The media may move on... but for the people behind the headlines, the story continues. This week, Piya speaks with people affected by some of the year's top news stories of 2018 to find out what their lives are like after trending.

Earlier this year, Toronto police charged Bruce McArthur with first-degree murder in the deaths of eight men who had disappeared from, or had ties to Toronto's gay village. Judi Riley hopes all police agencies will take cases of missing men more seriously. Her brother, Jon, disappeared in 2013. His disappearance has not officially been linked to the McArthur cases. But as Judi tells Piya, with every headline about McArthur this year, she wondered whether Jon's name might appear in the story.

Anilu Chadwick is an immigration lawyer with Kids in Need of Defense [KIND], which normally represents unaccompanied minors who arrive in the United States. But when the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy led to the separation of thousands of children from their parents earlier this year, she began representing them too. She gives us a first-hand account of what it's like to work with these kids and families, and why some kids still remain separated today.

Beverly Smith's legs were amputated after she was struck in the Toronto van attack. She describes the challenges she's facing now that she's back at home, after spending time recovering in a rehabilitation facility.

2018 marked British Columbia's worst wildfire season in the province's history. The northern BC community of Telegraph Creek was one of many areas affected by the fires. Alice Hamlin Auger calls Telegraph Creek home. She tells Piya about being evacuated, learning her house had burned to the ground, and what life's been like living hours away in a hotel ever since.

Two words dominated news from the Korean peninsula this year: Denuclearization and reunification. As the world watched the North Korea-United States summit and the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang capture headlines, some North Korean defectors in Canada felt human rights were being overlooked. Piya speaks with one of them, who we're calling "David", about his perspective of the year's news.

More Canadians are living in cities than ever before. But research shows that as these centres grow, social supports aren't keeping up, and all that crowding leads people to feel isolated. This week, with that ongoing rise in urbanization and isolation, Piya explores how people are creating community.

Toronto retirees Doug and Mardi Tindal didn't want to live out the rest of their days alone in a condo. So, they're remodeling a house where they hope to live communally and grow old with as many as a dozen other people. Piya visits them to see their work-in-progress and hear how they're creating a space to foster support and companionship in old age.

Howard Lawrence thinks building a community needs to start with the simple act of saying hello to what are increasingly the strangers next door. He tells Piya about moving to Edmonton, feeling isolated from the people closest to him, and coming up with the concept of "block connectors" to promote neighbourly interaction and support.

The local church used to be a go-to place for community in Canada, but modern attendance is lower than ever, especially among young people and those living in urban centres. And that can leave young urbanites who are religious feeling lonely. We visit the C3 Church in Toronto, which caters to such Christians, to talk to attendees about the religious void they've felt among their peers, and what drew them to this more casual church, tailored to a younger crowd.