Sean and Andy

About Lab Rats:

Lab Rats was one of the very first video podcasts on the Internet, launched in October 2005 by technology journalists Sean Carruthers and Andy Walker ).

Originally launched as an offshoot of the work Sean and Andy were doing for G4TechTV Canada's Call For Help , Lab Rats has always been designed to harness the power and possibilities available on the Net. That meant not worrying about having to fit a ton of content into the tiny window between TV commercial breaks; instead, the content was given the room it needed to breathe...and to help it to be clear and understandable.

Initially Andy and Sean figured it couldn't be that hard to make TV for the web. They were wrong. It was really hard, but after a month or so of messing about, they managed to shoot a pilot episode. There were shadows, bad audio and a bad couch. So they begged Call For Help's associate producer Matt Harris for some assistance. Harris said he'd help ONLY if he didn't have to miss watching the Bruins. The first episode was shot between periods of a Bruins game (they lost), but Lab Rats was summarily born.

Shortly thereafter, Sony Canada kindly chipped in a couple of loaner cameras, and Andy's pal Geo Perdis offered lighting help and gear. Things started to look a lot better...and then the deluge happened. People liked the show and downloaded it furiously....in fact, it became one of the most popular tech podcasts on the Net. And so Lab Rats kept coming, once a week nearly every week, since that fateful day in late 2005.

Along the way Lab Rats moved from the couch to the living room, and from Andy's apartment to his condo. Andy's cats Biff and Boo wouldn't stay off the set, so they were made an official part of the show. Sean moved to Vancouver to work on The Lab With Leo Laporte, and some episodes were shot there. Then he moved back to Toronto.

Midway through 2008, Lab Rats was acquired by Tucows as the flagship show for the fledgling butterscotch.com division. Not only did the Rats get to shoot in a studio for the first time, but they brought Matt Harris onboard full-time as a producer and editor, bringing everything full circle. Later, associate producer Paul Stachniak was added to the team, taking over as producer when workaholic Matt took on production of too many other butterscotch shows. Nearly 150 episodes of Lab Rats were produced during the butterscotch years.

Late in 2011, following the closing of the butterscotch studio, Lab Rats went on a short hiatus for regrouping and retooling. And now, in 2012, they're back with more of the tech content you've come to love!


Andy Walker — Host

Andy Walker is the lovable funny man in Lab Rats, and was most recently the General Manager of butterscotch.com and Tucows.com. Andy is a highly respected technology journalist whose columns have run in major outlets across Canada and the US. He has lent his expertise and wit to four books including Windows Vista Help Desk (Que Publishing) and You Call This the Future? (Chicago Review Press). A former host of Call for Help with Leo Laporte, Andy brought his affable character and expertise to the show and fans fell in love. Not content to just help readers and viewers get the most out the technology they use, he started the charitable organization Little Geeks to provide working computers to underprivileged families in Canada, ensuring they don't find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide. He also regularly appears as a technology expert on SunTV, CTV, CP24 and BNN.
Andy's Website: http://andywalker.com
Andy's Twitter feed: @andywalker


Sean Carruthers — Host

Sean Carruthers is a freelance writer, video producer and host based in Toronto, Canada. Most recently, he was a Senior Producer at butterscotch.com, where he was responsible for the conception, writing, production and editing of a number of web video programs, including Lab Rats, How Do I?, Status Update, The Noob, and more. Sean has been writing, podcasting and broadcasting about technology for over a decade. He joined butterscotch hot on the heels of a gig as Content Producer on the G4TechTV program The Lab With Leo Laporte. Earlier, he worked on the Canadian production of the TV show Call For Help, and served as the Test Lab Editor for The Computer Paper / HUB: Digital Living magazine. His writing has been featured in The Globe and Mail, the Village Voice, and allmusic.com, as well as other technology and music publications. He has also composed theme songs for both television and web shows, including The Lab with Leo Laporte, The A-List, Miss Download, Pimp My PC and more.
Sean's Website: http://globalhermit.com
Sean's Twitter feed: @globalhermit


Production/Ownership:

Lab Rats is produced and distributed by Slurp Media, which is a partnership owned by Cyberwalker Media Inc. and Global Hermit Media.