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
A brief history of “people power”
The power of local government
Using the tools of democracy to address economic inequality
What is democracy? A conversation with Astra Taylor
Trump on Earth: The Red State Paradox
It’s good to be counted [rebroadcast]
When states sue the federal government [rebroadcast]
Citizenship, patriotism, and democracy in the classroom [rebroadcast]
2018: The year in democracy
The complicated relationship between campaign finance and democracy
Capturing the nation’s mood
Are land-grant universities still “democracy’s colleges?”
Norman Eisen’s love letter to democracy
Winning the “democracy lottery”
From soldier-statesman to the warrior ethos: Gen. Wesley Clark on the military and democracy
Protecting democracy from foreign interference — recorded live at the National Press Club
Will Millennials disrupt democracy?
David Frum on developing the habits of democracy
When states sue the federal government
How “if it bleeds, it leads” impacts democracy
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Strict Scrutiny