Tapestrywith Mary Hynes

Author Irshad Manji argues adversarial behaviour towards people you disagree with holds back social progress.

Author Irshad Manji argues adversarial behaviour toward people you disagree with holds back social progress. How do you ask for forgiveness after you abandon everything? Mathieu Arsenault, a filmmaker who suffers from bipolar disorder, is trying to answer that question.

Mathieu Arsenault was working as a TV editor in Montreal and expecting a second child with his girlfriend, Alix. Then one day, Arsenault abandoned it all after a voice in his head told him to head to San Francisco to start a spiritual revolution.

While some might respond to the vastness of the universe with a sense of existential dread, physicist and cosmologist Marcelo Gleiser takes a different approach, offering up something he calls “human centrism.”

A drug overdose left Brendon Meister with a serious brain injury. Following the incident, Meister left Toronto to live with his family in Kentville, N.S. Just as difficult as recovery, however, was finding a new purpose in life. That came when he discovered goat farming.

Niki Andresen ended up with a home in Victoria she'd never expected to have, thanks to a surprise gift from her family. Andresen says while she's grateful, she can't help but feel like she cheated.

Jen Doll tells us why we need to talk about where wealth comes from and the advantages it gives people. Meanwhile another woman confronts her housing privilege and a man goes from drug overdose to goat farmer.

Game of Thrones wraps as a secular fantasy epic that questions and subverts the genre's typical theological narratives, argues a Canadian political scientist. Mike Rugnetta tells Tapestry how recommendation algorithms can have an impact on identity.

Game of Thrones wraps as a secular fantasy epic that questions and subverts the genre’s typically dominant theological narratives, argues a Canadian political scientist.

Mike Rugnetta wanted to know what recommendations YouTube would give him if he searched for "How to run a 5K," and the results were... tempting. He tells Tapestry how recommendation algorithms can have an impact on the people we become.

David Wallace-Wells's 2017 article, "The Uninhabitable Earth," outlined the horrifying consequences of climate change on our planet. Despite the article's success, Wallace-Wells says we are still not alarmed enough to fight against climate change.

Individual lifestyle choices — such as recycling or reducing meat consumption — are not enough to slow down climate change, according to journalist David Wallace-Wells. He says only engagement at a high level can help mitigate the disastrous ecological impacts of human activity on the environment.

Jean Vanier, the Canadian who created the L’Arche network of communities for intellectually disabled people, has died. Tapestry revisits a 2005 interview in which Jean Vanier told Mary Hynes about the genesis of his beliefs, the founding of L’Arche and what it brought him. 

Parents today are facing more scrutiny than ever before. But Ann Douglas wants to celebrate the fact that parents don't have to be perfect, rather than spread the narrative that parenting is an exercise in misery.

Erica Lenti’s traditional Italian nonna doesn’t know she’s gay, and if Lenti has her way, she'll never find out. She said it gives her freedom within her family she might not have otherwise.

Parents today are facing more scrutiny than ever before. But Ann Douglas wants to celebrate the fact that parents don't have to be perfect. Erica Lenti’s traditional Italian nonna doesn’t know she’s gay, and if Lenti has her way, she'll never find out.

Renae Franiuk, a psychology professor at Aurora University, says the belief in soulmates can determine a lot about how you enter a relationship, and how long you might stay — even if it gets dangerous.

Researcher Arthur Aron has some surprising ideas on how to make love work. Romance tip: increase your likelihood of falling in love by having someone threaten you with electric shock.

Love might at first appear like something truly unknowable — but science has been slowly unpacking the secrets of how and why humans fall in love. Tapestry talks to Arthur Aron on how to make love last and Renae Franiuk on relationship styles.

Isabel Bayrakdarian's album Mother of Light was conceived as she prayed for her mother's life. She bargained with God: if you take care of my mom, I'll sing about Your mom. The result is a collection of Armenian hymns and chants in praise of Mary.

UBC sociologist Sinikka Elliott and her colleagues spent five years investigating what it really takes to put food on the table, working with more than 150 American families across different classes and racial backgrounds. They found that the moral pressure placed on family meal time might be as damaging as it is helpful.

Carrah Quigley was 19 when she learned her father went on an armed rampage at his school in 1955, killing one classmate before turning himself into police. After serving time in a psychiatric hospital, Quiqley's father went on to lead a life full of love and compassion. Now, she says, her father's story has changed the way she understands violent crimes and the people who commit them.