Once upon a time, there was a city I used to love. "Toronto the good," as it was nicknamed during the Victorian era, now looks more to me like Toronto the bad. From the poetry and paintings of the Group of Seven's catalyst, Lawren Harris, we revisit an urbanization process that has been slowly erasing a long history of diversity and equality.…

Ditch your non-fiction books for a while and get lost in a made-up story. From the Theory of Mind to Feminism and hidden revolutions, in this episode we explore how novels hold the key to understanding reality--or escaping it.By Viviana Laperchia

"Robot Dreams" is a cinematic love letter to a glorious 1980s New York. In this episode, inspired by the film, I explore my nostalgia for a pre 9/11 world, the role of cities in Italo Calvino and the poetics of places of Gaston Bachelard.By Viviana Laperchia

Does silence actually exist? Or is it filled with frequencies that are supposed to alert us to the reality around us? In this episode, we look at the role of sound in social contexts, from Nazism to John Kennedy assassination and mindful meditation. Original music by Viviana Laperchia.By Viviana Laperchia

Have you ever wondered if your higher sense of justice is a personality trait or a symptom? Are women more prone to be neurodivergent or just more sensitive? In this episode, we're looking at Emily Dickinson's poetry and Billie Holiday's singing* to find an answer.*For commentary purposes, this episode contains an audio sample of "Strange Fruit" pe…

Can we ever really experience migrants' struggle to be able to care for them? Or are we playing with cultural appropriation? A brief journey through migration and colonialism, arts and politics on both sides of the ocean.By Viviana Laperchia

If we are what we say, then there's never been better time than now to have a voice. From Edgar Allan Poe's ventriloquism to Noam Chomsky's theory of language acquisition, I comb through my university memories to understand today's silence on Gaza.By Viviana Laperchia

Big breath, and... Let's get started! Here's a sneak peek of what you can expect from this podcast. A journey to uncover things that need to be talked about. News, films, books, art that get under our skin and keep us up at night.By Viviana Laperchia