caitrin pilkington

Reporter at CBC North based in Whitehorse, Yukon

Featured Work

WHYY's The Pulse •

How TikTok’s pupil test works, and what it tells us about love and attraction

The videos go like this: Someone uses their phone to zoom in on their eye, and then thinks hard about a crush, a love interest, or even their current partner. If their pupil dilates, then they’re really in love. To Helen Fisher, biological anthropologist, senior researcher at the Kinsey Institute, and chief science adviser to the dating site Match.com, the interest in a test like this is only natural.

“Of course, we all do want to know whether somebody is attracted to us, and here’s another way of figuring it out,” she said. “I think this TikTok thing is quite ingenious.”
Cabin Radio •

Experts sound alarm as thousands of beavers migrate north

Concerned researchers held their first meeting this month to discuss a catastrophic group arriving in the North: beavers.

The Arctic Beaver Observation Network, an Alaskan group, seeks to coordinate research and observation of the emerging threat to permafrost and ecosystems in Alaska, Canada, Europe and Russia.

At a two-day virtual conference, scientists, Indigenous leaders, land managers and local observers heard speakers discuss the proliferation of big and small beaver dams from Nunavik to
VICE •

What It’s Like Studying In a Murder House

The crime scene house is located so far on the edge of campus it requires a special bus to reach it. The interior decorating gives off the distinct impression that time froze sometime in 1995. Old, quaint, surrounded by rolling fields and stands of trees, the building may not appear to be a part of the university at all. But this house is to the forensics department what the library is to the English department at Trent. It’s a place to put theory into practice.
This Magazine •

How a treasure hunt helped unveil the injustices present in the mining industry

When people talk about fantasy worlds, they often mean worlds populated with dwarves, elves, and magic. But in a way, stepping onto the convention floor of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference did feel like a fantasy. As the biggest mining conference on Earth, it’s frequented by some of the wealthiest in the world. It’s a place where smoked salmon and fancy cheeses lie heaped on trestle tables, free for the taking. Where dark-suited white businessmen modestly ac
Cabin Radio •

Seeking data sovereignty, a First Nation introduces its own licence

A Northwest Territories community is changing its approach to scientific licensing in an effort to regain sovereignty over research.

The Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation, or LKFN, says it is partnering with the nearby Scotty Creek research facility, outside Fort Simpson, to introduce a new application process for researchers.

The First Nation, which also plans to create a compendium of all research gathered on its land, says the approach will be the first of its kind in the Northwest Territories
Broadview Magazine •

This advocate places ghost bikes at sites where cyclists have been killed

Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists is best known for placing white-painted bicycles – ghost bikes – at the location where a cyclist has been killed in the Greater Toronto Area. The non-profit group is volunteer run, currently led by Geoffrey Bercarich, Joey Schwartz and Jun Nogami.

Geoffrey Bercarich has been putting up ghost bikes for 15 years.

I see bike memorials as creating a landmark, like a lighthouse. It’s a place of caution but also a show of solidarity with fellow cyclists. People all

Commercial projects

Royal Ontario Museum // audio series

Deloitte // writing