Dastardly Cleverness in the Service of Good

Spencer Critchley talks about: Why we can't "just move on" after the Capitol riot - or everything else that's happened over the past four years. The circle of shared moral values that must encompass democracy and how each of us can and must defend it — starting by simply speaking up. Lessons from other countries, especially about the consequences of silence: Germany, South Africa, Northern Ireland...

Just about the only thing many of us are thinking about these days is the endangered state of American democracy, especially since the attempted coup on Jan. 6. In this episode, Spencer Critchley offers some of his thoughts, and invites you to share yours. You can do that at these links: Twitter: @scritchley Facebook: spencer.critchley.page dastardlycleverness.com spencercritchley.com Photo: Tyler...

Zach Friend is an author and a public policy and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry's presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Democratic National Committee. He's been featured on and quoted by CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, and many others. In this episode, Zach and host Spencer Critc...

The Lincoln Project is made up of top Republican political consultants who are aiming attack ads at a Republican president. We find out why and how from the Lincoln Project's Mike Madrid. Mike is an expert on Latino voting trends, based on work starting with his master's thesis at Georgetown University. He's the former press secretary for the California Assembly Republican leader and the former po...

As a county supervisor in Santa Cruz County, California, Ryan Coonerty is having to cope with two historic challenges: the national coronavirus pandemic and the catastrophic western wildfires. Both disasters have hit his community hard. In this episode, host Spencer Critchley talks with him about leadership in a time of crisis — or crises.

Social marketing uses the persuasion techniques normally used to sell potato chips, fashion, detergent, cars, and endless other consumer products, but for social good campaigns. Knowing how to do social marketing right is important to nonprofits, socially responsible corporations, and all other purpose-driven organizations — but all too often, it's done wrong. You hear a lot about "sharing informa...

The election of Donald Trump shocked America and the world — and that included Dastardly Cleverness host Spencer Critchley. But Spencer believes now that we should have seen him coming, like we should have seen the approach of this hyper-partisan crisis of democracy we're going through. He's written a book about it, called Patriots of Two Nations: Why Trump Was Inevitable & What Happens Next, avai...

Brent Colburn's experience goes back to the Al Gore presidential campaign in 2000, through Howard Dean's campaign in 2004, both Obama campaigns, FEMA, Homeland Security, HUD, and to the Pentagon, where he was in charge of communications for the Defense Department. After that, he led communications for Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and he is now the Vice President...

A big reason why Donald Trump won in 2016 — and why he may win again in 2020 — is that Republicans now seem to get social media, email, and the rest of the online world better than Democrats do, even though Democrats like Howard Dean and Barack Obama were online pioneers. In this episode, Mark Barker and Jordan Ruden of Craft & Commerce give fascinating insights into how Democrats lost their lead,...

Host Spencer Critchley talks with Tracy Palandjian, the co-founder and CEO of Social Finance , a nonprofit dedicated to using capital to drive social progress. So far, it has helped direct more than $100 million toward challenges in criminal justice, early childhood education, workforce development, health and homelessness. Social Finance uses the Pay for Success model. At its most basic, that mea...

For more than seven years, Jake Harriman was a US Marine, serving as a platoon commander in the Infantry and in a Special Operations unit. He was deployed in Southwest and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and served two combat tours in Iraq. During the second tour, he earned the Bronze Star. Jake believed whole-heartedly in the mission of fighting terrorism. But in Iraq he started to q...

We hear so many stories about government spending big money without getting results — to the point that many Americans agree with Ronald Reagan's famous assertion that government isn't the solution, it's the problem. That claim was never accurate, as government successes like the Internet, highways, or vaccinations make clear. All the same, though, a lot of government effort does end up wasted, as...

"We recognise and respect the many challenges facing our oceans, yet too often 'doom and gloom' stories are the only kind of ocean news we hear. "The evidence suggests that if we do not balance the bad news with good, and the problems with solutions, we will not motivate people to act." That's a quote from the website of Ocean Optimism, a movement to inspire action to save the oceans not by highli...

Jacob Martinez is the founder of Digital NEST, an incubator for young tech talent in the farming towns of Watsonville and Salinas, California. Its graduates make an average starting salary of more than $46,000. The average Watsonville resident makes about $17,000. NEST graduates have been hired not just by local companies but by multi-nationals like software maker Adobe, and the NEST has attracted...

Big corporations buy what they need from all over the world because they're looking for the best prices. But increasingly, they're also looking for environmental and social sustainability. For example, McDonald's has committed to serving only sustainably-sourced coffee at all of its locations by next year. To achieve that it's buying its coffee from thousands of often small coffee growers. A compa...

Patrice Maginnis has experienced life as someone who can see, and as someone who can't. She was born with retinitis pigmentosa and gradually went blind, losing all usable sight at age 60. Patrice has learned to adapt and to thrive. And she helps others do the same, through her work with the Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a nonprofit with locations in Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, and S...

Our episode this time is a live recording of a terrific panel discussion featuring some very smart people from across the ideological spectrum who have national experience in politics and media. Amanda Renteria, Mike Madrid, Debbie Mesloh, Dan Schnur, Kristin Olsen, and Zach Friend joined host Spencer Critchley at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California to go way beyond the usual talking points and...

Business drives our economy — but our guest this episode thinks it can also make society better. Bud Colligan has been part of some of the most successful businesses of our time, including Apple. He's also a social entrepreneur: he invests in ventures that promise to achieve social good, such as through education, or environmental protection, or inclusive economic development. One example is Pacif...

Can we look at the top priorities for the new Congress without talking about likability, who curses more, or a dancing video? Yes we can. On Dastardly Cleverness: Politics Edition it's not about the horse race, or the latest outrage, but how to make politics do what it's supposed to do: make our lives better, not just more entertaining — or depressing. In this episode host Spencer Critchley brings...

Lenny Mendonca , a former senior partner with McKinsey & Company and a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, is the co-founder of New America , a self-described "think and action tank." In this fascinating conversation with host Spencer Critchley, Lenny explains why he believes progressive federalism is the solution to our biggest challenges, including climate change, the rise of...

It was called the most important election of our lifetimes, but so much of the coverage has been the same old horse race stuff. Not on Dastardly Cleverness, though: in this episode we dig deep with experts who have worked with Barack Obama, John McCain and the Democratic National Committee, among others. Kevin Lewis was one of the first people to join Barack Obama's presidential campaign back in 2...

We're celebrating our first season with highlights from the past year! It's an episode full of gifts of insight from leading social innovators, on the future of work, universal basic income, reforming the way we bank and invest, why we vote the way we do, saving the oceans, saving democracy, and much more. Featured: Former California Governor candidate Amanda Renteria USC/UC Berkeley Professor Dan...

Raised in a farmworking family, Amanda Renteria has worked for Goldman Sachs, the City of San Jose, and two senators; has been a teacher and coach at her old high school; has run for Congress; held a top position in Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign; directed operations for the California Department of Justice and this year, ran for Governor of California. Through it all, she's been focused...

How did the world's leading democracy get in so much trouble? To talk about that — and what we should do about it — "Saving Democracy" brought together a bipartisan panel with experience in Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, the federal government, Congress, national media, the California Assembly, and more. Joining host Spencer Critchley were former Democratic Congressman Sam Farr...

Joe Sanberg grew up in poverty, raised for much of his childhood by a single mother who worked hard but still struggled to secure food and shelter. With scholarships and financial aid, he was able to get into Harvard, and after he graduated magna cum laude , he sought out the highest paying job he could get, at a major private equity group — so he could provide for his mother. But after accomplish...