Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy 🇨🇦‬

🥌 The Unburdened Heart: What a Curling Stone Taught Me About Letting Go

Send a text📖 Read the companion articleLet me tell you something about systems.Systems — whether they govern corporations, nations, or the inner architecture of an elite athlete’s mind — tend to demand perfection in exchange for belonging. They offer a transaction: give us everything, and we will give you a place at the table. Jennifer Jones, Canadian curling legend and the subject of our latest deep dive on Heliox, understood this transaction from childhood. She accepted it. She even mastered it. And then, after decades of being one of the most decorated women in the history of her sport, she did something the system never quite planned for.Rock Star: My Life On and Off the IceWhy This Olympic Sport Bothers PhysicistsJennifer Jones (curler) - WikipediaThis is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable. Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals. We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

The Archaeology of Tenderness: What Two Ancient Baby Burials Tell Us About Being Human

Send a text📖 Read the companion articleAbout Love, Grief, and Being HumanIn northwestern Iran, at a site called Chaparabad, archaeologists recently uncovered something that rewrites not what we know about the past, but how we feel about it. Two ceramic vessels, dating back 6,500 years to the mid-5th millennium BCE, contained fetal remains preserved against impossible odds.One jar was buried beneath a kitchen floor, alongside the bones of a sacrificed sheep. The other rested near grain storage, unadorned but deliberately positioned. These weren't royal children. There were no golden grave goods, no inscriptions, no monuments. Just clay vessels shaped like wombs, cradling what never got to be.Through 305 precise skeletal measurements—a forensic miracle given how rarely fetal bones survive—researchers determined both infants were approximately 36-38 weeks gestational age. Full term. Babies who should have been born. Who were expected. Who were, perhaps, already named in the private languages of hope that parents whisper when they feel that first kick.This episode challenges:The assumption that frequent infant mortality created emotional distanceThe focus on monumental archaeology over ordinary human storiesThe idea that ancient peoples were fundamentally different from usReference:Fetal vessel burials dated to 6500 years ago at the Chaparabad archaeological site, Northwestern IranThis is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable. Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals. We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

🛡️ The Paradox of Digital Sovereignty: What Canada's AI Sprint Reveals About Our Collective Future

Send a text📖 Read the full essayWe keep imagining AI as a centralized brain in a data center, getting smarter and smarter until it solves everything or destroys everything. But what if the future of intelligence is distributed? What if it's millions of people in constant conversation, constantly debating values and priorities, and AI systems that learn from that living stream of democratic discourse?  What if that is our emerging economy that attracts others worldwide?The question is whether we have the courage to build something genuinely new, or whether we'll just optimize the systems that are already crushing us.That's the sprint we're really running.The Canadian ISED AI consultation provided 64,600 distinct answers to that question. Now comes the harder part: Deciding which answers we will live by.Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada AI EngagementISED AI Engagement dataset - ISED AI consultation datasetISED AI Engagement task force reports - Task Force reports for ISED consultation on AIENGAGEMENTS ON CANADA’S NEXT AI STRATEGY: Summary of InputsPeople’s Consultation on AIOttawa releases findings from AI task force and public consultationMinister Evan Solomon reveals Canada’s AI Task ForceCanada’s new AI strategy is off to a bad startEvan Solomon Wants Canada to Trust AI. Can We Trust Evan Solomon?This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable. Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals. We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

The Money in the Wrong Bank: Canada’s Snow Drought

Send a text📖 Read the articleWhat does a drought look like when you're standing knee-deep in snow?This episode explores one of the most counterintuitive climate findings of 2026: Canada's total snow water storage increased 50% over two decades, yet water security is collapsing. Based on groundbreaking research published in January 2026 in Communications Earth and Environment, we unpack how both statements can be true—and why this paradox matters far beyond Canada's borders.The Three-Part Problem:GEOGRAPHY: Almost all snowpack increases occurred in the Arctic and sub-Arctic tundra—remote regions where the water benefits virtually no one. Meanwhile, the Western Cordillera mountain ranges (Rockies, Coast Mountains) covering just 3% of landmass but providing water for millions are experiencing what researchers call "creeping snow drought."MEASUREMENT: We've been optimizing for the wrong metric. Snow depth tells us how tall the pile is, but snow water availability (SWA) reveals how much actual liquid water is stored. The difference? Massive. Light powder and heavy slush can have identical depth but 5x different water content. It's like counting dollar bills without checking if they're $1 or $100.TIMING: Snow functions as a natural battery—storing winter precipitation and releasing it slowly through spring and summer exactly when cities, farms, and hydroelectric systems need it. As climate warms, more precipitation falls as rain instead of snow. Rain doesn't wait around; it floods immediately then flows to the ocean. Come July, when everyone is desperate, the battery is empty.This is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable. Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals. We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs

🧠Your Brain Is Lying to You (And That's Why You're Still Alive)

Send a text📖 Read the full essayI've been thinking about coffee shops lately. Not in the precious, writerly way where I romanticize the smell of roasted beans and the clatter of ceramic cups. I mean the moment right before you walk in—that electrical jolt when you round the corner and see the familiar sign glowing in the window. That tiny spike of pleasure that happens before you've tasted anything, before the caffeine has touched your bloodstream, before the reward has actually arrived.That feeling? It's your brain time traveling. And according to new research from McGill University, it might be the most important thing your brain does.The research discussed here is from "Predictive Coding of Reward in the Hippocampus" by Mohamed Yagubi and colleagues, published in Nature. For those interested in the technical details, the paper provides remarkable evidence for how biological neural networks implement reinforcement learning at the cellular level—a finding that bridges neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence in profound ways.Predictive Coding of Reward in the HippocampusThis is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable. Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals. We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter. Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs