Solve for X: Innovations to Change the World

As you may have heard, solar energy is having a moment. Thanks to several technological breakthroughs, it’s now the cheapest form of energy generation in most places on Earth. This past summer, for the first time ever, it became the EU’s main source of electricity, and many other parts of the world — Pakistan, Nigeria and most famously, China — are likewise in the midst of a solar boom of astonishing speed and scale. In this episode, experts weigh in on the social, political and economic implications of this revolutionary energy shift — and the complicated way that Canada fits into it all.

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 technologies are reshaping our world. This season we learn about the solar revolution, robot dexterity, a device that zaps forever chemicals and more. Subscribe and listen beginning November 27.

By uncovering critical sex-based differences related to brain and metabolic health, researchers Gillian Einstein and Minna Woo are making the case that tailored interventions are key to improving health outcomes for women — and everyone else. Through their work exploring how conditions from Alzheimer’s to kidney disease can have varied effects depending on a patient’s sex, they underscore what the medical community as a whole can learn from experts in women’s health: Things aren’t as simple as we want to believe. In this bonus episode, recorded live on May 8, 2025, at the MaRS Impact Health Conference, Einstein and Woo discuss the complexity of biology, the challenges of funding and why they’re optimistic that things are changing.

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 combined adds up to 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But how can we solve this cooling paradox? Building on last episode’s conversation with the UN’s global chief heat officer, host Manjula Selvarajah meets the experts harnessing novel innovations to keep cities and people cool — from massive infrastructure projects using ice-cold lake water to microscopic solutions to get rid of that sticky, sweltering humidity.

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 last decade. And because temperatures in urban centres can be 10 to 15 degrees Celsius higher than surrounding areas, cities can be dangerous places to be when the mercury rises — particularly for the elderly, those with pre-exisiting health conditions as well as poorer populations who lack access to air conditioning. “Heat has a way of going through the city and finding those who are the weakest,” says Eleni Myrivili, the United Nations’ global heat officer. “It’s a very unfair climate condition.” In this episode, we explore the growing risk posed by heat and what could help us adapt to a hotter world.