![A portrait of poet Travis Lane](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/TravisLane_Poet_735-348x232.jpg)
May 2020
What history can teach us about COVID-19, a new housing approach to dementia, who owns your data after you die? PLUS: The business of paid social media influencers and the relevance of Bronwen Wallace’s poetry
![Illustration of a doctor opening the door of a hospital so an elderly woman, pulling a suitcase, can walk outside. Beyond the door is a brightly-coloured village.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/FOB_Olafson_MAY20_Art-01-348x232.jpg)
Dementia Care Gets Its Own Village
Inside a new housing model for managing mental decline—one that prioritizes patient autonomy
Read More![Illustration of a person standing on the roof of a shed with their back to the viewer. In the distance are purple mountains and a lilac sky, in which a cloud in the shape of a curled-up person drifts past.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Shelter-aside-348x232.jpg)
Shelter Seekers
A short story about climate anxiety and an anthropological research trip gone awry
Read More![Psychedelic-style illustration of a man wearing a white coat and large goggles to protect his eyes. In the goggles' reflection, we see two hands pouring brightly-coloured material from one into the other. His hair is a spectrum of brightly-coloured waves.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/FOB_Brunet_MAY20_Art-01-348x232.jpg)
Why It’s So Hard to Legalize Recreational Drugs
Scientists believe that newly invented psychoactive substances might have untapped health benefits. Too bad none of us will ever get to try them
Read More![A photograph of the poet, Bronwen Wallace, in black and white. She is wearing jeans, a white shirt, and a scarf tied around her neck. Her hands are in her pockets and she is smiling at the camera.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Lahey_newcrop-1-348x232.jpg)
The Poet Whose Work Helped Set the Stage for #MeToo
Twenty-seven years after her death, Bronwen Wallace’s feminist poetry feels newly relevant
Read More![A group of pilgrims pose in front of the Canadian Martyrs Shrine, a large stone building with two turrets topped with crosses.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/boyagoda_lead-348x232.jpg)
Summer Service
Every year, Sri Lankan Catholics from all over make a pilgrimage to Ontario’s cottage country
Read More![Illustration of a dark haired woman, crouching to pet a rooster. Around her are two other chickens.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/BAK_Thanh_MAY2_Art-01-348x232.jpg)
We Turned Our Pet Chickens Into Dinner
First we bonded over our unusual pets. Then we bonded over butchering them
Read More![Illustration of a woman in a head wrap and hoop earrings, holding a phone up to take a selfie. Around her are hands offering free products––boots, headphones, sunglasses, and a tube of cream.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Walrus_InfluencerAgencies_Final_CMYK_v2-348x232.jpg)
We’ll All Be Social Media Sellouts Soon
Companies are turning to small-time influencers to promote their brands. Will any of us be able to resist the lure of free products and cash?
Read More![Illustration of a ghostly figure walking off a white grid and into darkness. Behind the person is a ghostly collage of all the data they've left behind––photos, passwords, location pins, emails, and text messages. The background is midnight blue.](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Walrus_Digital-Afterlife_1_flat-348x232.jpg)
The Digital Afterlife
The ongoing legal battle to decide who owns our data after we die
Read More![An illustration of a person peeking through their fingers. Their eyeball is the shape of the COVID-19 germ (a small round microbe with protrusions that look like the spokes of a crown).](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/FEA_Patterson_MAY20_Art-01-348x232.jpg)
Anatomy of a Pandemic
Like major contagions throughout history, the new coronavirus causes fear as well as illness. The remedy for both, it turns out, is the same
Read More