Rachel Browne
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investigative journalist & producer | contributing writer @TheWalrus | former @VICENews | rep'd by @carlywatters | LET US PLAY for @BeaconPressBks OUT NOW
Articles by Rachel Browne
How Personal Experience Becomes Universal Wisdom
I’ve always found it fascinating that we can read books written hundreds, sometimes thousands of years ago and find ourselves in them. The author may have lived in a completely different culture, under different circumstances, with different beliefs, yet something in their words resonates so deeply that it feels as though they are speaking directly to us. Somehow, a single human life becomes capable of illuminating another, despite the vast differences between them.
You’re a Cop and Your Brother Has Ties to the Mob. How Far Would You Go to Protect Him?
JUSTICE You’re a Cop and Your Brother Has Ties to the Mob. How Far Would You Go to Protect Him? BY RACHEL BROWNE AND BRIAN FITZPATRICK Published 6:30, JUNE 17, 2026 Screenshots from Ontario Criminal Court exhibits / iStock / Wikimedia Commons / Ana Luisa O.J. Just after noon on January 18, 2021, two people wearing medical face masks forced their way into a red-brick home on the quiet residential street of Harvest Moon Drive in Bolton, Ontario.
Rachel Browne | The Walrus
Romana Didulo believes she has communed with aliens and been recognized by Donald Trump. When she and her inner circle moved to Richmound, Saskatchewan, some residents protested to kick her out. Others saw an opportunity
How Pretending Became Survival, and Truth Became Freedom
Life is full of limitations. Freedom is internal. It lives in the quiet courage to stop pretending and to let your real face be seen. Growing up, my life looked perfect from the outside. I had everything a child could ask for. I lived in a pastoral village, had many friends, and moved through the world as the girl boys wanted to be with and girls wanted to be like. I was always picked first—for teams, activities, shows—the one voted “closest to perfect”.
COVID-19 | The Walrus
Romana Didulo believes she has communed with aliens and been recognized by Donald Trump. When she and her inner circle moved to Richmound, Saskatchewan, some residents protested to kick her out. Others saw an opportunity
The Holiness of the Hunger for More
“A soul that longs for something is a soul that is growing — one way or another, smaller or larger.” — Joan Chittister, American Nun I was born with a voracious appetite for life—a wild hunger for more. And from the moment that hunger showed itself, the world began its campaign to tame it. Past a certain age, we are taught to silence our hunger—to smile, stay grateful, to dismiss it as immaturity.
How to Trust Your Voice
One of the deepest blocks I see around expression, visibility, and sharing your voice comes from a quiet, unconscious assumption: “I can’t speak until I have it all figured out.” We’re taught to believe that before we’re “allowed” to express ourselves, we must sound certain, polished, and inarguably right. But here’s the truth: Your voice doesn’t need to be universal, perfect, or complete to matter. You are not here to deliver grand, all-encompassing truths.
The Courage to be Unclear: Finding Your Voice in the Fog of Becoming
We are conditioned to worship clarity—to equate certainty with success, to believe that understanding must always precede action. We think that if we could just get clear before we begin—on our purpose, our message, our niche—then everything would align. The right clients would appear. Our business would flow. We’d feel at peace in our work and confident in our place in it.
Devotion vs Discipline: How to Keep Showing Up for Your Life’s Work
One of the most profound transformations of my journey has been becoming someone who is devoted to their life’s work. I’ve never been what you’d call “disciplined.” I’ve struggled with structure my whole life. I can’t be rigid, and I rebel against systems. But when devotion came along, everything felt different. Devotion is discipline that arises from within. It’s natural. It’s organic. It comes from love—from being pulled, not pushed.
Surviving the Chaos of Finding Your Voice
How to Keep Going When Your Voice Feels Lost You might think that given all the content I produce that I’ve somehow graduated from the chaos of the creative process. That I’ve transcended the doubt and disarray. That I sit down to write and something clear, potent, and original filters through my fingertips like magic. But you would be wrong. Just this month, I had a day of complete hopelessness. Nothing was working.
The Voice of Your Ego and the Voice of Your Gifts
Inside me there are at least two voices—no doubt more, but let’s start there. One is loud, sharp, and extremely opinionated. She’d make a great lawyer—fast, ruthless, never unsure of herself. That’s my ego. The other is strange and ephemeral. It floats somewhere around my mind, occasionally landing right between my eyes like a nagging thought. It doesn’t tell me what to do. It just gestures quietly, like: That way. That’s the voice of my gifts.
The Myth of You: Tracing the Shape of Your Becoming
Most wellness and transformation professionals wander around acting like their life is made up of a random string of events with no connection to each other. They act as if they just decided to be a coach, a therapist, a healer, or a guide, as if they weren’t driven to it by a life full of experience and conditioning. They don’t see that their work was as inevitable as a river flowing downhill, shaped by every rock, curve, and invisible force acting upon it.
Too Many Ideas, Not Enough Focus? Here’s How to Find the Thread.
If you’re the kind of person whose brain is constantly firing off new ideas, I get it. It’s exciting. It’s intoxicating. It’s also a nightmare when you actually need to do something with them. Instead of feeling inspired, you feel stuck. Pulled in a thousand directions. Unsure where to start. You want to move forward, but the sheer volume of ideas keeps you paralyzed. And honestly? It’s exhausting. But here’s the thing: your problem isn’t having “too many ideas.” It’s not knowing how they fit together.
Dismantling the top 5 myths about trans athletes (Excerpt)
“You ready?” the doctor asked, syringe poised. “Yep,” I replied tentatively. “One, two, three.” He jabbed my right thigh into my muscle. Even though I’d been preparing for this, I’d never had a shot in my leg before. Almost immediately, it felt achy. As that first drop of testosterone hit my bloodstream, I violated the rules of my women’s hockey league and said goodbye to my life as a professional hockey player and my identity as an elite athlete. It hurt. As a kid, I always played women’s sports.
Dismantling the top 5 myths about trans athletes (Excerpt)
“You ready?” the doctor asked, syringe poised. “Yep,” I replied tentatively. “One, two, three.” He jabbed my right thigh into my muscle. Even though I’d been preparing for this, I’d never had a shot in my leg before. Almost immediately, it felt achy. As that first drop of testosterone hit my bloodstream, I violated the rules of my women’s hockey league and said goodbye to my life as a professional hockey player and my identity as an elite athlete. It hurt. As a kid, I always played women’s sports.
Beyond the Modality: Finding Your Life’s Work in Wellness & Transformation
Your life’s work isn’t just a job, a business, or a set of skills you’ve learned—it’s the unique expression of your purpose through the work you do. It’s the integration of your personal transformation, your deepest wisdom, and your desire to serve others. For wellness and transformation professionals, your work is a direct reflection of your own journey. The healing, breakthroughs, and evolution you’ve experienced become the foundation for how you help others.
“Is Your Blood Clean?”: The Paranoid Pastor Who Turned His Church into a Violent Cult
On the evening of October 17, 2021, a thirty-nine-year-old woman named Taneka Gardner pulled a suitcase through the gates of a church in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She had been introduced to Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Ministries years earlier by her aunt, and Gardner had been attending often—captivated by the sermons of the church’s charismatic founder and pastor, Kevin Smith.
Exclusive: Robert Land Academy Is Closing for Good
R obert Land Academy, Canada’s only military-style private boarding school for boys, founded in 1978, is shutting down, eight months after an investigation by The Walrus revealed decades of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at the school. The school faces numerous multi-million-dollar lawsuits by former students. RLA leadership informed school staff today that it would be closing at the end of the academic year this June.
Overcoming Impostor Syndrome: Why You’re More Qualified Than You Think
If you’ve ever thought, Who am I to say this? What if I’m wrong? What if I’m not enough?—you’re not alone. Even the most “qualified” people I know wrestle with impostor syndrome. It doesn’t matter how many accolades or accomplishments they’ve stacked up; the quiet, insistent voice of doubt still finds them. Impostor syndrome whispers that your voice doesn’t matter, that you’re unworthy of visibility, you are not the expert others believe you to be.
The Perfectionism Trap: Why Waiting to Feel ‘Ready’ Silences Your Voice
Most things in life aren’t about arriving at perfection; they’re a practice, a process, a messy evolution. So waiting to feel “ready” before you begin a new project, task, or adventure is like seeking gold at the end of a rainbow—a fantasy. Readiness isn’t real; it’s a fictional ideal we chase because the pursuit of a place to start frees us from having to ever start at all. I’ve always thrown myself into things before I felt ready because I understood that starting was the only way to grow.
Six False Voices Sabotaging Your Creativity
“Blocks are the price of avoiding surrender, surrender is not defeat but rather the key to opening into a world of delight and nonstop creation.” —Stephen Nachmanovitch We’ve been sold a lie about the creative process—that it should be clean, predictable, and effortless. But the truth is much wilder, much messier than we could ever know. Creativity, like nature itself, is turbulent, untamable, and full of contradictions.
Allegations of Abuse at Robert Land Academy Go Right to the Top
Robert Land Academy / YouTube L ast summer, The Walrus published an exclusive investigation by contributing writer Rachel Browne into allegations of physical and sexual abuse, humiliation, and degradation at a private, military-style boarding school in Southern Ontario.
Why Do I Never Feel Fully Self-Expressed?
Being human means living in constant evolution—a perpetual unfolding that only ceases the day we die. This means we’ll never feel fully self-expressed, at least not how we imagine. If we aren’t careful, we can waste our lives chasing a fantasy, searching for the “right” configuration that feels perfect in all the right ways—believing, mistakenly, that such a thing exists.
The Top 4 Ways to Explore What Makes You Unique
We’re all born with a blueprint of who we are. Made up of a unique cocktail of DNA and traits—we are a reservoir of potential crafted by nature to be distinct. This inherent individuality is not an accident; it’s a deliberate part of the evolutionary process—nature needs diversity.
15 Questions to Discover Your Life’s Work
To have a purpose is a deep human need, and the quest to find one is so profound that it can transform every aspect of our lives. Most people set out to discover their life’s work with a mixture of excitement, uncertainty, and apprehension because they have no idea what to expect. The problem is, when they quickly realize the journey is difficult and rife with obstacles and setbacks, they quit, feeling like they just must not have one after all. But this is not remotely true.
Teach What You Know
Only when we speak about an experience we’ve had do we approach truth, no matter what the experience. —Ayya Khema, Buddhist Nun Having worked with healing and wellness professionals for over a decade, I’ve realized that a huge part of creating a life that feels authentic and fulfilling lies in discovering, understanding, and integrating your life’s work with your professional practice. There’s an undeniable magic that occurs when your professional life is aligned with your deepest truth.
The Beauty, Potency & Power of Living Your Truth This Lifetime
You can’t go by nothing but your own convictions. Because if you don’t live the way you believe, sooner or later, you will believe the way you live. —James Baldwin Being true to who we are is a paradox—we constantly evolve, yet most of us have felt the discomfort and incongruence of being what we are not. Leaving essential parts of ourselves out of work, relationships, and life can harden our hearts, make us unhappy, and leave us feeling chronically unfulfilled.
Your Voice Matters: How to Uncover What Makes You Unique
Our passing through this earth is so absurd and fleeting, that it calms me to know that I have been authentic, that I have managed to be more like myself as much as I could. —Frida Kahlo. If you’re anything like Frida, you feel that distinctly human longing to craft a life from your deepest truth and give voice to what makes you unique, in the short time you have to be alive. I get it — I feel it, too. But let’s face it, the whole thing is kind of elusive.
Breaking: The Meeting House Closes its Doors
Last weekend, the Meeting House, once one of Canada’s largest megachurches, announced it was closing. “Going forward, there will no longer be churches operating programs or doing ministry under the banner of The Meeting House,” the church posted on its website. The news comes after over a year and a half of reporting by contributing writer for The Walrus Rachel Browne, who published a series of articles for the magazine investigating the church’s troubled past and uncertain future.
The Little-Known but Astonishing Gift of a Life Purpose
Imagine being awoken each morning by the pulse of excitement coursing through your body; a deep sense of life direction permeates your mind, and you’re barely able to contain the aliveness that bubbles within you. Now, imagine the implications this could have on your health and quality of life. This is the power of knowing your purpose. The problem is, most of us have bought into the commonly held misconception that purpose is out of our control.
Exclusive: A Military School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare”
SOCIETY / NOVEMBER 2024 Exclusive: A Military School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare” BY RACHEL BROWNE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNISSA MALTHANER Published 6:30, August 20, 2024 One Saturday night in the winter of 1998, an engineer operating an eastbound freight train passing through Burlington, Ontario, spotted two teenage boys lying across the tracks. They were wearing what looked like school uniforms.
Exclusive: A Military-Style School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare”
SOCIETY / NOVEMBER 2024 Exclusive: A Military-Style School for Troubled Teens Became a “Living Nightmare” Robert Land Academy promised to reform boys into “good citizens.” Former students allege it subjected them to years of humiliation, degradation, and abuse BY RACHEL BROWNE ILLUSTRATIONS BY ANNISSA MALTHANER Published 6:30, August 20, 2024 Sign up to read this article Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you. Email is required Email is already registered.
The Magic Key to Making Sense of Your Life
Wherever you go, there you are. —Unknown Every great story has a central question. The same is true for you; you are a story of the universe’s writing, and thus, your life has its own central question. This is what I call your existential question. I remember the moment I first grappled with my own existential question. I was eleven years old, sitting cross-legged on my bedroom floor, burning nag champa incense that was blowing smoke directly into my face.
Visionary Intelligence: How to Shape Your Life
The pulse of desire weaves through every aspect of our lives, shaping our actions, aspirations, and—ultimately—who we become. It’s not just the fleeting whim or superficial craving we often think of it as; it’s a profound force that drives our evolution. Inside the depths of our desire is a force I call visionary intelligence—a compass that guides us towards greater alignment with our truth and deeper intimacy with life. It is, I think, the universe’s expression working through us.
“They Dug Their Own Grave”: End Times for the Meeting House?
The Meeting House, formerly one of Canada’s most prominent evangelical megachurches, may now only be able to offer its popular Sunday ministry online instead of in person. In June, in the wake of numerous sexual abuse and misconduct allegations against church leadership and facing several multi-million-dollar civil suits, the church announced that it had been denied abuse insurance coverage and was therefore deciding to “pause” its in-person services, including Sunday worship.
September/October 2024
Romana Didulo believes she has communed with aliens and been recognized by Donald Trump. When she and her inner circle moved to Richmound, Saskatchewan, some residents protested to kick her out. Others saw an opportunity
Unearthing the Great Themes of Your Life
Take a deeper look at most coincidences in your life, and underneath you’ll find rational stepping stones to their occurrence. Call it god, fate or determinism, but life is playing out in more obvious ways than we want to admit. Last night I revisited one of my journals from 2019. On one of the pages, I’d made a list I’d called my “life themes.” They were the things I’d realized kept popping up, the patterns that continued to play themselves out in my life in positive and negative ways.
15 Questions to Discover Your Life Purpose
To have a purpose is a deep human need, and the quest to find one is so profound that it can transform every aspect of our lives. Most people set out to discover their purpose with a mixture of excitement, uncertainty, and apprehension because they have no idea what to expect. The problem is, when they quickly realize the journey is difficult and rife with obstacles and setbacks, they quit, feeling like they just must not have one after all. But this is not remotely true.
How the “Queen of Canada” and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town
CURRENT AFFAIRS How the “Queen of Canada” and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town BY RACHEL BROWNE ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS Published 6:30, Jun. 5, 2024 Few people drive into Richmound, Saskatchewan, without purpose. The town, with a population of just over 100, lies around seventy-five kilometres from the Trans-Canada Highway, near the Alberta border. So when a caravan of RVs and motorhomes drove into town one day last September, it caused quite a stir.
How the “Queen of Canada” and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town
CURRENT AFFAIRS How the “Queen of Canada” and Conspiracy Theorists Splintered a Small Town Romana Didulo believes she has communed with aliens and been recognized by Donald Trump. When she and her inner circle moved to Richmound, Saskatchewan, some residents protested to kick her out. Others saw an opportunity BY RACHEL BROWNE ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL BYERS Published 6:30, Jun. 5, 2024 Sign up to read this article Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
The Tremendous Pain and Beauty of Letting Things Die
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” ~Joseph Campbell My husband Jake and I sit in anguish on our beautiful new linen couch, inches away from each other, yet worlds apart. Hours of arguing have left us at another impasse, the stalemate now a decade long. I look around in despair at the beautiful life we built together, petrified by the decision I know I have to make. My partner, my friends, the country I live in, the ground beneath my feet—all on the brink of collapse.
Exclusive: The Meeting House Megachurch Faces New Lawsuits
Last fall, two women filed separate multi-million-dollar civil lawsuits against the Meeting House, one of Canada’s largest megachurches, alleging that they had been victims of sexual abuse by a former youth pastor at the church while the women were minors, The Walrus has learned.
Meet Toronto’s worst landlord
In January of 2023, Vanessa Colvin was at home at 500 Dawes Road when a piece of mail slipped through the slot of her apartment door. It was from her landlord, a woman named Carolyn Krebs, owner of the real estate company Havcare Investments. Krebs is small in stature, with light hair and weathered skin. At a glance, she evokes the image of a kindly grandmother.
As climate change impacts flooding, swaths of Canada risk becoming uninsurable
As climate change impacts flooding, swaths of Canada risk becoming uninsurable Published on Sep. 21, 2023, 9:41 AM Updated on Sep. 21, 2023, 10:00 AM But with proper adaptation methods, experts are hopeful that flooding can be tackled. In the middle of a busy re-election campaign during the summer of 2014, Burlington, Ontario mayor Rick Goldring’s basement flooded. More than 5.5 feet of water was gushing through it due to record rainfall.
The Greatest Scam Ever Written
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023 / JUSTICE The Greatest Scam Ever Written BY RACHEL BROWNE PHOTO ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUL KIM Published 06:30am, July 26, 2023 Patrice Runner was sixteen years old, in Montreal in the 1980s, when he came across a series of advertisements in magazines and newspapers that enchanted him. It was the language of the ads, the spare use of words and the emotionality of simple phrases, that drew him in.
The Greatest Scam Ever Written
Patrice Runner was sixteen years old, in Montreal in the 1980s, when he came across a series of advertisements in magazines and newspapers that enchanted him. It was the language of the ads, the spare use of words and the emotionality of simple phrases, that drew him in. Some ads offered new products and gadgets, like microscopes and wristwatches; some offered services or guides on weight loss, memory improvement, and speed reading.
The Meeting House: Inside a Megachurch Scandal
Bruxy Cavey wanted a tattoo. It wasn’t to express love for a family member or friend or to commemorate a special moment. He wanted a tattoo to spur religious debate. After mulling over various verses from the Bible, the evangelical pastor at the Meeting House, a megachurch based in Oakville, Ontario, got “Leviticus 19:28” inked along his left inner forearm—the Old Testament verse that forbids tattoos. Cavey showed off his arm art when he preached in front of a crowd in 2017.
Faith, Love, and Scandal: The Wild Origin Story of a North Texas Heavy Metal Band
Ashleigh Semkiw sat on the hardwood floor of the studio at the Shapes Fitness for Women in Flower Mound, thirty miles northeast of Fort Worth, and stretched her legs. The gym’s pink walls are covered with cheeky motivational slogans such as “Run harder than your mascara.” Typically, the 39-year-old mother of five would be here for workout classes, but the gym owner, a friend, has let her use the studio after hours.
Faith, Love, and Scandal: The Wild Origin Story of a North Texas Heavy Metal Band
Ashleigh Semkiw sat on the hardwood floor of the studio at the Shapes Fitness for Women in Flower Mound, thirty miles northeast of Fort Worth, and stretched her legs.
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