With more workplaces requiring employees to work more in the office, Canadians share how the debate between remote work vs. office mandates is affecting how they live their lives. Plus, an expert in organizational behaviour explains what we learned from the pandemic, and what the research says about workers' productivity in and out of the office.
This ICYMI episode takes you back to 2021. Canada was in the midst of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and many Canadians had been working from home for some time. But it was becoming clear that something was changing in Canadian work life. WFH was no longer a temporary COVID measure -- it was here to stay. On April 4, 2021, Checkup callers weighed in on their experiences working from home -- and the future of the office work.
Several years ago, in 2016, we told a story about Amy Pearl. For as long as she could remember, Amy loved meat in all its glorious cuts and marbled flavors. And then one day, for seemingly no reason, her body wouldn’t tolerate it. No steaks. No brisket. No weenies. It made no sense: why couldn’t she eat something that she had routinely enjoyed for decades?
It turned out Amy was not alone. And the answer to her mysterious allergy involved maps, a dancing lone star tick, and a very particular sugar called Alpha Gal.
In this update, we discover that our troubles with Alpha Gal go way beyond food. We go to NYU Langone Health hospital to see the second ever transplant of a kidney from a pig into a human, talk to some people at Revivicor, the company that bred the pig in question, and go back to Amy to find out what she thinks about this brave new world.
The original episode was reported by Latif Nasser, and produced by Annie McEwen and Matt Kielty. Sound design and scoring from Dylan Keefe, Annie McEwen, and Matt Kielty. Mix by Dylan Keefe with Arianne Wack.
The update was reported and produced by Sarah Qari. It was sound designed, scored, and mixed by Jeremy Bloom.
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At first it sounds ridiculous. But it might be inevitable. Guest host Steve Levitt talks to a team that hopes to push A.I. infrastructure off the planet. Part one of a two-part series.)
SOURCES:
Blaise Agüera y Arcas, vice president and fellow at Google, C.T.O. of technology and society.
Travis Beals, senior director of product management at Google, Project Suncatcher lead.
Will Marshall, co-founder and C.E.O. of Planet Labs.
RESOURCES:
What Is Intelligence?, by Blaise Agüera y Arcas (2025).
"Towards a future space-based, highly scalable AI infrastructure system design," by Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Travis Beals, Maria Biggs, Jessica V. Bloom, Thomas Fischbacher, Konstantin Gromov, Urs Köster, Rishiraj Pravahan, and James Manyika (Google, 2025).
Reason, by Isaac Asimov (1941).
EXTRAS:
"Are Our Tools Becoming Part of Us?," by People I (Mostly) Admire (2024).
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First up on the podcast, freelance science journalist Brendan Borrell talks about his work reporting on the previously undisclosed death of a 6-year-old girl in a gene-editing clinical trial in China and the reasons her parents came forward.
This story was produced in collaboration with Retraction Watch and supported by the Science Fund for Investigative Reporting.
Next on the show, Producer Meagan Cantwell talks with Evan McKenzie, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, about an insect that evolved to avoid predators by modifying its respiratory system to withstand high pressure at depth.
This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy.
Image credit: Daria Lada
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Hillary Sterling was a Brooklyn kid raised on cream cheese sandwiches and canned potatoes. So how did she become one of New York City's best chefs? The Ci Siamo executive chef explains on the second episode of Better in Person. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Pain feels like a simple message from the body. If your elbow hurts, there must be something wrong with your elbow. If your back is painfully stiff, you need some work done on your back. But psychologist Rachel Zoffness says our minds play a much larger role in our experience of pain than many of us realize. This week, we look at what's really happening when we experience pain, and how a better understanding of this process can open up new possibilities for treatment and healing.
In our companion conversation for Hidden Brain+ subscribers, Rachel Zoffness goes deeper into techniques that can help to reduce our brains' sensitivity to pain. You can hear that episode, which is called "Plastic Brain, Changeable Brain," with a free seven-day trial to Hidden Brain+. Go to support.hiddenbrain.org or apple.co/hiddenbrain to access your trial subscription.
For more Hidden Brain ideas and insights, be sure to check out our new YouTube channel! And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss any of our upcoming videos. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
