The Conversation Piece

Nationalism has become a bad word for many on the political spectrum, but according to Prerna Singh, it is a word people who believe in democracy should fight to take back from those who would use it to divide. It can be empowering. It can build nations and activate citizens. And most of all, it can motivate social change. Singh is a Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and Inte...

Indigenous women are among the most marginalized in Canada. In her talk, Vanessa Tait speaks about how the sacred roles they previously held in their communities have been dismantled through colonialism and how all Canadians need to work together to support them. Vanessa Tait is a Two-Spirit Cree woman from O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba. She is a Queen Elizabeth Scholar an...

Most of the decisions about Canada’s future are being made by the current leaders in government. To Sara Abdessamie, there’s another voice that needs to be included in the conversation: Canada’s youth. Abdessamie is an alumna of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council and a graduate of the medical sciences program at Dalhousie University. She spoke at The Walrus Talks National Tour: We Desire a Be...

Have you ever been referred to as “resilient?” To some, resilience means survival, and calling someone resilient is meant as a compliment to their ability to survive. But to Philomina Okeke-Ihejirika, that label is not one she seeks for herself or for other Canadians. Okeke-Ihejirika is a professor of women’s and gender studies and director of the Pan African Collaboration for Excellence (PAC...

Resilience is often a celebrated state of being. But is it useful to use resilience as a policy? Resilience might be the watch word if you’re fighting a zombie apocalypse or evading a meteor that threatens all life on earth, but if we zoom out, celebrating resilience doesn’t solve or change issues that plague society, like inequality. Vinita Srivastava spoke about the need for structural change to...

Welcome back to The Conversation Piece. The first episode of season three drops next week, but here's a teaser to whet your appetite: Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Many have been forced to drop out of the workforce over the past year, with some people calling the COVID-19 economic downturn a she-cession. This downturn impacts racialised women even more. Journalist and author Ann Hui travelled across Canada, visiting Chinese restaurants in small towns from coast to coast to explore this issue,...

Female leadership has been front and centre during the pandemic. From New Zealand where COVID-19 infections have been managed under the leadership of a female Prime Minister, to Canada where the country’s top doctor is a woman of colour. How are women leading differently during the pandemic and how is it redefining what leadership is? Lauren McKeon is an author and journalist and she spoke at&nbsp...

It’s probably not surprising that so many of our speakers over this past year have focused on the loneliness of lockdown. Part of the reason it’s important to keep having this conversation is to fight the stigma against talking about loneliness and mental health issues. The physical and mental effects of loneliness are as serious as any other health issue. Health reporter Wency Leung imm...

The idea that we as immigrants who were colonised can move to Canada and become settlers is an unsettling thought. But to the Indigenous peoples of Canada, that is who we are. We are all immigrants, and we participate in some way in a colonial system inflicted on the Indigenous people. In her talk, Anubha Momin is a writer and performer in Iqaluit, Nunavut, and she talks about her Southern privile...

Personal storytelling has historically provided a new lens of experiences that challenge oppressive systems and introduced thousands of readers to the hardships of marginalised communities. Author and journalist Eternity Martis believes that these stories inspire future generations to create real change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The words we choose to share, write, and speak can influence and change the narrative of stereotypes we see in Canada, encouraging for more accurate depictions and stories of marginalized communities and characters. With World Book Day just around the corner, we wanted to acknowledge storytelling’s influential force on culture in Canada. For Annishinaabe author and journalist Waubgeshig...

Simple routines can suck up an incredible amount of time and energy for disabled people. Dianna Hu is a software engineer at Google, and she describes this energy as a limited number of spoons you start your day with and are destined to run out of. During the pandemic, Hu has begun to reclaim her spoons and find accessibility through working at home. With more spoons, comes more freedom; a new mor...

When we think of black holes, we think of a dark and terrifying unknown that distorts everything it touches. But, have we ever considered black holes to be polite? Daryl Haggard is a Canadian Research Chair in Multi-messenger Astrophysics and associate professor of Physics at McGill University and she spoke at CIFAR Presents The Walrus Talks Exploration in March 2020. Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

Children’s learning begins in the home - and the language spoken in the home is fundamental to a young child’s education. So, should parents be raising children with more than one language? And what are the benefits of children being bilingual? On International Mother Language Day, we celebrate linguistic diversity with Krista Byers-Heinlein, a developmental psychologist and associate professor of...

Are we equal in our praise for philanthropic acts? When you read news about support for something you believe in, how often do you read about the small acts of kindness? The contributions that may seem tiny when compared to what a sports star or a soft drink company CEO can give, but are significant to the person who gives. Anand Giridharadas is a former columnist for The New York Times and w...

For many of us, this week marks a full year of social isolation. Urged to stay home and keep our in-person interactions to a minimum we continue to rely on technology to stay connected. Some research even shows that isolation is just as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Now that we have all experienced 365 days of isolation and the loneliness that comes with it, why would we ever purposely imp...

With the majority of research  conducted  by men, it’s no surprise that most research  favours  men. So much that even the original crash test dummy was modelled after a man and a study, originally for the menstrual cycle, was cancelled when Viagra was discovered through it. On this International women’s day, it seems like a good time to ask: how can women gain a seat at t...

While Canada is far from a Utopia, we are trying to be peaceful and green and right our wrongs. We are trying to offer safety and clean water and homes. We are trying to be a better country, but first, we must be kind. In his talk from 2017, award-winning Canadian actor Graham Greene discusses how we can live better through kindness.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...

What do you eat? Your choices can transform the world. This applies to everything from the news you take in to the stores you shop at. But this is particularly true when it comes to the food you eat. Irwin Adam urges us to look at what happens before our meals are on our plates. The process is rather inefficient. What can we do to change this? Flour made from insects? Edible packaging? Tasting Dat...

Accessibility often doesn’t take into account different needs — if it is accessible for one person it might not be for another. Accessibility is not universal, but according to Aimee Louw it can be harmonised across our country. In her talk, Louw advocates for a future where accessibility isn’t treated as a favour or charity but as justice and equality. Where people are paid a livin...

In 2018, Siri Agrell spoke at The Walrus Talks Humanity about the important steps in human connection that can be lost in the virtual world. That Talk lead to a new book by Agrell, that is out in February 2021, and deserved an update from the author about how this pandemic and isolation influenced her writing. How to get Laid Without your Phone is available to order at www.withoutyourphone.com . H...

It feels like branding and marketing goes in cycles of themes, from earnest to snarky to authentic to sarcastic. At the beginning of the pandemic it all felt very earnest: that banding together, we’re all one human race, let’s get through this together. But as often happens, the cycle … cycled, and we started to get the juicy sarcastic stuff again. A few years ago, Terry O’Reilly, gave his Walrus...

It’s hard, separated from each other, living under the threat of a pandemic, witnessing unrest and argument, to feel empowered. But the truth of us is that each of us has power. Over ourselves for sure. Over our situations, often more than we think. If you’re feeling at the low-end in terms of empowerment, Sandy Hudson - organizer, writer, and the founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto - is about t...

Most of the discussion when it comes to education these days is whether students should be in classrooms or learning virtually, but who they are learning from is an ongoing issue, one that needs to be fixed at the root level. Or it will continue to effect both learners and teachers post-pandemic. Who is teaching? Who gets to go to University? Who gets tenure? And who is leading academia? Deb Sauci...