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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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