Cyber threats have been around as long as the Internet, but attacks have ramped up in the last few years, with the pandemic dramatically shifting more of our work—and our lives—online. Organizations also moved more of their operations to the cloud, creating a new potential liability. Recent high-profile security breaches have crippled some of Canada’s largest companies such as Empire Foods, Indigo, and Maple Leaf Foods, with costly impacts to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Organized crime and some nation states are getting better and better at breaching existing security. It’s up to Canada to leverage our talent, technology, and knowledge to turn those cybersecurity challenges into opportunities. On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC Podcast, host John Stackhouse takes a deep dive into what is being done to fight cybercrime. Guests include Adam Evans, RBC’s Senior Vice-President & Chief Information Security Officer Michelle Zatlyn, the founder, President, and COO of Cloudflare, and David Shipley, founder & CEO of Beauceron Security. What are the biggest risks to your data and what’s being done to keep it safe? Listen in to find out. For more information about Cloudflare, check out their website. Click here to read about Beauceron Security. More information about RBC’s cybersecurity initiative can be found here.

It’s no secret that 2023 hasn’t exactly started on a high note for the tech sector. With more than 100,000 workers laid off already this year, looking in from the outside, the industry seems to have lost some of its momentum. But what are insiders saying? In the short term, large scale layoffs may not be over, but they’re slowing. And a look back in time offers insights into the kind of mega companies that got their start during economic downturns. On this special, on-location episode of Disruptors, an RBC Podcast, host John Stackhouse speaks with tech leaders at the C100 annual summit in Silicon Valley, to get the real scoop from Canadians in the thick of it. We hear from a range of voices: Andre Charoo, managing partner at Maple VC, a venture capital firm with Canadian roots; Chris Arsenault, president and CEO of Inovia Capital; Shari Hatch Jones, founder and managing partner at Sightline Coaching, and Dominic Penaloza, founder and CEO of Peace. Is 2023 a time for the tech sector to move away from concepts and experimentation and start generating returns? Will the economic downturn slow development or is now the time for the best ideas to rise to the top? Listen in and find out. For more information about the annual C100 Summit click here. To read about Maple VC, visit their site. Information on Inovia Capital can be found here and Sightline Coaching here.

Is the hustle to build a reliable, domestic supply of semiconductors the new space race? Semiconductors are small computer chips the size of a fingerprint that contain hundreds of millions, if not billions, of tiny transistors. And they’re essential for today’s electronics—from coffee machines to data centres that run the Internet. The world needs a lot of them to function. But the world is a complicated place, filled with even more complicated supply chains. Nations worldwide are announcing semiconductor strategies to either onshore their production or at the very least make sure they aren’t being left behind. On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse is joined by Benjamin Bergen, president of the Council of Canadian Innovators, and the co-author of a recent Globe and Mail op-ed, “U.S. is seizing the moment on chips and semiconductors—why can’t Canada?” He’ll also speak to Jim Keller, CEO of Toronto-based Tenstorrent, makers of specialized AI application chips. Semiconductor production is extremely complex and their factories are the most expensive in human history. Does Canada have the resources and know-how to keep up? Listen in to find out. To read Benjamin Bergen’s op-ed, click here, to find out more about the Council of Canadian Innovators, go to their website. Click here to find out more about Tenstorrent’s specialized Next Generation chips. For more information about the U.S. government’s Chips and Science act, click here.

Imagine a mathematical problem so complex, it would take today’s most sophisticated supercomputer 9,000 years to solve. Now, imagine a new type of computer that could solve the very same problem in just a fraction of a second. That’s the promise of quantum computing—and it turns out, Canada is well on its way to becoming a global force in the research, development, and implementation of that cutting-edge technology. On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse is joined by the CEO of Toronto-based Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc, Christian Weedbrook. Just last year, Xanadu became one of the first companies on the planet to successfully achieve what’s known as “quantum advantage” or “quantum supremacy”; in essence, demonstrating that a programmable quantum device can solve a problem that no classical computer could in a realistic time frame. There’s also a special guest appearance by Dr Stephanie Simmons, Founder and Chief Quantum Officer at Photonic. She was also recently named the co-chair of the newly announced National Quantum Strategy of Canada. The next step is to scale the technology, and develop real-world applications that can be used to tackle pressing problems like pandemics and climate change. But plenty of other countries, including Israel, India, China and the United States, are competing with Canada in this race, and Europe is also investing billions into quantum research and development. So how can Canada maintain the pole position? What’s needed in terms of government support and investment? And why did Christian name his company after an infamous box-office bomb from the 1980s? You’ll have to listen to find out! You can learn more about Canada’s quantum strategy on the Federal Government’s website. Xanadu has posted a series of resources online, including a helpful explainer video, which you can find here. RBC Capital Markets also wrote about the promise of quantum technology back in December 2022, you can read that article here. You can learn more about Dr. Stephanie Simmons and Photonic here.

After a three-year hiatus, the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, came back with a vengeance, just as a fragmented world confronts a confluence of crises. The global meeting of government, business and community leaders—the first in three years—can’t quite be described as optimistic, among the 600+ CEOs, 200 cabinet ministers, 50 heads of government and 20 central bank governors who attended the event. But after a year marked by war, inflation, energy shortages and pandemic fears, the general view of Davos 2023 was, “hey, things could be a lot worse.” In this episode, host John Stackhouse offers his key learnings during his visit to the Swiss Alps. Alongside his special co-host Naomi Powell, Managing Editor of RBC Economics and Thought Leadership, John takes us through the memorable moments and key themes from this year’s #WEF2023 in Davos. From complications arising from the war in Ukraine, to the energy transition and the global innovation landscape, listen to John’s front-row seat perspective. Hear from some of the world’s top leaders and thinkers, including Matthew Prince, CEO of IT security firm Cloudflare, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Svein Tore Holsether, the CEO of Yara International, a leading crop nutrition company. John also talks about the macro and micro trends discussed at the forum, and where Canada can lead. Also, what was the general sentiment around prospects for 2023 among world leaders? Listen in and find out. John Stackhouse shares his takeaways from Davos 2023, click here to read the piece called, “The Meh-conomy & Matterhorn-sized risks: 12 themes for a fragmented world.” John also penned daily “dispatch from Davos” editorials, which you can read on his LinkedIn page. For more information about the World Economic Forum, click here.

As we begin a new year, we’re creeping ever closer to the point of no return in the fight against climate change. Sea levels are rising, the earth is warming, we’ve seen thawing permafrost and large scale die-offs in coral reefs, and parts of the Amazon are experiencing increased instances of drought and deforestation. Thankfully, the world is taking notice and more money than ever before is on the table. The U.S. is making its largest investment ever in green technology in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act or I.R.A., an almost 370 billion dollar pledge to fight climate change. Across the pond, the European Commission has pledged to mobilize at least a trillion Euros in sustainable investments over the next ten years. So how does Canada ensure it isn’t left behind and instead find its place at the head of the pack? Now is the time to think big. On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse speaks to Dr. Andrew Steer, President and CEO of the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, as well as Eli Aheto, a Managing Director at BeyondNetZero, a new climate venture from General Atlantic that invests in high-growth companies developing innovative climate solutions. These two titans are collectively responsible for investing billions of dollars in green tech. They discuss with John about where the money will go and what the future can look like—if we play our cards right. For more information on the Bezos Earth Fund, visit their site. More information on BeyondNetZero can be found here.

WTF: where’s the finance? It was a hot topic at COP27, the UN Climate Conference in Egypt in November, and it continues to be a source of debate at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which is just wrapping up in Montreal. In 2011, 20 targets were set at the Convention on Biological Diversity. A study done nine years later showed that the world had failed to fully achieve a single one. This is not an opportunity we can afford to waste again. But in order to bridge the $700 billion biodiversity financing gap, real changes will have to be made. On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse speaks with the leaders of some of Canada’s most prominent environmental organizations about biodiversity, how to fund it, and the best way to incorporate tech into our country’s conservation efforts. Catherine Grenier is the President and CEO of the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Dr. Justina Ray is the President and Senior Scientist at Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, and Hadley Archer is the Executive Director of Nature United. All are partners of RBC’s Tech for Nature program, a $100 million, multi-year commitment to preserving the world’s greatest wealth: its natural ecosystem. Click on the following links to read more about: Nature Conservancy of Canada, Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada, and Nature United. For more information about the UN Biodiversity Conference: COP15, click here. To learn more about RBC Tech For Nature visit their site. To read John’s takeaways from the event, visit his LinkedIn page.

AI was expected to revolutionize the way we do just about everything, but the changes that were promised haven’t materialized as quickly as expected. What’s holding AI back? On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse sits down with Ajay Agrawal to dig into this question and more. Ajay is a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; he was named to The Order of Canada this year for his contributions to enhance Canada's productivity, competitiveness, and prosperity through innovation and entrepreneurship, and he’s the founder of the Creative Destruction Lab, an early proponent of AI ingenuity. Ajay is also the author of two books about AI. His latest, Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, co-written with fellow Rotman professors Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb, focuses on the fact that AI hasn’t lived up to the excitement that he himself helped create. When he looked back at the predictions made in his 2018 bestseller, Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, he realized it was time to shift focus away from AI as a technology and instead look at the economics of the systems in which it operates. This episode also features an exciting new AI technology called GPT-3, which uses deep learning to produce text that reads like it was written by a human. It was created by Open AI, an organization founded in San Francisco in 2015. Ilya Sutskever, their chief scientist, is Canadian and a U of T alum. GPT-3 even provided a brief summary of John and Ajay’s conversation: “Creative Destruction Lab was designed to address the market failure of commercializing early stage science. The program helps entrepreneurs with the judgment they need to turn their scientific innovation into a business. AI is characterized as a drop in the cost of prediction. AI is not going to figure out the complexities of health care. There are many barriers to deploying AI in health care, including system frictions that are not aligned with the incentives of hospitals, doctors, and insurers. It is difficult to experiment with AI in health care because of the need for a system-level overhaul. AI has the potential to help reduce discrimination by making it easier to detect and then fix. However, too much regulation of AI has the potential to stifle innovation. Canada is doing well on the research side of AI, but there is room for improvement on the application side.” Amazingly concise! This episode also features an AI-generated John Stackhouse, so listen in and see if you can tell the difference. To read Ajay Agrawal’s newest book, “Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence”, co-written with fellow Rotman School of Management professors Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb click here. Follow this link to the University of Toronto’s article about testing out GPT-3 and this one for more about Open AI, GPT-3 and Dall-E2. Some background on IBM Watson can be found here.

Amidst a backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rapidly rising inflation, ever-lingering COVID, and near constant political convulsions, this year’s COP27 took on an unprecedented weight. In this episode, let John Stackhouse walk you through the recently wrapped COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. With his special guest co-host Naomi Powell, Managing Editor of RBC Economics and Thought Leadership, get John’s front row seat perspective on the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as the Conference of the Parties (COP27) Hear from some of the world’s top leaders and thinkers, including talking to climate scientists Katharine Hayhoe and Johan Rockström; Elizabeth Nsimadala, the President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation, as well as Heather Chalmers, the president and CEO of GE Canada. From loss and damages to climate financing, John talks about the successes and failures of COP27, and where Canada stands out. Is the goal of halting global warming at 1.5*C still attainable? Listen in and find out. John Stackhouse shares his takeaways from COP27, click here to read the piece called, “Reality Bites”. For more information about COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt click here. If you’d like to know more about some of the people John spoke with, read up on Katharine Hayhoe at the Nature Conservancy; Rick Smith, the president of the Canadian Climate Institute, or the call to action by Elizabeth Nsimala, the President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation. Disruptors recently took an in-depth look at how Canada can reduce emissions and waste in the agricultural sector, it’s a special, three-part series called, The Growing Challenge, listen here.

It’s an issue that’s estimated to cost Canada more than $21 billion per year -- nevermind the environmental impacts. But how much thought have you really given to the problem of food waste and spoilage, and how it could be hampering our country’s effort to reduce emissions? Whenever wasted or spoiled food ends up buried in a landfill instead of decomposing while exposed to air, it generates methane — a potent greenhouse gas with 86 times the warming power of carbon dioxide. And it just so happens that Canada is one of the worst countries on the planet when it comes to wasted food. So what can be done about it? On this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, co-hosts John Stackhouse and Trinh Theresa Do wrap up their special, three-part series called “The Growing Challenge”, with an in-depth examination of how both food waste and spoilage represent a huge and often overlooked obstacle to our nation’s sustainability efforts. They’ll also discuss new technologies and tactics helping food producers to address the issue — as well as how we as consumers all need to change our attitudes when it comes to things like best before dates, portion sizes, and so-called “rescued food.” In addition to some familiar voices from earlier episodes in the series like Sonya Hoo, Evan Fraser, and Kristjan Hebert, John and Theresa will also hear from Meeru Dhalwala, author, chef, and the co-owner of Vij’s and Rangoli restaurants in Vancouver; Randy Huffman, the Chief Food Safety and Sustainability Officer at Maple Leaf Foods; Kevin Groh, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Loblaw Companies Limited; as well as Jeremy Lang, the founder and Vice-President of Sustainability at Pela Earth, which makes a smart, countertop-based composting system called Lomi. To learn more about Meeru Dhalwala you can visit her Wikipedia page or follow her on Instagram at @meerudhalwala. Maple Leaf Foods has much more information about its sustainability goals on its website. Loblaw Companies Limited has details on its efforts to reduce waste in both the textiles and food industries. Click here to learn more about the Lomi smart composter, and here for information about Pela’s compostable phone cases. For more about BCG’s work on food systems and food security—follow this link. And for details on The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph, please click here.

When people are asked to name the most innovative industries in North America, Canada’s beef and dairy sectors probably aren’t the first ones to come to mind. But it turns out the agrifood business in our country has been undergoing a rapid and dramatic evolution for a number of years now -- and it’s going to need to keep on innovating if it’s going to meet one of the most pressing challenges of our time; climate change. Because while the beef and dairy industries contribute more than $40 billion to the economy, they’re also a key source of one of the most potent greenhouse gases; methane. So which new technologies, data systems, and processes will be critical if Canada is going to meet the needs of a growing population while simultaneously reducing emissions? That’s the central question at the heart of this second episode in a special, three-part series, “The Growing Challenge”, this fall on Disruptors, an RBC podcast. Join co-hosts John Stackhouse and Trinh Theresa Do as they share first-hand insights from their own experiences, and speak with guests working up and down the beef and dairy supply chain, like Dr. Calvin Booker, a veterinarian and General Manager for Services and Research at TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods; Alison Sunstrum, the CEO of CNSRV-X Inc and General Partner of The51 Food and AgTech Fund; and John van Logtenstein, the vice-president of Dairy Lane Systems and DLS Biogas, and Kristjan Hebert, managing partner of Hebert Grain Ventures. Together, they discuss the skills, talent, technology, and innovation that are needed to maximize production while minimizing our environmental impact — and make Canada a world leader in sustainable agriculture without compromising on its net-zero goals. You can learn more about TELUS Agriculture & Consumer Goods and its commitment to a sustainable value chain here. CNSRV-X is working on advanced technology solutions for agriculture and carbon markets—read all about it on their website. Follow this link to explore the work of The51 Food and Agtech fund, and these two to read up on the people and processes at Dairy Lane Systems and DLS Biogas. And Kristjan Hebert has his own website, as does his company, Hebert Grain Ventures.

Extreme weather and geopolitical turmoil have placed the world’s food systems under tremendous stress. At the same time, climate change is slowing agricultural productivity among major producing nations, there’s a growing need for more food: globally, over 800 million people are food insecure — meaning that they don’t have access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their daily needs. In Canada, one-in-six people are food insecure. As a top agricultural exporter, Canada has both a responsibility and an opportunity to help. But agriculture is also one of the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint: by one estimate, 10% of Canada's emissions are from crop and livestock production. How can Canada feed a growing population while simultaneously slashing emissions? That’s the problem we’ll tackle in a special three-part series on Disruptors, an RBC podcast, called, “The Growing Challenge”. In it, co-hosts John Stackhouse and Trinh Theresa Do speak with some of the top innovators and big-picture thinkers who are helping Canadian agriculture meet this grand challenge. In our first episode, John and Theresa speak with Sonya Hoo, a managing partner at BCG who studies the Canadian food and agricultural sector, Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and author of the new book, “Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth”, Kristjan Hebert, managing partner of Hebert Grain Ventures (HGV), a large grain and oilseed operation in southeast Saskatchewan, and Murad Al-Katib, president and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients, a global value-added pulses, staple foods and ingredient company. By one account, humanity must produce more food over the next four decades than we have in the last 8,000 years of agriculture combined. Can we make it happen — while simultaneously lowering our greenhouse gas emissions? Tune in over the next few weeks to find out! To learn more about BCG’s work on food systems and food security — follow this link, and to learn more about their Centre for Canada’s Future, click here. The Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph has a mission to “bring people together to conduct research, train the next generation of food leaders and shape social, industrial and governmental decisions”; to read some of their work, click here. And to check out director Evan Fraser’s new book—which he co-wrote with author Lenore Newman—follow this link. Farmer Kristjan Hebert has his own website, if you’d like to find out the latest on what he’s up to. Kristjan also appeared recently on The Farm CPA Podcast; you can listen to his interview here. To learn more about Murad Al-Katib’s business, AGT Food and Ingredients, follow this link. Murad is also chair of the federal government’s Economic Strategy Table for agri-food. To read more about their work, click here.

Despite the economic storm clouds on the horizon, there is little doubt that Canada’s labour market is in desperate need of talent — and will be for many years to come. In this special LIVE episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse speaks with tech entrepreneur Martin Basiri about immigrant and employment — specifically, how Canada can build a pathway to citizenship for immigrants, and how companies can do a better job of attracting and retaining this global talent. Basiri is the co-founder and CEO of Kitchener, Ontario’s ApplyBoard. ApplyBoard has an AI-enabled software platform that lets students from around the world quickly identify and apply for university or college programs across North America, the U.K. and Australia. Basiri’s tech platform improves global access to education by streamlining the study abroad search and application process for students all over the world. For any listener looking for work — or looking for workers — this is an episode you won’t want to miss! To learn more about The Business + Higher Education Roundtable (BHER) — the non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that hosted this discussion — follow this link. ApplyBoard uses an AI recruitment platform to connect international students with post-secondary institutions. To learn more, follow this link. And to read about Martin Basiri’s fundraising success (totaling approx. $600 million), check out these two articles.

Inspiration is something that fuels every entrepreneur’s journey — and few stories are as inspiring as John Ruffolo’s. In this special LIVE episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, host John Stackhouse speaks with Canadian tech investing legend John Ruffolo at the ELEVATE Festival in downtown Toronto — the largest gathering of creative thought leaders in Canada. Ruffolo is the founder and managing partner of Maverix Private Equity and previously founded OMERS Ventures, where he made several winning bets on Canadian tech powerhouses, including Hootsuite, Wattpad and Shopify. The two talk about Ruffolo’s amazing investing journey, as well as his inspiring “road to recovery” from a near-deadly cycling accident in 2020. It’s an insight-filled conversation that will resonate with Canadian entrepreneurs everywhere — a story about resilience, bold risks and hard work. To learn more about John Ruffolo and Mavrix Private Equity, follow this link. Ruffolo is also the co-founder and current vice-chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. You can find out more about their work here.

Despite economic turmoil in 2022, Canada continues to experience a very tight labour market. And in many professions — from healthcare to engineering — jobs continue to go unfilled. The answer to this challenge, according to many: Strengthen the pathways from classrooms to citizenship, and leverage the growing presence of international students — now totalling some 600,000 — to meet Canada’s pressing labour needs. In this episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, hosts John Stackhouse and Trinh Theresa Do speak with two women leading the charge to foster and retain top international talent. In the first half of the show, they speak to Larissa Bezo — the president and CEO of the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE). The CBIE is a national, non-profit organization helping Canadian education institutions achieve their internationalization goals. And in the second half, they chat with Pat Chaisang, a former international student from Thailand (now based in Vancouver) who has launched Isempower: a job-search platform for international students hoping to secure meaningful work in Canada. To learn more about the work of the Canadian Bureau of International Education — and its advocacy for international students — check out its website. Isempower describes itself as “Canada’s first job search platform for international students.” To find out more, follow this link. In the episode, Theresa and John reference a new report from RBC Economics and Thought Leadership called “Course Correction: How International Students Can Help Solve Canada’s Labour Crisis.” You can read it here.

It may not be top of mind for most Canadians -- or the top issue in most public opinion polls -- but it’s one of the greatest challenges our world has ever faced; climate change. And did you know that 10% of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to the very food we eat? This fall on Disruptors, an RBC podcast, hosts John Stackhouse and Theresa Do will tackle a critical question for the 2020’s -- how can Canada feed its growing population, and potentially the world, while simultaneously reducing our carbon footprint in order to meet our nation’s net-zero goals? To find out, John and Theresa have visited farms and production facilities across the country, and spoken with an array of experts who are working up and down the agrifood supply chain, including farmers, academics, scientists, and restaurateurs. And they’ll share what they’ve learned in a special, three-part series called The Growing Challenge . They’ll take you from the field, to the processing facility, to the dinner table, to learn how we can harness new technologies and processes to improve efficiency, cut carbon emissions, and reduce food waste. It turns out, Canada may have much more to contribute to the global food system than just poutine and maple syrup.

From the invasion of Russia to soaring inflation, the rising cost of energy has forced many countries to delay or scale back their climate ambitions. Suddenly, many are also looking to Canada — and its abundance of energy — for desperately needed supply. But in the wake of yet another summer of record heat and forest fires, the need to balance climate and energy security has never been more apparent. That sort of balance — a more holistic approach to energy development — is something that Canada’s Indigenous leaders have been stressing for decades. In this special “Best Of” episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, Trinh Theresa Do revisits three conversations she and her co-host, John Stackhouse, have had over the past season with some of Canada’s most thought-provoking Indigenous leaders. First up, we hear from JP Gladu, a Suncor Energy board member and executive director of the Indigenous Resource Network. And in the second half, it’s Mark Podlasly, director of economic policy at the First Nations Major Projects Coalition, and Crystal Smith, chief councilor of the Haisla Nation and chair of the First Nations LNG Alliance — each bringing their experience and wisdom to bear in this vital discussion about Canada’s energy future. SHOW NOTES: JP Gladu has taken his extensive experience in corporate Canada to build his own consultancy, Mokwateh. To learn more about what Mokwateh does, check out his website. The First Nations Major Projects Coalition is a collective of First Nations united to promote shared interests and gain ownership in the major developments in their territories. You can find out more here. To learn more about the Haisla Nation and their history, follow this link. During the episode, Crystal mentions the vital oolichan fishery; to understand more, click here. Disruptors wants to hear from you! Please fill out our quick 5-minute listener survey and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a pair of Apple AirPods Pros.

Carbon offsets could counterbalance some of the environmental damage of human activities, including that of short and long-haul flights. But do they actually deliver on this promise? In this edition of Disruptors: The 10-Minute Take, co-host Trinh Theresa Do casts a critical eye on the voluntary carbon market, specifically, carbon offsets. She’s joined by Suha Jethalal, President of Bullfrog Power, who explains how these credits work, and what consumers should think about when buying them. To learn more about Bullfrog Power or their subsidiary less.ca, visit their website. Disruptors wants to hear from you! Please fill out our quick 5-minute listener survey and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a pair of Apple AirPods Pros.

Are you looking to buy a new or used vehicle this year? You may be in for a long wait. In this edition of Disruptors: The 10-Minute Take, co-host Trinh Theresa Do dives into how global chip shortages, rising fuel costs and the summer travel season have upended the market. She’s joined by Cody Green, founder & CEO at Canadadrives.ca, who describes the challenges today’s consumers face when buying or selling vehicles and how tech is helping address them. To learn more about Canadadrives.ca, visit their website. Disruptors wants to hear from you! Please fill out our quick 5-minute listener survey and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a pair of Apple AirPods Pros.

Are you planning to take a trip this summer? After two long years of COVID-related complications, Canadians are finally traveling freely again. The cruise sector is back in business, outdoor festivals and other big public events have returned, and of course, air travel is booming, leading to long lines at Canadian airports, thanks to all the pent-up demand from people forced to spend most of the pandemic on the ground. Thankfully, there are technological solutions to some of the headaches associated with booking a trip. On this encore episode of Disruptors, an RBC podcast, hosts John Stackhouse and Trinh Theresa Do explore the “new normal” for travel and tourism with Hussein Fazal. Fazal is the CEO of SnapCommerce, whose flagship product, SnapTravel, is an AI-powered half-bot half-human service that helps customers book hotel rooms, flights, and car rentals, either through their website, or through SMS, Messenger and WhatsApp. But despite the fact services like SnapTravel have been logging record traffic, there may be a dark lining to those silver clouds. Inflation is at a 40-year high, gas prices are soaring, and Europe remains engulfed in geopolitical turmoil. It’s fair to say that for those in the travel industry — or folks hoping to travel — there may still be some turbulent skies ahead. SHOW NOTES: To learn more about SnapCommerce and its flagship product, SnapTravel, check out its website here. In the episode, Theresa mentions new travel statistics and trends from the RBC Consumer Spending Tracker. To read more, follow this link. Also mentioned is a new RBC report that looks at the importance of boosting women’s pay and participation in the labour force—and presents some possible solutions. The report, called, “Equal Measures: Advancing Canada's working women in a post-pandemic economy,” can be found here. Disruptors wants to hear from you! Please fill out our quick 5-minute listener survey and you’ll be entered into a draw to win a pair of Apple AirPods Pros.