“The Shadowy World of International Students” – The Walrus, December, 2021. “Foreign students are lied to and exploited on every front. They’re also propping up higher education as we know it.”
“The Simpsons” – Toronto Life, July, 2020.” – Toronto Life, July, 2020. From the outside, it looked like any other Forest Hill mansion. Inside, it housed dozens of children from around the world—kids from war-torn countries, kids other people gave back, kids who had nowhere else to go. The story of the family who couldn’t stop adopting.”
“Children’s Village Forever” – The Local, July, 2019. “Ontario Place designer Eric McMillan invented the ball pit, built the epicentre of kid-life for a generation of Torontonians and, for a brief moment, promised to revolutionize the way we play.”
“No Fixed Address” – Toronto Life, January, 2019. “Shelters are overwhelmed, social housing is a mess, rents are exorbitant. The cost: 100 deaths a year. How a city obsessed with growth and prosperity forgot about its most vulnerable.”
“Why It’s so Hard to Actually Work in Shared Offices” – The Walrus, February, 2018. “WeWork offers freelancers a chic workspace and beer on tap—but are people productive?”
“Selling China by the Sleeve Dance” – Hazlitt, October 2017. “Beneath the ubiquitous posters for the Shen Yun ballet is a battle between dissidents and the state over the soul of a nation, both at home and across the diaspora.”
“How to End a Life” – Toronto Life, May 2017. “A year after assisted suicide became legal, only a small number of physicians are willing to perform the procedure, and their numbers are shrinking. Taking a life is harder than they thought.”
“Low Stakes Forever” – Hazlitt, April 2016. An essay on nostalgia culture and a profile of my childhood hero, kids author Gordon Korman.
“If you Are What You Eat, America is Allrecipes” – Slate, May 2016. “The nation’s most popular recipe site reveals the enormous gap between foodie culture and what people actually cook”
“Hockey’s Puppy Mill” – Walrus Magazine, December 2015. A teenager takes the Canadian Hockey League to court for exploitative labour practices. He finds out what happens when you go up against a country’s national mythology.
“The Crowdfunded Liver” – Toronto Life, December 2015. “When the billionaire sports magnate Eugene Melnyk was diagnosed with liver failure, he crowdsourced a new organ and kick-started an alarming trend.” Republished in the Guardian Longform and Reader’s Digest.
“For Kids, By Kids – But Not For Long“ – Hazlitt Magazine, December 2014. A fun dive into the world of YouTube. What happens when teenage YouTubers grow up? (National Magazine Award winner)
“Grow Industry: Marijuana prohibition is destined to end. Who will become the Seagrams of weed?” – The Walrus (cover story), April 2013. Going out west to find grey-market entrepreneurs all desperately trying to get rich or, at the very least, stay out of jail.
“A Life Interrupted: Hassan Rasouli’s journey from an earache to a high-stakes battle over end-of-life decisions” – Toronto Life, November 2012. A father goes into a hospital for a seemingly straight-forward operation. When he falls into a coma, he becomes the subject of a Supreme Court case that decides who gets to pull the plug.
“What the Elephants Know” – Toronto Life, July 2010. Tracing the history of a zoo through a few of its elephants. (Best Canadian Essays, 2010)
Nicholas Hune-Brown 