How Hitler's 'favourite' reptile became a geopolitical symbol

Ideas

30:55

A secret field that summons lightning. A massive spiral that disappears into a salt lake. A celestial observatory carved into a volcano. Meet the wild—and sometimes explosive—world of land art, where artists craft masterpieces with dynamite and bulldozers. In our Season 2 premiere, guest Dylan Thuras, cofounder of Atlas Obscura, takes us off road and into the minds of the artists who literally reshaped parts of the Southwest. These works aren’t meant to be easy to reach—or to explain—but they just might change how you see the world. Land art you’ll visit in this episode: - Double Negative and City by Michael Heizer (Garden Valley, Nevada) - Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson (Great Salt Lake, Utah) - Sun Tunnels by Nancy Holt (Great Basin Desert, Utah) - Lightning Field by Walter De Maria (Catron County, New Mexico) - Roden Crater by James Turrell (Painted Desert, Arizona) Via Podcast is a production of AAA Mountain West Group.…

about a year ago 54:08

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How Hitler's 'favourite' reptile became a geopolitical symbol

Ideas

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published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

1067 episodes

#Arts #Canada #CBC #CBC Radio #Society

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1
The three ingredients in an autocrat's recipe for power 54:34

2 days ago54:34

54:34

There are three components that could end constitutional democracy as we know it, says scholar Peter L. Biro — fear and its weaponization, habituation which involves the consequence of not noticing, and the 'stupidification' of our minds and of our discourse. He argues that we, as law-abiding average citizens, have the power to save our democracy and defend against backsliding forces. Biro recently delivered a keynote address at the ominously titled conference, Liberal Democracy in the Rearview Mirror? at Massey College in Toronto.…

Ideas

1
A pig was shot dead in 1859. It sparked a British-U.S. war 54:34

3 days ago54:34

54:34

Ideas

1
The trailblazing all-Black baseball team that made history 54:34

4 days ago54:34

54:34

More than ninety years ago, led by “Boomer” Harding, “Flat” Chase, and King Terrell, the Chatham Coloured All-Stars became the first all-Black team to win the Ontario baseball championship. Now the story of their historic 1934 season, including the racist treatment they endured and their exploits on the field has resurfaced in an online project, and they’re getting their due as trailblazing Black Canadian athletes. *This episode originally dropped on Nov. 25, 2024.…

Ideas

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Russia’s constant craving for U.S. recognition 54:35

6 days ago54:35

54:35

Historian Sergei Radchenko revisits the Cold War, focusing on what the idea of global power meant to the Soviet Kremlin. He argues that Soviet leaders, from Joseph Stalin to Mikhail Gorbachev, have always had a strong desire to be recognized as a superpower on the world stage, especially from the U.S. For decades, this desire could never be satisfied, resulting in frustration, and leading to outsized consequences throughout history. Radchenko’s call for a rethink of Moscow’s motivations has made him one of the most-read scholars on Soviet history today.…

Ideas

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Her job is to find buried children at residential schools 54:34

6 days ago54:34

54:34

Métis archeologist Kisha Supernant was sometimes called a 'grave robber' when she started her line of work. With an eye to restorative justice, she tries to help Indigenous communities locate the graves of children who died at residential schools. Now, she's called on to find children's graves. In this public lecture, Supernant explains how the use of traditional knowledge systems, as well as cutting-edge ground radar techniques helps families find their loved ones. The work also allows communities to begin healing. It’s a science, she says, of the heart and head.…

Ideas

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The power of white evangelical Christians in MAGA politics 54:25

9 days ago54:25

54:25

In the past decade, there has been one stable voting bloc: white evangelical Christians. Their support has been at a constant 80 per cent for Donald Trump, according to historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez. In her book, Jesus and John Wayne , she describes the Trump era as the latest chapter in a long story of exclusion, patriarchy, and Christian nationalism in the evangelical church. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 18, 2024.…

Ideas

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There's no potential danger of AI discrimination — 'it's here' 54:35

10 days ago54:35

54:35

The grave consequences artificial intelligence poses aren't 'potential' — they are happening now, warns MIT researcher Joy Buolamwini. She argues that encoded discrimination embedded in AI systems — racial bias, sex and gender bias, and ableism — pose unprecedented threats to humankind. Buolamwini has been at the forefront of artificial intelligence research and encourages everyone to join in the fight for "algorithmic justice." Her book, Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines, uncovers the existential danger produced by Big Tech. "AI should be for the people and by the people, not just the privileged few.”…

Ideas

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The one exception that makes killing civilians legal in war 54:35

11 days ago54:35

54:35

International law is clear: warring parties cannot kill civilians. It's a war crime. But there is one exception. An attacker can justify killing them if they’re being used as a shield for military objectives. This means a belligerent could kill a civilian and claim, after the fact, they were being used as shields by the enemy. Increasingly, that justification has been applied to neighbourhoods, districts, and even entire populations. IDEAS explores the long history of humans as shields and how this legal loophole has become a norm. Guests include Nicola Perugini, who teaches international relations at the University of Edinburgh. He is also co-author of Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire. And Dr. Mimi Syed, an American emergency medicine physician who served two medical missions in Gaza in 2024.…

Ideas

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The 2,000-year-old travel list to complete before you die 54:35

12 days ago54:35

54:35

More than 2,000 years ago, someone sat down and wrote a travel bucket list for the ancient world — suggesting must-see places that we now call The Seven Wonders of the World. It was kind of a Lonely Planet guide of its time, and included the Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Temple of Artemis, among others. Historian Bettany Hughes brings monuments and archaeological discoveries back to life in her book, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.…

Ideas

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Canadian troops who freed the Netherlands from Nazis 54:35

13 days ago54:35

54:35

On May 5, 1945, Canadian soldiers played a key role in the liberation of the Netherlands from the German forces. Almost 80 years later, a large group of Canadians travelled to the Netherlands to pay tribute to their relatives who'd helped liberate the country in the Second World War. They walked on a nine-day pilgrimage through villages and towns, visiting old battlefields and the cemeteries where Canada's soldiers are buried. The group followed in the footsteps of the Canadian troops to honour their sacrifices. *This episode originally aired on May 1, 2023.…

Ideas

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What it means to call your loved one a ‘corpse’ 54:08

16 days ago54:08

54:08

In the hour’s following her mother’s death, Martha Baillie undertook two rituals — preparing a death mask of her mother’s face, and washing her mother’s body. That intimacy shaped her grief. She had learned earlier to witness death and be present, living with regret after she left the room to get a nurse when her father died. For Baillie her mother's body was not a corpse that has no life. To her, it would "always be something alive." The novelist and writer explains what signified the difference in her book, There Is No Blue , the 2024 winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.…

Ideas

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The limitless mind and body of an 83-year-old super-athlete 54:08

17 days ago54:08

54:08

"Never let anyone tell you that you're old," says Dag Aabaye, an 83-year-old super athlete who defies age. He runs two to six hours daily in B.C.'s Okanagan Valley, where he lives alone on a mountain. For him, running is “life itself." Blizzards, heat waves, even running 24 hours straight Until he met Aabaye, Brett Popplewell used to dread growing old. But now the sports journalist says he has reframed his thoughts about life, death, and the limits placed on us as we age. Popplewell chronicles Aabaye's life from childhood to being a stuntman and extreme athlete in his book, Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search f or a Hidden Past — winner of the 2024 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Last month, Popplewell accepted his literary prize and delivered a public talk at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario.…

Ideas

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How the American cowboy ignited the Republican movement 54:07

18 days ago54:07

54:07

The cowboy — a symbol of the true American man who is anti-government, works independently and protects his family. Historian Heather Cox Richardson calls this rhetoric “cowboy individualism”, and says this myth is the basis for 40-year-old Republican ideology. In this public lecture, Cox Richardson argues that the current Trump administration has taken cowboy individualism to an extreme by gutting the government and centring power.…

Ideas

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How horses shaped humankind, from wearing pants to vaccines 54:08

19 days ago54:08

54:08

We have a lot to thank horses for in our everyday lives, from the Hollywood motion picture, to life-saving vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus, to a staple in our closets: pants. "Prior to riding horses, no one wore pants," says historian Timothy Winegard. He argues that horses are intertwined in our own history to the point that we overlook their importance. His research explains how they shaped societies, economies and cultures. Without us, horses would be nowhere, and vice versa. It was a partnership — our brains and their braun — that truly changed the world. *This episode originally aired on Sept. 10, 2024.…

Ideas

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Elections results are in. IDEAS recommends World Report 10:43

19 days ago10:43