli says we can learn a lot from Galileo today. He explains how 400 years ago, this renaissance man of science was discovering new facts about the Universe to understand ourselves better — and so are we.

In 1971, artist Joyce Wieland said: "Canada can either now lose complete control — which it almost has, economically, spiritually and a few other things — or it can get itself together." In the 60s and 70s, the artist painted, sculpted and stitched the Canadian flag and our sense of national identity. Her art called on the need to preserve its distinctness from the United States. Now, a quarter century after her death, the artist's work and words form a clarion call. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 12, 2022.

We should move away from this idea that childhood should be filled with innocence, safe from the knowledge of difficult things argues Critical Cultural Theorist of Childhood Julie Garlen. Kids do experience difficulty, even in the best of circumstances, and she suggests they need the tools and language to navigate the lives they are living. Constructing childhood as a time of innocence limits children's opportunities for growth and learning.

Need a babysitter? Phone Cindy. That's just one of the ads in The Inverness Oran, a small town newspaper in Cape Breton with a circulation of 3,000. For almost 50 years, the paper has kept the community updated on local news, many opinions, and letters to the editor. IDEAS offers a snapshot of what people are talking about in Inverness County, what newspapers used to be, and why the family-owned paper is stronger than ever.

In 1997, the Mi’kmaq Nation took over on-reserve education in Nova Scotia. It was the first time in Canadian history that jurisdiction for education was transferred from the federal government to a First Nation. One year later, Eskasoni First Nation high school opened, and since then, the school has become an epicentre for Mi’kmaq language revitalization. This episode is the second in a two-part series on language revitalization.  

Younger generations in Nunavut today are less likely to grow up immersed in Inuktut. At a language school in Iqaluit, Inuit adults who didn’t grow up speaking Inuktut now have the chance to learn it as a second language at the Pirurvik Centre. By learning the words for kinship terminology, they’re also discovering things about their families they never knew. *This episode is the first in a two-part series on language revitalization.

Hidden in the 1950 academic paper that launched the famous 'Turning Test' of machine intelligence, is a strange mystery. Cryptographer Alan Turning argued that humans might always be able to outsmart machines, because we have supernatural powers like ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis. His belief in the paranormal is just one part of the spooky side of artificial intelligence. Like hauntings or seances, AI is an exercise in self-deception; we imagine intelligence from computation and data, just like we imagine ghosts from strange lights and bumps in the night.

In this digital age, we must think of ourselves as stakeholders, playing a vital role in the creation of data, says Wendy H. Wong. She is a political scientist and winner of the 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for her book, We, the Data. Wong argues for a human rights approach when it comes to how our data should be collected, and how it can be used.

For leaders who built empires throughout history, Virgil's Aeneid has been a blueprint for how to take over land that belongs to someone else. Now when empires are making a comeback, it's worth asking if the epic poem is propaganda, or does it carry a message about the horrors of empire, too?

Sometimes, ghosts 'appear' for very human reasons. Loss, change, and grief can alter our perceptions of reality. In this episode, the reasons why ghosts are seen everywhere from new high-rises in Mumbai, to urban food courts, to a gay gym in San Francisco. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 25, 2022.

Examining the parallels between Inuit storytelling and modern horror narratives, writer Jamesie Fournier explores the importance of being afraid and how the other side comes back to haunt us for our own good. This episode is part of our on-going series called IDEAS at Crow's Theatre.