Mind the Gap: Your Brain Can't Tell Real From Imagined

[curious] So a neuroscientist at Dartmouth is watching brain scans flash across her screen. One scan shows a subject looking at a photograph of a cat. The other scan? The same subject just imagining a cat — eyes closed, no image anywhere. [surprised] And the scans are... identical?...

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [laughing] And I'm Maya — yes, like the illusion. See you Monday.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Train Toronto Stopped Believing In

[excited] Picture this — it's Tuesday morning in Toronto, and for the first time in over a decade of construction headaches and blown deadlines, a train glides beneath Eglinton Avenue. [warm] Nineteen kilometres. Fifteen underground stations. One of the largest subway openings in North America in decades. And half the city still can't believe it's actually real....

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [warm] Mind the gap — and enjoy the ride.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The AI That Left The Planet

[excited] Last Wednesday, five hundred kilometres above the Indian Ocean, a satellite the size of a microwave oven took a photo of an airport — then did something no satellite has ever done before. [curious] It didn't beam it home?...

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [laughing] Bye, everyone. Be impermanent on purpose.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: Nvidia Bought the Software Running Every Supercomputer

[curious] It's Monday morning. You're an AI researcher — could be U of T, could be MIT, could be anywhere — and you open your terminal to queue up a training job on the supercomputer. The software deciding when your GPUs fire? It's called Slurm. Runs on basically every supercomputer on Earth. And as of last week... Nvidia just bought the company that makes it. [serious] And if you're one of the AI...

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [enthusiastic] Here's what I'm taking away. Whether it's AI tools, quantum timelines, Canadian house prices, or your own brain — the foundations we assume are solid are shifting under us. And the peop

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Little Robot That Refused to Die

[curious] A research team uploads a video last week. In it, a small robot — no bigger than a shoebox — gets stomped, twisted, dropped off a ledge. And every single time... it just... gets back up. [surprised] Not rebooted. Not repaired. It literally reshapes itself and keeps walking. Like a starfish regrowing a limb, except it was designed by an algorithm that had never seen a starfish....

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [warm] And I'm Maya. Go be resilient out there. We'll see you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: $15 An Hour To Train Your Replacement

[curious] Picture this. Six AM, a warehouse in Austin, Texas. A woman straps on a motion capture suit — the kind you'd see on a movie set — and spends four hours picking up coffee mugs, folding towels, opening doors. Over and over. She's not rehearsing for a film. She's teaching a humanoid robot how to be human. [intrigued] And she's getting paid about fifteen bucks an hour to do it....

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [warm] Mind the Gap is produced every morning for people who'd rather think than scroll. See you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: Your Encryption Now Has An Expiration Date

[curious] Picture this — it's Thursday morning, and a cybersecurity engineer at a major Canadian bank opens Ars Technica over her coffee. Google has just quietly updated its estimate for when quantum computers can crack the encryption protecting... basically everything. The new date? 2029. [serious] Three years from now. Not twenty. Not 'someday.' Three....

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [playful] Mind the gap.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The School With No Teacher

[curious] Picture this — a classroom. Eight-year-olds sit at desks. But there's no teacher at the front. No whiteboard. Just a tablet, an AI app, and two hours of core academics. Then the kids go outside and build things with their hands. [surprised] That's not a Black Mirror episode, Maya. That's an actual private school model in the U.S. right now. And CBC just asked the question that should ter...

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [warm] Mind the Gap. See you Monday.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Coin-Sized Battery That Never Dies

[curious] Picture a battery the size of a coin. Now picture it running — continuously — for fifty years. No charging. No swapping. No sunset date. [excited] Beijing Betavolt says they've built exactly that. A nuclear battery using the decay of radioactive isotopes to generate electricity for half a century. And while the rest of us were arguing about phone charger cables......

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: [warm] And I'm Maya. Go start your Thursday. The ground is moving — might as well dance.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: Four Dollar Gas And The Octopus Economy

Four dollars. That's the number blinking on gas station displays across America this morning. Four dollars a gallon — a number no one's seen since 2022. And here's the thing... the last time it hit four bucks, there was no active war in the Middle East. Now there is. And that changes everything — from what you pay at the pump, to who gets hired, who gets fired, and whether a city like Toronto can ...

In today's episode, Alex and Maya explore how Toronto's economy, AI's rapid evolution, and behavioural science intersect — and what it all means for how we live and work.

Takeaway: Be the octopus. I'm getting that on a mug. This has been Mind the Gap — see you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.