The Conversation Piece

Hosted by The Walrus

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Episodes

172

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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About the show

Need something new to talk about? Subscribe to the podcast that challenges the way you see everything in ten minutes or less. The Walrus Talks is a national event series that sparks conversations on the issues that matter most to Canadians. *The music in this podcast has been licensed and is called Intelligent Molecule by LexPremium. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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60 recent

September 10, 202611 min

Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein: How Susu Systems Build Belonging

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 savings and credit associations, she shows how these community-run economies build the trust and belonging that formal institutions often fail to offer. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Dr. Shenaz Hossein spoke at The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging in April 2026, in Toronto. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 27, 202612 min

Amanda Munday: The Workaround To Fixing Democracy

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 turns advocacy into real change. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Munday spoke at The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging on April 9, 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 6, 202610 min

Åsa Kachan: Libraries and Belonging

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 conversation, and designing for accidental encounters can turn libraries into places where belonging happens by design. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Kachan spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging on November 4, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 30, 20267 min

Jorge Garza: The Value of Relational Infrastructure

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 into ones that generate real belonging. This special episode of The Conversation Piece f eatures content from The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Garza spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging on November 4, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 23, 20268 min

Anna Gallagher-Ross: The Power of Public Space

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 into neighbours—and why public space is public health infrastructure. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from her presentation at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Gallagher-Ross spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging on November 4, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 16, 20268 min

Michelle Hoar: Housing and Belonging

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 Piece features content from her presentation at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum. Hoar spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Place and Belonging on November 4, 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 18, 20269 min

Prasanna Ranganathan: Using Storytelling to Advance Accessibility

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 new narratives that allow us to imagine the inclusive world we seek to build. Ranganathan spoke at The Walrus Talks AccessAbility in Toronto on May 26, 2026. To register for upcoming events happening online or in a city near you, and to catch up on our archive of The Walrus Talks, visit thewalrus.ca/events . And subscribe to The Walrus Events newsletter for updates and announcements, at t hewalrus.ca/newsletters . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 4, 20269 min

Tranna Wintour: Transcending Gender Labels

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 to be. Wintour spoke at The Walrus Talks Disruption in Toronto on November 6, 2018. To register for upcoming events happening online or in a city near you, and to catch up on our archive of The Walrus Talks, visit thewalrus.ca/events . And subscribe to The Walrus Events newsletter for updates and announcements, at t hewalrus.ca/newsletters . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 21, 20269 min

Jeff Gray: Cities Are Asked to Do More with Less

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. To register for upcoming events happening online or in a city near you, and to catch up on our archive of The Walrus Talks, visit thewalrus.ca/events . And subscribe to The Walrus Events newsletter for updates and announcements, at t hewalrus.ca/newsletters . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 7, 202610 min

Chief Ken McMullen: Why Canada Needs a National Fire Strategy

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. To register for upcoming events happening online or in a city near you, and to catch up on our archive of The Walrus Talks, visit thewalrus.ca/events . And subscribe to The Walrus Events newsletter for updates and announcements, at t hewalrus.ca/newsletters . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.