Featured in this episode:

Kongjian Yu is a Beijing-based landscape architect and founder of Peking University’s College of Architecture and Landscape. His concept of sponge cities — designing cities to absorb water — is being applied in urban areas across the globe.

Further reading:

• Landscape architect Kongjian Yu, pioneer of the “sponge city" concept, wins the 2023 Oberlander Prize
• How letting water be water can lead to better climate resilience
• Kongjian Yu has a plan for urban flooding: “Sponge cities”
• Treading water — Toronto is spending billions on flood protection, but experts say it needs to spend billions more
• Will a $1-billion flooding bill finally make the GTA take stormwater seriously?
• Toronto’s Don River floods offer urgent planning lessons for climate-challenged cities

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.

Music makes us feel better — for most of us, this is an intuitive truth. But scientists are only now beginning to understand the remarkable ways that music affects our brains. With the help of innovation, researchers are working to assess and codify the whats, whys and hows that could help us harness this power as a therapeutic tool to treat people grappling with everything from mood disorders to Parkinson’s disease. Their data is helping prove that music could be one of our most vital, valuable and accessible forms of medicine.

Featured in this episode:

Dan Levitin is a best-selling author, music producer, renowned neuroscientist and professor emeritus in psychology at McGill University. His latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine was released in August.

Frank Russo is a cognitive neuroscientist and psychologist who serves as the chief science officer at LUCID, a Toronto-based company that uses AI to create personalized music therapy to help people with mental health challenges. He’s also a professor of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University, where he heads up the Science of Music Auditory Research and Technology (SMART) lab.

Jessica Grahn is a neuroscientist and a professor at Western University. She studies how the brain processes music and its power to activate music in people with mobility issues brought on by neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s.

Charlotte Cumberbirch is a professional choral singer who leads an online vocal health group for older adults at the Cummings Centre in Montreal. Many of her participants are recovering from strokes or dealing with brain diseases, such as Parkinson’s.

Further reading:

• The sound of science: How music can transform our brains
• AI to benefit humanity: Innovations in senior care
• The big idea: could we use music like medicine?
• AI is unlocking the human brain’s secrets
• How does music affect your brain?
• This is your brain. This is your brain on music

Solve for X is brought to you by MaRS, North America’s largest urban innovation hub and a registered charity. MaRS supports startups and accelerates the adoption of high-impact solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. For more information, visit marsdd.com.