Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World
Episodes
Mind over matter: Could brain-computer interfaces lead to a new era of innovation and healing?
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have been allowing humans to control objects with their minds for more than half a century. But in recent years, than...
Colour block: When it comes to water, can the textile industry clean up its act?
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The fashion industry has its fair share of dirty secrets, but one of the lesser-known is how much it pollutes our waterways. Every year, garment facto...
Infinity quest: Is the hubris of tech billionaires endangering the planet?
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no denying that technology plays — and will continue to play — a critical role in addressing the climate crisis. But could super-intel...
The grid: Is it time to rethink our power systems? (Replay)
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Our energy grid is something most of us only think about when it isn’t working. But growing demand for electricity is placing an even greater strain...
Power to the people: How solar energy — cheap, plentiful and available everywhere — is poised to change the world
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As you may have heard, solar energy is having a moment. Thanks to several technological breakthroughs, it’s now the cheapest form of energy generati...
Solve for X S4 Trailer
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Get ready for Solve for X season four! Join journalist Manjula Selvarajah as she goes behind the hype and headlines to make sense of how new technolog...
It’s different all over: Embracing the complexity of human biology
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By uncovering critical sex-based differences related to brain and metabolic health, researchers Gillian Einstein and Minna Woo are making the case tha...
Cold comfort: How to keep cool without destroying the planet
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The hotter it gets outside, the more we use air conditioning, and the more we use air conditioning, the hotter it gets. AC units and refrigeration com...
Heat warning: Are we ready for a hotter climate?
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Extreme heat waves are anything but normal, but they’re quickly becoming the new reality. The 10 hottest years on record have all happened in the la...
Regrowth strategy: To adapt to a changing climate, restoring nature is critical. But do we have the seeds we need?
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A quarter of Canada’s trees are at risk, and upwards of a million species around the world face extinction in the decades to come. Restoring nature ...
Compounding the cure: How our overzealous efforts to zap infections could be making animals — and humans — sicker
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Experts are calling antimicrobial resistance the silent pandemic: Each year, AMR is responsible for more than a million deaths around the world. It’...
Waste opportunity: Can we design plastic out of healthcare?
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Modern medicine has a dirty secret. While plastics have revolutionized healthcare, research increasingly shows that they’re also making us sick. Ite...
Fire alarm: Rethinking innovation in an increasingly volatile world
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The wildfire that devastated Fort McMurray in 2016 burned more than 579,000 hectares of land, drove 88,000 people from their homes and caused nearly $...
Cracking the code: How generative biology could transform medicine
23 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Can AI unravel the mysteries of human biology? Could it help design specialty treatments and cures for disease? Geoffrey von Maltzahn and his team at ...
Innovation hotline: Answering the tech sector’s burning questions
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For many in Canada’s tech sector, 2024 was a challenging year. At times, it seemed as if the only constant — whether it was the economy, geopoliti...
Soak it up: Can sponge cities save us from flooding?
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As the effects of climate change trigger record-breaking rainfall and flooding, cities from Montreal to Mumbai are re-thinking how urban design can ke...
Striking a chord: Why neuroscientists believe music could hold the power to cure what ails us
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Music makes us feel better — for most of us, this is an intuitive truth. But scientists are only now beginning to understand the remarkable ways tha...
Solve for X S3 Trailer
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In season 3 of Solve for X, we meet the innovators and entrepreneurs solving for climate change, economic disparity, diseases and more. Subscribe and ...
The methane hunter: Meet the man who is tracking down emissions — from space
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With more than 80 times the short-term warming power of carbon dioxide, methane is a significant climate threat. But finding and fixing methane leaks ...
Beast mode: Can technology help protect some of the world’s most endangered animals?
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We’re facing a global ecosystem crisis. Within the last 50 years alone, wildlife populations across the world have declined by a shocking 69 percent...
Changing tastes: Can technology sustainably feed the world?
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Climate change is putting many of the foods we love at risk. Add in rapid population growth — the planet will be home to 9.7 billion people by 2050 ...
Decade of decisions: How better infrastructure can transform our world
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From Wi-Fi to power stations, roads to pipelines, our infrastructure is stressed. Built for a climate that no longer exists, our systems are failing a...
The electric afterlife: What are we going to do with all those EV batteries?
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The future of the automobile is electric. Yet the surge in electric vehicles raises critical concerns regarding battery creation, disposal and recycli...
Drain brain: Meet the man who is fixing our wastewater problem
02 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Wastewater, the world’s dirty (not so little) secret, consumes nearly 3 percent of the global electricity demand. It’s a staggering statistic, and...
Going viral: Can AI predict the next pandemic?
19 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The next pandemic — it’s a question of when not if. Climate change is shifting the patterns of how and where diseases spread, and our insatiable l...
Sea change: Can we alter the chemistry of the ocean to save the climate?
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Scientists are finding that ocean alkalinity enhancement is one of the more promising solutions for permanently storing carbon from the atmosphere. An...
Solve for X S2 Trailer
26 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Solve for X is your window on the future. Each episode, journalist Manjula Selvarajah goes behind the hype and headlines to make sense of how new tech...
Follow the money
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica F. Green was among 400 Canadian climate scientists who called for the government to scrap a proposed tax credit for carbon capture last year, ...
The race to discover new materials
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What will it take to get to a world where we have all the energy we need — without the emissions, smog and other climate impacts? The shift require...
Confronting waste: Getting to a circular economy
13 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Humans generate an incredible amount of trash. In Canada alone, 35 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. That’s a lot of energy spent growing...
Can AI help build a more liveable city?
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we start to feel the effects of climate change, it’s clear we need to find ways to adapt our communities and lighten the impact on the planet. It...
The grid: Is it time to rethink our power systems?
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our energy grid is something most of us only think about when it isn’t working. But growing demand for electricity is placing an even greater strain...
Solve for X Mid-season Trailer
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week we’re on pause, returning September 15th to our regular schedule. Exciting things are in the works: in coming episodes I’ll be talking t...
How to speed up cleantech development
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To take new climate solutions from the lab out into the world can take hundreds of millions of dollars in investment. But as the pressure intensifies ...
Sparking change: Designing a cleaner energy future
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are wired to want more. More time, more resources, more money. But what if we could do more with what we already have? When we innovate for res...
Fighting greenwashing: A conversation with Catherine McKenna
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Net-zero commitments are a critical first step in the fight against climate change. But to stave off the worst effects of a warming planet, we actuall...
We need to save the trees — but how?
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Trees have an incredible ability to absorb carbon — which means protecting, planting and restoring forests are a (relatively) easy way to address gl...
We need to talk about our carbon problem
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the last 250 years, we’ve released more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than in the previous 20,000 years. To make serious headway in meeting ...
Solve for X Trailer
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s now or never. Canada is warming at double the rate of other countries, and we have one of the highest GHG emissions footprints per capita in th...