Democracy Innovators Podcast

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 c...

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: I...

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...

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.c...

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 p...

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 re...

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, ple...

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/paymen...

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 a...

.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.pa...

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/p...

.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/pa...

Yuting Jiang is CEO and co-founder of the Agora Citizen Network. The Agora tool was inspired by the well-known Polis platform. Yuting understands how modern technologies can improve democratic processes and offers interesting insights into future developments. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/...

Political theorist Helene Landemore joins us to explore what democracy could look like in the age of AI. We discuss citizens’ assemblies, sortition, digital participation, global governance, and how democratic systems can transition toward more inclusive, deliberative, and future-ready institutions. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podc...

Nathan Schneider is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has worked for many years on democratic ownership and governance for online platforms, and is currently writing a book about how protocols shape human organization. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://www.paypal.co...

Matt Stempeck is founder and curator of the Civic Tech Field Guide, which lists civic tech projects from all over the world. With 20 years experience in civic tech, Matt has seen projects passing and persisting in this challenging field. He has a profound understanding of what makes a project successful and what makes it fail. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really...

Samuel Vance-Law is Senior Researcher at the Decentralization Research Center and excited about governance and blockchain. He sees technology, especially blockchain, as an opportunity for governance innovation that can serve as a sandbox for progress also in our political democracies. In this episode we talked about: 🤖 Why governance is not sexy 🔢 Governance in DAOs and the blockchain space 📕 H...

In a joint live stream between the Democracy Innovators Podcast and Governance Futures Podcast we wrapped up our learnings from last year and gave a perspective on the next year. We examined the evolving relationship between democratic systems, digitally networked communities, and emerging governance architectures. We summarized the technological developments in Web3 and AI, as well as challenges...

Simone Maria Parazzoli is part of the Agentic State project and previously worked for the OECD and the ISI Foundation. His experience on the digital transformation of governments gives interesting insights. In this episode we talked about the Agentic State, an attempt to use technologies, especially AI, to provide governments with better services and faster decisions. If you enjoy our podcast, ple...

Marco Cappato and Francesco Vecchi from the pan-European Eumans movement engage for a more transnational democracy and a more long-term orientation. In this episode we talked about the Civic AI initiative as part of the Eumans movement. 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

Vir introduces Tilt.vote, a platform that uses AI to rank comments based on a “Logic Score” rather than just popularity or rage bait. We discuss how the AI detects fallacies, the future of AI agents in the workforce, and how civic tech can help save democracy from polarization. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: https://w...

.Bruce Schneier is a well known cryptographer, security expert, and privacy advocate who deeply cares about society. Recent books like “A Hacker’s Mind” or “Rewiring Democracy” reflect his engagement in finding new perspectives of how democracy can be designed in better ways. We had a connection issue which caused a cut within the recording. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donat...

Tiago C. Peixoto is an international civil servant and a visiting professor at the Centre for Democratic Futures at the University of Southampton. He has been recognized as one of the 20 Most Innovative People in Democracy and one of the 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal:...

Jonathan Moskovic is expert in democratic innovation and citizen participation. He has over ten years of experience at local, regional, European, and international levels with various actors, including civil society, traditional political institutions, and international organizations. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider making a donation. It really helps us to sustain the podcast. PayPal: ht...

Carol Romero is CPO and Andrés Pereira de Lucena is CTO of Decidim, a well-known open-source tool for democratic online participation. With several hundred instances actively running and nine years of development behind it, Decidim is a widely used and battle-tested software. Building on this experience, the Decidim team is now working on a more refined and mature release. If you enjoy our podcast...