In the late '90s and early '00s, the music industry fundamentally changed. Within a decade, fans went from buying CDs in a local music store to purchasing $0.99 singles on iTunes. But before iTunes was available in Canada, and before the US giants took over the industry, Canadian startups were at the front of the pack.

In this episode, we reminisce on a very strange and transformative time in media--you might remember the first CD you ever bought, but you probably don't remember the last one. We speak to Cam Gordon, author of Track Changes: The Origin Story of Canadian Music on the Internet, about Maple Music and Puretracks. And if you were a Canadian music fan in the early '00s ... you might know what we're talking about.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

It's not just a Canadian problem, though it has likely cost some Canadians their lives. Staff answering 911 calls in centres the world over are overworked, stressed and sometimes ... there just aren't enough of them. As a result, callers are sometimes left on hold in the most awful circumstances possible. Money has been spent on recruitment, but talent is tough to come by. Enter Hyper.

A Canadian startup that was just acquired by Motorola, Hyper is already helping 911 operators in several cities—but not in the way you might imagine. Not yet, anyway...

Award-winning reporter Katherine Hayward joing the show to discuss her piece on Hyper, which was written for a brand new Canadian publication called Be Giant, which aims to report on the people, places, ideas and breakthroughs shaping Canada's future.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

Would you call Walmart Canada a "Canadian" company? It's a much more complex question than it appears—but I think most of us would agree on the general answer. It's a Canadian subsidiary of a giant US retail behemoth. But when it comes to procurement spending from the federal government, often these are kinds of companies that can meet qualifications to describe themselves as "Canadian" and earn an edge over their competitors.

It shouldn't be a surprise that government spending can get complicated, but it does raise a fascinating question: For the past year many of us have learned a lot about what makes a food item or a retail product Canadian—but what about a company?

Vass Bednar, managing director of the Canadian Shield Institute, joins Jordan to puzzle through that question, and how our tax dollars are spent because of it.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

When the World Happiness Report first began scoring countries on their self-reported levels of happiness in 2012, Canada was consistently in the top 10. It felt right, we were pretty happy. Over the past several years, things have been changing, first slowly and now rapidly. In the recently published edition of the report, Canadians' happiness levels ranked 25th in the world, by far a new low. And that precipitous drop has been driven predominantly by one demographic...

UBC Professor Emeritus and co-creator and editor of the World Happiness Report John Helliwell joins us to discuss what's changed, who's unhappy and what we know about how to generate happiness in our own lives from two decades of scientific research.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

In any other entertainment medium, a Canadian-made product winning the equivalent of a Best Picture Oscar would be historic, headline-grabbing news. But when Canadian-made games win Game Of The Year—and they have, multiple times—the country barely bats an eye. Games are big business in Canada, and we have some of the world's premier talent, in both massive corporate studios and tiny indie development houses. Yet unless you're really, really into video games, you'd never know. Why?

Jonathan Ore of the CBC hops on the show to talk about video games in Canada, how good they are, and why nobody even knows where the games they play are made.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

One might've thought we'd learned our lesson in 2020. That being hit with waves of deeply ill patients that pushed our health care system—especially its front lines in hospitals and ERs—to the brink would have woken us up to just how close to disaster we were operating. Alas.

On this episode of Cancon, Emergency Room physician, podcaster and author Dr. Brian Goldman takes us inside the ongoing low-level crisis that happening in emergency rooms across the country. Like any good doctor, he diagnoses the root of the problem, outlines the kind of long-term treatment it requires, and gives us some take-home instructions for the next time we find ourselves with a loved one in need of emergency care.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

The federal Liberals miraculous early-2025 comeback was one of the biggest sudden shocks in Canadian political history. In response to Justin Trudeau's resignation, Donald Trump's threats and tariffs and the ascendance of Mark Carney, Canadian voters flocked back to the party that had been in power for a decade. The party they appeared ready to abandon. In the wake of that, things seemed to settle into a new normal—something resembling a two-party system, with the Liberals and Conservatives neck and neck.

But in the first two months of this year, the tides seem to have turned again, but not in a way many predicted. The political landscape in this country, at least according to the polls, is looking different by the day. And upcoming byelections could push the Liberals into a majority. What's happening here? How much of this is real? And what have we learned about Canadian polling at a time when misinformation is a major part of many people's news diet?

Canadian polling expert Philippe J. Fournier, creator of 338Canada, joins Jordan for a conversation on the recent federal shift, what it tells us about the year to come, and the state of political polling in Canada.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.

A little less than a decade ago, the podcast industry was ascendant in Canada. Independent shows were finding an audience, major media companies were starting podcast network and buying up podcast production houses, and it was assumed the medium would continue to grow alongside the American industry. Podcasting had arrived.

Today, despite audience growth that surged during the pandemic and continues today, the industry is struggling. It's not for lack of quality, as Canadian shows win international awards and Canadian hosts and producers often go on to work on massive shows in the United States. So why is the industry shrinking in Canada? Do Canadian audiences want Canadian shows? And what does the future of the format in this country look like?

Jordan sits down with longtime producer Kattie Laur, who runs Canada's podcast newsletter Pod The North, hosts her own show, Canardian, and has had just about every job there is in podcasting, as she explains just what happened to the Canadian podcast boom that never came.

Feedback from listeners is so, so welcome. If you have something to say, email us: hello.cancon@gmail.com.