It’s hard to believe, but The Conversation Canada will soon be celebrating our fifth anniversary. We launched our English site on June 25, 2017 – with French coming on line about 18 months later. Since then, our French and English stories have been viewed more than 160 million times and we’ve published almost 7,000 articles by more than 5,000 authors. I could go on and on about the thrill of being involved in this unique model of Canadian journalism, but right now we’d like to hear from you.

As part of our plans to mark our fifth birthday, we are interested in publishing the views of some of our readers. So, here’s a chance to offer your thoughts. How did you first hear about The Conversation? Why do you read The Conversation? What do you like about our articles? What don’t you like? How could we do a better job? Do you have a favourite article that you remember and maybe shared with friends and family? Don’t be limited to these questions: we’d love to hear any thoughts you’d like to share.

Please drop me an email at this address before next Friday (include your name and home town) and then watch for the story in a couple of weeks.

For your reading pleasure this weekend, I’ve assembled a collection of the Top 5 most popular stories from the last week, as well as a few other most-read articles from other editions of The Conversation global network.

Have a great weekend and we’ll be back in your Inbox on Monday.

Scott White

CEO | Editor-in-Chief

Weekend Reads: The most popular stories of the last week

The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial shows the dangers of fan culture

Maddie Brockbank, McMaster University

What appears to be normal social media activity exposes a much darker reality: fan culture often leads to deeply harmful conversations shaping how people address and redress violence.

Inhaled vaccine for COVID-19: The pandemic accelerated decades of research leading to jab-free vaccine now in human testing

Fiona Smaill, McMaster University

An inhaled COVID-19 vaccine would go directly to where the body would use it: the mucosal surface of the airways. This could mean less waste and more benefit, lower costs and reduced side-effects.

Why are men having more orgasms than women in heterosexual relationships?

Nicole Andrejek, McMaster University

Like other gender gaps, it is important to continue pushing past individual explanations and understand the gender gap in orgasms as a form of gender inequality.

Why stress-related illness is so hard to diagnose, and how a patient-centred playful approach can help

Najmeh Khalili-Mahani, Concordia University

Psychosocial and economic stressors can affect health, but neither our doctors nor our health-care system have the tools to integrate these factors into diagnoses or care. Play offers an alternative.

Overturning Roe v. Wade would have wide-reaching implications beyond U.S. borders

Candace Johnson, University of Guelph

Roe v. Wade demonstrates that reproductive rights are fragile, often insufficient and in need of protection everywhere.

Supreme Court allows states to use unlawfully gerrymandered congressional maps in the 2022 midterm elections

Henry L. Chambers Jr., University of Richmond

A ruling by the US Supreme Court to allow unlawful maps to be used in the midterm elections will affect who gets elected to the House of Representatives and may determine control of Congress.

Ukraine war: despite Russia’s success in Donbas, this is only the end of the beginning

Frank Ledwidge, University of Portsmouth

Both sides are now bracing for a long and bloody war of attrition.

On your back? Side? Face-down? Mice show how we sleep may trigger or protect our brain from diseases like ALS

David Wright, Monash University

Our new research with mice visualised how differently aged brains pump out toxic protein waste during sleep.

Weekend Listening: Our latest podcast episode

TikTok is more than just a frivolous app for lip-syncing and dancing – Podcast

Vinita Srivastava, The Conversation; Haley Lewis, The Conversation

In today’s episode we take a look at how TikTok can be used as a tool to educate and has been a space for sharing information during major events in the last two years.