Tapestrywith Mary Hynes

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.

Carrah Quigley was 19 when she learned her father was a school shooter. Now, she says, her father's story has changed the way she understands violent crimes and the people who commit them. UBC sociologist Sinikka Elliott says the moral pressure placed on the family meal time might be as damaging as it is helpful.

Religion and spirituality can be a guide to a sustainable future, said Philip Clayton, who helps run the Institute for an Ecological Civilization.

Genocide survivor Eloge Butera was dealing with deep psychological trauma when he came to Canada several years after the atrocities. There Butera encountered a group of people specially equipped to help him learn to cope: elderly survivors of the Holocaust.

Genocide survivor Eloge Butera copes with deep psychological trauma when he came to Canada several years after the atrocities. Philip Clayton says a spiritual worldview ù which links humanity intrinsically to nature —  is needed before we can ever hope to create sustainable societies.

Philosopher Lee McIntyre defends the role of the ‘public philosopher,’ a thinker who steps out of the academy to engage with non-scholars in the hopes of helping them grapple with their questions and challenges.

T. Wise’s parents longed for grandkids. But as a trans man, he never saved any eggs before transitioning. Now, he grapples with the question of whether he owes his parents for the years they spent lovingly raising him — and how should he repay them.

Philosopher Lee McIntyre says more than ever, society needs its thinkers to engage in public discourse; and writer T. Wise struggles with how to honour his parents, now that it’s too late to give them grandkids.

Reniqua Allen says once segregation ended as official US policy, black Americans started believing they too could benefit from the promise of economic freedom and upward mobility. Decades later, she says, the failure of that promise is driving young black Americans to burnout.

Phillip Dwight Morgan thought his cycling trip across Canada would answer his unresolved questions about identity and belonging. Instead, it confronted him with new ones.

Reniqua Allen on the broken promises of the American dream for black millennials, and Phillip Dwight Morgan on cycling across Canada as a young black man.

Memphis Cadeau, co-owner of Grim City Tattoo Club in Hamilton, Ont., works pro bono with a range of clients, from former gang members to victims of human trafficking, who say getting a tattoo removed can be life-changing.

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, director of Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos and Angry Inuk, explains why deciding to get traditional Inuit tattoos was emotionally fraught — and what that means for non-Indigenous people looking to get the tattoos.

Tattoos and the very human desire to leave your mark — on yourself.

Memphis Cadeau, co-owner of Grim City Tattoo Club in Hamilton, Ont., works pro bono with a range of clients, from former gang members to victims of human trafficking, who say getting a tattoo removed can be life-changing.

Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, director of Tunniit: Retracing the Lines of Inuit Tattoos and Angry Inuk, explains why deciding to get traditional Inuit tattoos was emotionally fraught — and what that means for non-Indigenous people looking to get the tattoos.