Abdullah Shihipar discusses the implicit balance between faith and agency in the Arabic word “inshallah” (God-willing), and why he encourages non-Muslim friends to start using the expression. He is also pretty sure that all cats are Muslim.

When difficult things happen, there’s an understandable human impulse to make it to the other side of catastrophe as quickly as you can. But biochemist and biologist Beronda Montgomery says we could stand to learn something about slowing down from trees.

John Stackhouse says he knows there are so many reasons to view his faith, Christianity, with skepticism. But Stackhouse wants to meet those misgivings head-on in the book, Can I Believe?: Christianity for the Hesitant. Later, Kate Bowler says she lived life looking for the best, but when that proved impossible, now she searches for "good enough."

David Chalmers is a professor of philosophy and neural science at New York University. He argues that there’s nothing ‘virtual’ about virtual reality. It's all real. Later we hear from the co-screenwriter of the movie Free Guy — Matt Lieberman. He speaks to Tapestry about how you might spot the difference between the life you’re living right now and a computer simulation.

Dr. Marc Agronin on his new book "The End of Old Age," and how to preserve the memory of a loved one in such a way that the loved one can talk back, long after they're gone.

Hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation. It suggests longing and homesickness, but that doesn't quite capture it. For Pamela Petro, it's a sense of incompleteness that can make you feel unfulfilled in the present. Though Petro was not born in Wales, she explores her connection to Wales in her memoir The Long Field.

And Tapestry producer Kent Hoffman explores his feelings of hiraeth through his own ties to Wales and his thoughts on moving on.

Swearing around members of a congregation? "Parish" the thought. But could profanity sometimes have a place on the pulpit?

Rev. Dr. Allan Rudy-Froese of the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary believes swear words can sometimes be the most honest words. Daniel Benson, a minister in the United Church of Canada, says swear words can express moments when other words won't do it.

Two spiritual leaders discuss swearing and the role it plays in society and in the authenticity of their ministry. Plus, Olly Robertson, a researcher at Oxford who specializes in swearing, weighs in on the science of swearing.

When the first lockdown hit New York City in 2020, freelance writer Max Falkowitz was stuck by himself. He’s single and lives alone, and Falkowitz was struck by how little he touched living beings anymore. He went from hugging friends to walking cautiously alongside them.

To take up his unwanted free time, Falkowitz decided to hunt for a hobby. He started with growing house plants but it wasn’t all-consuming enough. Bonsai, the Japanese art of cultivating tiny trees, seemed to be a specific enough venture, with enough depth that Falkowitz dove in.

Falkwotiz found that tending to his miniature cedars, redwoods, and pines, helped him feel better. He tells Tapestry that the experience not only brought him closer to an understanding of life and death, but brought him community.

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.

Christmas music, whether you love it or hate it, has a power over us we can't control, and science can back it up. Musicologist Joe Bennett at the Berklee College of Music in Boston has done a brief analysis on how we can define what a contemporary Christmas song even is, and the patterns and themes that seem to hit us at the heart. What makes "White Christmas" tick? Joe has a guitar and the answer.

Olly Robertson, a research assistant in The Oxford Psychological Interventions for Children and Adolescents research group at University of Oxford, meanwhile has written about the science of Christmas cheer, and why things like mistletoe, the Christmas tree, and of course the music have such an emotional impact.

The American Religious Sounds Project tries to answer the hard question: What does religion sound like? The researchers are inviting the listener to imagine religion as something that people do in all kinds of different spaces, as opposed to something people are.

Meanwhile, across Canada, church congregations are windling and costs to maintain their buildings continue to rise. So where does that leave the approximately 27 thousand buildings across Canada? Kendra Fry helps congregations see their buildings reborn as community hubs for everyone to use — religious or not.

"These buildings are incredibly important. They are often located literally geographically at the centre of their communities," said Fry. "The reason that not-for-profits use them is because of their location, because of their price, and not surprisingly, because of their accessibility."

It could be a game-changer in making cities and towns more liveable in Canada and around the world.