CanCon Podcast Ep. 85: Should Canada even want an Amazon HQ?

The CanCon podcast took off this week, leaving the safe confines of our recording studio for a chance to disconnect and connect at the Fireside Conference. A weekend in the woods couldn’t stop us from podcasting, however, leaving us with a rustic perspective to get reflective.

First on the docket was the process of disconnecting itself, and the emphasis modern society places on hyper-connection, much to the joy of various chemicals swirling around our brains. But if we can only escape modern technology with a jaunt to the safe havens of no cell reception, what about pre-modern technology? A wave of nostalgia not only has 90s clothing styles back in fashion, but the decade’s hardware as well. Is this wave of nostalgia tech just careful marketing, or does it harken to something deeper – as my old friend Teddy used to call it, “the pain from an old wound.”

Speaking of marketing, all of Canada’s top tech cities are marketing themselves to Jeff Bezos, in the hopes that Amazon’s CEO will drop a second HQ north of the border. The team evaluates the various pitches before asking a question recently answered by Globalive’s Tony Lacavera: do we even want Amazon corporate here in Canada?

Tune in as CanCon’s podcast crew – Jessica Galang, BetaKit News Editor, Erin Bury, Managing Director of Eighty-Eight, and Jeff Goldenberg, Co-founder of Abacus – to disconnect and complain about tech by the fire.

Have some hot takes on the topics that we covered? Maybe you want to suggest something for a future podcast! Perhaps you have a burning question about something you read in tech news that we didn’t cover. Email us, post a comment below with the answer or question, or better yet, rate CanCon 5-stars on iTunes and post your thoughts there.