Researchers, their tools and their stories, in two languages.
Produced in the Canada Foundation for Innovation's studios, 10,000 Ways publishes in English and French, weaving narration around researchers speaking in their own words. Its subjects stretch from electric training aircraft and shipboard core sampling to stress and mental health, soils under climate pressure, and an Indigenous science lab's work on water justice.
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10,000 Ways is the podcast of the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a nonprofit corporation that invests in research infrastructure at Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research institutions. Its name borrows from Thomas Edison, who described his failed attempts as ways that did not work. The series publishes in English and in French, where it goes by 10 000 expérimentations. Greg Pillsworth signs off English episodes; Émilie Delattre signs off the French ones. The stories take the form of narrated profiles. A narrator sets the scene and links the pieces together, while the researcher does much of the telling. The narration has a literary streak: in the episode on Pooneh Maghoul, the opacity of soil becomes the reason people find it easier to look away from it. Soils vary so widely that one set of recommendations cannot serve them all, and climate change adds environmental pressures that call for a holistic reading of each site. Maghoul also recalls something an Indigenous colleague said about the land, which moved her deeply. Nafisa Ismail, a University of Ottawa psychology professor who holds a research chair on stress and mental health, says a woman advancing a scientific career needs a substantial support network. She credits her doctoral supervisor with her becoming a professor, and a postdoctoral mentor in Massachusetts with teaching her to write scientifically. Céline Surette, who teaches at the French-language Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, is frank about the resistance her work meets when people fear findings could limit a particular development. Her position is that she is not against development, only that it should be equitable and viable for ecosystems. Kelsey Leonard, a legal scholar and water scientist, founded and directs the Wampum Lab at the University of Waterloo, an Indigenous science lab organised around ocean, water and climate justice. Her episode is titled 'Should bodies of water have the same legal status as people?', and in it she explains that she was drawn to a McMaster PhD program created by Professor Dustin Garrick partly by the chance at transboundary experience in the Great Lakes. Flight is the subject of 'The future of flight depends on sustainability that goes beyond biofuels', which starts with Canadian pilot Marion Orr ferrying more than 40 types of aircraft, Hurricanes and Spitfires among them, for the Air Transport Auxiliary in the Second World War. It then turns to training: a simulator that prompts questions about automated feedback on pilot performance, a Pipistrel aircraft bought with CFI funding, and a plug-in electric plane with questions still to answer before it could support flight training across the country. 'Science (sea) star' travels from the Big Bang to a ship's deck, where nine-metre cores are cut into 1.5-metre sections, then kept in cold rooms at four degrees Celsius so they stay free of bacterial activity for years. Funded equipment is part of the story rather than a footnote, and a CFI grant is credited for the ship Coriolis II. The listener comes away with a concrete sense of how research gets done, including the mentors, the machines and the pushback. For a first listen in English, Kelsey Leonard's episode shows the format clearly, and 'Science (sea) star' shows how far the French narration will go to set a scene.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes science told through the people doing it, including the mentors, equipment and pushback behind the results. It also suits a bilingual listener, since the series runs in both English and French.
What sets it apart: Because a research funder makes it, the infrastructure behind the work gets a speaking part, with ships, simulators and aircraft credited alongside the researchers who use them. It also publishes in English as 10,000 Ways and in French as 10 000 expérimentations within one feed.
Since 1997, the Canada Foundation for Innovation has invested in infrastructure that researchers need to think big, innovate and push the boundaries of knowledge. State-of-the-art research facilities and equipment increase the capability of Canada’s universities, colleges, research hospitals and non-profit research organizations to carry out high-quality research. This, in turn, helps them to attract and retain the world’s top talent, train the next generation of researchers and support world-class research that strengthens the economy and improves the quality of life for all Canadians. Website: https://www.innovation.ca
An electric training plane meets Indigenous water justice, and your curiosity gets a wider runway.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Geotechnical engineer Poune Magoul rethinks excavation through an Indigenous teaching about the earth as our mother.
Ground is the subject, but the real shift is ethical. Geotechnical engineer Poune Magoul reflects on how an Indigenous colleague's teaching, that the earth is our mother, unsettled the assumptions behind excavation and earthworks.
A grounded career story about the mentorship and collaboration behind ambitious mental-health research.
Nafisa Ismail's episode centers on her work at the University of Ottawa, where she studies stress and mental health while pursuing treatments that can work better, faster.
A measured look at the people, training tools, and mixed technologies moving aviation toward net zero.
Suzanne Kearns gives Canada's cleaner-flight ambitions a practical frame, linking Marion Orr's wartime ferrying legacy to the work now happening at the University of Waterloo.
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
Jan Rainey, a biochemistry professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, studies the seven silks an orb weaver spider makes, of which only two have been extensively studied.
Émilie Delattre reçoit Pouné Maghoul, professeure titulaire à Polytechnique Montréal et fondatrice du laboratoire Sustainable Infrastructure and Geoengineering, pour parler de géoinfrastructure, de pergélisol et de résilience dans le Grand Nord.
In 10,000 Ways, VIDO director Volker Geetz explains why pandemic preparedness depends on research and vaccine-manufacturing capacity.
Nafisa Ismail, professeure à l’Université d’Ottawa, explique comment la neuroendocrinologie relie les hormones, le cerveau et le stress pendant l’adolescence.
This episode explores the history of Canadian aviation and current research in aviation education at the University of Waterloo.
Céline Surette, professeure de chimie et de biochimie à l’Université de Moncton, utilise l’analyse des métaux et des isotopes pour étudier l’eau, les écosystèmes et la santé.
Kelsey Leonard explains how water could receive legal personhood, similar to corporations in court.
Guillaume Saint-Onge lit dans les carottes sédimentaires des indices sur le climat et les risques naturels.
A podcast about curious researchers and scientific discovery, featuring a nutrition scientist discussing her research on muscle mass and health.
A bioengineer explains RNA vaccines and the scientific process behind them.
A bioengineer explains RNA vaccines and how they train the immune system, using the podcast's title '10,000 Ways' to frame scientific discovery.