Democracy Innovators Podcast

Jaksot

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  Terry Bouricius on multi-body sortition and redesigning democratic lawmaking 15.09.2026 59min

  Terry Bouricius is a former Vermont lawmaker who has spent decades working on democracy reform, now focused on sortition — the use of random selection to form representative citizens’ bodies. His experience as both a politician and reformer led him to question whether elections are actually democratic. In this episode, he explains why he sees elected legislatures as inherently oligarchic, drawing on citizens’ assemblies, ancient Athens, and experiments in Ireland and elsewhere. We discuss how randomly selected bodies could make laws, how technology and AI might support deliberation, why advisory assemblies need real consequences, and why politicians may have little incentive to pursue consensus. Bouricius also outlines his vision for a multi-body democracy beyond elections. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Malik Lakoubay from Dark Matter Labs on financing civic infrastructure and democratic innovation 10.09.2026 56min

  Malik Lakoubay is a system builder and co-runs the Expanding Civilizational Optionality initiative at Dark Matter Labs, working at the intersection of civic infrastructure, finance, technology, and democratic renewal. In this episode, he explores how technology can enable new forms of participation and collective decision-making, from quadratic voting to community sensing in Mumbai. The conversation takes a provocative turn into “civic finance”: treating civic infrastructure as an asset class and exploring democracy bonds as a way to mobilize private capital for public value. Lakoubay also discusses token economics, incentive design, and why democratic innovation may require rethinking how value is created, measured, and shared. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Olivier Schulbaum on democracy after the platform and the struggle for democratic infrastructures 01.09.2026 53min

  Olivier Schulbaum co-founded Platoniq, a foundation at the intersection of participation, civic technology, culture, social innovation and democratic experimentation. He explains why citizen assemblies on sensitive issues should begin with those most affected, allowing them to shape the agenda before experts frame the question. The conversation also examines how institutional “technification” can drain citizens’ proposals of their original meaning. It then turns to GRID, an experimental AI agent with a legislative-theatre “joker” that interrupts the flow and asks participants to reflect. Rather than treating AI as a frictionless route to consensus, Schulbaum explores technology that deliberately introduces friction into deliberation. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Ryan Koch from the Civic Tech Chat podcast on civic innovation and effective use of AI 25.08.2026 1t 3min

  Ryan Koch, host of Civic Tech Chat, joins Alessandro Oppo for a cross-podcast conversation about the evolution of civic tech and the growing role of AI in public-interest technology. They discuss volunteer civic-tech communities, faster prototyping, public data, and the boundaries between civic tech, gov tech, and public-interest tech. The conversation also examines deterministic systems, AI guardrails, explainability, human oversight in public services, the political choices embedded in software, and how technology might support more direct forms of democratic participation. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Gianluca Misuraca from Inspiring Futures on AI in the public sector 12.08.2026 49min

  Gianluca Misuraca of Inspiring Futures Europe, coordinator of the European Union AI Skills Academy, discusses how foresight can help societies shape technological change. He explains why democratic control of AI depends on digital sovereignty, public-sector skills, interoperability, better procurement, and meaningful citizen participation. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Alvaro Oleart on the instrumentalisation of EU participation processes & limits of AI for democracy 04.08.2026 50min

  Alvaro Oleart is an academic researcher based in Brussels at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His work focuses on social movements, EU participatory practices, democratic innovation, and the political economy of technology. In this conversation, he offers a critical perspective on citizen assemblies, arguing that they can depoliticize democracy when they bypass collective actors such as trade unions, political parties, civil society organizations, and social movements. We also discuss Big Tech, AI, the industry of participation, technology in deliberation, the agentic state, and why democratic innovation should focus more on collective power than on small groups of selected individuals. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Alberto Fernandez Gibaja from International IDEA on Technology and Democracy 29.07.2026 1t

  Alberto Fernandez Gibaja leads International IDEA’s global work at the intersection of technology and democracy. In this conversation, he discusses how the early optimism around digital technology changed after Brexit, Trump, and the rise of disinformation, why tech companies can be as powerful as medium-sized countries, and why democratic societies need more control over data, infrastructure, foundation models, and AI applications. We also discuss digital sovereignty, data rights, the limits of direct democracy, political parties, expertise, and why the difficult part of democratic innovation is often political will rather than technology. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Simon Horton on Negotiation, Conflict Resolution, and How AI Can Help End War 15.07.2026 52min

  Simon Horton is a negotiation expert, author, and lecturer who has taught negotiation for more than 20 years. In this conversation, he explains why the best negotiators do not treat negotiation as an arm wrestle, but as a collaborative problem-solving process. We discuss political negotiations, peace processes, citizen mediation, and how AI could support better conflict resolution. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Anthony Zacharzewski from Democratic Society on democratic infrastructure, participation and power 08.07.2026 53min

  Anthony Zacharzewski is the founder of Democratic Society, an organization working across Europe to build democratic infrastructure and improve participation in government. In this conversation, he discusses how participation can become part of institutional design, why democracy must engage seriously with power, and how digitalization and the agentic state could reshape the relationship between citizens, political parties, and public services. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Alice Casiraghi on designing regenerative systems, public services, and democratic participation 30.06.2026 52min

  Alice Casiraghi is a systemic designer working on sustainability, circular economy, regenerative systems, and public services. She is a European Climate Pact Ambassador, teaches at Politecnico di Milano and created Climate Cards to educate on environmental impacts. Through her systemic approach, she gives new perspectives on participation of citizens and beyond. In the interview we talked about: If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Paolo Spada on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and scaling democratic innovation 09.06.2026 1t 20min

  Paolo Spada is a political scientist at the University of Southampton working on participatory budgeting, citizen assemblies, and democratic innovation. In this episode, we talk about feedback loops, scaling participation, political parties, online deliberation, and why democratic innovation needs stronger critique as it becomes more established. A central idea in the conversation is that scaling democratic participation is not mainly a technical problem. It is a political problem, and tools like AI only help when ownership, transparency, and accountability remain under democratic control. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Antoine Vergne from Missions Publiques on scaling deliberative decision-making and random selection 02.06.2026 1t 3min

  Antoine Vergne is the co-director of Missions Publiques and the co-author of the ScaleDem Analytical Framework. His passion for innovating democratic processes is reflected in his academic background in political science and his nearly 15 years at Missions Publiques. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Paul Zeitz about permanent citizens' assemblies in the US and using technology to scale it 05.05.2026 45min

  Paul Zeitz is an author and advocate for global justice and human rights, among other things. With over 35 years of experience and several publications he is addressing systemic challenges. Especially in his book “Hit Refresh on the U.S. Constitution”, he calls for more deliberation in our democracies. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Ben Nelson on the Minerva Project, reforming higher education and its role for democracy 28.04.2026 50min

  Ben Nelson is founder and CEO of the Minerva Project and founder of the Minerva University. His mission is to reinvent higher education by utilising a systematic and evidence-based approach to learning. Drawing on his extensive entrepreneurial experience and keen awareness of societal issues, he offers valuable insights into the relationship between education and democracy, as well as the steps required to pursue one’s passion and achieve success. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Cecile Green & Seth Frey on the Commoning Standard and the role of self-governance for democracy 21.04.2026 50min

  Cecile Green is a social entrepreneur and Seth Frey is a computational social scientist. They share a mission to enable healthy self-organization and improve relationships in society, which naturally impacts democracy. Together, they work on the Commoning Standard, which unites stakeholders from research and practice to develop standards for effective self-governance. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Sylvain Le Bon from Startin'blox about Data Spaces, Democracy and Interoperability 14.04.2026 49min

  Sylvain Le Bon is co-founder of Startin’blox, a company that helps building data spaces. Drawing on his extensive entrepreneurial experience, Sylvain provides an overview of data spaces and their role in establishing the foundation for digital democracy. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Jorge Lagarto about LabX and human centric design in the public sector 10.04.2026 45min

  Jorge Lagarto is director at LabX, a center for public sector innovation. With many years of experience in the field, Jorge provides clear guidance on making services more citizen-friendly by integrating their needs and expectations. We talked about: Public sector innovation and examples with the LabX The 3 steps of public service innovation Workflow re-design vs. technology AI in public service and the agentic state Risks of digitalization If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Wietse van Ransbeeck about Go Vocal and how to integrate participation into governance 01.04.2026 48min

  .Wietse van Ransbeeck is the CEO and co-founder of Go Vocal, a leading platform for community engagement. The company partners with over 600 municipalities and cities worldwide to facilitate citizen dialogue and provide governments with insights for better decision-making. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Marcello Coppa on the Feel Community, the Govtech Forum and accelerating innovation 24.03.2026 49min

  Marcello Coppa has a background in economics and communications. He has 15 years’ experience in innovation management and consultancy. As the CEO of the Feel Community and curator of the GoVTech Forum, he is working to accelerate innovation in public systems. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG
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  Stefaan Verhulst about governance, decision-making and how to ask good questions 17.03.2026 45min

  .Stefaan Verhulst is Co-Founder of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab), a research center that is focused on transforming decision making by using advances in science and technology. Stefaan shares a clear view on the most important aspects of governance. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/7KCR9XBSCQVMG