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Every year, Reader’s Digest commissions an independent research company to do a poll about the levels of trust towards Canadian public figures, institutions and so on.
To accompany this year’s data, I wrote a story about what scientists and social scientists have to say about trust. Hormones, game theory, pretty fascinating stuff. I can’t post the whole article here, unfortunately, but some of it is available on the RD website under the title Who Do You Believe? (Yes, depending on whom you ask, it should have been Whom Do You Believe.)
 
One of Reader’s Digest’s longest-lasting sections, “That’s Outrageous!” is made up of briefs about unjust events and policies. I researched and wrote it for the January and April 2012 issues:
  
Here’s a little taste of a story I got to do for the October issue of Reader’s Digest. I won’t post the entire thing for fear of infringing on the magazine’s copyright. It’s on newsstands now, though, so check it out.
Since the beginning of June, I’ve been working at a great new full-time job: Assistant Editor at Reader’s Digest Canada. This unfortunately means far less time for writing, but it’s a worthwhile trade-off for all the editing experience. (I won’t lie: compared to freelancing, it’s also better pay for fewer hours).
 The "war room" at the new office
 The United Church is the largest Protestant church in Canada. Its denominational magazine recently commissioned a survey to find out precisely what its readers believe. The results were somewhat surprising, as I learned by preparing this analysis with the help of Jane Armstrong Research Associates:
Mainliners: 44 percent
Intuitives: 35 percent
Traditionalists: 13 percent
Non-conformists: 8 percent
Q&A with Douglas John Hall, a UCC theologian
Hakawati is the Arabic word for storyteller. It also refers to a disappearing class of men who once worked in coffee houses and city squares all over the Arab world, performing stories inspired by the same rich body of folklore that informed The Thousand and One Nights. In the past, a skilled hakawati could retain a group of regular listeners for weeks on end by teasing them with cliffhangers and delighting them with original takes on familiar tales featuring sultans, scriptural characters, heroes and genies. Today, a handful of hakawatis still perform, but television has largely taken their place.
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 While Quebec’s religion and ethics education program has ignited challenges in the province’s courtrooms, it is also sparking valuable discussions in its classrooms.
“Guillaume is new in town,” reads Marnie Rail to her Grade 4 and 5 class at Honoré Mercier Elementary School in Montreal. Having moved to Quebec from abroad, the fictional Guillaume feels disoriented and lonely, Rail explains. Then she asks her students what they would do if he attended their school.
“I would ask him about himself,” says a child confidently.
“I would ask him to be my best friend,” says another.
Next to the staff-room microwave during lunch hour, Rail smiles as she recalls her students’ words. “I get a lot of intelligent and logical answers to my discussion questions,” she says. So does her colleague Mélanie Blondin, who recently introduced her class to the idea of role models. “We talked about people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King,” Blondin says. “And then the students wrote stories about their own role models. A lot of them chose their parents, and they explained their choices well.”
Classroom discussions and activities like these form the backbone of a course called Ethics and Religious Culture. It is mandatory at all grade levels in all of Quebec’s schools — public and private alike — making Quebec the only province in Canada that requires all students to study religion. The ERC program has powerful opponents but just as many advocates. As Quebec tries it on for size, other provinces will be able to see whether it turns out to be a failed experiment or a possible model for the rest of the country.
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Only two weeks to left to go until BookExpo America, North America’s biggest book industry trade show. I’m excited to schmooze with publishers and authors, pick up free books and represent Substance Book’s 2011 titles, which are honestly quite a high-quality batch!
Here are the press releases I prepared for each of these worthy reads:
Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes
Hex, a Witch and Angel Tale
Invisible Moon
Dr. Greg’s Dog Dish Diet: Sensible Nutrition for Your Dog’s Health
   
 Uruguayan-born singer brings soulful voice to dance hall classics
Decades have passed since the heyday of tango’s greatest stars, but it remains a vigorous music and dance culture in countries such as Finland and Japan.
Originating in the early 1900s in Argentina and Uruguay, tango was a musical fusion created by European immigrants, descendants of African slaves and local people. Initially played and danced in urban working-class establishments, it eventually entered the ballrooms of Paris and the movies of Hollywood’s golden age. In recognition of its appeal, UNESCO recently admitted tango to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
As its title suggests, Tango Universal celebrates the global relevance of tango music. The singer-arranger Vayo Raimondo (who goes by his first name) included not only tango classics but also tango versions of jazz standards and old pop songs. “My selection of music for it resulted from my love for music in general,” he said in a promotional video.
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