Ideas Folgen

It's not them, it's you. That's what fans of the cormorant argue, pointing out how people see the gangly aquatic bird all wrong. This common bird has gained a bad reputation by irritating communities with its large colonies, extreme fishing habits and tree-killing excrement. But defenders suggest maybe it's humans and their cultural assumptions that are the source of the problem. They say it's time for people to re-evaluate their perception of cormorants and acknowledge their beauty and worth. *This episode originally aired on October 6, 2021.

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.

In 1859, an American shot a pig that belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company. Suddenly, the U.S. and British Empire were on the brink of war once again. The incident became known as The Pig War, and it claimed one casualty: the pig. Over the years, tales about the conflict have been embellished and exaggerated, conspiracy theories invented, and lessons derived. But underneath all the folklore is a story of peace, diplomacy, and how we make meaning out of history. *This episode originally dropped on Oct. 15, 2024.