Before we get to the show notes, we invite you to take our listener survey for a chance to win a Democracy Works coffee mug!
COVID-19 brought the problems with government technology into sharp focus. The systems responsible for delivering unemployment benefits and healthcare were not prepared to mange the influx of requests they received, and the government employees who run those systems were often hobbled by a culture that focuses on regulation and oversight, not innovation and acting quickly.
Beyond the day-to-day impacts of these systems not working, the long-term consequences include the erosion of trust in the institutions that comprise our democracy. So, what can we do? Jennifer Pahlka has a few ideas and she joins us this week to talk about them.
Pahlka is the author of Recoding America: Why Government Is Failing in the Digital Age and How We Can Do Better. She is the former deputy chief technology officer of the United States and the founder of Code for America, a nonprofit that believes government can work for people in the digital age.
Recoding America website
More information on Schedule F/Project 2025
What really motivates Trump supporters
The myth of the "Latino vote"
Can corporations be democratic citizens?
Is common ground hiding in plain sight?
When four threats to democracy collide
Wynton Marsalis on democracy as jazz and The Ever Fonky Lowdown
News deserts are democracy deserts, too
The Supreme Court's politics and power
The perfect storm for election disaster
The 2020 election from WPSU's Take Note
Hong Kong's fight is everyone's fight
Sheriffs 101
Students learn, students vote
A dark side to "laboratories of democracy"
A fall preview — with a new cohost!
YIMBYs and NIMBYs in a democracy
After 100 years, there's still no "woman voter"
She Votes! — Susan B. Anthony and "voting while female"
Reason in politics and hope for democracy
The people who choose the President
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Red Eye Radio