The Conversation Piece

The Walrus Gala is the biggest night of the year for The Walrus, bringing together hundreds of writers, journalists, artists, and supporters in one room to celebrate the work of Canadian journalism. This year, the night raised close to half a million dollars in support of The Walrus’s award-winning reporting. For the first time, The Conversation Piece set up a podcast booth in the middle of the ce...

Before people care what you believe, they must believe that you care. Anthony Morgan learned that lesson not from a polarization study, but from a U-Haul counter on the worst moving day of his life. Anthony Morgan is co-host of CBC's The Nature of Things and a social scientist studying polarization and misinformation. Drawing on a personal story about a tense exchange with a rental clerk, he s...

Elbows up, maple leaf flags, a stadium full of people rising for the anthem—Riley Yesno stayed seated, and asks whether this new wave of Canadian nationalism is really the belonging we're looking for. Riley Yesno is a scholar, writer, and Indigenous Politics Expert at the University of Toronto and The Yellowhead Institute. Drawing on her own experience as the granddaughter of residential schoo...

Belonging often means entering a system whose values, references, and aesthetics were never built with you in mind. Alica Hall asks what gets lost in that exchange—and what it might look like to stop asking for entry altogether. Alica Hall is the Executive Director of the Nia Centre for the Arts, Canada's first professional multidisciplinary Black arts centre. Drawing on her own experience bui...

Agency isn't something Canada hands newcomers along with healthcare and a job. It's something they have to claim for themselves—and Maiwand Rahyab thinks the country's next chapter depends on it. Maiwand Rahyab is founder and CEO of Resilient Societies, an organization protecting civic space and democracy in Canada and around the world. Drawing on his own journey to Canada as a refugee...

Susu, boxhand, meeting turn, partner—the informal banking systems built by marginalized communities have names most Canadians have never heard, and don't recognize as a legacy already thriving here. Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Canada Research Chair of Feminist Political Economy and founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective. Drawing on more than a decade of research into rotating sa...

Community isn't the soft stuff around democracy—it's the load-bearing wall holding it up. Amanda Munday is executive director of New Majority, a nonpartisan organization that activates young and first-time voters. Drawing on her own experience building a co-working and childcare space after hitting a wall of policy inaction, she shows how community infrastructure—not political access—is often what...

Public libraries have run on overdue fines and quiet-please rules for generations. Increasingly, more of them are dropping both—and discovering that connection, not silence, is what makes a place worth belonging to. Åsa Kachan is CEO and Chief Librarian of Halifax Public Libraries. She drawing on her own experience growing up in libraries, she shows how removing fines, welcoming food and conversat...

Physical infrastructure can be seen. Relational infrastructure can only be felt—and it might be the difference between a park and a place worth belonging to. Jorge Garza is director of Networks for Change at the Tamarack Institute. Drawing on communities like BC's Tri-Cities, he shows how relational infrastructure—the connections and collective intelligence beneath a place—is turns static spaces i...

Beneath the noise of traffic, one Toronto space is quietly proving that conversation—not commerce—is what makes a neighborhood. Anna Gallagher-Ross is senior manager of programming at The Bentway, a public space beneath Toronto's Gardiner Expressway that hosts year-round arts programming and social gatherings. Drawing on The Bentway's research, she shows how seating, art, and play turn passersby i...

Housing is a human right we don't yet action—so what happens to belonging when your address depends on your bank account? Michelle Hoar is a fellow at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University and project director for the Hey Neighbour Collective, an initiative building neighbourly connection and resilience in multi-unit housing. This special episode of The Conversation Pie...

Conversations about accessibility are often framed around legislation and accommodations, but the stories we tell about disability can be equally powerful in shaping how accessibility is perceived and lived. Human rights lawyer and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) consultant Prasanna Ranganathan argues that accessibility requires more than policy change—it demands...

Gender shapes how we move through the world, but the expectations attached to it can be limiting and exclusionary, most especially for trans and gender non-conforming people. Comedian, writer, and singer Tranna Wintour meditates on her experience as a trans woman and argues that it is not trans people who complicate our understanding of gender but the narrow binary that limits who we are allowed t...

Cities are being asked to solve some of society’s biggest crises with limited resources and shrinking political authority. As pressure continues to mount on municipal governments, so do questions about who really shapes the communities we live in. Jeff Gray, Queen’s Park reporter for the Globe and Mail , offers an inside look at the machinery of local democracy, and breaks down what it will take t...

Wildfires expose how responsibility for public safety is shared—and sometimes fragmented—across systems that are not always designed to work together. Chief Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, makes the case for stronger coordination as fires increasingly move from remote landscapes into the communities where people live. Chief McMullen spoke at The Walrus Talks Wil...

Discussions around public safety tend to focus on questions of order and enforcement. In practice, however, public safety is also informed by our capacity to hold space for people in crisis instead of pushing them through it. Suzanne Obiorah, chief executive officer of Somerset West Community Health Centre, reflects on a growing fracture in Canada’s response to addiction and underscores the import...

For older adults, belonging is dependent on dignity, choice, and the ability to “age in the right place.” André Picard is a health columnist at the Globe and Mail and the author of the bestselling book Neglected No More: The Urgent Need to Improve the Lives of Canada’s Elders . This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from his presentation at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging...

First Nations elders play a vital role in their communities. Forcing them to relocate in the pursuit of adequate health care doesn’t just undermine their dignity—it severs key familial and cultural connections. Dr. Nel Wieman is the chief medical officer for the First Nations Health Authority in British Columbia. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from her presentation...

Rural communities thrive when older adults are invited to remain visible within them. Dr. Olive Bryanton is a researcher, advocate for older people, and lifelong learner who completed her PhD at the age of eighty-two. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from her presentation at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum, an initiativ...

How can we reframe aging as a lifelong process grounded in joy, rather than a fixed state of decline? Dr. Rose Joudi is the senior adviser for gender equity, diversity, and inclusion at HelpAge Canada. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from her presentation at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum, an initiative of the Samuel...

Social media is built around rewards—a digital feedback loop of likes, shares, and comments. For teenagers, whose brains are still developing, the risks associated with those rewards may not be immediately apparent. Dr. Emma Duerden, Canada Research Chair in Neuroscience and Learning Disorders at Western University, explains how the adolescent brain’s reward system develops earlier than its cognit...

As the 2026 Winter Olympics continue and the Paralympics approach, a familiar narrative emerges, one of triumph through determination. But resilience isn’t forged by determination alone—it is shaped and sustained by the people around us. Three-time Paralympic gold medalist Jeff Adams reflects on a wheelchair racing event where a chorus of support gave him the strength he needed to persevere throug...

We’re often told that improving our digital skills will help keep us safe online. Yet managing the risks we face has less to do with our own know-how than with the way technology is designed. Philosopher and public policy analyst Dr. Daniel Munro stresses the importance of reexamining digital infrastructures and challenging tech makers to create a safer, fairer digital world by confronting harmful...

Food insecurity among Inuit in Canada has been called one of the longest-lasting public health emergencies in Canadian history. It’s a crisis rooted in colonial policy—and one that continues to shape who has access to food, income, and self-determination in Nunavut. Rachel Blais—former executive director of Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre—explains why the right to culturally appropriate and sust...

Canada is racing to build the infrastructure that will shape its economic and political future. But moving faster means little unless the systems guiding that development are strong enough to be trusted. Independent lawyer and consultant Jesse McCormick argues that making any meaningful progress with Canada’s major projects will require building trust with First Nations by prioritizing their conse...