The Trib Talks: Campus Currents—where the staff of The Tribune bring you a roundup of the paper’s biggest headlines from the last month.

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Every 1st Thursday of the month, 5 - 6pm (EDT)

October 1, 2026: First show back for the year

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This month, we are highlighting four articles from the Features section of the Tribune, covering a myriad of topics. Today, we’ll be talking about the Quebec separatist movement, the myth of cycle syncing, the harms of pretendians, and McGill’s long history of blackface, read through archived McGill Daily articles.
Our first feature looks at a question that has shaped Quebec politics for generations: who gets to be considered Quebecois? Managing Editor Asher Kui is here with us today to talk about the sovereignty movement beyond the simplicity of independence from Canada, but the nuances of what kind of independent state Quebec would actually be, and who is included in that vision. With Quebec’s political landscape once again bringing independence into the spotlight, today we’ll consider the changing face of Quebec sovereignty, the politics of belonging, and what it might mean to build a Quebec where, as Asher puts, “the people of the nation also come elsewhere.”
This Tuesday, we published our annual issue in honor of Truth and Reconciliation Day on September 30th; centering Indigenous stories and articles as the main focus. Artist Brady Preweda’s painting for the cover is just magnificent. Our Creative Director, Zoe Lee’s feature article, “Cowboys and narratives,” discusses the harmful stories pushed forward by the media coverage of “pretendians,” non-Indigenous individuals who make fraudulent claims to Indigenous identity.
Science and Technology Editor Sarah McDonald, recently wrote an article on cycle syncing, a recent trend that has exploded across social media, promising to help women exercise, work, eat and structure their lives around the different phases of the menstrual cycle. And sure it’s appealing- instead of forcing menstruating bodies to adapt to a world designed around a 24-hour male hormonal cycle, perhaps we should learn to work with our own biology. But how much of cycle syncing is actually supported by science? Sarah, thank you so much for joining us this month- your feature impressively brought together an elite track coach, an endocrinologist, and a menstrual health advocate to examine the tension of cycle syncing. Let’s unpack how to really listen to your body.
This Tuesday, we released our fourth publication of the school year, but our feature pieces have been enthralling from the beginning. Our last guest of the evening is Ellen Lurie, Managing Editor at the Tribune, whose feature article, “Blackface at McGill,” was the center spread of our first publication of the year. With the piece, she investigated the archives of student newspaper clippings and found how Anti-Black caricatures were fixtures of campus entertainment as late as the 1940s.

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