FIX IT!: Recent Episodes
FIX IT!
Jeff Gudman, former Lake Oswego city councilor and two-time republican candidate for Oregon state treasurer, joins Fix It! to help us understand that if we are going to do anything in government, we need to consider the trade-offs. In his words: “If we do this, what don’t we do?” Join Clark Honors College guest hosts Nathan Malamud and Nathaniel Olds for an exploration of Gudman’s philosophy in practice.
Andrew Kalloch, former ACLU attorney and current Global and Public Policy staffer at Airbnb, joins guest hosts Mindy Tran and Delaney Kleiner on Fix It! to discuss the value of sacrifice in American culture.
Today, UO Clark Honors College students (and guest hosts) Lali and McCall spoke with Oregon political leader Allen Alley on the issue of Oregon's PERS liability and possible solutions.
Bill Bradbury, Oregon's former Secretary of State, joins two student guest hosts to share the potential of floating offshore wind turbines in combating climate chaos.
In our first guest-hosted episode, University of Oregon Clark Honors College students Whitney Warth and Gavin Barrett interview former gubernatorial Chief of Staff Tim Nesbitt on fixing how we approach the usage of our state's budget surplus.
Christy Goldsby, the founder of Honey Mama’schocolate, joins the Fix It gentlemen to share how she's pushing the envelope on mass-producing, packaging, and delivering food in a more sustainable, planet-friendly way.
Ex-Googler (Xoogler) Nick Hobbs joins the Fix Cast to share how he and his new start-up, Brief, are working to change news consumption for the better.
Kyla Fullenwider, the first Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Census Bureau under President Obama, joins Fix It! to help us understand how to work within the ostensible bureaucracy of government to create new products / processes that benefit both the government and everyday Americans.
Cybersecurity expert Prof. Chris Jay Hoofnagle of UC Berkeley's School of Law spends a few minutes with Fix It! discussing the causes of, and fixes for, many of the cyber intrusions we see in the news today.
Skip Newberry of the Technology Association of Oregon ventures through the Fix It! Zoom room to share a few steps that he's taking to make it easier for entrepreneurs to build innovative products and businesses.
- Brad Feld
- Steve Case'sRise of the Rest
- PIE
- NedSpace
Journalist Ben DeJarnette visits Fix It! to talk about how broken incentives, among other factors, are eroding the trust and efficacy of local news organizations – and what we can do to stop this. See a couple of the other topics discussed below:
- Patriot Act Show
- LION
Jordan Schenck, formerly of Impossible Foodsand now founder of beverage company Sunwink, joins Fix It! to share how she and others are working to reduce our food production's damage on ecosystems. See her recommendation to read the Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Jay Edelson, founder of Edelson PC and host of legal podcast Non-Compliant, joins the Fix It team to discuss anachronistic practices of modern law schools and changes that we could make to better train future generations of lawyers.
Space expert Sinead O'Sullivan stops by the Fix It! cast to chat about reductionist solutions to complex problems, and how we have to re-wire our brains and our organizations to consider deeper-order effects when building technology or policy. Check out more details on a few of the topics discussed here:
- MIT AI Policy for the World Project
Nygel Jones of RE:locate visits Fix It! by to share how he's helping new college graduates find homes in burgeoning communities (like his current town of Boise, ID.) instead of traditionally-overpriced cities like New York and LA.
Matt de Gruyter, founder of Next Level Burger, dials in to the Fix It! cast to discuss changing attitudes toward plant-based diets, misconceptions about plant-based diets' impact on the body, and how Next Level Burger is transforming this mindset one delicious burger at a time.
Kevney Dugan, CEO of Visit Bend, speaks about making tourism more sustainable to ensure the long-term preservation of natural recreation spots. Learn more about topics discussed at the links below:
- Visit Bend
- Pledge for the Wild
Tim Shriver joins the gents of Fix It! to discuss why a fundamental shift in attitude toward those of different political or social leanings is not only possible, but necessary, to make progress as a country. See more on the topics discussed in the items linked below.
- Casel
- The Call to Unite
- Knight Foundation Report
- #Republic
- Ripples of Hope
Matt Shinderman of OSU Cascades visits the Fix It team to discuss the sagebrush biome, its endangerment, and how he and the HERS Lab are working to conserve it.
Brett Hennigfrom the Sortition Foundation joins Fix It to share a bit about how we can work toward a healthier form of picking political leaders. See details on some of the topics discussed at the links below.
- Brett's Book
- Citizen Assembly in Scotland
- Healthy Democracy
- Sortition Foundation
- Washington Climate Assembly
- America in One Room
Boise, Idaho MayorLauren McLeanvisits the Fix It! cast to explain how we can take concrete steps to get more women into positions of leadership, and why it's so critical that we do so.
UC Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney Lopez drops in to the Fix It! Zoom to discuss the ugly ascendance of dog whistle politics over the past few decades, and how we can work toward a unified response against it. Learn more at Prof. Lopez's site race-class-academy.com.
Adam Liptak, the New York Times' Supreme Court reporter, joins the gents of Fix It! to share how he approaches Supreme Court reporting, and some of the challenges he and his peers have faced in covering the court over the past few years.
University of Oregon professor Mark Careytalks to Kevin about how we can discuss the impacts of climate change in a more meaningful, tangible way. See ideas discussed in the notes below:
- Funeral for glacier article
- High Country News
- Merchants of Doubt
- Meaning of Ice
Susan Bladholm stops by the Fix It! Zoom room to share how she's helping alleviate automotive congestion in the great city of Portland, Oregon. Learn more the Frog Ferry here.
Josh Fryday, California's Chief Service Officer, stops by Fix It! to share more about how states can encourage (and make it easy for) citizens to get civically involved. Learn more about Josh and California' volunteer program below:
- Press Releaseannouncing Josh’s appointment as CSO
- www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov
Beto Altamirano, a Forbes 30-under-30 recipient and founder of Irys, joins the show to talk about making cities smarter by fixing how community members communicate with municipalities. Learn more about Beto and Irys below:
- Find details on Irys at their website
- See Beto's Aspen Institute bio
- Reach Beto and Irys at @betoaltamirano and @heyirys, respectively
- See Beto's Aspen Institute bio
Mayor Andy Berke of Chattanooga, TN stops by to discuss how he and his city are tackling the very difficult issue of homelessness one step at a time, and to great effect.
Olympian and 2x Gold Medalist Ashton Eaton joins the Fix It crew to chat about how our education system fails to discover latent talent -- "hidden geniuses" -- and what we can do to more quickly discover and nurture future field leaders.
California candidate for state senate Ann Ravel stops by the Fix It Zoom Room to explain why money in state politics has crept up to be such an insidious problem, and how we can get involved as voters to mitigate its effect. Links to some of the topics discussed are included below:
- Ann Ravel campaign
- Democracy vouchers
- Campaign Legal Center
- Voters’ Right to Know
FCC Chairman Emeritus stops by Fix It to share why historical antitrust precedents don't really work in the era of big tech, why "people are policy", and what we can do to make sure we're effectively regulating massive tech companies. Catch more about the topics discussed at the links below:
- Brookings Article
- Chicago School Economics
- Bill Gates deposition during MSFT antitrust hearings
Todd Montgomeryfrom OSU Cascades joins the Fix It crew to talk about how we can fix overcrowding and mismanagement at popular tourist spots, and how COVID offers a unique opportunity to reevaluate how we visit our favorite destinations.
Wendy Morgan joins Kevin on Fix It to explain how her virtual reality training company Shift is training healthcare workers to suppress the spread of COVID.
Former United States CTO Aneesh Chopra joins us to discuss how availability of critical healthcare data is hampering our efforts to contain the COVID pandemic. See topics and media mentioned during the show in the notes below:
- Obama Pcast
- Obama administration's report on H1N1
- Startup America
- UCSF's Covidcounties.org project
- Aneesh's bio
Jason Elliott (@jason_elliott, @CAGovernor @GavinNewsom) talks to us about how he and the Newsom administration in California have tackled homeless during the COVID pandemic.
Show notes:
- More on Jason's background
- FEMA on non-congregate sheltering
- Project Roomkey
- Margot Kushel @ UCSF
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) joins the show to talk about fixing the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. Tune in to learn more about this procedural fix with big policy ramifications.
Here are links to Senator Merkley's bio, the 51 for 51 initiative, and a page to contact your Senatorto give them an earful on the filibuster and the state of the Senate.
The Navy’s Chief Learning Officer talks with us about fixing access to higher education. Learn more about John Kroger at his Reed College and Harvard University bios here and here, and see the press releaseannouncing John as Navy’s Chief Learning Officer.
Let us know of folks and organizations you know who are tackling tricky problems with innovative solutions! We're looking forward to seeing your nominations. Tweet at us or DM us @fix_cast
The Democratic nominee for Oregon Secretary of State, Shemia Fagan, chats with us about fixing how we run elections during the COVID era.
- Follow Shemia’s campaign at their site here, and find her on Twitter @ShemiaForOregon
- Check out the National Vote at Home Institute, a group promoting vote-from-home nationally
- See Michelle Obama's initiative When We All Vote, which is focused on improving voter turnout through a variety of means
Chris Kuang joins the show to talk about fixing the pipeline for tech-savvy students to work in government and on social impact projects.
- Read more about Chris Kuang here, and find him on Twitter @Chris_Kuang
- You can read more about Coding it Forward at their site. Follow them on Twitter @CodingItForward
- Learn about the intersection of tech and racial injustice at Coding It Forward's list of resources on the topic.
Vermont Senate Majority Leader hops on Fix It to discuss how we can fix political leadership. Learn more about Becca at her Vermont Legislature profile here and find her on Twitter @BeccaBalintVT
Tobias Read, currently the Treasurer of Oregon, is a national leader when it comes to helping people save more money. Catch more details in the episode and the notes below.
- Learn more about Tobias Read at his website
- Find more details on Oregon Saves here and on Twitter @ORSaves
- Find Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler's book Nudge, which delves into human behaviors that contribute to spending (and saving) behavior, here
John "Bridge" Bridgeland talks about fixes for youth unemployment and civic disengagement in this episode of Fix It. Find more information at the resources below:
- Learn more about Bridge through his Civic Profile, Madison Vision Series presentation, and Service Year Alliance bio. You can also find him on Twitter @JohnMBridgeland
- Learn more about Civic here and on Twitter @CivicEnterprise
- See opportunities to engage in a year of service through the Service Year Alliance here. Follow Service Year on Twitter @ServiceYear
- Read about the Call to Unite livestream here
- Get involved with any of the following wonderful opportunities: mentorship via Mentor.org, meal delivery via Share Our Strength, local volunteer opportunities via Volunteer.gov, sports coaching via Tennis for America, or art service via Artist Year
Cloudflare co-founder and COO Michelle Zatlyn outlines the problem of starting an enterprise in an economic downturn and provides some fixes to help would-be entrepreneurs get started.
- Learn more about Michelle at her Aspen Institute bio and in this Forbes profile, and find her on Twitter @zatlyn
- Read about the Cloudflare story here, and follow them on Twitter @cloudflare
Angela Siefer of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) jumps onto the Fix It podcast to chat about getting internet to those who don't have it. Check out resources from the show below.
- Explore the NDIA’s work here and on Twitter @netinclusion.
- See Angela's congressional testimonyhere and find her on Twitter @angelasiefer
- Read more about what a federal broadband subsidy could look like here
Dr. Vivian Lee of Verily Life Sciences chats with us about fixing the incentives that have skewed our healthcare system toward less-than-ideal outcomes. Find more resources below.
- Learn more about Dr. Lee at her website or on Twitter @vivianleemd, and find her new book The Long Fix here.
- Here are two good primers on value-based healthcare from UIC and HBS
- Learn more about Verily at their site and on Twitter @verilylifesci
Today, we talk with Juliette Kayyem about how to fix our approach to re-opening during COVID-19. Learn more about Juliette in the notes below.
- Read more about Juliette in her Aspen Institute Bio and in her HKS bio and find her on Twitter @juliettekayyem
- Follow official CDC guidance to keep yourself safe from COVID as society reopens
- Make sure not to retweet bots that share misleading information about COVID
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Archon Fung talks about fixing how we identify COVID-safe businesses with the Fix It duo. Check out Professor Fung’s background and notes from the show below.
- Learn more about Archon in his HKS bio and in this LA Times article
- Find Archon on Twitter @arfung
Georges founded and leads JustFixNYC, a nonprofit helping tenants fight back against displacement. Learn more
- More on Justfix NYC at their website, on Twitter @JustFixNYC (be sure to use #CancelRent and #HousingIsAHumanRight), and in this NYTimes article
- More on Georges Clement at thisSocial Innovation + Change Initiativeprofile
Andy Bromberg of Coinlist walks us through cryptocurrency basics, why most people don't understand it, and how we can educate ourselves to become informed participants in the crypto ecosystem.
Additional Resources:
- Background interview
- Podcast with Andy on ICO
- Coinlist
- Crypto Canon @ a16z
Learn more about Andy and Coinlist at:
- @andy_bromberg
- @CoinList
Bill McKibben is the OG environmentalist and climate action advocate. On this episode, he shares what we need to do to curb the catastrophic impacts of climate change, and what you can do to help.
Learn more about Bill McKibben here, and see him on The Nation here.You can also learn more about his climate action organization at 350.org.