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Disruptors, now in its 10th season, has become your front-row seat to Canada’s innovation story—200+ episodes exploring the people, ideas, and technologies reshaping Canada’s future. Each episode, hosted by John Stackhouse, SVP, Office of the CEO at Royal Bank of Canada—and former Editor-in-Chief of The Globe and Mail—cuts through the hype and focuses on what you need to know. This season, we’re l... more

PublishesWeeklyEpisodes222Founded8 years ago
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Artwork for Disruptors

Latest Episodes

Trust at Scale: Lessons from Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the internet’s most-used public resources, but what makes people trust it in an era shaped by AI, misinformation and institutional decline? On this episode of Disruptors, John Stackhouse sp... more

Canada’s Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics delivered unforgettable moments — and also a hard signal: podium success is increasingly won upstream, through systems, sport science, and technology.

In a world where competitors treat sport science as ... more

Quantum computing is accelerating — and putting today’s encryption on a clock. John Stackhouse goes inside Xanadu’s Toronto lab with Christian Weedbrook to meet Aurora, a networked quantum computer built to push scale in the right direction and speak... more

Canada is exporting too much of its agri-food upside—IP, talent, and value-add—because growth-stage financing doesn’t fit the sector. From Ottawa, John Stackhouse speaks with RBC’s Lisa Ashton to unpack Seeding Scale—RBC’s new report on Canada’s agri... more

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Recent Guests

Jennifer Heil
Olympic Champion in moguls; Team Canada's chef de mission for Milano Cortina 2026; founder/CEO of Revel Health
Revel Health; Canadian Olympic Committee
Episode: Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline
David Shoemaker
CEO and Secretary General of the Canadian Olympic Committee; former NBA China CEO; former WTA Tennis Tour president
Canadian Olympic Committee
Episode: Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline
Christian Weedbrook
Founder and CEO of Xanadu
Xanadu
Episode: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge
Stephanie Simmons
Founder and Chief Quantum Officer
Photonic
Episode: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge
Darren Anderson
CEO of Vive Crop, a company building sustainable pesticide solutions.
Vive Crop
Episode: The $15m Cliff: Keeping Canadian Agri-Food Startups Scaling at Home
Kyle Scott
Managing partner of Emmertech, a Canadian ag tech investor.
Emmertech
Episode: The $15m Cliff: Keeping Canadian Agri-Food Startups Scaling at Home
Gerald Butts
Vice Chair and Senior Advisor at Eurasia Group, former Senior Advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Eurasia Group
Episode: Risk as Signal: A Canadian Playbook
Clara Barby
Senior partner at Just Climate, focused on climate-led investing
Just Climate
Episode: Climate-Led Investing: What’s Next
Janice Stein
Leading Canadian voice on security and tech governance.
Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, University of Toronto
Episode: The Trust Advantage: How OpenText is Securing Canada’s Information Layer

Host

John Stackhouse
Host of Disruptors

Reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars from 480 ratings
  • Weekly listener

    I work in the technology space and Disruptors is on my weekly rotation of podcasts. As a woman in tech, I was delighted to hear the episode from IWD that focuses on some pretty remarkable women in clean-tech. More please!

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    LishaMillz12
    Canada2 years ago
  • Great tech pod

    Interested in the Canadian tech landscape? Then this podcast is for you. Highly recommend!

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    RVS.08
    Canada2 years ago
  • Awesome Tech Show

    Great podcast on Canadian innovation and technology — great topics and guests. Worth a listen!

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Maxtini30
    United States2 years ago
  • My go-to podcast for Canadian innovation

    Love this podcast and John is a great host! It consistently sheds light on innovative topics like new tech and climate action — really insightful with great delivery.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    DGC1999
    Canada2 years ago
  • Big Fan!

    Timely and insightful. An engaging podcast that’s a must listen every week.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    S50LP
    Canada2 years ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Production and guest quality are consistently high, with practical takeaways for listeners.
The host combines Canadian focus with global relevance, delivering insightful episodes.
Some episodes can feel very technocentric; broader policy discussions could add balance.
Guests are strong, diverse, and industry-leading, making complex topics accessible.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Apple Podcasts
#44
Canada/Business/Entrepreneurship
Apple Podcasts
#187
Canada/Business

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline
Q: How do you see technology changing Olympic performance and judging?
AI and machine learning can recognize patterns in biomechanics to aid training and potentially standardize judging, reducing errors while allowing athletes to push the envelope with data-driven improvements.
Tech Wins Gold: How Canada Can Rebuild Its Olympic Pipeline
Q: What was the standout moment for you from Milano Cortina?
Isabel Wiedemann, Valerie Malte, and Yvonne Blondet defended their Beijing team pursuit gold, and the moment of singing 'O Canada' on the podium stayed with me as a reminder of national pride and the emotional power of sport.
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge
Q: What should organizations do right now to prepare for a quantum-enabled future?
Develop a quantum transition plan, inventory where cryptography is used, migrate to post-quantum standards, educate suppliers to be quantum-secure, and explore quantum-as-a-service to access capabilities without heavy upfront investment.
Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: The Quantum Era's Encryption Challenge
Q: What's at stake as Harvest Now Decrypt Later becomes more real for enterprises?
The risk is that encrypted communications and stored data could be decrypted once quantum computers mature, eroding privacy and trust across services, with potential national sovereignty implications if critical infrastructures are exposed.
Risk as Signal: A Canadian Playbook
Q: How do we think about developing a third way economically, not just tied to the U.S. or China?
It is essential to diversify and develop trade opportunities beyond the U.S., given its dominant historical role in Canada's economy.

Audience Metrics

Listeners, social reach, demographics and more for this podcast.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Disruptors

What is Disruptors about and what kind of topics does it cover?

- A thought-provoking Canadian tech and innovation show that features leaders from industry, government, and academia. Episodes tend to cover critical topics like quantum cryptography, ag-tech funding, tech sovereignty, climate-focused investing, and infrastructure for Canada's digital and energy future, often tying global trends to Canadian policy and business strategy. The program stands out for bringing high-profile guests and practical takeaways on how organizations can navigate rapid technological change while safeguarding sovereignty and security. Listeners are likely decision-makers and professionals interested in how technology, policy, and economics intersect in Canada and beyond.

Where can I find podcast stats for Disruptors?

Rephonic provides a wide range of podcast stats for Disruptors. We scanned the web and collated all of the information that we could find in our comprehensive podcast database. See how many people listen to Disruptors and access YouTube viewership numbers, download stats, audience demographics, chart rankings, ratings, reviews and more.

How many listeners does Disruptors get?

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What are the audience demographics for Disruptors?

Rephonic provides comprehensive predictive audience data for Disruptors, including gender skew, age, country, political leaning, income, professions, education level, and interests. You can access these listener demographics by upgrading your account.

How many subscribers and views does Disruptors have?

To see how many followers or subscribers Disruptors has on Spotify and other platforms such as Castbox and Podcast Addict, simply upgrade your account. You'll also find viewership figures for their YouTube channel if they have one.

Which podcasts are similar to Disruptors?

These podcasts share a similar audience with Disruptors:

1. Front Burner
2. Ideas
3. The Wealthy Barber Podcast
4. Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly
5. Quirks and Quarks

How many episodes of Disruptors are there?

Disruptors launched 8 years ago and published 222 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

How do I contact Disruptors?

Our systems regularly scour the web to find email addresses and social media links for this podcast. We scanned the web and collated all of the contact information that we could find in our podcast database. But in the unlikely event that you can't find what you're looking for, our concierge service lets you request our research team to source better contacts for you.

Where can I see ratings and reviews for Disruptors?

Rephonic pulls ratings and reviews for Disruptors from multiple sources, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Castbox, and Podcast Addict.

View all the reviews in one place instead of visiting each platform individually and use this information to decide if a show is worth pitching or not.

How do I access podcast episode transcripts for Disruptors?

Rephonic provides full transcripts for episodes of Disruptors. Search within each transcript for your keywords, whether they be topics, brands or people, and figure out if it's worth pitching as a guest or sponsor. You can even set-up alerts to get notified when your keywords are mentioned.

What guests have appeared on Disruptors?

Recent guests on Disruptors include:

1. Jennifer Heil
2. David Shoemaker
3. Christian Weedbrook
4. Stephanie Simmons
5. Darren Anderson
6. Kyle Scott
7. Gerald Butts
8. Clara Barby

To view more recent guests and their details, simply upgrade your Rephonic account. You'll also get access to a typical guest profile to help you decide if the show is worth pitching.

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