Navneet Alang
@navneetalang.com
Editor @ Toronto Star Opinion. Pitch me op-eds, essays at [email protected].
Writer and former columnist with bylines all over. PhD. https://navneetalang.com/categories/blogposts/
Writer and former columnist with bylines all over. PhD. https://navneetalang.com/categories/blogposts/
Pinned
Navneet Alang
@navneetalang.com
· Jan 9
My goal for 2025 is just to become hotter and more lethal
Alas, I think that might be 2025's goal too
Reposted by Navneet Alang
have lived in the US for 15 years and this is how I learned that “it’s a bit of a gong show” is a Canadian figure of speech
How A Campy 1970s Game Show Became Part Of Canada's National Lexicon | Defector
On tiny Hornby Island northwest of Vancouver, after the Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2015, our bed-and-breakfast host was telling us about the town. The pizza place in the park is terrific, he s...
defector.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
have lived in the US for 15 years and this is how I learned that “it’s a bit of a gong show” is a Canadian figure of speech
People tend to dismiss the idea of echo chambers but since The Great Balkanization of social media(TM) I'm feeling a bit less sure, at least recently. Log on to Twitter and it's a whole separate world in which AI, autonomous cars and conservative ethnic nationalism will save us.
November 26, 2025 at 3:00 PM
People tend to dismiss the idea of echo chambers but since The Great Balkanization of social media(TM) I'm feeling a bit less sure, at least recently. Log on to Twitter and it's a whole separate world in which AI, autonomous cars and conservative ethnic nationalism will save us.
Reposted by Navneet Alang
Just in time for today's Toronto premiere of my housing film, I wrote this piece in The Star. It gives a good overview of the main messages and insights from the documentary.
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
The market alone isn’t going to fix the housing crisis. These Canadian towns are showing us how it’s done
We need a variety of approaches to our inescapable housing problem.
www.thestar.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Just in time for today's Toronto premiere of my housing film, I wrote this piece in The Star. It gives a good overview of the main messages and insights from the documentary.
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
-hey boss, just wanted to check: when does our 2 weeks off for Christmas start?
-the what?
-you know - our two weeks vacation at the holidays, like kids get in school
-nav I’m going to need you to sit down
-the what?
-you know - our two weeks vacation at the holidays, like kids get in school
-nav I’m going to need you to sit down
November 26, 2025 at 1:07 PM
-hey boss, just wanted to check: when does our 2 weeks off for Christmas start?
-the what?
-you know - our two weeks vacation at the holidays, like kids get in school
-nav I’m going to need you to sit down
-the what?
-you know - our two weeks vacation at the holidays, like kids get in school
-nav I’m going to need you to sit down
Guess you could say I'm a bit of an outlier. Bit of a rebel. But what can I say? I'm only human. I too find the most beautiful women alive attractive.
Once again, I will always be a 90s supermodel guy.
Christy Turlington in Milan.
Christy Turlington in Milan.
November 25, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Guess you could say I'm a bit of an outlier. Bit of a rebel. But what can I say? I'm only human. I too find the most beautiful women alive attractive.
Me: all I need to do to be happy is read, write, spend time outdoors, and be around the people I love
Also me: what's this? the steamdeck is on sale?
Also me: what's this? the steamdeck is on sale?
November 25, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Me: all I need to do to be happy is read, write, spend time outdoors, and be around the people I love
Also me: what's this? the steamdeck is on sale?
Also me: what's this? the steamdeck is on sale?
Reposted by Navneet Alang
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
November 25, 2025 at 4:46 PM
when we say we want more streets to be pedestrianized, this is what we mean
Reposted by Navneet Alang
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I’ve been running around asking tech execs and academics if language was the same as intelligence for over a year now - and, well, it isn’t. @benjaminjriley.bsky.social explains how the bubble is built on ignoring cutting-edge research into the science of thought www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
I for one did not predict the vibe shift was going to be... *points to everything*
November 25, 2025 at 2:45 AM
I for one did not predict the vibe shift was going to be... *points to everything*
Why do I get so bothered by Star Wars talk? It's not like I don't also have the same nostalgia for the franchise etc etc. For some reason, though, I find the incessant chatter about it off somehow. It can't possibly need to be rehashed this much!
November 24, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Why do I get so bothered by Star Wars talk? It's not like I don't also have the same nostalgia for the franchise etc etc. For some reason, though, I find the incessant chatter about it off somehow. It can't possibly need to be rehashed this much!
(Possibly silly) thought I've had recently is that obviousness tends to be uninteresting: in film, in food/drink, in writing etc. Not that you don't want an obvious film at the end of a long week, or some fast food. But in general, it's less interesting (if not necessarily always less good)
Look, I just don't like books in which it is easy to tell what is happening.
November 24, 2025 at 4:55 PM
(Possibly silly) thought I've had recently is that obviousness tends to be uninteresting: in film, in food/drink, in writing etc. Not that you don't want an obvious film at the end of a long week, or some fast food. But in general, it's less interesting (if not necessarily always less good)
Oh dear. I think about about to become @notion.com-pilled (until I give it up yet again and shift back to using a pen and pad)
November 24, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Oh dear. I think about about to become @notion.com-pilled (until I give it up yet again and shift back to using a pen and pad)
Reposted by Navneet Alang
I wrote about the Imperial Pub this week & then diverted from writing about the Imperial Pub.
Shawn Micallef: What a Toronto councillor’s bizarre, AI-generated image of Lawrence Plaza says about nostalgia and change in our city
The outpouring of grief for things that are lost is understandable, but nostalgia can also be harnessed for questionable reasons.
www.thestar.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:36 PM
I wrote about the Imperial Pub this week & then diverted from writing about the Imperial Pub.
Reposted by Navneet Alang
"I was embarrassed. I had been naively operating with a pre-ChatGPT mindset, still assuming a pitch’s ideas and prose were actually connected to the person who sent it"
Stunning investigation of how slop merchants are getting work into established media outlets
thelocal.to/investigatin...
Stunning investigation of how slop merchants are getting work into established media outlets
thelocal.to/investigatin...
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
"I was embarrassed. I had been naively operating with a pre-ChatGPT mindset, still assuming a pitch’s ideas and prose were actually connected to the person who sent it"
Stunning investigation of how slop merchants are getting work into established media outlets
thelocal.to/investigatin...
Stunning investigation of how slop merchants are getting work into established media outlets
thelocal.to/investigatin...
I’ve always had an aversion to the Beatles but never really knew why. This makes sense to me though - they evoked an era one was trying to distance oneself from. Def not my parents’ music though - almost 60 years in “the West” and my folks have had zero interest in what they call “English music”
As someone who is also this guy’s age I can tell you 100% this wasn’t hard at all. The Beatles were Boomer music and they were shoved down your throat everywhere and they reeked of your parents’ nostalgia. Nobody I knew liked The Beatles.
If you were into grunge, *everything* was your enemy.
If you were into grunge, *everything* was your enemy.
As someone who is this guy's age I can tell you 100% that if you were into Pixies, Nirvana, 120 Minutes stuff, etc. but didn't like the Beatles you had to have worked hard to contort yourself into that special little box. Your enemy, if you absolutely needed one, was hair metal. GTFO here with this.
November 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM
I’ve always had an aversion to the Beatles but never really knew why. This makes sense to me though - they evoked an era one was trying to distance oneself from. Def not my parents’ music though - almost 60 years in “the West” and my folks have had zero interest in what they call “English music”
Belatedly got around to listening Wet Leg’s more recent album and wow is it good. youtu.be/HeL2M8jBEI4
Wet Leg - CPR (Official Video)
YouTube video by WetLegVEVO
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Belatedly got around to listening Wet Leg’s more recent album and wow is it good. youtu.be/HeL2M8jBEI4
Reposted by Navneet Alang
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Navneet Alang: Condos get a bad rap. Here’s why they should be part of the Canadian dream
My parents bought their first home for 11,000 pounds (approximately $20,000) in 1974. It was an ordinary small row house on a dour street in East London. Now, more than
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:18 PM
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
I don’t know what y’all are talking about and I don’t want to but about once a week I think of the Toronto food influencer who said in a video for a hot pot restaurant “better get some veggies, I can’t get gout again”
November 22, 2025 at 2:28 PM
I don’t know what y’all are talking about and I don’t want to but about once a week I think of the Toronto food influencer who said in a video for a hot pot restaurant “better get some veggies, I can’t get gout again”
I like how everything makes sense and is nice and normal and predictable. Everything is good. It’s all fine
November 22, 2025 at 1:11 AM
I like how everything makes sense and is nice and normal and predictable. Everything is good. It’s all fine
Reposted by Navneet Alang
But the landed gentry of Toronto, “progressive” & conservative, have said they are bad, filled with artless, child-rejecting people who don’t understand ideas of neighbourliness & grace.
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Navneet Alang: Condos get a bad rap. Here’s why they should be part of the Canadian dream
My parents bought their first home for 11,000 pounds (approximately $20,000) in 1974. It was an ordinary small row house on a dour street in East London. Now, more than
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
But the landed gentry of Toronto, “progressive” & conservative, have said they are bad, filled with artless, child-rejecting people who don’t understand ideas of neighbourliness & grace.
Reposted by Navneet Alang
100% not AI.
November 21, 2025 at 9:23 PM
100% not AI.
Reposted by Navneet Alang
Ok Bluesky, let’s give this a go: I found this postcard in the back of a photo frame I bought at a London thrift shop.
It’s an unsent postcard from a woman called Linda to her parents. The front shows the Kremlin in Moscow and the stamp says 1984 (!).
I’d love to return it to Linda - can you help?
It’s an unsent postcard from a woman called Linda to her parents. The front shows the Kremlin in Moscow and the stamp says 1984 (!).
I’d love to return it to Linda - can you help?
November 21, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Ok Bluesky, let’s give this a go: I found this postcard in the back of a photo frame I bought at a London thrift shop.
It’s an unsent postcard from a woman called Linda to her parents. The front shows the Kremlin in Moscow and the stamp says 1984 (!).
I’d love to return it to Linda - can you help?
It’s an unsent postcard from a woman called Linda to her parents. The front shows the Kremlin in Moscow and the stamp says 1984 (!).
I’d love to return it to Linda - can you help?
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Navneet Alang: Condos get a bad rap. Here’s why they should be part of the Canadian dream
My parents bought their first home for 11,000 pounds (approximately $20,000) in 1974. It was an ordinary small row house on a dour street in East London. Now, more than
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 5:18 PM
For the Star, I make the case for the condo/apartment as aspirational -- that the Canadian dream can also be an apartment in a dense neighbourhood and not, as is so often the case in this country, be taken to only ever mean a detached house. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
Reposted by Navneet Alang
Psst here's a gift link www.thestar.com/opinion/star...
www.thestar.com
November 21, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Psst here's a gift link www.thestar.com/opinion/star...