Ashima Shukla

An illustration of a person standing on a stage with a microphone in hand. Four arms reach out to grab the microphone from them.
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Hot takes are killing our capacity to think

Ashima Shukla and Zainab Salam July 14, 2025

There is a genre of content that only grows louder with time: a viral clip where someone argues against abortion, climate change, or immigration issues — with the knowledge of a poorly summarized Wikipedia page and unearned confidence. The audience laughs, groans, or aggressively types a rebuttal, but many click. In a media ecosystem designed to reward attention over thoughtfulness, we risk trading depth for reaction. The result is a culture where complexity becomes inconvenient, misinformation thrives, and our capacity for accountable thinking erodes. We need to resist the logic of virality and build a culture rooted in curiosity, revision,…

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This is series of photos displaying the covers of the four selected books
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Book Nook: Quiet books for loud times

Ashima Shukla July 10, 2025

Revery: A Year of Bees by Jenna Butler   This book feels like a long exhale. Set on an off-grid farm in Alberta, it follows Butler’s journey as a beekeeper. In the gentle rhythm of tending to hives, Butler unearths something…

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This is a photo of a music studio with the mic at the centre and a keyboard at its base
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Tenise Marie’s upcoming album Off The Record contains multitudes

Ashima Shukla July 9, 2025

Tenise Marie, a BC singer-songwriter of Assyrian, French, and British descent, is set to release her newest album, Off the Record, on July 11. I listened to an advance recording of her songs and found myself on an unexpected journey…

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The picture shows a book fair, focused on a few books on and around a table
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The Vancouver Arts Book Fair returns to the city once more

Ashima Shukla June 25, 2025

From July 4–6, 2025, the Vancouver Arts Book Fair (VABF) returns to the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, bringing you not just knowledge transfer, but also many visions of what a publication can be. It is not just “Canada’s…

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A composite photo of Sabrina Carpenter holding a dog, a SkyTrain, a photo of Alanis Morissette singing, and someone’s feet.
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2025 song of the summer shortlist

Ashima Shukla and Mason Mattu June 25, 2025

It’s June, and the vibes are off. We’re in a climate apocalypse, the billionaires are feeling victimized, the aux cord is haunted, and we still don’t have a song of the summer. Can Benson Boone save us? No. Can the…

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old newspapers
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Why local newspapers still matter

Ashima Shukla June 25, 2025

I picked up my first copy of The Georgia Straight on a crisp fall afternoon, wandering through the East Vancouver neighbourhood I had just moved into. The air smelled of damp leaves, a woman was singing from the second-floor balcony,…

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This is a picture showing some of Vidyamaharani’s artistic work on a wall of white wallpaper
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Shafira Vidyamaharani’s intuitive path to design

Ashima Shukla June 17, 2025

A graphic designer, photographer, videographer, painter, writer, and textile artist, Shafira Vidyamaharani’s practice resists definition — and that’s the point. Now a graduate student in SFU’s communication program, they are building a career that merges intuition with intellect, art with…

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This is a photo taken somewhere in Asia in a jam-packed city area where many people are seen wearing masks.
4 min 0 1911

Summer COVID-19 surge looms

Ashima Shukla June 16, 2025

Public health researchers warn of a potential global summer surge as a new highly transmissible COVID-19 variant spreads across Asia. NB.1.8.1 has been classified as a “variant under monitoring” by the World Health Organization and has already been detected in…

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A group reviewing assignments saying short things like ""hello, ChatGPT!"" or similar sentiments. They are only interested in getting their degrees. They look rushed, disheveled.
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The crisis in education isn’t AI — it’s meaning

Ashima Shukla June 15, 2025

In the age of AI, effort has become optional. As students, we no longer need to flip through textbooks or reread chapters. As one homework app asks, “Why scroll through 100 pages when AI can summarize the most important things…

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A photo of someone using the Peliplat website on their laptop
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Peliplat and the patchwork future of film discourse

Ashima Shukla June 15, 2025

Once, reviews were handed down from the altars of broadsheets and bylines. Today, film opinions are filtered by algorithms, taking the form of Letterboxd one-liners, TikTok edits, Reddit debates, and YouTube video essays. In this fractured landscape, platforms take on…

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