Ideas

Imagine seeing an atrocity with eyes wide open and then returning to a life that doesn't ask much about it. This is the experience of five Canadian doctors who have been offering urgent medical aid in Gaza for almost three years. But in Gaza, the absence of resources means often all they can do is bear witness. In this podcast, each doctor shares how what they experienced changed their lives.

Guests in this episode:

Mel Brecknell is a physician specializing in emergency medicine.

Rizwan Minhas is a board certified physician in family medicine in Canada and the U.S.

Ben Thomson is a Toronto physician working in nephrology, general internal medicine, and public health predominantly in humanitarian work zones.

Eman Lubani is a pediatric emergency physician in London, Ontario.

Noor Amin is a physician in Ontario practicing sports and exercise medicine.

In the mid-20th century, convenience was presented as 'the wave of the future,' where revolutionary home appliances would reduce work and save time. Today, convenience drives the success of tech and retail giants, our phones have become 'convenience machines,' and AI has taken the concept to terrifying heights. What happens when a culture positions convenience as a 'supreme value'? In this podcast, IDEAS contributing producer Olivia Trono explores the cult of convenience and considers what inconvenience may have to offer us.

Guests in this episode:

Luang Por Amaro is the abbot of Amaravati Buddhist Monastery. His talk “Choose Life, Choose Inconvenience” is available on YouTube.

Rebecca Beausaert is a history professor at the University of Guelph, and co-curator of "Kitchens of the Future: Food, Technology, and Convenience Culture in Cold War Canada."

Joshua Neves is a professor of film and moving image studies at Concordia University, and co-author of In/Convenience: Inhabiting the Logistical Surround.

Siva Vaidhyanathan is a media studies professor at the University of Virginia, and author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

Tim Wu is a law professor at Columbia University, and author of The Age of Extraction and The Attention Merchants.

Theatre of the Absurd was born in the wake of the Second World War as a recoil against the violent fetish that totalitarian regimes had for “order.” For 75 years, absurdist playwright Eugène Ionesco's plays have been running continuously in Paris. IDEAS contributor Danny Braun went to Paris to delve into Ionesco's world where a professor can conclude confidently that a dog is in fact a cat. *This episode originally aired on Oct. 9, 2025.

The 21st century is witness to resurgent global authoritarianism, driven by leaders who answer to no law other than their own. Nahlah Ayed and panelists consider the rise of today’s authoritarians — Trump, Putin, Orban, Duterte and beyond — and what we can learn from history about how authoritarianism can be challenged, and ultimately defeated. This final episode in How to Defeat Authoritarianism examines our present moment, identifying the ways in which authoritarian politics has returned — and the tools to resist them.

Listen to other episodes in this series:
How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Benito Mussolini's Italy
How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Idi Amin's Uganda
How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Bashar al-Assad's Syria
How to Defeat Authoritarianism | Augusto Pinochet's Chile

Guests on this podcast:

Marie-Joelle Zahar is a professor of political science at the University de Montréal. She is a 2023-26 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and has served multiple terms as a mediation expert for the United Nations, including a senior expert in the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria in 2017.

Miriam Mufti is an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo. She’s the author of Pathways to Power, Recruitment and Regime Stability in Pakistan.

Lucan Ahmad-Way is the distinguished professor of democracy in the political science department at the University of Toronto, and is the co-author of Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism.

Hanif Abdurraqib lives his life heart-forward. His writing is informed by the many losses he's endured, but also by his commitment to "love deeply" and to not let machines do his thinking and feeling for him. Doing so, he says, risks atrophying our hearts and minds. "For me, the cost of a heart that's fraying at the edges is too high."

Abdurraqib is the 2026 Weston International Award winner, presented by the Writers Trust of Canada for a body of work by a nonfiction author. He is a poet, essayist, cultural critic, and author of eight books, including, There’s Always Next Year and A Little Devil in America.