Exponential With Amanda Lang Podcast

This week on Exponential, you may have heard of the charity “WE” or “Me to WE” – it’s a global powerhouse, operating in scores of countries. So it’s easy to forget that WE has humble roots. Its founder, Craig Keilburger, was just 12 years old when he started it. We talked recently and I asked him to take me back to the beginning.

This week on Exponential, Canada has a national housing crisis. In big cities, home prices are running away from most people, making home ownership increasingly out of reach for many. Meanwhile, a lack of social housing in just about every urban centre is a real problem. The federal government has what it calls a ‘national housing strategy’…David Hulchanski, a professor and researcher at University of Toronto who has spent his career looking at housing asks “is it enough to meet the need?”

This week on Exponential, you may have heard of Catalyst as an organization that works to promote the advancement of women in the workplace. But along the way the folks at Catalyst realized something…the experience of women of colour was different than that of white women. It lead them to a new area of research.

This week on Exponential, James Rickards is the author of “Aftermath; Seven Secrets of Wealth Preservation in The Coming Chaos”. Jim has spent decades in financial markets, observing, describing and participating. Rickards knows a thing or two about how markets work. His latest book aims to explore what happened after the 2008 financial crisis.

This week on Exponential, when Justin Trudeau swept to power in 2015, it was on a groundswell of good feeling. Four years later, Trudeau’s majority could be under threat in the fall election – and the bloom is definitely off the rose for the Liberals. It’s an arc traced by political writer John Ivison in his new book, "Trudeau, The Education of a Prime Minister."

This week on Exponential, the size of “Big Tech” is of increasing concern to regulators, politians, and consumers. It's an issue that Thinktech Open Markets has been focusing on for some time now. Matt Stoller is Policy Director at Open Markets

This week featuring Sharon Hartung, Founder of “Your Digital Undertaker”, and Chris Snyder, author of the book “Creating Opportunities; A Volunteer’s Memoir"

This week on Exponential: Alzheimer’s is a disease that is claiming more and more people, and so far little progress has been made either on a cure or even on a way to slow it progress meaningfully. But, a small American company thinks it may have the key. It plans to start clinical trials of its drugs a few months from now, and if it’s successful, it will be a blockbuster. I talked to the CEO of Alzheon, Martin Tolar.

This week on Exponential, the federal government unveiled a long-awaited ‘national strategy on dementia’. It provides a kind of rough roadmap of how to address a large and growing problem in Canada. But, while dementia advocates say it’s a start, it’s just that – including the relatively small amount of money earmarked. I talked to Pauline Tardif, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, and asked her about the importance of a national plan.

This week on Exponential, Seymour Schulich is a legend in Canada’s mining and oil and gas industries. He built his billion dollar fortune on companies like Franco Nevada, and dozens of oil patch investments. But what the 79 year old wants to talk about these days is the energy of the future – namely Nuclear Fusion.

PART1: David and Deborah Cooper are raising money to help establish the first-of-its kind residential treatment facility -- it would fill a big gap in how we treat young adults with mental health problems. I asked them to describe what Elly’s place will be. PART2: John Collopy had to face down a particularly bad habit -- his own struggle with addiction. He shares his story in the book, "The Reward of Knowing”

Measles was all but eradicated in Canada in 1998, thanks to a successful vaccination program that created what doctors call ‘herd immunity’. Ironically, 1998 was also the year that a doctor in England published an article linking vaccines to autism. The article was a fraud, but the damage, it turned out, was done. Tim Caulfield, is Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy and a Professor of Law Public Health at the university of Alberta

This week on Exponential, Dianne Saxe, Saxe Facts/Strategic Advice and Presentations, Climate, Energy, and Environment, was the 5th Environmental Commissioner of Ontario -- a post she accepted in 2015 after decades of work as a globally recognized environmental lawyer and consultant. This year the premier of Ontario scrapped the office altogether. I talked to Saxe recently about the significance of that loss.

With Amanda Lang

This week on Exponential, as our population ages, we are staying at work longer. But, while 60 may be the new 50, many of the myths about older workers persist. That’s, in part, what Lisa Taylor is setting out to challenge, in her work as a consultant, and with her new book, The Talent Revolution.

Much hand wringing is being done about the decline of media in Canada… Television broadcasters and print media are struggling in a new environment, against new competitors. One possible solution to watching key Canadian cultural institutions go down is being offered up in a new book “The Tangled Garden: A Canadian Cultural manifesto for the Digital Age”…its author is long time media industry executive Richard Stursberg.

This week on Exponential, Amanda asks Liane Davy, author of "The Good Fight" about the notion of "good conflict" and tips on how we can learn to ignore our adversarial instincts during conflict. She also talks with Lara Wharton, Meditation Instructor/Founder of Listen Lightly about her own story and where to begin when considering meditation

For a long time we humans have been pre-occupied with how crowded our planet is…it’s a concern that stretches back to the pre-industrial era. But, what if the trend for the world isn’t to ‘too many’ people – but to fewer? Darrell Bricker is the global CEO of Ipsos Pubic Affairs (so he tracks trends of a living). With co-author John Ibbitson, Bricker explores the issue of population trends in the new book “Empty Planet; The Shock of Global Population Decline”

In 2015, Steffanie Strathdee and her husband Tom Patterson were travelling in Egypt when he fell ill from a powerful strain of bacteria. Pattersons prospects were not good…but Strathdee, a doctor specializing in the study of disease, came across a radical fix. Phage therapy (as it’s called) was pioneered in the early 20th century by a Canadian doctor to fight bacteria. It fell out of use as antibiotics became the norm. In their new book, “the perfect predator’, Strathdee describes the process of using this natural viral attacker to save her husband’s life.

It seems that everywhere we turn these days trust is eroding; Trust in our institutions, trust in government, trust in media... so how do we rebuild it, and why does it matter? Amand Lang talks to David Johnston, former governor general of Canada. He is the author of the book, ‘Trust, Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country”…which is part memoir, part how-to guide on developing trust.