The Sniffer

This time, Cathi drops by Nora's backyard for a physically distant recording. Nora mentions this survey suggesting, unsurprisingly, how much take up there's been for online shopping during the pandemic. Nora talks about how COVID is changing tech habits, including hers. Cathi argues for the value of in-person shopping for community.

Cathi has been a hard core gym rat for many years...like, *many* years. She's dying for the gym to open again, and talks about the impact on people's well being. Will folks in small spaces be able to have home gyms? What will we do when the long dark winter returns?

What are your health strategies (mental and physical) during the pandemic? Share your thoughts in the comments.

This time on our remote podcast, Cathi Bond talks about Boston Dynamics' work to bring robotics into front line health care. Nora Young talks about Jukebox, Open AI's neural net that aims to create pop songs in the style of popular artists. She also mentions Spark's coverage of the impact of Spotify on music.

This time on our remote podcast, Cathi Bond talks about Boston Dynamics' work to bring robotics into front line health care.

Nora Young talks about Jukebox, Open AI's neural net that aims to create pop songs in the style of popular artists. She also mentions Spark's coverage of the impact of Spotify on music.

Hi all, Nora here. Hope you're faring as well as possible in the circumstances. Cathi and I have been missing our Sniffer sessions, so we decided to record remotely, with Cathi recording herself in the country, and me recording myself at home in Toronto. This time, we look at some examples of the amazing speed of innovation in the midst of the pandemic, and how some people are re-imagining innovations to respond to the crisis we find ourselves in. We look at research into a washable fabric that repels liquid, for potential use in PPE, and an idea for an antimicrobial coating for high touch surfaces.  Cathi talks about innovation from a friend's company, Signifi, which is launching a plan to make disinfectant lockers for workplaces. How are you faring through all this? Are there aspects you're finding particularly tough, or maybe things you're learning that you want to take into your future life? Let us know in the comments.

Hi all,

Nora here. Hope you're faring as well as possible in the circumstances. Cathi and I have been missing our Sniffer sessions, so we decided to record remotely, with Cathi recording herself in the country, and me recording myself at home in Toronto. This time, we look at some examples of the amazing speed of innovation in the midst of the pandemic, and how some people are re-imagining innovations to respond to the crisis we find ourselves in.

We look at research into a washable fabric that repels liquid, for potential use in PPE, and an idea for an antimicrobial coating for high touch surfaces. 

Cathi talks about innovation from a friend's company, Signifi, which is launching a plan to make disinfectant lockers for workplaces.

How are you faring through all this? Are there aspects you're finding particularly tough, or maybe things you're learning that you want to take into your future life? Let us know in the comments.

On this podcast episode, Nora Young talks about this PSFK article on retrofuturism as a major design trend. Cathi Bond, who has always wanted her very own jetpack, loves the Jetman personal jetpack (via New Atlas) Watch the full video here. It really 'takes off' around 2:30.

On this podcast episode, Nora Young talks about this PSFK article on retrofuturism as a major design trend.

Cathi Bond, who has always wanted her very own jetpack, loves the Jetman personal jetpack (via New Atlas) Watch the full video here. It really 'takes off' around 2:30.

On this podcast, we talk marketing strategy. Cathi Bond loves her Stan Smith footwear (like, a lot!) so she was intrigued when she came across Stockx, a streetwear social shopping platform. Read more at PSFK. Meanwhile, Nora read an interesting article on so-called Harbingers of Failure: people who tend to pick products, and even political candidates, that don't succeed (via BoingBoing). Nora thinks they could be seen as niches to target rather than signals of 'failure'.

On this podcast, we talk marketing strategy.

Cathi Bond loves her Stan Smith footwear (like, a lot!) so she was intrigued when she came across Stockx, a streetwear social shopping platform. Read more at PSFK.

Meanwhile, Nora read an interesting article on so-called Harbingers of Failure: people who tend to pick products, and even political candidates, that don't succeed (via BoingBoing). Nora thinks they could be seen as niches to target rather than signals of 'failure'.

This time, Nora Young continues the conversation about living smarter in 2020 with this Fast Company article on handling stress better as a key to resiliency. She also refers to Kelly McGonigal's book The Upside of Stress. Meanwhile, Cathi Bond talks about Bosch's upcoming smart glasses, which offer an augmented reality display that aims to be non-intrusive. Use cases include cooking with recipe instructions in front of you, instead of referring to a book, or driving directions. Cathi points out how distracting today's car dashboards are.