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ePODstemology

Mark Fabian

Medicine for intellectual boredom. Host Dr Mark Fabian of Cambridge University brings together an eclectic mix of creative young folk to discuss the most stimulating ideas at the knowledge frontier, from data governance to the metamodern cultural mode, and everything in between. The world's most thoughtful people, having a chat - and you're invited! So turn off your socials, throw away your popular science books, and get ready for some legit galaxy brain takes. Thanks to Keith Spangle for the spaceship cat avatar https://www.deviantart.com/keithspangle

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S7 · E5
June 24 · 46 min
AI in government
Dr Aleksei Turobov is an Assistant Professor at the Bennett School of Public Policy. His research examines the critical gap between the global ambitions of AI policy and the practical realities of its implementation. He leads research for the AIxGeo project, using a mixed-methods approach that combines AI-driven thematic analysis with network analysis to map the emergent coalitions and narratives shaping international AI policy and governance. Dr Turobov argues that the success of global governance hinges on the granular details of AI institutional capacity. This conviction drives his work on the adoption of Large Language Models (LLMs) within the UK civil service, where he evaluates the ‘expectation-capability gap’ and develops frameworks for responsible implementation. By connecting global strategy to institutional practice, his work generates an evidence-based understanding of how institutions can adapt in the age of AI, informing his ongoing work on evaluating institutional AI adaptation using machine learning. He holds a PhD in Political Science and was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cybersecurity and Technology Policy at Northumbria University. Aleks’ webpage: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksei-turobov-phd-8232a2153 11:10 Using ChatGPT for Thematic analysis by A Turobov, D Coyle, V Harding (2024) https://www.bennettschool.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Using-ChatGPT-for-analytics-WP.pdf 16:20 Flexible coding using teams of reseachers: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/16094069241289279#tab-contributors 36:00 The militarisation of Artificial Intelligence UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (2007) https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3972613?ln=en&v=pdf
S7 · E4
May 27 · 1 hr 4 min
Eat your way to a better world
Paul Behrens is British Academy Global Professor at the University of Oxford and Reapra Senior Research Fellow at the Wellbeing Research Centre there. He is an industrial ecologist examining how the ways we produce our lives and the things we consume in them are related to environment stress, especially climate change. In this episode, we discuss the role of demand management in averting ecological disaster - demand management here referring to reducing or changing unsustainable consumption practices. We talk especially about diets and food systems, but also energy, transport, plastics, and the political implications of greening all of the above. Did you know that the UK population reduced its meat consumption to around twice a week we could recover an area of land the size of Scotland? Tune in to find out why. Find out more about Paul: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/find-an-expert/professor-paul-behrens 17:45 Planetary Boundaries Framework: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html 20:00 Changing food systems towards plants > beef could rewild an area the size of Scotland: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00431-5 44:00 Intra-Elite Competition: A Key Concept for Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Societies (Peter Turchin, 2016) https://peterturchin.com/intra-elite-competition-a-key-concept-for-understanding-the-dynamics-of-complex-societies/ 50:30 Danish Action Plan for Plant-Based Foods (2023) https://en.fvm.dk/Media/638484294982868221/Danish-Action-Plan-for-Plant-based-Foods.pdf
S7 · E6
April 28 · 1 hr 7 min
Video games and the zeitgeist
Dr Stephen Mallory is assistant professor of game design at Lawrence Technical University in Southfield, Michigan. After a career in the video game industry, Stephen turned his considerable intellect to analysing games as an aspect of digimodernism - the contemporary cultural phenomenon where much of our lived experience, indeed, our reality and even sense of self, is mediated through digital technologies, artifacts, and environments. His research is especially concerned with the intersection of digimodernism and digi-fascism, and how these cultural forces relate to things like the economics of the games industry. If you want to know more about how the largest and fasting growing media industry in the world - that's video games - affects you whether you interact with it or not, tune in to this episode. 08:30 Developer’s Dilemma: The Secret World of Videogame Creators, Casey O’Donnell (2014) https://direct.mit.edu/books/monograph/4469/Developer-s-DilemmaThe-Secret-World-of-Videogame 10:45 The Death of Postmodernism and Beyond, Alan Kirby (2006) https://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase26?openform&fp=philnow&id=philnow_2006_0058_0000_0034_0037 13:15 Jesper Juul’s “Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds” https://half-real.net/ 14:30 Homo Ludens: a study of the play element in culture, Johan Huizinga (1950) https://radioparasita.org/sites/default/files/Gong/052013/johan_huizinga_homo_ludens_1949_pdf_17266.pdf 20:30 Disco Elysium (2019) https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/ 23:45 Digimodernism: How New Technologies Dismantle the Postmodern and reconfigure Our Culture, Alan Kirby (2009) https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/digimodernism-9781441175281/
S7 · E4
April 7 · 1 hr 5 min
Metamodernism - culture after the end of history
Timotheus Vermeulen is a full professor of media, culture and society at the University of Oslo in Norway. Together with Robin Van Den Akker, he coined the term metamodernism and kick started scholarship of this new idea, co-founding the webzine Notes on Metamodernity and co-editing the book series Studies in Metamodernism. Metamodernism refers to the culture or structure of feeling that comes after postmodernism - it's what we are living through right now. It's character is contested. One the one hand you have people advocating for sincerity, earnestness, pluralism, and kindness, on the other hand you have reactionaries and cancel culture enthusiasts seeking to impose their preferred grand story against the cynicism of postmodernity. How is metamodernism manifesting in art, politics, and popular culture? Tune in to find out. 00:45 Notes on Metamodernism E-zine https://www.metamodernism.com/ Vermeulen, T., & van den Akker, R. (2010). Notes on metamodernism. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture, 2(1). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jac.v2i0.5677 4:40 Plastic Time: Gesture on Screen (Book) T Vermeulen (2026) 14:40 Notes on by Camp Susan Sontag (1964), Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/5/59/Sontag_Susan_1964_Notes_on_Camp.pdf 22:40 Slavoj Žižek - Kinder Surprise Egg: https://youtu.be/4zHnJWN8YEA?si=vKzdpSXqX_vu53JR 26:57 The Postmodern Condition (1979) Jean-François Lyotard Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Lyotard_Jean-Francois_The_Postmodern_Condition_A_Report_on_Knowledge.pdf 40:30 Doughnut Economics (2017) Kate Raworth 40:45 Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us (2023) Jon Alexandar 45:00 Molecular Red: Theory for the Anthropocene (2015) McKenzie Wark Available at: https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Wark_McKenzie_ed_Molecular_Red_Reader.pdf 50:30 Doughnut Economics Tools page: https://doughnuteconomics.org/tools
S7 · E3
March 6 · 1 hr 2 min
An insider's guide to the innovation ecosystem
Innovation is crucial for improving quality of life and clearing away ossified and unhelpful ways of doing and being, like fossil fuel capitalism. So how do we get it moving? The innovation ecosystem of a nation, a region, or even the world is a complex network of physical infrastructure, human capital, industrial policy, and R&D centres among other things. If any part of the network grows weak, it can drag down the whole system. Here to help us navigate this environment is Halima Jibril, Assistant Professor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Warwick Business School. She is Co-Investigator on the £7million Innovation and Research Caucus funded by United Kingdom Research and Innovation. We could not have a better guide. Halima's website: https://www.wbs.ac.uk/about/person/halima-jibril/ H Jibril, A Kaltenbrunner, E Kesidou (2018), Financialisation and innovation in emerging economies: Evidence from Brazil. https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/181485/1/fmm-imk-wp-27-2018.pdf Ivan Vendrov Podcast: Robin Hansen on Cultural Evolution and Cultural Drift (2026) https://nothinghuman.substack.com/p/robin-hanson-on-cultural-evolution Help to Grow: Digital, Department for Business and Trade (2024) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/help-to-grow-digital-evaluation-report AI Upskilling fund, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (2024 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flexible-ai-upskilling-fund Mazzucato on governments taking equity stake in R&D firms is in her book: https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-entrepreneurial-state/ French government R&D incentives: https://www.abgi-uk.com/news-resources/innovation-funding-incentives-france/ Halima Jibril, Carol Stanfield, Stephen Roper (2020), What drives productivity growth behind the frontier? A mixed-methods investigation into UK SMEs https://www.enterpriseresearch.ac.uk/publications/what-drives-productivity-growth-behind-the-frontier-a-mixed-methods-investigation-into-uk-smes-research-paper-no-89/ The Lupe Vacuum cleaner is sadly discontinued: https://vacuumwars.com/lupe-technology-closes-a-loss-to-the-vacuum-industry/
S7 · E2
February 6 · 57 min
Data data everywhere yet no meaning to be found
It seems these days that we are awash in data. Indeed, in their recent book The Ordinal Society, Marion Foucard and Kieran Healy argue persuasively that the passive data collection facilitated by the internet, digital technologies, wearables, and social media allows us for the first time to map the deep substrate of the social. Is that true though? In all this data, is there signal? Valeria Ramirez from Cambridge University has made a career out of tracking the advent of digital metrics and their revolutionary impact on the way organisations operate, first in journalism's shift to digital media, and now in university knowledge exchanges. She has identified key characteristics that distinguish meaningful from meaningless metrics, and developed a framework for developing the former within any contextualised organisation. If you've ever wondered whether the Netflix algorithm isn't collecting the best data to understand your video preferences, this episode is for you. www.valeriaramirez.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriaramirezphd Ramirez, V. (2025). Meaningful Metrics for Knowledge Exchange: Rethinking Social Value Metrics for University–Business and Community Interactions. Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.121347
S7 · E1
January 15 · 1 hr 4 min
Welcome to metamodernity - complexity science, meaning making, and the return of spirituality
Metamodernism is the cultural mode that is emerging after postmodernism, and boy do we need it. Postmodernism was a period of deconstruction. A necessary deconstruction, I hasten to say, one that shook the foundations of many obsolete structures that kept people oppressed like homophobia, patriarchy, colonialism, and opinions masquerading as expertise. But as there was only deconstruction, we find our culture mired in a nihilistic swamp. How can we reconstruct shared values, shared perspectives on the world, shared culture? How can we escape our meaning crisis? Brendan Graham Dempsey is at the forefront of the both science and humanities aspects of metamodernism, blending complex systems theory, theology, neuroscience, existentialism and gardening in his efforts to articulate a new way to do old things. He has written an edited a series of books on metamodern spirituality, and is now publishing a second series specifically on meaning-making. Brendan's website: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/ Vermeulen and Van Den Akker's original metamodernism website: https://www.metamodernism.com/ And one of their early papers: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/jac.v2i0.5677 An analysis of Nihilistic themes in Ric & Morty and Bojack Horseman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsotfzGpby8 An analysis of metamodern tropes in Everything Everywhere All At Once: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xEi8qg266g Lyotard on The Postmodern Condition: https://monoskop.org/images/e/e0/Lyotard_Jean-Francois_The_Postmodern_Condition_A_Report_on_Knowledge.pdf Brendan's book Emergentism: https://www.brendangrahamdempsey.com/emergentism Kolchinsky and Wolpert on Meaning making in information theory: https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/new-definition-returns-meaning-information Brendan's new book on the evolution of meaning - free with his substack! https://brendangrahamdempsey.substack.com/p/publishing-my-new-book-on-substack John Vervaeke on metamodernism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De6ZIHThONI
S6 · E9
Nov 10, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
TL;DR Truth Bombs - The Essence of Aphorisms with James Geary
In one of his Letters Provinciales, the French philosopher and Theologian Blaise Pascal apologises that “I have made this letter longer than usual because I have not had the time to make it shorter”. This is an aphoristic statement that could form one part of the definition of an aphorism: a pithy observation that contains a general truth. There are thousands of well-known aphorisms coming in all manner of media, like the old proverb “a rolling stone gathers no moss”, or the quite recent lyrics from the Rolling Stones: “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you’ll find you get what you need”. My guest this episode is an expert in aphorisms, James Geary, adjunct lecturer in writing for public policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He is the author of the New York Times Bestseller The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism, original published way back in 2005 but recently reprinted in its 2nd edition on account of all the new aphoristic content coming out of social media. What’s the difference between a twitter hot take or a tiktok sketch and an aphorism, well you’ll just have to stay with us to find out. James Website https://jamesgeary.com/ The book! https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-world-in-a-phrase-a-brief-history-of-the-aphorism-second-edition-james-geary/7852688
S6 · E8
Oct 22, 2025 · 51 min
Replication, preregistration, and open science – what’s all the fuss about?
The so-called “replication crisis” engulfed psychology over the last 10 years, with numerous failures to reproduce canonical studies from the biggest names in the discipline like Dweck’s growth mindset, Baumeister’s willpower as a muscle, and around half of Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Interrogation of this failure of replicate led to discoveries of p-hacking, publication bias, a huge disconnect between the theories psychologists were supposedly testing and the cute little studies they were using for that purpose. Eventually there was even evidence of outright fraud, notably in the case of Harvard’s Francesca Gino, Duke’s Dan Arielly, and others. Hearing all this in the news, you might wonder: why is replication so crucial to the progress of science? Is there anything we can do improve the credibility of scientific practice? Does preregistering our intended analysis and expected results have an effect? Here to answer all these questions and more is Patrick Vu, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of New South Wales in my hometown of Sydney, Australia. Fresh off a PhD from Brown investigating the statistical side of replication and publication bias, Patrick is at the bleeding edge of these issues. Patrick’s website: https://www.patrickhvu.com/ Study where multiple research teams use the same data to test the same hypothesis: https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117278/1/pnas.2203150119.pdf The paper that launched the replication crisis – Why most published research findings are false: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1182327/ Karl Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery: https://philotextes.info/spip/IMG/pdf/popper-logic-scientific-discovery.pdf My favourite paper from Andrew Gelman: https://sites.stat.columbia.edu/gelman/research/published/gelman_hennig_full_discussion.pdf Open Science Collaboration - Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aac4716 Nancy Cartwright insights: https://personal.lse.ac.uk/robert49/teaching/ph201/Week09_Hoefer.pdf
S6 · E7
Jun 23, 2025 · 59 min
Will EdTech change the university?
Dr Shreeharsh Kelkar from UC Berkeley on to discuss massive online open courses or “MOOCs” and other varieties of education technology. Are they destined to displace the traditional university, or are (were) they just a fad? How do they compare with more general online platforms that host educational content, like YouTube? What sort of people start these ventures? Can they be trusted? Dr Kelkar is extremely well placed to answer these questions, combining a background in electrical engineering and computer science with a PhD in the anthropology of computing, expertise in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and access to some of the leading actors in this space, his research provides a fascinating perspective on one of the oldest sectors in our world – higher education – and the effect technology and commerce is having on it. Shreeharsh’s website: https://shreeharshkelkar.net/writing/ Selected publications from Shreeharsh: 2014. Anthropology in and of MOOCs. American Anthropologist 116 (4): 829–38. [pdf] [Co-authored with Rachel Flamenbaum, Manduhai Buyandelger, Greg Downey, Orin Starn, Graham Jones, Catalina Laserna, Shreeharsh Kelkar, Carolyn Rouse, and Tom Looser] 2018. On the “neutrality” of platforms: How the platform shapes pedagogy in MOOCs. Anthropology Now 10 (3), 70-83. Open letter from San Jose State University to Michael Sandel at Harvard: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/695245-san-jose-state-u-open-letter/
S6 · E6
May 19, 2025 · 1 hr 1 min
Intimate stories of infidelity
Simone Schneider is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation explores the meanings and experience of infidelity in intimate relationships, combining both long, in-depth interviews with people who have experienced or committed infidelity, and discourse analysis of dating platforms that facilitate this sort of behaviour. It’s a fascinating body of work on one of the oldest, innermost domains of human affairs, one that is changing with the times as dating moves online and young people especially experiment with new forms of partnering and romance. Through the lens of infidelity, Simone’s work engages with wider questions around social norms, morality, and inequality in contemporary society. 1. Simone Schneider’s academic profile: https://simone-schneider.github.io 2. Recent Articles: Schneider, S. (2025). “‘Because like if you feel guilty, then it’s usually a sign’: On the role of emotions in conceptualising infidelity.” Emotions and Society, online first: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/emsoc/aop/articl... 3. Schneider, S. (2025) “‘Some kind of cheating’: Boundary transgressions and open relationships.” Sexualities, online first: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634607251330945
S6 · E5
Apr 28, 2025 · 59 min
Decolonising development economics: learning from India
This episode’s guest is Dr Maria Bach, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland and host of Ceteris Never Paribus: the History of Economic Thought Podcast. She completed her PhD at King’s College in London, now available as a book with Cambridge University Press, Relocating Development Economics: The First Generation of Modern Indian Economists. The book excavates the overlooked history of Indian thinking about progress and growth, showcasing how a generation of thinkers there, unburden by the blinkers of colonialist ideology, reached the insights of today’s development policy a century ago. As you may have guessed from that title and the book’s content, Maria is an economic historian and historian of economic thought with a strong interest in decolonising the discipline and its curriculum. If you want to know what that means and why it’s important, please stay with us. Find out more about Maria Bach: https://rehpere.org/en/maria-bach Ceteris Never Paribus: The History of Economic Thought Podcast https://ceterisneverparibus.net/ Relocating Development Economics: The First Generation of Modern Indian Economists: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/relocating-development-economics/1048AF3FDAF95B3F6B5984CDB92D6D91 Mikhail Bakhtin: (2014). Bakhtinian dialogism. In D. Coghlan, M. Brydon-Miller (Eds.) The SAGE encyclopedia of action research (Vol. 2, pp. 73-75). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446294406.n37 Arvind Panagariya: https://www.sipa.columbia.edu/communities-connections/faculty/arvind-panagariya Arvind Panagariya, & School, E. (2024). The Nehru-Era Economic History and Thought & Their Lasting Impact. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-nehru-era-economic-history-and-thought-and-their-lasting-impact-9780197774618?
S6 · E4
Apr 9, 2025 · 1 hr 30 min
Beyond Happy: How to rethink happiness and find fulfilment
A special issue episode where regular host Dr Mark Fabian is on the other side of the microphone being interviewed by @economeager about his new book - Beyond Happy: How to rethink happiness and find fulfilment. It is out today in the United Kingdom. Here's a summary of the book: A comprehensive guide to cultivating wellbeing, combining cutting edge science and primordial folk wisdom. Mark Fabian, one of the most exhilarating thinkers working on wellbeing today, presents a revolutionary approach to understanding why there’s more to life than the pursuit of happiness. Beyond Happy explores how evolution has wired us to keep happiness just out of reach, leaving us perpetually stuck on a happiness treadmill. Instead of striving to escape it, the book argues, we should focus on making the treadmill a place we want to be. Finding this wellbeing begins with listening to our emotions, discovering intrinsic motivation and pursuing our authentic values. Fabian coaches you through this process of self-actualisation. Wellbeing, however, is not solely an individual pursuit – it is something we cultivate together. And so Beyond Happy also provides insights into enhancing your emotional intelligence, building relationships on care, and nurturing a karmic community. Most profoundly, Beyond Happy shows the way out of nihilism – the pervasive sense that life on the treadmill is purposeless and incoherent. To escape this despair, we must develop a moral compass. To heal the toxicity of our acrimonious politics, we need to rediscover the joy of sharing and celebrating what we love. Delivered with an entertaining mix of academic precision, a podcaster’s knack for storytelling, and the down-to-earth panache Australians are known for, Beyond Happy is a one-stop shop to everything you need to know about the good life. Find it on Waterstones, Amazon, or your high street book store in the United Kingdom or Australia from July: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beyond-Happy-Mark-Fabian/dp/1835010490 Check out Economeager's website: https://sites.google.com/view/rachaelmeager/home And especially their blog! https://rottenandgood.substack.com/ Ian McGilchrist's book on ways to truth https://www.amazon.co.uk/Matter-Things-Brains-Delusions-Unmaking/dp/1914568060 Ziz and the Zizzians: https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence Showers and Zeigler Hill on multiple selves: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17995462/ Haidt's righteous mind: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Righteous-Mind-Divided-Politics-Religion/dp/0141039167 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Lotus
S6 · E3
Mar 26, 2025 · 54 min
Would you ever trust a bot?
Anyone on social media these days has encountered a bot. An algorithm-driven fake account that engages in some nefarious activity, whether it’s turning uncontroversial points into debates, repping the Kremlin’s talking points, or directing you to pussy in bio, the bots are enshittifying social media at an alarming rate, especially now that artificial intelligence allows them to be more convincing, more targeted, and faster to set up en masse. But what if we could turn this pernicious technology into a tool for good? Among other things, academics are training bots to talk people down from conspiracy theories and update their views on climate change to be more factually accurate. One of those academics is Yara Kyrychenko, a PhD candidate, lab manager, and Gates Scholar at Cambridge University’s Social Decision-Making Lab. Her research combines psychological theory with big data and behavioural science methods to study how we can make human-technology interactions more constructive. She joins regular host Dr Mark Fabian, Associate Professor of Public Policy at the University of Warwick, to talk about socially responsible AI. Yara's webpage: https://www.sdmlab.psychol.cam.ac.uk/staff/yara-kyrychenko Yara wanted me to issue a correction: Ukrainian is only in the top 20, not top 10 languages spoken on the internet: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_used_on_the_Internet Chatbots and conspiracy theories: https://misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/using-an-ai-powered-street-epistemologist-chatbot-and-reflection-tasks-to-diminish-conspiracy-theory-beliefs/#:~:text=An%20AI%2Dpowered%20chatbot%20instructed,strength%20of%20conspiracy%20theory%20beliefs.
S6 · E2
Feb 14, 2025 · 59 min
How will Trump impact global development philanthropy?
Trump is back in the White House and as anticipated, his administration is moving fast and breaking things. One of the first aspects of government to get stepped on was USAID, one of the biggest financiers and administrators of global development, including programs like PEPFAR. To understand the implications of this for the wider global philanthropy sector, ePODstemology reached out to Shonali Banerjee, Assistant Professor of International Development at the University of Warwick. She was previously a postdoc at the University of Cambridge’s centre for strategic philanthropy. Her work has been published in Third World Quarterly and Development in Practice, and she has a book, Horizontal Development: Shifting Power and Privilege in Aid, forthcoming with Bristol University Press. We discuss not just Trump’s impact but her work more broadly, especially the rapidly rising momentum of ‘trust-based philanthropy’. Shonali’s website https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/banerjee-shonali/ Shonali’s book https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/horizontal-development
S6 · E1
Jan 16, 2025 · 56 min
How to get more climate policy legislated
Climate change is the single biggest policy challenge facing the world today. A global political coordination problem of epic proportions, with baggage from colonialism, short election cycles, and a deep pocketed fossil fuel lobby running interference. The stakes couldn’t be higher, with hundreds of millions of human and billions of animal lives in the balance. Who do we need to take action? Parliaments. How do we get them to do it? Here to answer that question is Mitya Pearson, assistant professor in the politics of climate change at the University of Warwick. Dr Pearson was until recently a Leverhulme early career fellow at King’s College London, where he completed his PhD, and was previously a policy analyst focusing on the parliamentary politics of climate change at Policy Connect in Westminster. Mitya has written extensively on the determinants of politicians actions with respect to climate change and how to effectively pressure them into taking decisive action. Mitya’s website: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/pearson/ Citizen’s assemblies and climate action: https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PaperDetails/76391 Other topics discussed this episode: Broockman, D. and Skovron, C. (2018) ‘Bias in Perceptions of Public Opinion among Political Elites’, American Political Science Review, 112: 542–63 Dellmuth, L. et al. (2022) ‘The Elite–Citizen Gap in International Organization Legitimacy’, American Political Science Review, 116: 283–300 Mitya Pearson & Alan Wager, 'Not so different: Comparing British MPs' and voters' attitudes to climate change', Parliamentary Affairs, 2024 Falck, R. (2023) ‘How Politicians and the Population Attribute Responsibility for Climate Change Mitigation’, Environmental Politics, 33: 699–726 Rapeli, L. and Koskimaa, V. (2022) ‘Concerned and Willing to Pay?’, Environmental Politics, 31: 542–51. Sundblad, E., Biel, A. and Gärling, A. (2009) ‘Knowledge and Confidence in Knowledge About Climate Change Among Experts, Journalists, Politicians, and Laypersons’, Environment and Behavior, 41: 281–302 Tranter, B. (1999) ‘Environmentalism in Australia: Elites and the Public’, Journal of Sociology, 35: 331–50 Walgrave, S. et al. (2023) ‘Inaccurate Politicians: Elected Representatives’ Estimations of Public Opinion in Four Countries’, The Journal of Politics, 85: 209–22 Willis, R. and Westlake, S. (2023) ‘Sustaining the Political Mandate for Climate Action’, Green Alliance. https://green-alliance.org.uk/publication/sustaining-the-political-mandate-for-climate-action/ Paul Lucardie & E. Gene Frankland, Green Parties in Transition: The End of Grass-roots Democracy? (2008)
S5 · E10
Nov 14, 2024 · 1 hr 14 min
Regenerating democracy with less polling and more deliberation
Democracy is unwell. Trust in politicians, institutions, experts, and other people is steadily falling across the OECD, and even young people seem to be losing faith in the system. What can be done? One idea that has gained traction and demonstrated potential of late is deliberative democracy: bringing together citizens, policymakers, area specialists, and other stakeholders to ponder a policy issue together. Hot off its success in generating a deep, heartfelt and restorative referendum on abortion in Ireland that bridged decades of animosity on the subject, more people are thinking maybe we need to get more deliberative. To explain how, regular host Dr Mark Fabian is joined this episode by deliberative democracy scholar Afsoun Afsahi from the University of British Columbia in Canada. Her research covers the theory and practice and deliberative democracy, and its potential to include often marginalised perspectives in the policymaking process. Afsoun’s homepage: https://politics.ubc.ca/profile/afsoun-afsahi/ Afsoun’s publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VP6qLF8AAAAJ&hl=en Final report of the Grandview Woodland citizen’s assembly: https://council.vancouver.ca/20150624/documents/ptec5_AppB.PDF Learn more about deliberative democracy around the Irish abortion referendum: https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/the-irish-abortion-referendum-how-a-citizens-assembly-helped-to-break-years-of-political-deadlock/ Jenny Mansbridge and Archon Fung on self-interest in deliberative democracy: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/place-self-interest-and-role-power-deliberative-democracy Brian Milstein, (2020). Justification crisis: Brexit, Trump, and deliberative breakdown. Political Theory, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0090591720968596 Bohman, James. "" When Water Chokes": Ideology, Communication, and Practical Rationality." Constellations: An International Journal of Critical & Democratic Theory 7.3 (2000). Matthews, J. Scott. "The political foundations of support for same-sex marriage in Canada." Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique 38.4 (2005): 841-866. Michael Saward’s many publications on democracy: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=miPAuzoAAAAJ&hl=en Michael Neblo, Kevin Easterling, and David Lazer on direct deliberative democracy: https://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/jnd260/cab/CAB2018%20-%20Neblo.pdf Alexandria Ocasia Cortez cooking Q&A: https://www.facebook.com/NowThisHer/videos/aoc-hosts-cooking-qa-on-instagram-live/481505699487177/
S5 · E9
Oct 17, 2024 · 1 hr 1 min
Empowering mission driven bureaucrats to provide better public services
In the UK, up to 80% of a social worker’s time can be spent filling out forms rather than helping the desperate people in their care. This is an example of what Dan Honig calls ‘management for compliance’. Honig is associate professor of public policy at University College London, among many other affiliations including Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Lahore University of Management Sciences. In his new book, Mission Driven Bureaucrats, he argues that a ‘management for empowerment’ results in more motivated public servants, higher integrity commitment to the values inherent in public service, and ultimately better service delivery. Honig presents a range of empirical evidence, qualitative and quantitative, suggesting that managing people with metrics and reports and emphasising accountability creates a culture of mistrust and shirking, compounding the problems it is designed to solve. In contrast, recruiting people looking for purpose, supporting them to learn, and granting them autonomy to apply their expertise in a way that suits local conditions generates a virtuous cycle. Mission driven bureaucrats feel energised, unmotivated bureaucrats invest more in the mission, and lazy knaves get screened out by their more committed peers. In this episode, Dan joins regular host Mark Fabian from the University of Warwick to discuss the main arguments of his book and the wider context in which it sits. Dan’s website: https://danhonig.info/ Buy Mission Driven Bureaucrats here. Moore on British Colonial Management in the Philippines Christopher Hood on tools for all seasons in public management Michael Barber, Deliverology: Knights, Knaves, or Pawns by LeGrand Article by Esther Duflo using cameras to improve teacher attendance: An introduction to self-determination theory: Elizabeth Linos’ research, including on policing in Knoxville Andrea Headley’s research on police and other front line responders One of Nesta’s many reports on mission driven government Social Finance UK on system change evaluation
S5 · E8
Sep 11, 2024 · 58 min
Realising the potential of digital governance with Aaron Maniam
“Digital governance” is a term commonly used to refer to the transformative potential of integrating contemporary technological advances into the day-to-day activities of government. Electronic filing of tax returns, text message reminders to get your vaccine booster, medical records that can follow your around as you change doctor’s offices – all are examples of digital governance. Digital governance holds much promise, most obviously in terms of efficiency and convenience, but also many risks such as cybersecurity breeches, creeping paternalism, and the alienation of citizens from the activities of their own political representatives. In this episode, ePODstemology hosts Dr Aaron Maniam from Oxford University to help you understand these issues. Aaron is Fellow of practice and director of digital transformation education at the Blavatnik School of Government. He also co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on the Future of Technology Policy and is a member of the OECD’s expert group on Artificial Intelligence Futures. He was previously a high-level policymaker in Singapore, most recently Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Communication and Information. Few are better place to explain how we can make the most of digital governance. Aaron’s website: https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/people/aaron-maniam-0 Follow Aaron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-maniam-a86a842/?originalSubdomain=uk Episode with Malte Dold on behavioural public policy: https://epodstemology.buzzsprout.com/1763534/episodes/13401729-can-we-make-the-world-a-better-place-with-behavioural-economics Statecraft podcast on Obamacare and policy implementation https://www.statecraft.pub/p/how-to-actually-implement-a-policy Clayton Christensen on the Innovator’s Dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma Helen Margetts, Peter John, Scott Hale, and Taha Yasseri, Political Turbulence: How Social Media Shape Collective Action. https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691159225/political-turbulence How to run a gold standard deliberative democracy exercise: https://assemblyguide.demnext.org/#introduction
S5 · E7
Aug 21, 2024 · 56 min
Evidence based ways to help your loved ones with eating disorders
Dr Jaclyn Siegel from NORC at the University of Chicago joins regular ePODstemology host Dr Mark Fabian to discuss the psychological science of eating disorders and body image, especially her own qualitative research on eating disorders in the workplace and romantic relationships. The conversation also covers the relationship between social media and eating disorders, gluttonous eating, the pros and cons of the Kardashian physique and other pseudo-body positivity trends, the value of grounded theory as a method, and how you can approach someone you care about whom you suspect has an eating disorder. Jaclyn’s website: https://www.jaclynasiegel.com/ Follow Jaclyn on twitter: https://x.com/jacasiegel How romantic partners can offer support to their partners with eating disorders: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144524000317 Eating disorders in the workplace: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0361684318812475?journalCode=pwqa Helped, heard, or hugged? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/well/emotions-support-relationships.html Grounded theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grounded_theory Braun and Clark thematic analysis: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Becker’s study of the impact of western media on Fijian women’s body image: https://www.brown.uk.com/eatingdisorders/becker.pdf

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