IDEAS for the week of April 15

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IDEAS airs Monday to Friday on CBC Radio One
at 8 p.m. (8:30 p.m. NT) and 4 a.m. (4:30 a.m. NT)

Two hundred years ago, in Prussia, a mid-level bureaucrat, Wilhelm Von Humbolt created the public education system as we know it now. (Wikimedia)

MONDAY, APRIL 15

Humboldt's Ghost, Part One

Two hundred years ago in Prussia, a mid-level bureaucrat, Wilhelm Von Humboldt, pulled off an incredible feat. In only 18 months, Humbolt created the world's first-ever public education system. The template is still used around the world today. And yet most of us have never even heard of him. At the heart of Humboldt's philosophy of education was the concept of Bildung. Simply put, it's one's potential. Humbolt wanted students to learn how to reach their full inner potential, their Bildung. He believed in the power of the individual. And that the purpose of education was to create independent, critical thinkers. In the first of this two-part series, IDEAS contributor and economic historian Karl Turner, looks at the remarkable life of Wilhelm von Humboldt.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

Humboldt's Ghost, Part Two

In part two of our series, Humbolt's Ghost, IDEAS contributor and economic historian Karl Turner examines how Wilhelm Von Humboldt's public education system came to be adopted around the world. And how the basics of his template is still in use. Albeit the core of his philosophy of education, Bildung, has been somewhat lost. Turner also asks if this 200-year-old system is equipped to meet the challenging demands of the 21st century.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17

The History of Aerial Bombing

The bombing of civilians has been called one of the "great scandals" of modern warfare. From the British bombing of Iraq in the 1920s, to the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, to the Israeli bombing of Gaza now, justifications of the mass killing of civilians have been made on strategic and moral grounds. But where did this idea originate? And why, despite nearly a century of developing laws and conventions protecting the sanctity of human life, does aerial bombing remain a compelling military strategy?

THURSDAY, APRIL 18

VIU Lecture: Riley Yesno on the Reconcilliation Generation

The Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University has assessed that just over a dozen of the 94 calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada report have been achieved. Researcher Riley Yesno notes that many Indigenous young people — the 'reconciliation generation' who came of age at this time — are no longer willing to wait. Instead, this generation seeks transformative, even revolutionary, change: reclaiming ownership of the land, and going beyond merely surviving, to thriving. The queer Anishinaabe scholar, writer and commentator from Eabametoong First Nation delivers a keynote talk on this subject at Vancouver Island University, and speaks with IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed.

FRIDAY, APRIL 19

"This city is trying to kill me": Robin Mazumder

Robin Mazumder once worked as an occupational therapist. In trying to help a depressed client find urban connection, in guiding another man with disabilities across a wide street in winter — he became convinced that urban environments often have a destructive effect on people's health and wellbeing. So Mazumder became an environmental neuroscientist, using technology to measure urban stress. That science helps him passionately advocate for cities to be more equitable, healthy, and human-scale, particularly for children and the vulnerable. He details his professional and personal motivations in a conversation with Nahlah Ayed, alongside excerpts from his 2023 Zeidler-Evans Lecture, called A City That Can Save Us. *This episode originally aired on Nov. 16, 2023.

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In a democracy, how reasonable can we reasonably demand that others be? Thinkers (from L to R) Miglena Todorova, George Elliott Clarke, Lynne Viola, Rinaldo Walcott, and Anakana Schofield share their answers. (University of Toronto/Camelia Linta/Turgut Yeter/CBC/Arabella Campbell)

IDEAS IN THE AFTERNOON

MONDAY, APRIL 15 at 2 p.m.

**Five Canadian thinkers take the IDEAS 'Reasonableness Questionnaire'**

From the interpersonal to the societal: what is reasonableness? And in a democracy, how reasonable can we reasonably demand that others be? Five Canadian thinkers try to define what “reasonableness” means, and what it is to behave and think reasonably.