A podcast about
solving problems,
with creativity & innovation
Cross-pollinating fields, knowledge & talents to create something new.
Getting to Know the Robots
Award-winning tech educator & AI skills advisor Garrett Wasny knows people & companies have hesitations about AI. Garrett chats on working smarter with AI, why employees are key, introducing it in companies with clear guidelines, starting with a beginners’ mindset & why now is the time to get to know the robots.
Dogs, Wolves, AI & Accessibility
What do dogs & wolves have to do with AI? Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai, VP of Research at CNIB chats on his work on the lived experiences of people with disabilities, workplace & other barriers to accessibility & how to make tech & the world more accessible. How to train AI to support accessibility.
Mosquitoes, Easter Eggs & the Power of Art
Ever wonder what art is for? Artist Agnieszka Matejko has. She talks about art that serves communities & giant roadside art with a sense of humour that’s helped restore cultural pride, put small towns on the Guinness Records map and draw tourists on cross-country road trips.
Planning, Activating & Executing Strategy
How can organizations prioritize resources & plan for the future? Cheryl Lockhart works with organizations to plan, activate & execute strategy. She talks being creative with KPIs, supporting growth with systems & creating strategic buy-in.
Business, Art, Truth & Reconciliation
How do art, business, culture, history & family combine? Entrepreneur Breannen Allison on how coming to know her Cree & Métis heritage led to Thimbleberry Designs, honouring her grandmother’s life & supporting resurgence for the future.
ELAT for Diversity & Inclusion
How can companies do better at retaining engaged employees? Jessica Ketwaroo-Green is an award-winning social policy expert & consultant. She chats on the ELAT framework she created to help organizations & companies move from diversity to inclusion.
Creativity, Uncertainty & Change
How to navigate through uncertainty & ambiguity? Janice Francisco, founder at Bridgepoint Effect, talks about quieting fear & anxiety, getting comfortable with newness & moving forward with purpose in an uncertain world.
Creativity, Uncertainty & Change
How to be creative & innovative at a time of uncertainty & big change? Janice Francisco, founder at Bridgepoint Effect, talks leadership, remote collaboration & ways we can move forward when we can’t clearly see the next bend in the road. The skills & thinking we need.
Educating for the Future
Education as you know it is old school. Educational designer Natalie Vardabasso talks innovation & education. She tells us how education can better prepare students for the future & what changes are driving a need for new, more creative, equitable & practical approaches in education.
Innovate Like a Pirate
Want to be a pirate? Dr. Tendayi Viki chats on his new book Pirates in the Navy, intrapreneurship & what companies & corporate innovators need to know to survive & stay viable before & during the pandemic.
World Power
Heard of a rare albino moose? Entrepreneur Connie Stacey chats on the power of unconventional perspectives & outside ideas, growing her business, Growing Greener Innovations & a vision to bring energy to the world.
Diversity, EDI & Innovation - Does it Mean What You Think?
Diversity at work – the business case or moral case? Co-hosts of (Ex)clusion podcast & equity, diversity & inclusion pros Marcie Hawranik & Alicia Bjarnson chat EDI, inclusion & supporting innovation, better workplaces & social policies.
Pandemic Pop-Up
Omar Mouallem started Pandemic University to support writers & journalists during the pandemic. The award-winning writer chats on creating a niche platform that builds community & revenues in a new world for writers.
Pivoting in the Pandemic
Chrissy Gow chats on how Eventmobi, an event management software company, pivoted to help fight “Zoom fatigue” & serve customers with a new business model to make online events more interactive, fun & engaging.
Thinking Global Scale
Mark Philpott left a global corporate career to work on social enterprise. He chats on cross-pollinating skills to new fields & global adventures from pro sports to sailing, film & podcasts & developing projects at a global scale.
New Ways to Work
Diane Mulcahy wrote the best-seller, The Gig Economy. She chats independent work, portfolio careers & what that looks like when traditional careers aren’t traditional anymore.
Career Inflection Point
What to do about work when the world is uncertain? Dr. Nayla Bahri talks careers in times of uncertainty & stability & what we can do. She chats networks, data gathering, experiments & what her research based on job outcomes after the 2008 financial crisis tells us now.
Reinventing from Oil & Gas 2
How to reinvent careers from an industry in transition? Carl, Nathalie & Clark chat on the ingredients they needed to make big changes from oil & gas careers, fear of change & what we can learn.
Reinventing from Oil & Gas
How to reinvent careers from an industry in transition? Carl, Nathalie & Clark all worked in Alberta oil & gas. Now their jobs are completely different. They chat on reinventing careers & the big changes they made.
Business, Social Innovation & Connecting Globally
How can business support human development? Ling Ling Phung, founder of Two Lings, is a social innovation strategist & intrapreneurship expert. She chats meaningful work that requires rigour & heart.
Crossing Continents
Thinking of taking on new projects? An adventurous childhood inspired Mario Rigby to cross Africa by foot & Canada by bike. He shares the most unexpected things he learned & what’s coming next.
Ace the Basics Then Shake Things Up
How to solve big challenges with new collaborations? As Director of IT at the Calgary Drop-In Centre, Helen Wetherley Knight saw opportunities in challenges & constraints. She talks tech in the service of strategy & social missions & how to make it work.
The Man Who Grew a Million Trees
What’s so amazing about plants? Plant scientist Jerrin Victor tells us how growing new kinds of plants faster can have an impact on challenges from deforestation to climate change, biodiversity & feeding the world. He chats on why plants are his passion but creating jobs is the most important part of his work.
Creating the Future
How can science fiction help create positive futures? Ari Popper, CEO & founder of SciFutures, talks about his company’s work helping other organizations innovate products, services & businesses through scifi prototyping & why it’s important to generate positive ideas for better futures.
Taking over with Code
Are young people more creative than adults? Team Zeal created an app & a business to solve a real-world problem in 12 weeks with no prior coding or entrepreneurial experience. They talk competing in the global Technovation Challenge & being young women in a non-traditional field.
Optimism, Opportunity & Emerging Markets
What’s the connection between innovation & prosperity? Deepa Prahalad is a strategy, design & emerging markets expert & author. She talks economic inclusion, opportunities in challenges & the value of uniqueness in good design.
E-Learning Explorers
What’s changing in the way we learn? Ron Thiele is President & co-founder of Xpan Interactive, an e-learning company. He chats on growing a company of e-learning explorers, tech, storytelling & disruption in the learning space.
A Non-Specialist in a Specialist World
Nickita created Passions Pilot. She’s an IT project manager, former stained glass artist & multi-potentialite with multiple interests. We chat non-specialist careers, natural cross-pollinators & undercover innovators. Nickita talks agile methods & organizing many passions with Passions Pilot.
Designing Deeper than a Pretty Page
How does good design speak to readers? Tracy Lay applies design & creativity to connect authors & new ideas to an audience. She cross-pollinates art, self-publishing & branding & created a new business based on her unique combination of skills & talents.
Curiosity, Creativity & Change
How can companies innovate better? Janice Francisco leads BridgePoint Effect. She tells us why employee creativity is organizations’ best resource in responding to change & developing new solutions. Janice explains what companies need to consider in embarking on an innovation journey.
A Secret Sauce for Cities
What’s civic innovation & how can it help cities? Elisha Muskat is a social innovation leader who tells us about how cities can work better for more people, how to redefine problems to unlock new value & opportunities to solve old problems in exciting new ways.
Why Innovation is a Survival Skill
Shari Hughson is a serial entrepreneur, intrapreneur & social innovator who lived off the land for 7 years. She talks about why innovation is a human survival skill & a systematic process, how intrapreneurs & entrepreneurs are alike & different & why curiosity & execution are essential to solve problems in a new way.
Tackling Problems with Good Design
What’s design about & why does it matter? Kelly Shaw, Design Director at J5’s Social Impact Lab, demystifies design thinking. He talks about how companies & non-profits can use design methods to innovate & solve problems & why Spotify is a great example of good design.
How to be Bold
*’E’ rating for language* How to do things differently. Coalition Snow is an industry upstart. CEO Jen Gurecki gets frank about breaking into the outdoor industry, shaking things up & creating a platform for social change while manufacturing women’s skis & snowboards. Bring your sisu spirit & a bottle of bourbon.
Telling Stories that Inspire Life & Work
Christa Avampato is a New York product development expert, business writer & award-winning fiction author. She talks about why tech is about stories; biomimicry & product design, the career story you need to tell & reinventing your career & life through creativity & imagination.
Vizualizing Higher Ed
How can universities play a role in innovation? Vizworx has answers. Co-founders Jeff Lafrenz and Dr. Frank Maurer talk about taking research beyond the academic realm, commercializing early stage technologies, augmented reality and data visualization and ensuring students can think big to solve problems in a multi-disciplinary world.
No Walls & a Campfire
Energized by time outdoors? Niki Choo drew on a background in outdoor recreation, business, psychology and real estate development to co-found Campsyte, an outdoor workspace. The CEO explains what sparked her business, the benefits of time outside and why cross-pollinating knowledge leads to more creative companies.
Coming to a Screen Near You
Vera Neverkevich is a computer scientist & filmmaker. She talks about how IT contributes to her film work and creating new stories with an outsider’s perspective. Vera explains what it takes to get good at what you do, persist in a highly competitive field and live a creative life in two fields.
Inventing a Creative Business
Business coach Lisa Robbin Young helps creative entrepreneurs develop sustainable businesses. She explains the 3 types of creatives and her incubator that helps commercialize their expertise. She talks about cross-pollinating to stand out from the crowd and the difference between using your skills and your talents.
How to be a Chic Geek
How do you take on a problem that’s bigger than you? If you’re Kylie Woods, you bootstrap Chic Geek with a volunteer army. The founder/Exec Director explains her love for tech, engaging more women in IT, leadership, experiments, blending startup, tech and non-profit approaches and applying your background in industries where your skills aren’t an obvious fit.
In the Fall Line
How can sports help build creative muscle? Pro skier & entrepreneur Leah Evans turns imagination into reality. She talks about using sport to take risks & get out of your comfort zone. She chats on the creative film, music and business ventures she’s developed and learning from failure. Leah is founder/Director of Girls Do Ski and Airplane Mode and has appeared in films, international ski camps and expeditions.
At Hyperspeed Take Nothing for Granted
What do you do when disruption & change are your industry norm? B2B tech marketing expert Gal Corfas explains how rapid change influences online marketing, different generations at work and the way that we think. He talks job and education trends based on the experience of his industry, being a non-specialist and how cross-pollinating and learning in different fields can help.
Finding the Red Thread
How to connect different career interests? Book coach/publisher and Seats-2-Meet co-owner, Elise de Bres is an expert at making connections others can’t see. She explains the red thread that unifies her business interests, the power of serendipity and her unintended path to entrepreneurship.
Psych, No Couch Required
What do business & psychology have in common? Dr. Velma Mockett is an unconventional therapist who mixes psychology, business, and public health to help people implement positive life changes. Velma believes cross-pollinating across fields gives you more ways to gain insights and develop solutions to face life’s challenges. She talks strengths, mental health, resilience and emotional fitness.
Data Science, Trading & Agile Walk into a Bar
How to be an intrapreneur? Nima Safaian works in financial trading. Frustrated by outdated methods, he cross-pollinates data science, machine learning, design thinking and startup methods to create tools for new insights on the financial markets. He talks about developing a team with no prior data science or coding background and innovating in a large organization.