Tapestry

Writer Susan Cain explores the idea that longing and sorrow can make you more human and more whole. Cain is the author of Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

Former Miss Canada Tara Teng spent years in the world of beauty pageants. But it wasn’t until she left her religion that she began to repair her relationship with her body. Teng is an embodiment coach in Vancouver, and the author of Your Body is a Revolution: Healing Our Relationships With Our Bodies, Each Other, and the Earth.

Noise canceling headphones are only becoming more sophisticated, but media studies professor Mack Hagood is concerned about the consequences of picking and choosing which sounds we get to hear.

Hagood is the author of Hush: Media and Sonic Self-Control. Even though he enjoys listening to podcasts and music on his headphones, he says they cut off the possibility of “sonic spontaneity.”

“We've really become consumers of sound, rather than people who just simply experience the sounds around us,” he said.

Brother Phap Huu is a buddhist monk who left his family in Mississauga, Ont. to study under Vietnamese peace activist and monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Huu tells us what drew him to make that fateful choice when he was only 13 years old.

Before Deanne Fitzpatrick discovered the art of rug-hooking, she had planned to become a therapist. These days her therapy comes from making things with her own two hands.

Mark Farmer says we should drop the idea of a bucket list. He’s planning something a little more humble to celebrate his days on earth. He calls it his Goodbye Tour.

MrBeast is the most popular YouTuber on the planet, who is making his reputation on viral acts of charity. But are his charitable acts really about giving, or are they about boosting his reputation while exploiting those in need? Tapestry spoke to three experts and a group of kids on what makes MrBeast so compelling, and why it’s worth thinking more critically about him.

Ron Rolheiser grew up in Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan, on the family farm. Ordained in 1972, he’s spent many years since then teaching philosophy and theology and has become known as one of the most important voices in spirituality today. Ron Rolheiser is a faculty member - and former president - at the Oblate School of Theology, in San Antonio Texas.

Rolheiser has a new book, Ron Rolheiser: Essential Spiritual Writings, and he spoke to Tapestry host Mary Hynes about discussing the spiritual with the secular. And what it means to move beyond the supposed sophistication of atheism.

John Francis Leader is a psychologist and cognitive scientist at University College Dublin. He’s the director of the Mixed Reality Therapy research project where they use virtual reality as a therapeutic tool with their patients. Leader describes the approach as “theme park meets therapy.”

Fay Nugent had a serious fear of heights for years. The simple act of getting on an escalator was terrifying. Nugent heard about a clinical trial for virtual reality therapy at Oxford University and gave it a try. Could a four hour virtual reality session really ease her fears and change her life?

Anis Mojgani is the poet laureate of Oregon and the creator of the Tele-poem Hotline, a phone line that through April, delivered a new poem each day through the phone lines. Anis and several Canadian poet laureates discuss that feeling of receiving and finding poetry in the real world — and what we lose when we ignore poetry.

Until now, a lot of forays into genderless fashion have been subdued and shapeless, featuring neutral colours and boxy silhouettes. The author and activist behind the #DeGenderFashion movement says a truly gender-fluid approach to dressing could allow room for a much more expressive wardrobe.

It’s one of the most beguiling and mysterious objects in all of human storytelling, and it has been inspiring people for centuries. But if you come across the words "Holy Grail" today, chances are someone's been shopping. But it can mean so much more. Later we hear from the NakedPastor.

As we near the end of Ramadan, Tapestry gets a glimpse into an important experience during one of Islam's holiest months: watching television.

Ahmad Hayat, an assistant professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, says watching television is a common leisure activity after iftar — the fast-breaking meal after sunset.

Later, Tapestry’s Sameer Chhabra visits a mosque in Toronto to talk about fasting survival tips. And we revisit a conversation with writer Abdullah Shihipar on the popularity of the word "inshallah," meaning “God-willing.”

CBC Ottawa’s Halima Sogbesan shares the story of one woman’s experience of memorizing the Qur’an.