Kathryn Exon Smith

Oakland, CA | Toronto, ON

Writer, urbanist, and builder of intellectually engaged communities.

041 // How Infrastructure Shapes Behaviour

Feb 24, 2022 Salon

How do engineers plan for change when making choices about major infrastructure projects? A salon about how we shape the systems that underpin our cities, and how they shape us in return. With Shoshanna Saxe.

040 // "Stay Home, Save Lives" and the ethics of public health slogans

Jan 21, 2022 Salon

How should we think about the advertising tactics employed in slogans for public health, and what is an appropriate moral burden to place on the shoulders of individuals? With Alexandra Campbell.

039 // The society we want — and the education system we have

Dec 10, 2021 Salon

How can the way we teach be improved? In a time when information and knowledge is essentially free, and can be accessed anytime, what is education for? An exploration of the ways in which education contributes to making the societies we want, and need. With Noah Finkelstein.

After the salon: on nostalgia, impermanence, context

Nov 15, 2021 Writing History

The magic of a live audience, and what we lose when we seek comfort in the familiar. Reflections on the November 12 salon.

038 // A play without a stage: art in the time of closed theatres

Nov 12, 2021 Salon

What does artistic culture look like without high-profile performance? How does art become canonical? And what parallels can be drawn between the ban of the mid-17th century and our modern, socially distanced era? With Heidi Craig.