Ever since he burst back onto the political scene back in 2015, politicians, pundits and the general populace has been trying to figure out what makes Donald Trump tick. While many claim to understand the motivations of the president, few believed he’d actually win. Not so with Roger Martin. The former Dean of Rotman and our own Institute Director viewed Trump’s primary run through a business lens. By the beginning of 2016, Roger felt so strongly that Trump would clinch the nomination that he not only penned an op-ed about it, he bet a friend $10,000 that it would happen. Given his certaintude, what exactly was it that Roger saw in Trump?

Notes:

Roger Martin's HBR article on how Trump won

https://hbr.org/2017/01/how-the-attacks-on-trump-reinforce-his-strategy

David Frum's cover story from the Atlantic, "How to Build an Autocracy"

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/

Syrian refugees in Canada series from the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/world/canada/syrian-refugees.html?_r=0

"What's Yours is Mine" by Tom Slee

http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/whats-yours-is-mine-by-tom-slee/

Music used in this episode:

"Steppin'" by Wake

"The Last Ones" by Jahzzar

"Whispering Through" by Asura

Ever since he burst back onto the political scene back in 2015, politicians, pundits and the general populace has been trying to figure out what makes Donald Trump tick. While many claim to understand the motivations of the president, few believed he’d actually win. Not so with Roger Martin. The former Dean of Rotman and our own Institute Director viewed Trump’s primary run through a business lens. By the beginning of 2016, Roger felt so strongly that Trump would clinch the nomination that he not only penned an op-ed about it, he bet a friend $10,000 that it would happen. Given his certaintude, what exactly was it that Roger saw in Trump?

Notes:

Roger Martin's HBR article on how Trump won

https://hbr.org/2017/01/how-the-attacks-on-trump-reinforce-his-strategy

David Frum's cover story from the Atlantic, "How to Build an Autocracy"

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/how-to-build-an-autocracy/513872/

Syrian refugees in Canada series from the New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/25/world/canada/syrian-refugees.html?_r=0

"What's Yours is Mine" by Tom Slee

http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/whats-yours-is-mine-by-tom-slee/

Music used in this episode:

"Steppin'" by Wake

"The Last Ones" by Jahzzar

"Whispering Through" by Asura

We’re taking stock and looking back at some of the research we’ve done over the past year. On the whole, we think that we’re on the right track.But, the base assumptions through which we filter much of our work has been altered by both the Brexit vote and the recent US election. How will this affect our work in the upcoming new year?

Music by Wake ("Steppin") and Jahzzar ("The Last Ones")

We’re taking stock and looking back at some of the research we’ve done over the past year. On the whole, we think that we’re on the right track.But, the base assumptions through which we filter much of our work has been altered by both the Brexit vote and the recent US election. How will this affect our work in the upcoming new year?

Music by Wake ("Steppin") and Jahzzar ("The Last Ones")

What do you do when your country goes on without you? On today’s episode, we take a look at the concept of social mobility, or moving up the socio-economic ladder. Politicians, particularly in the most recent election cycle, like to talk about the American dream – the idea that if you keep your head down and work hard, you can be lifted out of poverty, or into the upper echelons of the so-called middle class. That sort of rhetoric is common here in Canada too. And, as we saw through the course of the US election, culminating in Donald Trump’s electoral win, when voters start seeing that path blocked they start looking for a better map. Its prominent role in Trump’s ascent got us wondering about social mobility more broadly. What is it? Why is it so important to modern society? And is there anything that can be done to actually influence it?

Music in this episode: "Steppin" by Wake

What do you do when your country goes on without you? On today’s episode, we take a look at the concept of social mobility, or moving up the socio-economic ladder. Politicians, particularly in the most recent election cycle, like to talk about the American dream – the idea that if you keep your head down and work hard, you can be lifted out of poverty, or into the upper echelons of the so-called middle class. That sort of rhetoric is common here in Canada too. And, as we saw through the course of the US election, culminating in Donald Trump’s electoral win, when voters start seeing that path blocked they start looking for a better map. Its prominent role in Trump’s ascent got us wondering about social mobility more broadly. What is it? Why is it so important to modern society? And is there anything that can be done to actually influence it?

Music in this episode: "Steppin" by Wake

In this mini-episode, MPI's very own Director of Cities Richard Florida talks about the cities’ team’s new report, the Geography of the Global Super-Rich which tracks the geography of the world’s billionaires. Richard tells us what he and his team discovered including where the world’s wealthiest people live, why they live there and how they can affect the neighbourhoods and cities that they call home.

Music in this episode: "Steppin'" by Wake

In this mini-episode, MPI's very own Director of Cities Richard Florida talks about the cities’ team’s new report, the Geography of the Global Super-Rich which tracks the geography of the world’s billionaires. Richard tells us what he and his team discovered including where the world’s wealthiest people live, why they live there and how they can affect the neighbourhoods and cities that they call home.

Music in this episode: "Steppin'" by Wake

We had the chance to speak with New York Times best-selling author Chuck Klosterman when he stopped by Rotman as part of our Shiftdisturbers speaker series. Klosterman is known for his keen sports and pop culture observations as well as his stint as the Ethicist for New York Times Magazine. He’s a super smart guy who brings his a unique worldview to almost any topic. But we were specifically talking about his new book, But What If We’re Wrong: Thinking About the Present as if it Were the Past, in which he tries to grapple with humanity's assumptions about what we think we know, and what that unquestioning certainty could mean for us in the future.

Music in this episode: "Steppin'" by Wake; "The Last Ones" by Jahzzar.

We had the chance to speak with New York Times best-selling author Chuck Klosterman when he stopped by Rotman as part of our Shiftdisturbers speaker series. Klosterman is known for his keen sports and pop culture observations as well as his stint as the Ethicist for New York Times Magazine. He’s a super smart guy who brings his a unique worldview to almost any topic. But we were specifically talking about his new book, But What If We’re Wrong: Thinking About the Present as if it Were the Past, in which he tries to grapple with humanity's assumptions about what we think we know, and what that unquestioning certainty could mean for us in the future.

Music in this episode: "Steppin'" by Wake; "The Last Ones" by Jahzzar.