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Weekdays at 9:05 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC Radio One

Ideas is a program about contemporary thought. It explores social issues, culture and the arts, geopolitics, history, biography, science and technology, and the humanities.

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This Week

Monday, November 19
IN SEARCH OF THE DIVINE VEGETAL, Part 1 of 2 CD
From the Amazon jungles to downtown Canada, ideas about Ayahuasca revive a decades-old argument about the uses and abuses, the ecstasies and the efficacies of mind-altering plants. Ayahuasca has been part of shamanic tradition for centuries. Broadcasters Thomas McKinnon and Leonard Cler-Cunningham travel the old trails, attend the ceremonies, and debate the religious, economic and political questions surrounding the divine vegetal.
Part 2 airs Monday, November 26.

Tuesday, November 20
WACHTEL ON THE ARTS CD
Ballet is no longer just about pink tutus and Swan Lake. It’s mixing it up with various forms of dance, contemporary music and even art and new technologies. Eleanor Wachtel talks to Karen Kain, Canada’s former prima ballerina who is now Director of the National Ballet of Canada and Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts about how her career in dance and how ballet has transformed itself over the past couple of decades. Eleanor also talks to Montreal choreographer Marie Chouinard about her new installation at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the interface between dance and new technology.

Wednesday, November 21
HOW TO THINK ABOUT SCIENCE, Part 2 of 5 CD
Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. David Cayley talks to some of the leading lights of this new field of study.
Part 3 airs Wednesday, November 28.

Thursday, November 22
PASSAGES TO THE FUTURE, Part 2 of 4 CD
A journey into the subtle and provocative ideas of historian Jocelyn Létourneau. As a leader of a new wave of Quebec intellectuals, he rejects melancholic myths that portray Quebeckers as victims of their past, trapped by unfulfilled political dreams. His ideas on the resilience of Quebeckers and the complexity of their history breathe new life into old debates about Quebec's identity, distinctiveness and destiny. In this new series, Jocelyn Létourneau talks with IDEAS producer Sara Wolch about his vision of the past, the implications of his thinking for students of history, and his hopes for the future of Quebec and Canada.
Part 4 airs Thursday, November 29.

Friday, November 23
TITO’S CHILDREN, Part 2 of 5 CD
The Balkans, they say, sit on a great fault line of history, between Europe and Asia, between Christian and Muslim worlds. From far back in time, battles have raged there, leaving a legacy of tribalism and distrust. Out of the ruins of World War II, however, through a combination of brute force, charisma and innovative social policy, Josip Broz, better known as Marshall Tito, forged a unique state that almost worked – Yugoslavia. But on his death in 1980, the country rapidly fell apart in war and bloodshed. Today, the separate elements of Yugoslavia are rebuilding themselves. Philip Coulter looks at the ethnic and political fissures in the Balkans to see what forces are in play in the building of civil society.
Part 3 airs on Friday, November 30.

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