Ideas Folgen

Complete. Whole. Divine order. That's just the start of what makes the humble dozen extraordinary. It's one of only two numbers ever discovered in mathematics to be “sublime.” Twelve makes a number of appearances in pop culture, in religion, in non-fiction, everything from the 12 days of Christmas to the 12 people it takes to form a criminal jury. Still need convincing of 12’s perfection and indispensability? Check your watch.More episodes in our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time:Listen to The Curse of 13Listen to 27 Club LoreListen to The 33,000 Horsepower GamechangerListen to How 4 Makes and Breaks RulesGuests in this episode:Glen Van Brummelen is a professor of mathematical sciences at Trinity Western University.Ainsley Hawthorn is a cultural historian and nonfiction writer. She has a PhD in Near Eastern Civilizations from Yale University.

Has there ever been a number more maligned in western culture than 13? So feared, it's got its own horror-film franchise. So infamously unlucky, a good many of us avoid it en masse. We've just blindly accepted its bad reputation. As part of our series, The Greatest Numbers of All Time, IDEAS explores where our irrational fear and uncomfortable feelings about 13 began. *All five episodes in our number series will be available daily in our feed this week.*Listen to 12 is SublimeListen to 27 Club LoreListen to The 33,000 Horsepower GamechangerListen to How 4 Makes and Breaks RulesGuests in this episode:Stephen Winick is a folk life specialist at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress.Barry Markovsky is distinguished professor emeritus of sociology at University of South Carolina. His latest book is Everyday Extraordinary: A Scientist Ponders a Lifetime of Magical, Bizarre, and Paranormal Experiences.Claire Potter is an author of parenting books, including Getting the Little Blighters to Behave and the creator of the online programme Tiny Bites for parents of picky eaters.Rabbi Heschel Greenberg is the founder and director of the Jewish Discovery Center in Buffalo, New York. He has written many books including Tefillin: Judaism's Crown.

It's tempting to think suffering should be avoided at all costs, but moral suffering has its own distinct standing. It signals a moral conscience. Every day people consume real time violence, grief, war and genocide through screens and experience moral upending. Without a moral compass there’s no motivation to address necessary issues.Guests in this episode:Cynda Rushton is a nurse and a professor of nursing and bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.Robert Meagher is an emeritus professor at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts.Thea Lim is a novelist, culture writer, and creative writing teacher in Toronto.