Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap: The Robot That Replaced Itself

[curious] Picture this: a lab at the University of Michigan. A four-thousand-dollar robot stands on a bench. A grad student pulls off its arm... and replaces it with a completely different one she 3D-printed overnight. [amused] Like swapping out Lego bricks on a very expensive toy?...

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] Ship imperfect policies, friends. See you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Cybersecurity Report That Hacked Itself

[serious] Somewhere inside Ernst and Young — one of the biggest consulting firms on the planet — an analyst hits 'publish' on a cybersecurity report about loyalty program fraud. Detailed citations. Authoritative tone. The kind of document Fortune 500 companies pay millions for. [curious] Only problem? The citations are fake. The references are broken. Key claims in the report? Hallucinated — by th...

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] Already reaching for my notebook. See you all tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: Tomatoes, Trade Wars, and Robot Hands

[thoughtful] Twenty-one percent. That's how much more your tomatoes cost this April versus last year. Not avocados, not some high-end organic heirloom varietal — tomatoes. The most basic ingredient in your fridge. [serious] And while Canadians were doing that math at the grocery store this week, something else was happening — quietly, on a trade document in Washington. Canada's name... just wasn't...

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] Name things well this week. And enjoy your overpriced tomatoes.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The $600 Hand That Could Replace Yours

[curious] So picture this — a factory floor in Shenzhen, rows and rows of robotic hands, each one roughly the size of a human palm... flexing, gripping, rotating a Rubik's cube. [excited] And the price tag on each hand? Six hundred dollars. Not six thousand. Six. Hundred. That's less than the phone in your pocket....

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.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Doctor Will See Your Chatbot Now

[curious] Picture this — a family doctor's office somewhere in Ontario, a Tuesday morning. The patient sits down, pulls out their phone, and says, quote, 'I already asked ChatGPT. It thinks it might be a thyroid issue.' [amused] And the doctor just... stares at this screen full of chatbot output, printed out in neat bullet points, citations and all. Wondering whether she's the second opinion now....

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.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Robots Don't Need The Lights On

[curious] It's three in the morning in Osaka. The lights are off. But in Lab Seven, a robotic arm is loading a centrifuge, adjusting reagent volumes, logging results to a shared database — and nobody is watching. [amused] No grad students were harmed in the making of this experiment. Or… involved at all, actually....

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 between the name and the thing. We'll see you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: Mangoes, Transistors, and the Knowing-Doing Gap

[warm] In the coastal village of Devgad, India, mango farmer Komal Walke is on the phone at five AM, scrambling to fill orders she already knows she can't meet. [serious] Her Alphonso mangoes — the ones people call the king of fruits — didn't ripen this year. Unseasonal rain, then heat, then more rain. The trees just... gave up....

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] Go look at something big.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Sullivan Nod Goes Way Beyond Tequila

[curious] Okay, picture this. You're a bartender in Phoenix. A customer orders a drink. And you've got a choice — upsell to the top-shelf tequila, or let it slide. [playful] Naturally, you let it slide — you're a good person. Right?...

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] Mind the Gap. See you tomorrow.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: **Everything Is Catching Fire**

[urgent] Three a.m., a Scarborough apartment building. A lithium cell inside an e-bike charger swells, splits, and in four seconds the hallway is a wall of flame. Forty-two residents in pajamas on the sidewalk. The bike cost six hundred bucks on Amazon. [serious] And here's the thing — that same lithium chemistry? It's powering the data centers training your favourite AI model… and it's the reason...

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.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.

Mind the Gap: The Bot That Outsmarted an 80-Year Proof

[thoughtful] So picture this. It's 1944. A Hungarian mathematician named Paul Erdős sits down, works through a geometry problem, publishes his proof... and for eighty years, nobody questions it. [curious] Eighty years. Entire careers built on top of that result. Textbooks printed, lectures given, students tested on 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] Go question something beautiful.

New episodes drop every weekday morning.