The Torontonian
by Mary Wiens & Michael Brown
Society & CultureE · Explicit
Latest episode
Toronto transit as a Greek tragedy
Toronto transit as a Greek tragedy
About this podcast
What is a Torontonian? Someone who loves the city. Sometimes hates it too. Someone who’s here because it’s the right time and place for them. Lots of warm, wise, funny, thoughtful people. Also stubborn and bruised people with a story to tell. Meet them all with Mary Wiens and Michael Brown.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 21 episodes
- Toronto transit as a Greek tragedy · 38 min · Season 3 Episode 2The two Transit Steves — Wickens and Munro — return to The Torontonian to explain why you have to go back to the ancient Greeks to understand Toronto’s transit woes.
- The smell of chlorine · 50 min · Season 3 Episode 1Walking into an aging Etobicoke pool, the smell of chlorine and the sight of peeling paint instantly transported Olympian Claire Carver-Dias back to her 16-year-old self. Today a…
- You’re the top! The CN Tower turns 50 this week · 47 min · Season 2 Episode 12Longtime chief supervising engineer Jamil Mardukhi was there when the concrete was being poured and he kept a watchful eye on the CN Tower for the rest of his career. He tells…
- Why do municipalities keep taking natural gardeners to court? · 44 min · Season 2 Episode 11In this episode, Mary Wiens asks landscape gardener Sean James whether the courts are the best place to settle complaints from neighbours about natural gardens. Or whether this…
- A running reading marathon · 33 min · Season 2 Episode 10In 1984, Silvia Ruegger became the first Canadian woman to run an Olympic marathon. Her Canadian record wouldn’t be beaten for an impressive 28 years. After a career-ending…
- Gen Z goes back to church · 53 min · Season 2 Episode 9A new generation’s search for spiritual meaning takes them in a very different direction than their parents. For Adam Adachi and Francis Lamonica, both in their early 20s, a low…
- After 27 years in prison, a chance at freedom · 60 min · Season 2 Episode 8Nathanael Williams killed a man when he was barely 16. He spent most of his life growing and maturing in Canada’s tough and sometimes unfair prison system, where he’s always been…
- A brother’s search for justice in Syria · 56 min · Season 2 Episode 7Bashir Harba is one of thousands of Syrians who came to Toronto to escape a brutal civil war. But one thing still haunts him: his brother’s death in a notorious Syrian prison. On…
- Traditional Chinese Medicine – celebrating 30 years in Toronto · 37 min · Season 2 Episode 6Growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution, Mary Wu was trained to become a ‘barefoot doctor’. Here in Toronto, she led the campaign to have acupuncture regulated in Ontario…
- Meet the two Steves · 29 min · Season 2 Episode 5A lot of Torontonians love subway trains, streetcars and buses as kids. But not all of them grow up to be passionate advocates for moving Torontonians around. Mary Wiens and…
- Turning offices into homes · 31 min · Season 2 Episode 4Lots of Toronto office buildings in the downtown core are sitting vacant. A Toronto entrepreneur wants to convert them into co-living units for young adults stuck at home with…
- Goodbye to the Imperial Pub’s cold beer, old couches, and warm vibes · 30 min · Season 2 Episode 3The Imperial Pub – one of Toronto’s oldest pubs – closes this week. The pub opened in 1944 in the middle of WWII – but saying how old it is doesn’t capture why so many…
- Baby Kintyre – the mummified baby who inspired an opera · 44 min · Season 2 Episode 2Almost twenty years ago, the city was gripped by the story of a baby’s body discovered in the floorboards of an attic on Kintyre Street, wrapped in a newspaper from 1925. A story…
- Real strength – measured by barbells, not a bathroom scale · 44 min · Season 2 Episode 1Personal trainer Jenna Doak says the body positive movement helped her accept her own body shape. Now she’s transforming how her clients see themselves and what it means to be…
- Gun violence – a mother’s perspective 24 years later · 54 min · Season 1 Episode 7All of us are familiar with the headlines – another young man shot and killed in Toronto. But we don’t often hear what comes next – let alone the impact decades later. In this…
- Pouring out the last bourbon · 33 min · Season 1 Episode 6The other day, the people who put The Torontonian together met at their favourite bar – just as the bartender took down a blackboard listing about a dozen kinds of bourbon. It…
- The Big Growth in Breast Reduction · 56 min · Season 1 Episode 5The big growth area in cosmetic surgery? Breast reduction. For many women, the surgery is life-changing. And they’re getting it done at a much younger age. In this episode…
- Constructing A New Future · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 4For many teenagers who struggle at school, the classroom has been a place of failure and trauma, since they were kids. But what if you put them into a different kind of…
- Life Recipes · 37 min · Season 1 Episode 3We return to the food we loved as children throughout our lives. For Mother’s Day, two women from Eritrea tell us about the recipes they learned from their mothers – and how it’s…
- Reflections on the Death of Pope Francis · 30 min · Season 1 Episode 2The lineup to bid farewell to Pope Francis, stretched to the thousands but every one of them had their personal reason for being there. In this episode of The Torontonian, we’ll…
