When she got cancer, Ellen Vanstone took comfort in the absurd causes that her pathologist ex-boyfriend offered: eating bad steak, walking past uranium, the Big Bang dispatching a photon that landed in her groin. “I start to feel less guilty,” she writes. thewalrus.ca/the-cosmos-broug...

“A Vengeful God … gave me cancer to punish me for my years of sin and slutitude.”

In an excerpt from her posthumous memoir, Ellen Vanstone recounts the absurdly funny reality of receiving a call about her potential cancer diagnosis in a doggy daycare parking lot. thewalrus.ca/the-cosmos-broug...

“God knows most novels are shit, but nobody is out here suggesting we all stop writing them.”

Memoirs and reportage are facing unprecedented pushback from acquisition teams. Has the publishing industry abandoned an entire art form? thewalrus.ca/nonfiction-is-st...

Do you need a podcast or audiobook to get through a morning walk?

Our advice columnist Courtney Shea is writing about how to focus on one thing at a time and would love to hear your story: thewalrus.ca/calling-all-read...

Nonfiction sales are down, and publishers are quick to blame readers for wanting escapism over fact. But what if the industry’s own marketing and pricing decisions are driving the crisis? Essayist and contributing writer Tajja Isen investigates. thewalrus.ca/nonfiction-is-st...

Quebec’s history of doing things on its own terms has often forced it to innovate, from ultra-high-voltage transmissions in 1965 to subsidized child care. Now, the province is using artificial intelligence to innovate its health care system. Will it work? thewalrus.ca/quebecs-next-sov...

“Call it the art of the Greenland deal: take rights America already had, declare victory over threats that barely existed, and announce a historic triumph.”

Peter Jones takes us beyond the smoke and mirrors of the US–Denmark–Greenland deal. thewalrus.ca/trump-greenland-...

Alberta separatism has been framed as a question of whether the province should stay part of Canada. But what would it actually become if it left? Max Cameron investigates: thewalrus.ca/breaking-up-with...

“I would call what’s happening now the myth of the ceasefire,” says Walid Batrawi, an award-winning Palestinian journalist. “It wasn’t a peace deal. These terms—ceasefire, peace deal—are only to comfort ourselves that we don’t have to do anything.”

thewalrus.ca/one-year-on-gaza...

Canada played a key role in the story of the telephone. Explore how Alexander Graham Bell’s work in Brantford, Ontario, helped shape a technology that transformed how we connect, from the earliest calls to the phones we carry today. 🎧 Listen now: lnkfi.re/canadian-tim...

It took twenty-five years, a twelve-judge panel and a tiny, five-day flowering window of opportunity to engineer Canada’s newest apple variety, coming to you this fall.

Meet the Sunpunch.

thewalrus.ca/canada-sunpunch-...

Pears disintegrate before you get home. Grapes rot in piles. But apples double-park in the centre of the produce aisle.

Here’s the $4.4 million story of Canada’s next big fruit innovation: a tricolour, tropical-tasting apple, twenty-five years in the making.

thewalrus.ca/canada-sunpunch-...

Quebec’s sovereignty movement is increasingly going beyond the Parti Québécois. Podcasts, rappers, YouTubers, creators, and organizations like OUI Québec are drafting a pro-independence culture that isn’t tied to any single party. https://thewalrus.ca/quebec-young-sovereigntists/

Data sovereignty refers to whether a country can control the data and digital infrastructure it creates. The Moneris deal puts this question into sharp focus—particularly as Canada navigates a trade war with the US. https://thewalrus.ca/selling-moneris/

For Zalika Reid-Benta, a long walk means entering a trancelike state. It’s a cost-effective commute, a dramatic internal movie, a way to spend time with a friend. “In some ways, or one really specific way, to me, walking is like writing,” writes Reid-Benta. https://thewalrus.ca/new-york-walking/

Canada’s airports are publicly owned. Now, Ottawa wants to open them for private investment. “The biggest advocate for change is private industry,” writes Isaac Peltz. “For them, it’s win-win. But for Canadians, it’s lose-lose.” https://thewalrus.ca/carney-wants-to-privatize-airports/

Instead of retreating from globalization, Canada should take its place as a real competitor on the world stage. Hear more at McGill University and Max Bell School of Public Policy present The Walrus Talks at Home: Canada After America. https://twth-canada-after-america.eventbrite.ca/?aff=Social

Alberta’s separation referendum is fast approaching. In a province where thirty-three of its thirty-seven ridings are Conservative, why are federal Conservative MPs keeping quiet? Claire Porter Robbins reports: https://thewalrus.ca/pierre-poilievres-alberta-problem/

Payment processors connect merchants, banks, and credit card companies, moving around information about who we are, what we buy, and where we go. “That’s deeply personal information that we wouldn’t want to see going into the wrong hands,” says Douglas Sarro.
https://thewalrus.ca/selling-moneris/

Genetic mutations like BRCA account for just 5 to 10 percent of breast cancer diagnoses. Family history, reproductive health, and breast tissue density play huge roles—but many women remain completely unaware. https://thewalrus.ca/breast-cancer-high-risk/