What does it really take to change behaviour — not just at the individual level, but across entire systems?

In this episode of Wired for Change, Amy Yee sits down with Pauline Kabitsis to explore how behavioural science is being applied in global public health — and why its full potential is still largely untapped.

From field work with the World Food Programme in Africa to youth-focused initiatives with UNICEF in El Salvador, Pauline shares practical examples of how behavioural insights can shift outcomes in complex environments.

But this conversation goes further.

We explore what’s changing (and not changing) in behavioural science, where it fits inside policy and systems design, and how leaders can move beyond awareness to execution. Along the way, we connect behavioural science to user experience, governance, and the realities of public sector transformation.

If you care about public health, policy innovation, human-centred design, or building systems that actually work for people — this episode is for you.

00:00 – Introduction: Why Behaviour Shapes Systems
03:45 – What Is Behavioural Science (And What It Isn’t)
09:10 – What’s Changing in the Field Today
16:30 – Unlocking Behavioural Science in Public Health
24:50 – Case Study: Work with the World Food Programme in Africa
34:40 – Case Study: Supporting Youth with UNICEF in El Salvador
45:20 – Systems, Policy & Human-Centred Design
53:10 – Pauline’s Work Today & Where the Field Is Headed
58:30 – Final Reflections: Designing for Real Change

Chapters

Canada has the potential to lead in medical AI—but leadership won’t be decided by technology alone.

In this episode of Wired for Change, Amy Yee sits down with Dr. Khaled El Emam to explore what it will really take to move medical AI from promise to practice. Drawing on real-world deployments in Canadian healthcare, they unpack why talent, data, and urgency—not hype—are now the deciding factors.

This conversation covers:

• Where medical AI is already delivering real impact

• Why deployment lags behind technical capability

• How trust, transparency, and responsible data use enable scale

• What Canada risks by moving too slowly—and what it gains by acting now

Grounded, pragmatic, and optimistic, this episode is about leadership, legitimacy, and why the window to act is open—but narrowing.

Find out more about OMARI: https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-medicine/research-and-innovation/ottawa-medical-ai-research-institute-overview

Find out more about Amy Yee:

www.amyeyee.com

Chapters:

00:00 – Why medical AI feels urgent right now

02:05 – AI isn’t new, but the moment has changed

04:50 – Where medical AI is already in use

07:45 – System efficiency and clinician burden

10:15 – Why healthcare innovation is hard to deploy

12:30 – Competitiveness, dependency, and local models

15:05 – Moving from analysis to action

17:40 – Data access as opportunity and constraint

20:10 – Canadian examples of AI in practice

24:05 – AI scribes and clinician sustainability

26:45 – Patient-facing tools and informed decisions

29:40 – Risks of generic AI tools

31:50 – What enables successful deployment

34:30 – Who pays for medical AI?

36:45 – Why stories and trust matter

39:10 – Public legitimacy and social license

42:00 – Talent as a competitive advantage

45:15 – Multidisciplinary leadership and optimism

48:50 – Entrepreneurship and real-world impact

53:10 – IP, innovation, and staying ahead

57:40 – Competing without the biggest budget

01:01:50 – Compute, regulation, and urgency

01:06:10 – Practical privacy and de-identification

01:11:40 – Toward national standards

01:15:30 – What’s driving optimism

01:19:00 – Closing reflections

Watch this two-minute preview of Wired For Change podcast episode 38: When Tech Stopped Being "Safe".

Host Amy Yee is joined by Cate Huston, author of The Engineering Leader, for a thoughtful conversation about how engineering leadership is changing — and what that means for careers, teams, and judgment in today’s tech landscape.

For a long time — especially in software engineering — there was an unspoken promise:
if you were smart enough, fast enough, or technical enough, the rest would work itself out.

That promise no longer feels reliable.

In this episode of Wired for Change, host Amy Yee is joined by Cate Huston, author of The Engineering Leader, to explore what’s changed — and what engineering leadership demands now.

Cate brings lived experience from across the tech landscape, including working as a software engineer at Google, leading distributed teams at Automattic, and navigating trust, privacy, and accountability at DuckDuckGo.

This conversation isn’t about all tech roles equally.
Many parts of the tech ecosystem — hardware, infrastructure, safety-critical systems — have long operated under different constraints. What we examine here is a pattern that emerged most strongly in software engineering, particularly in Big Tech and high-growth environments.

We talk about:

• Why technical excellence is no longer a safety net

• How engineering identity shifts when “writing code” stops being the differentiator

• AI as a multiplier of judgment — not a replacement for it

• Leadership as force multiplication rather than individual output

• Why careers are bigger than any one job or organization

This isn’t a doom-and-gloom episode.
It’s a reframing — about judgment, agency, and leadership when the old assumptions no longer hold.

Chapters:

00:00 – When tech stopped being “safe”

03:10 – The broken career contract in software engineering

07:20 – Identity: “I write code” vs “I build things that matter”

11:45 – From pampered engineers to scrappy reality

16:40 – Layoffs, uncertainty, and the end of the safety net

21:30 – Careers vs jobs: letting go of “up and to the right”

26:50 – AI as a multiplier (and when it backfires)

33:40 – Judgment over answers in modern leadership

39:30 – Scaling teams by scaling judgment

45:20 – Leadership without authority or abundance

52:10 – Self-management before managing others

58:45 – Feedback, growth, and readiness for responsibility

1:04:10 – Values, privacy, and real trade-offs in tech

1:10:20 – Letting go of old career beliefs

1:13:00 – Working with reality as it is

What does patriotism mean in a cyber context — and how should leaders balance mission, judgment, and profit in a rapidly changing world?

In this episode of Wired for Change, host Amy Yee is joined by George Al-Koura — CISO, former Canadian Armed Forces Signals Intelligence Specialist, and co-host of Bare Knuckles and Brass Tacks.

This reflective conversation goes beyond tools and trends to explore cyber leadership as a values-driven practice. Amy and George discuss patriotism over profit, the real constraints leaders face, trust and intuition as decision-making skills, and how to navigate responsibility in an era shaped by AI, misinformation, and geopolitical tension.

They also touch on ethical data use, entrepreneurship, and what it means to choose the path ahead — personally, professionally, and nationally.

A thoughtful end-of-year episode for leaders in cybersecurity, technology, public service, and beyond.

Canada is navigating an evolving threat landscape where cyber risks, physical security, disinformation, geopolitics, and human behavior increasingly converge.

In this episode of Wired for Change, host Amy Yee is joined by Lina Dabit, former Unit Commander of the RCMP Cybercrime Investigative Team and former Field Unit Commander with the Canadian Air Carrier Protective Program, for a wide-ranging conversation on trust, leadership, and resilience in a hybrid threat world.

Drawing on decades of frontline and executive experience, Lina shares how security challenges have evolved — and why siloed approaches no longer work. Together, Amy and Lina explore what hybrid threats really mean in practice, how misinformation erodes trust, and why culture, instinct, and collaboration are as critical as technology.

They discuss:

• How hybrid threats combine cyber, physical, information, and human risks

• Why misinformation doesn’t need to be true to be effective

• Lessons from global events and the road to FIFA 2026

• The importance of unified command and public-private collaboration

• Why psychological safety and culture are essential to resilience

• The role communities can play in strengthening national readiness

This isn’t a checklist or a playbook. It’s a clear-eyed conversation about the pressures Canada faces — and how leaders, institutions, and communities can navigate them together.

Subscribe to Wired for Change for thoughtful, independent Canadian conversations on technology, leadership, security, and the systems shaping our future.

What does it take for a small hospital to deliver big results? In this special Wired for Change episode, host Amy Yee sits down with the senior leadership team of Kemptville District Hospital (KDH) — Frank Vassallo (CEO), Katie Hogue (VP Nursing & Clinical, and Chief Nursing Executive), and Brittany Rivard (CFO & VP Operations) — for a rare inside look at how a 40-bed community hospital is reshaping care in one of Ontario’s fastest-growing regions.

Together, they explore how KDH blends compassionate patient care with innovative partnerships, strong culture, and system-level collaboration. From powerful patient stories to the realities of rural hospital funding, the team shares how they keep care close to home while navigating rising complexity and demand.

This episode shines a light on the people, processes, and leadership practices that allow a small hospital to punch far above its weight — and offers insights for anyone working to strengthen community-based care.

In this conversation:

• The realities and opportunities of rural healthcare

• How culture, psychological safety, and frontline leadership drive performance

• Patient stories that reveal the heart of KDH

• Partnerships that expand access and capacity

• The importance of “care closer to home” in a growing region

• Why systems thinking is essential for healthcare transformation

A thoughtful, human-centred episode about leadership, resilience, and the future of community care.

• Find out more about Kemptville District Hospital: https://www.kdh.on.ca/

• Wired for Change: https://www.wired-for-change.com

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wired-for-change-podcast/

• Amy Yee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyyee/

Guest: Matt Davies — Former CTO, Shared Services Canada | Board Member | Senior Advisor, StrategyCorp

Technology has shifted the centre of gravity in the boardroom. Once focused primarily on risk and budgets, today's boards must understand AI, data, cybersecurity, cloud, and the culture shifts that accompany them.

In this episode, Amy Yee and Matt Davies explore how boards can build fluency in emerging technologies, support leadership teams through uncertainty, and provide forward-looking stewardship rather than reactive oversight.

Together, they unpack:

• How directors can move from oversight to foresight

• What AI, cyber, and data governance mean for modern governance

• The rising importance of culture, tone at the top, and talent readiness

• How board composition and committee structures are evolving

• Practical ways boards can accelerate learning (tabletops, outside expertise, briefings)

• Why continuous learning is now essential for every director

Whether you sit on a board, advise one, or aspire to join one, this episode offers clear insight into what leadership looks like in a fast-changing technological era.