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 to alleviate the strain it's under.

Gray spoke at The Walrus Talks A New City in Toronto on April 26, 2023.

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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 Wildfires in Saskatoon on April 1, 2026.

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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 importance of building holistic support systems as provinces turn toward new models of care.

Obiorah spoke at The Walrus Talks Opioids on March 24, 2026.

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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 and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum, an initiative of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness.

Picard spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging on December 2, 2025.

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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 at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum, an initiative of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness.

Dr. Wieman spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging on December 2, 2025.

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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 initiative of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness.

Dr. Bryanton spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging on December 2, 2025.

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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 Centre for Social Connectedness.

Dr. Joudi spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Aging and Belonging on December 2, 2025.

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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 cognitive control centre—and what that means for how young people experience both online and offline spaces.

Dr. Duerden spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Teens and Screens on October 10, 2024.

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