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 and valued members of their communities.

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.

At The Walrus Talks at Home: Teens and Screens, 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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As the 2026 Winter Olympics continue and the Paralympics approach, a familiar narrative emerges, one of triumph through determination. But resilience isn’t forged by determination alone—it is shaped and sustained by the people around us.

Three-time Paralympic gold medalist Jeff Adams reflects on a wheelchair racing event where a chorus of support gave him the strength he needed to persevere through adversity, reminding us that none of us get to our finish lines alone.

Adams spoke at The Walrus Talks at Home: Resilience on May 16, 2021.

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We’re often told that improving our digital skills will help keep us safe online. Yet managing the risks we face has less to do with our own know-how than with the way technology is designed.

Philosopher and public policy analyst Dr. Daniel Munro stresses the importance of reexamining digital infrastructures and challenging tech makers to create a safer, fairer digital world by confronting harmful content and algorithmic bias.

Dr. Munro spoke at The Walrus Talks Digital Skills in Toronto on June 6, 2023.

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Food insecurity among Inuit in Canada has been called one of the longest-lasting public health emergencies in Canadian history. It’s a crisis rooted in colonial policy—and one that continues to shape who has access to food, income, and self-determination in Nunavut.

Rachel Blais—former executive director of Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre—explains why the right to culturally appropriate and sustainably harvested food is critical to achieving true and lasting food security in the North.

Blais spoke at The Walrus Talks Global Hunger Crisis in Ottawa on October 18, 2022.

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Canada is racing to build the infrastructure that will shape its economic and political future. But moving faster means little unless the systems guiding that development are strong enough to be trusted.

Independent lawyer and consultant Jesse McCormick argues that making any meaningful progress with Canada’s major projects will require building trust with First Nations by prioritizing their consent and establishing regulatory systems that put First Nations behind the wheel.

McCormick spoke at The Walrus Talks Sovereign Canada in Toronto on October 28, 2025.

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