Episodes

The 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.

Walking 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 new generation of swimmers chases the same dream at this 50-year-old pool. Mary Wiens and...

Longtime 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 Mary Wiens and Craig White of Urban Toronto about building something that the world had...

In 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 question will really be settled in the court of public opinion.

In 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 accident, Silvia would never try to break her own record again. But that wasn’t what she cared...

A 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 point in their lives led them to organized religion, via the Guardian Angels Parish in...

Nathanael 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 held accountable. At 43, he hopes he will soon be released.  Mary Wiens joins former CBC...

Bashir 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 the latest edition of The Torontonian, you’ll hear Bashir’s story. And we’ll tell you...

Growing 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. She also founded one of the most prestigious TCM schools in North America.  Looking back...

A 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 guest host Emmett Shane spoke to Steve Munro and Steve Wickens — two of Toronto’s toughest...

Lots 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 their parents. But are building owners ready to give up on the dream that office workers are...

The 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 Torontonians feel that when this pub closes, it will take a bit of Toronto’s heart and soul with it....

Almost 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 so compelling, it became a radio documentary and then an opera. The opera is being...

Personal 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 fit. Show Notes: The CBC article we mention in the episode:...

All 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 episode, Julia Farquharson tells Mary Wiens about her son, Segun, a promising young hockey...

The 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 inspired this week’s episode about one of the most high-profile targets of Canada’s...

The 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 Chanese Ila tells us why she was ready at 36. And two plastic surgeons – the McRae brothers –...

For 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 classroom? Say a construction site? Mary Wiens attended an event where students told their...

We 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 fueling their lives in Toronto, after escaping from one of the most oppressive regimes...

The 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 meet Mauricio, a former Jesuit seminarian, and his husband. They told us about the impact...

The Maple Leaf Gardens – home to some of Toronto’s most joyful victories and agonizing defeats. There are new players now at the Gardens including the Toronto Gay Hockey Association.

Shane Hobson and Ben Baby grew up gay in small-town Ontario. They tell Mary Wiens why it’s a victory every time they carry their hockey bags through the front doors of the former Maple Leaf Gardens.