The Connect2 Podcast

The world has been radically disrupted by regional conflicts, political realignments, global warming and supply chain disruptions (e.g. fuel).  What does that actually mean for travel in 2026 and moving forward.  Mark and Jeff discuss the changes in approaches to global travel as a result of these factors and what is actually happening 

How did we become a society that successfully used Vaccines to eradicate several types of diseases only to now have a significant portion of the population distrusting vaccines as a whole?  Where and when did it start?  Mark and Jeff explore the origins of the fabricated study that launched then entire anti-vaxx movement.  Previously it was very fringe and although the origin has been proven to be false, nobody seemed to notice the correction until it was way too late.

Many people pay off their credit cards monthly, so how do the banks make money off of lending you money to pay for your purchases when they don't charge you interest unless you are late with payments?  Mark and Jeff discuss how the credit card companies (and in Canada the banks) make money off your purchasing habits

As people age, their brain starts to be a little less sharp.  Despite this there are things one can do to try to keep your mental acuity as sharp as possible.  Mark and Jeff discuss those techniques as well as the usual review of coffee, things they learned this week as well as media consumed.

Currently there is an ongoing disinformation campaign about Alberta Separation going on that is getting a lot of views +40 million.  Why is it disinformation?  Because is it mostly AI generated, often using actors pretending to be someone with inside information, and the people generating it don't really care about the politics, they are more interested in the emotional spin and how that can translate into monetized channels.  PS.  It is also not just Alberta Separation, there has been an even bigger disinformation campaign by the same people in the UK just last year.

As a dog photographer, Mark sees lots of dogs.  As he is currently about to start looking for a new puppy for his family, Mark discusses with Jeff considerations on types of breeds and where you should get puppies from.  

As the podcast and online creation systems are getting mature, some creators are getting burned out or exhausted.  They started with a great idea, things started generating content that got eyeballs watching.... but its a grind and they need to keep up with content creation or their revenue slips as the algorithm rewards you less.  Mark and Jeff discuss burnout.

Ozempic or GLP-1 is a drug people are taking to reduce weight, but did you know that it is a peptide?  There are other, less studied peptide out there that are being taken for a wide variety of benefits and symptoms.  Do they work and how much do we know about them

Women's sports are definitely on the upswing.  Even though this is the case, people in the manosphere sometimes suggest that women's sport is an afterthought.  Clearly this is not true, but are there some sports where women's sport dominates over men's?  How would you even measure that?  Money? Fame? Performance?  Mark and Jeff discuss their thoughts on the status of women's sport

In this episode, Mark and Jeff compare AI models and how agentic work will fundamentally change how we use LLM's as tools

Mark and Jeff discuss Mark's trip to India, what he learned, what he enjoyed and what he found challenging.

Today we have a travelling episode with Mark in Delhi India, we have a special guest for the podcast, Kayla Gordon a renowned photographer based in Winnipeg and a former theatre producer.  They talk about the trip they have been on that is coming to a close.

There are very few guardrails for AI agents and as they develop more autonomy, they pose a real risk of damaging and eventually destroying the usefulness of the internet.  AI agents can attack people and they don't sleep, which means they can keep breaking things on the internet if left unchecked.

AI's breakthrough for LLMs was dependent upon an unanticipated result when additional computing power was added to the base algorithms.  A great deal of money and effort has been invested into the next generation of AI with the anticipation that the first company to develop Artificial General Intelligence will dominate the landscape.  Mark and Jeff discuss why there may be a significant problem with the current approach

The Unfavourable Semi-circle was a mysterious Youtube channel that appeared in 2015.  Mark and Jeff discuss what it was and what is known about it.  To this day it is still a mystery.

Many young people are very fearful of the advent of AI particularly because it may make all kinds of work redundant.  AI tools do help leverage time but are AI agents ready to come in an replace workers entirely?  if not, how far away are they?

One of Mark's dogs passed away recently and in this episode we discuss the process of dealing with an elderly dog's passing and their journey over the rainbow bridge.

David Graeber did some research on jobs and found that a lot of people thought their jobs were meaningless.  He classified these jobs as Bulls&%t! jobs and even classified them.  In this episode Mark and Jeff dive into what makes a job a BS job

We're back!  After a few weeks of conflicting schedules and travel, we are back in business baby.  Today we are talking about the enshitification of the internet (a term coined by Cory Doctorow) and take a closer look at what it means and examples of it.

At this time of year we contemplate where we have been and where we are going.  In the gap between Christmas and New Year's Jeff and Mark discuss their wishes for countries, individuals and people in general for 2026.... Have a Happy New Year!

Today's episode explores a bit about different types of vaccinations, how they work and what benefit we get from them.  Mark is traveling in a few months and had to get some vaccinations to travel.

Most people can lose weight by using intermittent fasting to help manage their caloric intake.  In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss the benefits of fasting and how it helps you manage your weight.  It doesn't work for everyone but it does work for many.

Everyone sleeps, but how much do you need and how much do you know about it.  Do you get enough sleep?  Do you get enough good quality sleep?  Mark and Jeff explore this as well as our usual segments

Nobody gets out of this reality alive.... everyone eventually dies.  Some younger than others.  Better to make the most of your time on this planet.  In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss the appreciation for the time we have an what we see as we get older.  Not depressing but more an appreciation of the time we have - Carpe Diem!

Mark and Jeff go through the different types of espresso based coffee, discuss caffeine levels and review both the benefits (there are some benefits) and negatives of coffee.  Grab a cuppa and enjoy the discussion, we guarantee you will learn something new  

Mark and Jeff explore how to create something from essentially nothing.  How to make something creative from its raw form.  How did Leonardo Da Vinci create great statues from blocks of stone?

What is Cholesterol and what does it do?  Why do we need to manage it and what is the difference between HDL and LDL?  Statins are some of the most prescribed medications but can have some serious side effects....

Mark just finished a trip to Churchill Manitoba to photograph polar bears.  The results were amazing. In this episode, Mark discusses some of the details of his trip and things that make Churchill a special place 

OpenAI just released a new social media platform that consists entirely of AI generated slop.  It has some unusual features and is fun to use and experiment with.  Who knows where this will go but the ability to generate these short clips from text input is remarkable.

What prescription drugs have the most side effects and what are they?  What about generic drugs, are they just as effect as name brand drugs?  How well do they perform?  We explore both of these topics as well as discuss 3i/Atlas and what coffee we are drinking

Do you like to try new things?  Are you resistant to change?  Why are some people motivated to try new things while others resist change?  Mark and Jeff discuss this

Nasa is planning it's Artemis program to send astronauts to the moon and establish a base on the Moon to get us to Mars.  Today, we talk about the Artemis program, where it is at and where it is going

What happens when you have a humanoid robot and you put into it, AGI?  Where does that leave humanity?

In this episode Mark and Jeff discuss why older people talk about health concerns.

Mark and Jeff discuss Mark's recent trip to Katmai National Park in Alaska where he got to photograph Kodiak Brown Bears, some of the biggest bears in the world (basically the same size as polar bears)

Mark is on the road on a photography excursion to photography Kodiak bears in Katmai National Park.  On this travel edition of the podcast, Mark interviews a fellow photographer (Kayla Gordon from Winnipeg) and they discuss where they are and what they have been doing.  ****WARNING**** The noise quality is a little rough (the generator for the boat was going on in the background), we were in an open space and the portable recorder was not as nice as our regular studio microphones, but the episode is worth it!

Have you seen lots of AI generated videos in your social media or Youtube?  Well, AI slop used to be easy to spot and low quality, but it is rapidly getting better.  It is also proliferating at an incredible rate.  Because of monetization policies of various social media platforms, AI slop is rapidly taking over.  It has the potential to completely overwhelm these social media platforms making them virtually unusable.

Drugs are an important treatment option for many mental health challenges, but our bodies adapt to the drugs and many of them lose their efficacy over time.  Mark and Jeff discuss the types of medications whose usefulness wanes with time and what they are used for.

After over 30 years of using windows machines including work managing IT for a two different companies, Mark finally decided to try to make the switch to Mac.  He is currently eating a large slice of humble pie and should have done this a while ago.  It has gone well.  Today's podcast discusses this and some earlier predictions from this podcast in 2020

Listening to music in the 80's and 90's, there are lots of favourite bands that had hits that we haven't heard from in years... Did they breakup?  Did they stop playing?  It turns out that there are many that have continued playing, releasing albums and touring.  Why don't we listen to them anymore?  

Everybody has heard that one in two marriages ends in divorce... well, that's not really true and has never been really true.  Currently divorce rates are at the lowest they have ever been.  So are marriages

Mark and Jeff discuss the different types of Killer Whales and the capture of the Pedder Bay Five (whales).

There is so much information about us in the world today.  There are many ways our data is collected and for many reasons.  Some are helpful but others are used to track our preferences and shopping patterns.  Some governments intentionally track their citizens.  In this episode, we discuss how to protect yourself in this hyper connected world

In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss Robot Vacuums (and mops) and this is a followup to a previous episode where we talked about how Roomba the company was in financial trouble.  This episode, we talk more about the new up an comers and what differentiates the good robot vacuums from the also rans

What are the pros and cons of renewable energy?  Sometimes in this politically fractured environment, people have talking points about renewable energy that has little to do with reality.  Mark and Jeff discuss the actual pros and actual cons of both Solar and Wind Power and compare them in general terms to other forms of energy.

Forever chemicals are manmade chemicals that are related to the production of teflon related products.  They don't breakdown and can be found everywhere on the planet and in particular are an issue with drinking water.  Certain variants are toxic to humans and in many places of the world the levels found in our drinking water is dangerous to humans.  Mark and Jeff explore this topic.

Some people have a very hard time recognizing faces.  This is a problem in many social interactions and environments.  Similarly, there are people who are Super recognizers and can recall faces of people that they only saw briefly even years previously.  In this episode, Mark and Jeff discuss a number of stunning facts surrounding this condition

Neuroplasticity is the ability of your brain to rewire itself either by learning new skills or as a result of recovering from injury.  You can learn skills even as you get older but there are some things you can do to help keep your brain sharp.  We review 8 things that can help your brain

China was having some challenges prior to the tariffs introduced by the US.  This has made them more vulnerable to the impact of these tariffs but not for normal reasons.  Mark and Jeff discuss some of the infrastructure issues that have presented China with challenges as they have grown and developed into a manufacturing superpower.

Porn has changed dramatically over the decades and the money involved has skyrocketed.  Porn has been the silent engine for change for the internet as it represents a huge amount of money despite being mostly not discussed in public.  Mark and Jeff discuss the impact that porn has had on shaping the internet.

A research group is predicting the rise of Superhuman AI and what the implications are for the world.  There are two paths, a dystopian one and a utopian one.  The timing is closer than everyone thinks and the consequences will reshape our world.  What's more disturbing is that this group has a track record for their predictions previously and most of them were correct.  Mark and Jeff discuss this in detail.