Show Notes
Ah, the joys of hosting your family for the holidays: passing down traditions, feeding big groups with many dietary needs and getting everyone to leave at a decent hour. With Thanksgiving around the corner, former editor-in-chief Maureen Halushak sits down with editors Erica Lenti and Chantal Braganza to talk family functions in this special bonus episode of Group Chat.
Then, Fall 2026 guest editor and host of CTV’s The Good Stuff Mary Berg joins Maureen to dig into Thanksgiving dinners, pleasing a crowd at your next dinner party and her Friendsgiving feast favourites.
About Group Chat
Group Chat is new biweekly podcast that gets up close and personal with the editors of Chatelaine—and some very special guests.
Each episode, hosted by editor-in-chief Maureen Halushak, will explore one of the many topics, big and small, that matter to Canadian women—from menopause to weight bias to reality tv.
You can watch the podcast on Chatelaine’s YouTube channel or listen wherever you find your podcasts.
Thank you to our official furniture partner IKEA Canada.
Featuring:
Maureen Halushak @maureenhalushak Mary Berg @mary_berg3 Erica Lenti @ericalenti Chantal Braganza @cbraganz
Production:
Maureen Halushak: Producer Erica Lenti: Producer Ryan Carter: Director / Editor Corey Misquita: Director of Photography / Motion Graphic Designer / Camera Operator Masnoon Zarif: Camera Operator / Gaffer
Furniture partner: IKEA Canada
More from Group Chat
In the season finale of Group Chat, we’re talking Sliding Doors moments: last-minute or split-second, unexpected decisions that led us to where we are in our professional and personal lives (inspired, of course, by the 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow classic Sliding Doors). Host Maureen Halushak chats about her unlikely foray into journalism alongside creative director Sun Ngo and executive editor Erica Lenti.
There’s endless advice—from every corner of the internet, your friends and gym buddies—about how to work out in midlife: change your routine, get your strength training in during perimenopause, get your heart rate up, walk more, run more, do more. But how do you stay motivated to exercise at all? Personal trainer and menopause fitness expert Samantha Montpetit-Huynh (better known as Sam Core Trainer) joins Maureen Halushak in the Group Chat this week to talk about fitness in your 40s, changing how you view exercise (it’s not all about weight loss!) and the secret to staying consistent.
Is it a happy ending? A sizzling summer romance? A compulsively readable storyline? All of the above? Books columnist Alicia Cox Thomson joins the chat with editor-in-chief and host Maureen Halushak in Episode 6 of Group Chat to talk all things summer books—including the three reads she says you won’t be able to put down this season.
Stuck in a style rut? This week, fashion stylist and personal shopper Jenn Park Krulik enters the Group Chat with editor-in-chief Maureen Halushak to talk all things style—including her best tips for summer dressing, and finding hidden gems in your own closet.
What if the Real Housewives franchises have been misunderstood all along? What if the TV shows so often deemed cage matches between wealthy, privileged women from cities across the globe are actually venues for midlife women to explore their identities, make lasting friendships and be unapologetically themselves? That’s the takeaway for Laura Hensley, author of the Bravo-loving Substack That’s My Opinion. She joins editor-in-chief (and reality-TV hater) Maureen Halushak for Episode 4 of Group Chat to talk all things Housewives—and maybe even convert Maureen into a Housewives lover by the end of their conversation.